I took an overnight bus from Byron Bay to Hervey Bay, got in about 9pm and had to be back at reception by 6:30 for the briefing for my camping trip to Fraser Island. Fraser is the largest sand island in the world (it's MASSIVE!! -- I thought it would be small) and has dingoes all over the place. At about 7 in the morning we watched a video about dingo safety, camping on the island, rules, and how to drive on the island. We were then put into groups of 7 (obviously no one I'd ever met) and got in the 4x4s to go to the shop to get our camping gear. They explained everything we had and how to set up the tents, then sent us to the store to get food for 3 days/2 nights camping and then to the ferry to catch it over to Fraser. Lisa drove most of the day because she is used to manual and driving on the right side of the car (being from England). The others in the car were Fernando, Mat, Anne, Pauline & Mirka (no idea how that's spelled). we got to Fraser, having let some air out of the tires on the ferry as directed. We stopped at the petrol station to get our camping/vehicle permits and then we were off! An immediate steep hill of sand with lots of bumps! We drove (possibly the most roundabout way ever) to Lake Wabby to see the lake and the giant sand dunes. We had to leave rather quickly though because we needed to get to our campsite and the sun was going down. We drove a bit to the first campsite, got there just as the sun was fully setting, so most of the food preparation was done with the aid of headlights -- no campfires are allowed. At lake Wabby on the path back near the cars we saw our first DINGO!! again at the campsite there was one about 10 feet away from us, that slowly left when it saw we weren't going to feed it. We had a great grill up the first night -- each vehicle having slightly different dinners based on their shopping. We went to bed reasonably early that night, being tired, and we had to get up the next morning at sunrise to leave early to get the maximum lowtide time on the beach. We drove about 2 hours north on the beach to the Champagne (I almost typed Champaign!!) Pools. These are more like tidal pools named for the bubbles and froth that spills in when a wave crashed up on the rocks and spills over into the pools. The water was chilly, but not nearly as cold as I thought it would be. From here we went to Indian head and hiked up onto some cliffs for a view of the island. After, we went down and I took my turn at driving. Yes, that's right, I drove stick shift, on the right side of the car, 4x4 and in loose, and then hard sand!!! It was a lot of fun :D From there we went to the Maheno Wreck, set up camp, and then walked down to Eli Creek. The Creek was rather low, and chilly so we didn't spend much time in the water, but it was fun to go see. We went back to our campsite to start cooking dinner and found that another group had set up camp right next to us. As we came past, I realized one of the guys standing there was a friend of mine from Phi Phi!! Our two camps had a good time socializing that evening and another fantastic dinner -- pasta this time. The next morning was leisurely taken until we were packed up and headed to Lake Mackenzie. It was beautiful there, but there was a massive rain cloud over us so we left early to head back towards the ferry. We stopped to pump back up our tires, parked our cars by the ferry and went to the beach there for about 2 hours. All 21 of us had a great time and were sad to have to leave.
From there I went to the hostel, showered, repacked, ate dinner with everyone, and then was on another overnight bus north to Airlie Beach, where I am now. Tomorrow I head out on a 3 day/3 night sailing/diving trip to the Whitsunday Islands and the Outer Great Barrier Reef. I heard the weather is supposed to remain beautiful (Queensland is called "the sunshine state") so I'm looking forward to that!
