In Noosa I took the bus to Hervey Bay,
where I had booked a trip to the incredible Fraser Island.
In Hervey Bay there isn’t much, it is a very small
town, the beach has a flat sea and flat hard sand. Maybe I could have played
Tennis at the beach.
The koala Hostel was very
comfortable; the room I stayed in was ample even though it had 5 bunk beds in
it and a bathroom inside, which most hostels have it outside for people to
share. Most people come to Hervey Bay to go to Fraser Island.
The day after we had a
briefing of the trip to the island; the guide explained all the dangers and
what could happen if the directions were not followed. I.e. going for a swim in
the tiger shark and Irukandji infested waters of Fraser Island, and driving at
the beach during high tide times, when the water comes up to the dunes. Also he
gave us a large map of the island and the itinerary which we were not obliged
to follow, but it was without doubt better to follow.
After the briefing me and
Nicola, an Italian guy and one of the eleven of the group, drove to the
Woolworths supermarket to buy food for 11 people for 3 days. It was a lot of
food!!!
The day after in the morning
we gathered everything and after 1 hour of putting hour origami and Lego
expertise to work we loaded the car, with all the silverware, plates, cups,
food, stove, tents, sleeping bags, everyone’s bags, loads of water and liters
of alcohol, including much goone.
Inside the 4 by 4/oven, we
drove to the Ferry which would take us to the island. We were eleven in total;
two Germans, one Belgian, three English, three Italians, one Dutch and me. The
two English guys; Leon and David, had a Football/Soccer ball, just about
everywhere we stopped for some time we were juggling or playing around, before
going into the ferry was just one of the many times.
We drove in and 30 minutes
later we were in the island. Fraser Island is supposedly the largest amount of sand
together; more than the Sahara desert. In the
itinerary we were supposed to go to central station, but we decided to skip
that and go to Lake
Mackenzie. Just about
every road on the island is made of sand with many bumps, on inclines there are
pieces of wood on the sand for cars not to get stuck.
Lake Mackenzie is a fresh water paradise. The sand is soft and very
small grains; the water is cold as most fresh water lakes, but when it is 32 Celsius
outside, any water is amazingly refreshing. There were sunbathed and cooled
down for some time. High tide was at 4 pm, we had to be out of the beach by
3:30. After bumping a few more times in the car we drove north at the beach until
reaching a camping ground. Because I called it a camping ground, it doesn’t mean
it had showers or toilets, it only meant that we could set up our tent there.
With the tents already set up
we advanced to the next step; cooking. In a group of 11, with 6 different
nationalities it can be very complicated and extremely funny. A German and an Italian
discussing in English how to cook hamburgers is definitely a comedy show scene.
Dinner was great we had plenty of food and everyone was satisfied, even after
the discussions. We could leave food or traces of it outside the truck, the
island is infested with Dingoes, which are wild dogs. They will get as close as
necessary in order to get food.
Next
day in the morning, about 7 am, the sun was already burning hot, sleeping in
the tents were not an option. Then came the second lesson I origami and Lego,
everything had to go back into the truck.
We then
left to Eli creek; a walk into a creek that takes you into a mountain,
refreshing but not impressive. On this day I was driving; it is a lot of fun
driving on sand, but again there are other 10 opinions coming to my ears on how
I should drive and where we should go. From that moment on, we established a rule,
one driver, one navigator, the rest were passengers and should not give
opinions on driving.
Some
miles north of Eli creek there was the Mahano Shipwreck at the beach, because
it was outside the water, it was extremely corroded. Next stop was the
Champagne pools; almost at the north end of the island some rock formations
form two pools of water that comes in from the sea with every wave forming bubbles,
that is why champagne. I took an extra walk north to a some of the adjacent
beaches. Because tourists do not go there, they were full of trash incoming
from the sea, a shame no one goes there to clean up.
Back
to the truck we need to find a place to camp, since tides were coming up again.
This time, 4 people sent up the tent and 3 cook or organize the food, the rest
could set up the table (a piece of plastic on the floor).
This
time the camp site was next to a resort; there we went for showers and to clean
the dishes. Probably one of the most refreshing showers in my life, even though
I had to move around a little to get wet.
We
were missing two more spots out of the main ones, Lake Wabby and Central
Station. As we woke up, the technique of origami and Lego were already at its
best, and there was much less food. After quickly packing everything into the
truck we went to the garbage bins to unload our trash. And from there we drove to
Lake Waby. Sounds very easy, but Lake Waby signs marked 1.5 km from the place
we parked. In most occasions is not that bad of a walk. However under 35 Celsius
and 10 meter high dunes going up and down, it was extreme. On the way to the
lake there were many dead bugs and struggling dingoes. “Terra a vista” once
said Pedro Alvarez Cabral, when I saw the lake I could not say “Lago a vista”
or anything but just run and jump in the water. The view was amazing, on one
said huge sand dunes and on the other side a dense forest with many birds and
even eagles flying around.
On one
side of the lake the dune was as high as 30 meters in a 45 degrees angle approximately,
one group brought a body board and I could not miss the opportunity to sand
board, it was great, but at the end I became breaded Felipe.
The
ferry was going to leave at 4 pm, so we only had time for lunch and a walk. We
drove to central station, it sounds very busy, but there was a beautiful park
with amazing nature. The trees looked as if they were centuries old and the
plants were huge, seemed like nothing had been touched for a long time. There I
discovered that every park in Australia has barbecues with natural gas for
anyone to come and cook. It is great to be in civilized countries, at times. We
took our meal out of the van and cooked our last meal, a true feast. After walking
around a bit and resting with many sounds of nature (It was probably there they
recorded those brookstone CDs), we left to the pier for our ferry drive back
to Hervey Bay.
At hervey day, we rested for our next trip, whitsundays
