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23/03/06 - 25/03/06 -
FRASER ISLAND
Fraser Island is just off the coast of Hervey Bay. For 3 days/2 nights you have a 4x4 jeep that you drive around yourself, exploring the island.
Some of the Oz Ex buses weren't running because of the cyclone, so Haywood and Charlie caught a Greyhound bus straight from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay, meaning they were here when I arrived.
On Fraser Island, you go in groups of 11, all crammed into the jeep. The groups are organised the morning that you leave. My group had me (obviously), Haywood, Charlie, John and Hannah and them a group of 6 Europeans: Marco, Benjamin, Silvan and Sandra from Switzerland; Regina from Austria and Oscar from Spain.
You leave most of your luggage behind, just taking the bare essentials with you: sleeping bag, towel, toiletries, underwear, a football and of course: my guitar. The other thing you do before you go is buy your food and alcohol. And I mean lots of alcohol. For the 11 of us we had 7 crates of beer and 4 litres of wine.
After getting the ferry to the island, we set off driving through the rainforest on the dirt tracks. It felt like you were in Jurassic Park. In fact, later on I hooked up my Ipod to the car stereo and put on the Jurassic Park theme music, it was quality. It felt like a T-Rex was going to jump out of the forest at any moment!
Our first stop was to do a short board walk through the rainforest. Of course along the walk we took a wrong turn and what was supposed to be a short 20 min stroll turned into an hour and half, 6km trek through the rainforest.
The second stop was Lake McKenzie. It had pure white sand beaches and crystal clear fresh water. It would have been absolute paradise if the sky wasn't filled with stormy clouds. There was a second cyclone working its way down the Australian coast and there were rumours that it was going to directly hit Fraser Island SOON! Still, me and Haywood decided to swim to the other side of the lake and back. It was a LOT further than it looked! We were absolutely knackered, it started to rain, but it was fun none the less.
We made another stop at a lookout, but it was late afternoon and we had to get to the base camp. The base camp is a good 45 min drive up the beach. Because of the high tides you had to be OFF the beach at 5:30pm, meaning that you had to be ON the beach at 4:45pm at the latest so that you could get to the base camp. We got ON the beach at 5:15pm. It wasn't looking good. By 5:30 we still had a long way to go, the storm was starting and the tide was right up against the van. We saw one van camped in an area just off the beach so we decided to camp there, because we weren't going to make it to the base camp.
It was getting dark and it was raining so we had to set up the tents quick. A few people were looking a bit worried but I was loving it! It felt like we were on Survivor or something, as if we were having a real adventure!
We got everything set up fine, but of course there was no BBQ to make our food and it was pouring with rain. Next to us were 3 vans and they had been there a while and had set up a huge canopy over their tents. We went down there and ended up having a big party. We scrounged some spaghetti bolognaise off them (and some beer!) and then when the rain stopped we got our own beer, and I got out my guitar. I was taking requests and we all had a big sing song. The atmosphere was amazing.
Later on the clouds cleared and we went to the beach to look at the stars. It was unbelievable. If you remember how good I said the stars were at Magnetic Island, well this was ten times better, probably because there was no moonlight. You could see the Milky Way and everything.
After drinking loads of beer we went to sleep. It was a terrible night sleep, with strong winds blowing, rain pouring and Haywood sleep walking. Some people at the camp said a ranger had told them that we might have to evacuate the island the next day because of the cyclone. However, when I woke up in the morning the sun was shining and the sky had cleared up. The cyclone had gone past.
We packed up the tents and headed up to base camp. We had our BBQ for breakfast and then headed off to visit some spots. First stop was the Champagne Pools. These were large rock pools on the shore. When the waves crash into them the water bubbles and it looks like giant pool of champagne (hence the name). It was really nice and whenever the waves crashed in, the currents would take you from one side of the pool to the other. The only problem was the rocks were slippery and sharp so I got a few cuts and bruises.
After this we went to a look out point to get some great views of the coast line. Then we had to head back to base camp because it was approaching 2pm and we had to be off the beach by then because of the tides. At the camp we cracked open the beers and started drinking. The happy hour turned into a happy day as we carried on drinking into the night. Somewhere along the line we started calling a beer a happy hour, which stuck for the rest of the trip.
During the early evening we went down to the beach to play a bit of football. We also went down to the beach at 10pm with the cool boxes and some torches (fires weren't allowed because its a national park). I had my guitar again but the atmosphere wasn't as good as the night before. It was still really cool playing on the beach though, looking up at the stars again.
On the final day we headed down the beach in the van. We stopped to take photos of the amazing ship wreck on the beach. Then we went to Lake Birabean. This was just like Lake McKenzie except there was hardly any people, the beach was bigger and most importantly: the sun was shining. My camera was full but everyone else took some great photos which I should hopefully have copies of soon and them I'll post them on here. We had a great game of beach football, drank some happy hours and ate some sandwiches. It was the best.
Mid afternoon we drove back across the island to get the ferry back to Hervey Bay, and that night we drank well into the early hours of the morning. Fraser Island was without a doubt the best experience of my travels so far. It sounds so cheesy, but it's so cool when you have a group of people who were strangers and then became the best of friends in 3 days. Everyone got along so well and we had such a great time.
Next: Hervey Bay, Brisbane and Byron Bay
Previous: Kroombit Cattle Station
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