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Caroline's World Tour
We have returned! At about 4pm yesterday we returned to dry land, safe and sound and none the worse (physically!) for our camping experience!! Fraser Island was amazing. Its a really incredible looking place, the lakes and the beaches are just spectacular. Unfortunately, the weather's not quite so good but more of that later!
Our trip started bright and early on Sunday - 5.45am to be exact! We had get into our groups, and then check all the equipment off against the list they had given us. We then had to have yet another briefing about driving on the island and what to do if approached by a dingo (answer: cross your arms across your chest and back away slowly - NEVER run!) and then a final run through of how the 4-Wheel Drive system worked on the van. Pack it up (11 people and their belongings, plus camping equipment and enough food for 3 days) and we were off! The trip started badly for another group when they managed to miss the ferry across to the island - thankfully not us!
When we arrived we set off on the suggested itinerary given to us by the hostel. However, once we'd reached our first stop, and the sun was shining, the decision was made to go straight to Lake MacKenzie, the Island's star attraction to make sure that we managed to see it in the sun, as some rain was forecast for the next few days. So off we went, as did the other Koala groups. And it was so worth it, Lake MacKenzie was beautiful. Absolutely crystal clear blue waters and spotless white sand - heaven! We've taken pictures, so you'll be able to be jealous! What the pictures don't show is that underneath the smiles our teeth were chattering, but thats not the point! We stayed for quite a while, we all had a swim and a snooze in the sun to dry off, and then off we went again. It takes a long time to drive any distance inland on the island, as it is proper off-roading; there are tracks but they are very bumpy and uneven so we had to go fairly slowly. Thankfully one of the boys in our group had volunteered to drive, because I know I wouldn't have fancied it! Eventually we made it on to the beach, and this really was fun. If you stay on the hard sand close to the water's edge (but not IN the salt water: cardinal sin of driving on Fraser!) its just like a road, you can get up to about 60kph so its really good fun! We made some brief stops along the way at various points of interest before pulling up for the night at about 4pm. It seemed very early to camp, especially given that as we'd gone off the suggested itinerary, we were now running slightly short of time to get everything done, but the boys were keen to pull up with another group, so thats what we did. We did manage to make use of the time before it got dark at about half 5 though, and went for a wander along the beach to the Maheno Shipwreck - seen at sunset it was fairly spectacular. We'd set up the tents before we went for our walk (laugh all you like, but me and Sarah managed it ourselves with just a teeny bit of help!) and I was glad we did, cause I wouldn't have fancied trying it in the dark! We cooked in the dark though, the boys set up the BBQ while the girls made some salad, and it was sandy sausages and salad all round! We had a really clear night, and a full moon so we had a surprising amount of light - we had torches but didn't really need them that much. Both groups got together and we sat around the campsite with a beer and chattered away - all in all a very pleasant way to spend an evening, even if our camp did get raided by a few dingoes!! (Needless to say, we all stayed very quiet and waited for them to go away!) The actual sleeping in the tent part is not my favourite, but the outdoorsiness of camping is actually really fun! As it had got dark at about half 5 though, and we'd been up since 5 that morning, it was bed by not long after 9!
Woke up early the next morning - tents don't do much to block out the early morning sun! Plus, that lovely soft sand that always looks so appealing in the photos is actually rather more like concrete when you're trying to sleep on it! We had to wait until half 11 before the tide was low enough to drive on the sand which was a bit of a pain, so we had a good few hours of trying to entertain ourselves! All of our eating implements were dirty from the night before, and we had no where to wash them except the sea, so we had to have dry cereal for breakfast - yummy! We had a little rain storm as we were trying to load the van - needless to say it stopped by the time we were finished, so by the time there was room for us to shelter in the van the rain had stopped! We eventually set off about 11, when we decided there was room enough on the sand to drive. We drove north up the beach in the direction of Indian Head, stopping when there was something to see, and also at a campsite to do our washing up! By this point, I'd pretty much decided I didn't want to drive the van - it was absolutely massive and I was a bit scared! But as we were getting back to the van someone asked who was going to drive, and before I knew it, one of the Dutch girls had volunteered me!! Now there was no way I could back down from the challenge, so into the driver's seat I had to jump! And I am glad I did, although it was quite a challenge! The clutch was really stiff, and it was quite hard to maneouvre - I've always thought rally drivers and off-roaders were moving the wheel around far more than was necessary, but now I know thats not the case! It takes quite a while for the van to respond, so you really have to be on the ball. I drove back down the inland tracks to the beach, and then just straight up the beach, that was the easy bit! In fact, driving on the hard sand was really quite fun, but the soft sand was scary, the van just slid all over the place! I was glad I had a go, but quite happy to relinquish the wheel once we got up to Indian Head!!
Indian Head was the furthest north we were allowed to go, so we got out the van and climbed to the top. You can't swim in the sea at Fraser Island because its a tiger shark breeding ground, and Indian Head is the ideal place to spot them. I saw a turtle, and I think I saw 2 little sharks - no one else saw them though, so they might have just been big fish! After Indian Head we headed back south down the beach - we needed to camp next to an inland road back down near to Eurong, because we wouldn't be able to drive on the beach in the morning, and we wanted to visit the lakes. We did make a stop on the way back down, but it was raining very heavily by then. We stopped at Eli Creek, where you can walk back up from the beach and float back down the creek. The boys went anyway, despite the rain, but the girls stayed in the van - I couldn't quite face the thought of being cold and wet for the rest of the night if it carried on raining! Happily it didn't, and by the time we came to set up camp it had eased - we managed to put up the tents and cook up a feast in the relative dry. We also met one of Fraser's park rangers, who told us that the crossing arms theory is rubbish if you run into a dingo - her advice was to shout "DINGO" as loud as you can and throw something at it! We had another evening of sitting around and chatting, but this time without the moon as it was really cloudy, and therefore really dark. As a result, bed time was even earlier, although we did decide we'd get up to see the sun rise the following morning, so the early night was justified!!
Or at least we thought it was. When the alarm went off at 6am the following morning, the last thought in my mind was getting out the tent. And this was because we had spent the entire night in gale force winds and torrential rain (well, thats how it felt from inside the tent!). I hardly slept a wink the whole night, the tent was blowing around above us and occasionally leaking big drips onto our faces - nice. For the first time since I left home, I just wanted to be back in my own bed! I couldn't relax the whole night, I was convinced the tent was going to flood/blow away/collapse on top of us. As it turned out, we fared farely well in comparison to others - some people's tents leaked quite badly. So needless to say we were none of us feeling too sparky the following morning!! The weather had cheered up a bit though, at least it wasn't still raining!
There were still loads of things we hadn't done on the island, but our ferry was at 2.30pm, so we had to decide which ones we most wanted to do. The decision was made to go to Lake Wabby, which is famous for being encroached upon by a giant sand dune, and then back to Lake MacKenzie for a final dip if there was time. Lake Wabby was really cool - its about a half hour walk from the car park, and as you're walking through the bush you suddenly come upon a wall of sand, as the dune is encroaching upon the forest as well. We clambered up the dune to the top - I felt like I was in the Sahara! From there you get great views, and, if your feeling brave, you can run down the dune and throw yourself into the lake at the bottom! The boys went for this option, the girls chose the more sedate, but safer, option of walking down and just going for a normal swim! The lake wasn't as nice as Lake MacKenzie, but it was warmer! After Lake Wabby we headed back towards Lake MacKenzie, but only actually had about 20 minutes when we got there, the rain from the previous night had made the tracks a bit more perilous than before, and progress was slow. It was also bumpy, I started to feel seriously sick in the back!
There was just time for a quick glance at the Lake, and then it was off back to the ferry. We got there in plenty of time, but the stupid ferry itself was late! By the time we got back to the hostel, we were running quite late, we had to unload the van double quick to get it back to the workshop in time! The unloading and checking process took absolutely ages, but thankfully we got the ok on everything for getting our deposits back. The van was a different story though - everyone else was coming back from the workshop saying they'd been charged $5 each for this, $10 each for that. We were all waiting nervously for Ed to come back and tell us what, if anything, we'd had to pay. So there we were, waiting. And waiting. And waiting a bit more - everyone else was long back! We were all starting to seriously panic! Finally he arrived, by which time we were convinced we'd lost the whole deposit! But as it turned out, we were getting it all back - thanks to Ed. The workshop had tried to charge us $5 for cleaning as there was mud on the roof of the van (apparently this means we went through puddles too fast!) and in response, Ed cleaned the top of the van himself! So, he was of course our immediate favourite person, and we all successfully reclaimed our entire deposit! By about half past 5 we were finished, and heading straight for the showers!!
After a long shower, we all felt a bit more human. We still had food left over from the trip, so we decided to cook up a dinner all together, a last celebration of the trip. This was really nice, it made a nice end to a brilliant trip. But the tiredness set in pretty quick, so despite being back in the land of electricity and light, we were still in bed not long after 9!!
Sarah and I got a room to ourselves here, so we decided to stay in bed extra long this morning. Unfortunately, island habits die hard, and we were still awake with the sun! Oh well, at least we were in beds, not on the sand! We decided to take today and relax, do our washing and just generally do nothing before the next hectic part of our trip. So thats how come I've had quite so much time to write such an incredibly long entry on here - can't believe I've rambled on for quite such a long time! Congratulations to anyone who's stuck it through to the end!!
Love, the Intrepid Camper xxx
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