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G'day folks
We got to Hervey bay and after trying to find our hostel for at least an hour, we finally found it and got our heads down as we had to be up at half five in the morning, ready for the safety briefing that we had to have and to get our luggage sorted ready for the trip. We picked up 2 x 30 crates of the good stuff (Beer), a bottle of smirnoff, a bottle of Jim Bean and a box of the bad stuff (4 litres of goon) the night before so we were all ready to go. We got to the briefing just in time (and were last in as usual) and from there we had to watch two videos, one about camping on Fraser Island and the other being about driving on the Island seeing as it's all made of sand (There are no roads). We found them pretty funny despite the time of morning as it showed you what to do if a dingo approached you. You had to cross your arms across your body and scream at it if it got aggressive and another funny bit was a bearded guy sleeping in his sleeping bag on the beach and as he comes out of it a 4x4 is heading towards him. Suppose you had to be there at the time to fully appreciate just how funny it was. From there we were put in to groups and we had a look round the room praying that we ended up with a few cheekys in it and indeed we did. Aswell as us five boys, we had a French guy called Dennis, two French girlies called Kim and Aline and two canadian girls called Juliet and Kenna. The look on their faces was priceless as they saw us lads with all the booze getting rowdy at eight in the morning. Go on the English boys! No - one wanted to drive the jeep so me and Dave (Moore) took the others lives into our hands and volunteered to drive. We set off from the hostel and headed to the supermarket for the supplies. The good old English boys headed straight for the burgers and sausages while the Frenchys headed to the salad and cooked meat department with the canadians wondering what the hell was going on. We finally got all the shopping with a mixture of good stuff (French choices) and bad stuff (our delicious treats) and headed off to the ferry, sailing into Fraser. Dave took the first shift in the jeep which was proving to be a difficult job as it was sliding all over the place. Any doubts we had about this group being boring were quickly over as the French girls started singing 'Mamma I love you' by the spice girls which had us in stitches and which was the first indication that these girls were mental but were going to be good entertainment!
Our first stop off point was 'Lake Mackenzie' which is a huge lake full of freshwater which is like tap water so you can drink it. It was crystal clear and the views around it were stunning. Us boys tried to show off by building a human pyramid in the sea with Juliet the Canadian sitting on the top but it wasn't happening and after she got thrown in the water for the 50th time, we decided to call it a day. We then headed off to find somewhere to set up the tents for the night and had to drive on the beach which was a strange experience as you had to try keep it grounded as you were flying over mounds of sand. We found a place behind some sand dunes to protect us from the wind and started to try and get the tents up with nothing but the moon and the stars to help us see. The four girls had one tent and were well on their way, Miller, Jake and Dennis were doing ok with theirs but me, Dave and James were having a nightmare with ours, much to the girls amusement but this would come back to haunt them later. After getting our tent up (last again), James and Jake set up the BBQ and slapped the healthy sausages and burgers on, mmmmmm. The girls were still giving us stick about our tent when, as if a gift from the gods, their tent blew over! It was sooo funny seeing their faces as their tent was in a heap on the floor, get in there! This meant that all the girls wanted to pile into mine, Daves and James tent and seeing as the tent is only made for four people, it was a bit of a squeeze getting seven in but I can safely say I've been in worse situations.
The next morning we packed up all the camping gear and headed up to 'Eli Creek' which is the biggest creek on the island and once again is made of freshwater. If you lay down at the top of the creek, the water is strong enough to carry you all the way back to the beach. Imagine doing that with the sun blazing down on you, mint! After drying off we headed up the beach to the famous shipwreck on the island, 'The Maheno'. This was a cool thing to see and as we were leaving we decided to have a 'dance off' which most people, including me, didn't want to do as we were tired and hungover but it went ahead anyway with Miller taking the winners medal with his version of the David Brent dance from 'The Office' (Still don't know where that came from Mill).
Next stop was 'Indian Head' which is the highest point on the island and is where you can sometimes see whales, sharks and dolphins swimming in the ocean but we didn't see any which we predicted from the start. From there we moved onto the 'Champagne pools' which are rock pools next to the sea and as the waves hit the rocks, the pools fill up and it looks just like champagne does when its poured into a glass. Credit goes out to Dave Moore for saving my life because as me, him and Jake were talking in the pools, a jellyfish was sneaking up behind me. After sprinting out of the pools back to the safe beach area and changing my underwear, we headed back down the beach to look for somewhere to stay for the night.
We met up with a couple of other vans from our hostel and set up camp for the night. The drinking began as the girls cooked the pasta and after a delicious meal (cheers girls), a game of truth or dare began, the highlight being when Dave chose dare and had to go to the camp next to us, get on his knees with a bowl in his hands and say "Please squire, may I have some more" to the guy cooking the food and he replied with a few swear words which we thought was a bit rude of him. The games continued and the drinks flowed until we were all off our heads, well mainly the boys, then we saw what looked to be a firework in the air but it turned out to be a shooting star, quality! Everyone got on well and had the same sort of personalities which made the whole trip an awesome experience. No idea what those French girls were on but they were such a good laugh and although the Canadians were very sarcastic, especially about our driving, they were lovely girls so we had a good laugh and at sometime that night, had a few minutes sleep.
We cleaned up and left our campsite on the morning of the third day, once again having little sleep, and headed to a place called 'Lake Wabby'. To get to this we had to leave out 4x4 on the beach and walk 2km and although it was very tiring it was worth it. Aswell as the lake, which was full of huge catfish, there was a steep sand hill which was about 45 degrees and which was the place where a few races down into the water took place and where a couple of the boys embarrassed themselves. The first to do this was DAVID MILLER. He ran down his fastest, obviously trying to impress the ladies but ended up rolling down the sand bank, head first, not even reaching the water. Yep that was embarrassing. The second person to make a fool of himself was DAVID MOORE. Now this guy was definatly trying to impress the ladies. He was running his fastest and got to the bottom in first position and was just about to jump into the lake until he fell and splatted against the bank and the shallow part of the water, once again falling short like the other David before him. He got up trying to laugh it off but he couldn't hide the embarrassment from the boys, we could see right through him and it serves him right for showing off. After David got up and wiped away those tears we headed to 'Happy Valley' where we had some dinner before driving to the other side of the island, back to the ferry port. We got some good group photos before we left the jeep with everyone looking pretty sad at leaving one another, especially the girls but who wouldn't be sad at leaving a charming, intelligent, sophisticated group of lads like us?!?!
We drove back to the hostel to collect our bags with the Canadians and Frenchys already booked in for the night and it looked as if the group would have to go their seperate ways as we were told that the hostel was fully booked with no beds to spare. So after coming to terms with the fact that we were going to have to set off on our 11 and a half hour drive up to the Whitsunday islands one day early, me, Dave and Jake took the 4x4 back to the garage where the manager said thanks and gave us a beer while we waited for the others to return their vehicles. After a few beers and a good chat with the manager, we found out that this guy was also the manager of the hostel so after a bit of dutch courage we asked him if there was anyway he could sort us out with a room as we didn't fancy the long drive tonight, especially after having little or no sleep over the past two nights. The good man got on the phone, rang the hostel and got us a room, with a balcony, that was reserved for some other people who had not turned up yet. It was smiles all round as we got back to the hostel and told the group and we celebrated by having an 'all you can eat' domino's pizza and a 30 pack of beer. We said goodbye to each other later that night and got to sleep, knowing that we had a beast of a drive the next day.
We woke up the following morning, got our stuff together and headed off up the coast on our 11 and half hour drive, looking forward to a good nights sleep later that night. The question is, did we???
Bye for now
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