I don't like to over exaggerate but i think my trip to Fraser Island was one of the best 3 days i've had on my adventure so far..
Perfect scenery, idyllic weather, good banter and people..plus alcohol = fun times!
We arrived at Rainbow Beach where i was staying for one night before heading over to Fraser Island the next day and were pretty much straight into a briefing about the trip and all of the do's and don'ts. Alot of us were going to be driving so we had to watch a cheesy video on safe 4 wheel driving and then told not to feed the dingos and to stay away from them. Incase you don't know dingo's are a kind of wild dog that live in Australia, they don't like people feeding them because then they won't be able to fend for themselves and they can also get quite vicious and bite people eeek! There was about 30 of us altogether and we got split into 4 groups and told to go and do some food shopping for the next couple of days..not the easiest thing to be honest and i was glad when that was over. I had a couple of Scottish guys from Edinburgh, a guy and girl from Canada and a couple from Israel in my group and we all got on well - bonus! The next morning we had packed up our BBQ food and 20 litres of wine (ok, goon) and were ready to go!! These trips to Fraser used to be you could take a 4 wheel drive and do your own thing but alot of accidents made them change it to a tag along system so we followed a guide for the whole trip and it was like a convoy wherever we went - which was actually quite fun and made you feel a bit safer! The first day the sun was splitting the skies so we went straight to Lake Mackenzie which is the one with white silica sands and really clear water. It was so nice just to chill there for a few hours and top up my fast fading tan. Afterwards we headed towards our camp which was a bit bumpy until we got to the beach, i hadn't ever riden in the back of a jeep before and it was the most uncomfortable thing ever, heads were nearly hitting the ceiling! It reminded me of the days we used to go camping in Big Pete's van, about 8 of us bouncing around in the back with no seat belts and only sleeping bags to stop injuries haha. About halfway up the island we stopped at the Maheno shipwreck which had been there since 1930's..the guide told us it was built in Scotland but i have since found out it was actually built in Dumbarton's shipyard (my hometown) which was pretty cool and i'm glad i took plenty of photographs of it! Once we arrived at our Aboriginal camp "K'Gari" we had to uppack all of our stuff and get organised for dinner..which luckily was just burgers for us and turned out the best bet. Some groups had tried to be smart (well some people in the group were!) and cook chilli/pasta etc and ended up eating about 2 hours later that everyone else! The camp was great..all of the tents were already set up for us and there was a big wooden rotunda for us to cook and eat dinner, hot showers and toilets aswell which was a bonus! We just had to share one tent between two, it's normally 3 to a tent which i don't know how they manage cos they were tiny! I was lucky i ended up with a tent to myself because we had an odd number.
We pretty much started drinking at 6pm so safe to say it was a bit of a mental night involving a ridiculous drinking game involving only a dice and not alot of skill - alot of us can't remember going to bed (maybe 2am!?) and some had to be guided to their tents haha. I was just thankful when i woke up alive in my tent at 7.30am but had my first "goon hangover" which was bloody horrific and felt like i had been drinking red wine all night..yuk! Luckily our first stop that morning was at Eli Creek - AKA Hangover Creek and i was glad because by that point i was hingin' and needed an Irn BrU! The creek was basically just a fresh water stream into the sea but you could walk up to the top, jump in and then let the current carry you back down to the bottom. It was all pretty shallow most of the way so we went down it like crocodiles haha..and the best part was being able to drink the water!! It cured my hangover by about 50% no joke! After that we headed back to the camp for lunch, i was still a bit iffy so managed a wee cheese sandwich and we were off on the road again to drive up North of the island to Indian Head..which was basically a deadly cliff drop where Aboriginies used to take people for punishment and either make them jump off or throw them off..nice. It was so high up and gave us amazing views along the coast, we could even see stingrays and tiger sharks in the sea below which looked so tiny from high up but made you realise why no-one should swim in the sea around Fraser, you wouldn't last long!
The next place we visited was Champagne Pools which it where some rock formations have created pools next to the sea which fill up when the waves come and are totally safe to bathe in. It was amazing, felt like a spa pool and completely cured my hangover by that point..fresh air and sea water always does the trick for me! We spent a couple of hours there chilling out before heading back for another evening of drunken ridiculousness! This time i was struggling to drink any goon so didn't quite reach the levels of the night before, but a few people ended up staying up til 4ish and we had to get up at 7am so there were a few casualties the next morning.
Day 3 was the last day and probably the funniest part when i decided to take a turn driving to the next stop - Lake Wabby. We left pretty early and the tide was still high which meant we had to stay on the drier sand which is a lot harder to drive on and a bit like driving on snow, so to be honest it was a bit scary! Then we ended up coming to quite a deep creek which was unavoidable..now up until then there had been no scary parts, everyone else just had to drive on the sand, or inland on the dirt tracks and it was all fine. Well seen i chose that day and the scariest part to drive through..i watched the other two cars ahead go through and it was so deep i was sure we were going to get stuck so everyone in the car was just shouting, whatever you do, don't stop accelerating. So i didn't, and managed to completely bugger up a wheel rim and give us a flat tyre - oops!! I was so glad the guys in the car told me to stop because when i've only driven a car for 10mins i wouldn't have known what to listen for! Safe to say it was a bit embarrassing as it was the only accident of the trip, and we had to pay out for a new tyre..but apparently it was easily done and could have happened to anyone so hopefully i don't give women drivers a bad name haha! After that i was too scared to drive on so just let someone else take over..i didn't want to be responsible for another accident. When we finally reached the last stop we parked up on the beach and had to walk 2km through some bush and sand dunes to reach Lake Wabby. It was amazing and very strange when you see so much sand in the middle of a rainforest..apparently it's the only place in the world where rainforest grows on sand, pretty cool! This was our last stop so we had a nice swim and relax on the sand, the water wasn't as clear as Lake Mackenzie but it was still nice and refreshing.
I think we were all sad when the trip came to an end, as it was such a great group of people and the majority of us got on really well..i guess we were all there for the same reasons, to see the island, enjoy the sun and get drunk :)
The best part was that by 5pm the day we came back, everyone was back on it haha!
I'm now in Noosa for 3 nights and hoping to have a bit of a detox since my liver is suffering badly..
