hi guys,

the last days were awesome ... had much fun on the island and it's really really beautiful there ... this was the best place i have ever seen in my life and it was every dollar worth to go to that island

but back to the start ... so, after a night in the bus (it was quite comfortable, i even could sleep there as i had two seats for myself) i arrived at 6 am in hervey bay ... check in was at about 10:30 so all of the bus (we were 5 in total) slept in the lounge ... after check in, i walked a little through hervey bay, but there is nothing special to do there .. everybody comes here to go on fraser island and do the 3 days self drive 4WD safari ... in our hostel, we were 33 people, that means 3 cars (11 per car) ... we had our briefing on thursday evening, heard some real horror stories what all can happen (e.g. one guy was eaten by dingos (this is the australian wild dog) and they found his body only 1,5 years later, or better, what the dingo has left, or one guy managed it to bring the car on the roof, 8 people were injured, one british girl even was hurt so bad, that she will never be able to walk again, and the driver got for 3 months in jail) ... but despite this horror stories, we were all excited to go there ... but the trip was not really cheap, had to pay 126 dollar, then 60 for insurance, ice, fuel another 20 dollars for the underbody insurance (means, when a axe is broken from the car or something else) and 25 dollars for food ... and last but not least we had to make a deposit of 100 dollars for eventually accidents not covered by the insurance (when driving in salt water, driving on prohibited areas, ...) ... so the whole procedure of organzing took nearly the whole evening, and finally i was in a group with only english and irish people ;)))))

thank godness, we only had to bring few things (like swimwear, towel etc.) so i could leave the big backpack in the hostel ... wake up was at 6:15 am, we left at 7:00 am the hostel to pick up our 4WD Toyota Landcruiser ... grabbed our food and alcohol (which we bought the day before in the hostel ... as beer was only sold in a 30 cans pack, i decided to buy2 litres of chardonnay white wine .. one for each night, that's more than enough *g*) and at about 11:00 we arrived at Fraser Island ... our first stop was at central station for a 30 minute-walk to a lake (unfortunately i forgot the name) ... but it was real nice there, had some time for swimming (because of sharks, jellyfish and other dangerous animals in the sea, you are not allowed to swim in the sea) and relaxing ... was an amazing surrounding there, the walk took us through wonderful forests ... after that, we drove to our camp site near the beach .. there the other 2 cars of the hostel were already waiting for us and we all built up our tents ... what a luxury, i got my tent of my own and surprisingly i could manage it to build it also on my own ;)) but i must confess, it was quite easy ;)) ... after lunch (2 sandwiches - we had a strict menu plan how much was for everybody) we decided to go to the next lake (ok, we had an itinerary from our tour operator which are the best places to visit and we followed that), which was called lake wabby ... to go there was real awesome, at first we went about 20 minutes on the beach and then after a very little bushwalk we stood in front of a small desert (or sand flow) ... there was a sign which showed us 1 km to the lake through the sand flow ... it was such an awesome picture there, around the desert was forest, we had to go up and down, and then suddenly the lake appeared ... on one coast where forest, on the other there was the desert ... i have never seen such a beautiful place before, it's unbelievable what nature can create .... after a short swim we left the lake at about 5 pm to get back to our camp site ... as it is becoming winter here (haha, winter, it has everyday over 25 degrees) the sunset is quite early .. at 6 pm it's quite dark ... arriving at our campsite we had dinner (steak with salad) and then we had "partytime" ;)) nearly everybody drunk gun (=cheap wine, some call them s*** wine), i had my chardonnay ;)) sometimes it was real tough to understand the english and irish guys, but nevertheless it was much fun ... in the later evening an other group joined us, so we were about 50 people there ... by the way, we had to care about some safety and hygienic rules ... e.g. we should never go alone anywhere ... always stay together (at least in pairs) because dingos only attack humans when they are alone ... if you are 2 or more, you look much bigger and dingos will be scared of you .. or when going on toilet (also in pairs - for the girls normal for the boys quite strange *g*) you had to dig a hole for your business and close it afterwards because of the dingos ... or we had to lock all food staff in the car (of course, because of dingos *g*) ... as i had quite much wine i slept very well even though the ground was very hard and uncomfortable ...

the next day we woke up at about 7 am, had breakfast and then it was my turn to drive to the next destinations (no worries, as i went to bed very early i was quite fit to drive) ... it was the first time for me to steer a car with the steering wheel on the right side ... the first some minutes i always wanted to use the right hand for the manual, but there was the door ;))) after some minutes it was no problem at all and i drove on the beach ... beach means highway, if possible you are allowed to go there 80 km/h (on inland tracks it's only 35 km/h) and the first stop was in a village to clean ourselves, refill our water tank and buy some ice for the food staff ... then we went to a creek ... you could go on a boardwalk some steps inland and go back in the river to the beach ... was fantastic, the water was real chilli ... then we went to a ship wreck which stranded on the beach of Fraser Island ... after a short stop there we had a quite long drive (the island is the biggest sand island of the world, i think in length it's 120 km, and in width it's 20 km - an irish guy told me, this island has more sand than the Sahara desert) to our next stop at "colored sand" ... this was an important place for the local Aborigines ... our next stop was at indian head, and you could believe you are at the end of the world ... climbing up the rocks there u had an fu**** awesome view over the island and the sea ... u even could sharks there, and just sitting there was a great feeling ... after lunch we went to "Champagne pools" ... this was also a quite heavy and long walk (we were not allowed to go by car there, as you could easily stuck in the deep sand there ... nevertheless, some cars tried it, some managed it without problems, some got in real big troubles *g*) ... but arriving at Champagne pools it was every single step worth ... these are two natural "pools" direct on the sea, u can swim in sea water, as u are protected by big rocks ... sometimes seawater smashes over the rocks, which is a fantastic picture ... unfortunately we had to leave soon, as the tide was arriving and we had to leave the beach 2 hours before the tide ... at about 4:30 pm we arrived at our camp site for this night ... cooked dinner again (kind of goulash with rice), then we played some games and got again early to bed ...

on sunday we only had to go to lake Mc Kenzie, the most famous lake on the island ... was a long ride to go there, about 1,5 hours .. we also stopped in a village again to do the dishes and refill our water tank ... Lake Mc Kenzie was again a really wonderful place, unfortunately it rained a little bit (just few drops) and it was cloudy, but nevertheless we went swimming there ;)) ... at 2:30 we were back at our ferry to go to the mainland ... after checking the car by the tour operator (everything was ok, so we had not pay something extra) we arrived at our hostel ... the last night together we spent in an irish pub (there is nearly nothing to do in Hervey bay) but as nearly everyone was real tired (and the pub closed at 10 pm) we returned early at our hostel ...

today i had to wake up very early (at 5 am) to catch my bus at 6 to Brisbane, where i will spend the next 3 nights ... have to wash my clothes and make the plans for the next days down to Sydney ... south of Brisbane, the Surfer Paradise start, so i will try to learn surfing and moreover you are allowed to swim in the sea, as there are no jellyfish or sharks near the coast ...

ok, photos of Fraser Island (which are really beautiful) will be uploaded the next days, as my hostel has free internet but you cannot upload photos ...

i wish every worker a good start in the new week :) and every student i wish ... i don't know ... whatever you do (studying, working, relaxing, ...) enjoy it!

cu soon, christoph