On an overnight bus which stops about once an hour, sleep is not very easy, but that's what we had 12 hours of to get from Airlie beach to Hervey bay, which is the gateway to the famous Fraser Island. Arrival just before 7 am and the pickup to take us to the ferry was at 7.25. Just enough time to get drop off our backpacks and get breakfast.
Fraser Island is a huge sandbank island that houses a large rainforest, vast areas of dense and not-so-dense forests, hundreds of freshwater lakes and tons of beaches and sand-dunes where vegetation has caught hold. As there is quite a lot to see on this fantastic 80 mile long and 15 mile wide island we decided to go for a 2 day tour and spend a night on the island, which also would allow us to go for an optional extra of a flight over the island. So we'd get to see a lot of it up close and personal and then at the end get an areal view to cap it all off. Perfect.
On arriving at the island we piled into an ex-military offroad truck and set off on the track that crossed the island, and that truck we needed. The tracks are made out of soft sand, deep soft sand, very deep and very soft sand that is very good a trapping cars that are not suited for it, as would become evident later.
It took 45 bumpy minutes to cross the island and make it onto 'Highway 1', also known as 75 mile beach (which is actually only 73 miles long). A short trip north on the beach is Lake Wabby, a spring fed fresh lake nestled between rainforest and a huge sand dune. Now its a 45 minute trek through burning hot sand to get there, but the reward matches the effort. Its cool, clear, comes complete with a school of fish that swims right up and around you and there is plenty of shade offered by the trees. The only drawback is the 45 minute trek back once you have spent too short time cooling down, regardless of how long you actually spend there.
After that lunch was served, and we headed out towards maybe the most famous landmark on the island, Lake McKenzie. and after that a walk through the beautiful rainforest. Lake McKenzie is a 45 minute drive away, normally. Lake McKenzie is rainwater lake that is lined by beautiful silica sand which is incredibly fine and amazingly cool, even in the heat of the evening sun. We spent a wonderful hour or so here, frolicking in the water and taking lots of photos of the gorgeous views that were all around, before we had to head back (way too soon, again), but fortunately only a minute or so trek to the truck this time.
Now, I said normally - but this was not a normal day and this was where the sand came back to haunt us. About 15 minutes into the drive to the lake, we hit a traffic jam of the worst kind. The one you can not get around in a huge ex-military truck because there is a dense world heritage protected forest lining the single lane one way track. At the front of this jam there was a similar truck with a flat tire that had come off the rim with two mechanics under it using two jacks to try to get the truck stable enough so that they could dig out a trench deep enough to replace it. Since this is a not a simple procedure, we were stuck for about 40 minutes before we could set off again. Only to 5 minutes later hear a call from the bus in front. We only managed to hear 'The wheels of the bus go round and round...' being chanted. That being the code for the truck in front is stuck in the sand, and it was the same bus. Fortunately this time it could simply be towed out of its hole and make another attempt at it, which was successful. However, this put us way behind schedule when we came to lake Mckenzie so the rainforest had to wait until next morning and instead we headed for our accommodation and dinner.
The next morning we set out bright and early (8am) and went for a stroll through the rainforest with our guide pointing out all the interesting vegetation and explained a bit about the history of the island, before we once again set out onto the 75 mile beach, this time to the far north of it to 'Indian head' a volcanic rock that rises about 65 meters and sports an unrivalled view of the beach and the waters where you can spot all sorts of marine life in the breaks just of the shoreline. Today, the dolphins and turtles were out in full force, accompanied by a few sting/manta/eagle(?) rays and a school of rather large but unidentifiable fish. No sharks though, sadly.
Once safely down on the shore we headed for lunch and recreation at Eli creek, a spring water fed creek that apparently is a constant 18 degrees and feeds millions of litres of clear fresh drinkable water into the pacific ocean. Per hour. The current is strong enough to carry a human being (or a pair of flip-flops) at a fair pace down it, or if you choose to will keep you about stationary (relative to the ground that is) if you try to swim up it. Other people that were better prepared than us came with inflatable mattresses, rubber rings and other floatation devices that made the journey even more pleasurable, as well as intriguing for the rest of us to watch. The best-in-creek award goes to the German couple (I think) that had adopted the Aussie culture completely and were gently floating down the creek on inflatable mattresses with beer in stubby holders in hand. As the ad would have said - priceless...
Once eve
ryone was happily cooled off and back on the truck we headed back towards the resort we stayed at but unfortunately we seemed to have missed the opportunity to catch that flight over the island, probably due to the traffic debacle the day before. We had both been looking forward to it so much and we're quite disappointed that we missed it, but at the same time we do not know what we would have not done to buy us the time. Instead, we had to hustle to get onto the ferry to take us back to Hervey Bay and our hostel which we settled into for the night after a nice Thai dinner at the restaurant conveniently located just a few steps away. Monday morning we head off, bright and early to Brisbane and then on to Straddie to meet up with Kate and her lovely family on another little paradise island.
Really looking forward to it.
