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We arrived in Hervey Bay in the morning and were picked up by a grumpy hostel worker but in a pink van so were happy anyway. Luckily the hostel and the rest of the staff were lovely so we weren't too disappointed. The hostel was Fraser Roving and had its own pool and bar and all you can eat mexican dinner which we of course sampled. We spent the rest of the day shopping (as usual) and then sunbathed by the pool. In the evening we had to go to ameeting for our self drive trip to Fraser Island. There we were told everything we would need to know including how to drive the 4x4, what food to buy, where to go and for the girls to go to the toilet in pairs because otherwise dingoes might mistake them for children. Obviously we only remembered the last point and so we decided to just make it up as we went along.But wedid realise that Australia is a country full of no, as you get fined for everything including driving through the sea, sitting on the bonnet of the jeep, driving down the wrong road, feeding the dingoes and anything elsethat is remotely fun. At the meeting we met the rest of our group which consisted of 5 Irish policeman who we couldn't really understand and 2 English girls called Laura and Gabby who we instantly clicked with. After the meeting we made a shopping list for all our food, number one on the guys' list was of course beer. We were a little more practical and added bread, milk, cheese and cereal and of course the infamous goon - our new found love. Had an early night as we were meeting at 7.30am to head off to Fraser Island. We had a very, very brief demonstration of how to drive the 4x4 and then we were on our way......
Got the ferry to Fraser Island, heard that a jeep from a fellow hostel had overturned before even getting to the ferry and so never made it to Fraser Island at all!!! With one of the Irish guys driving we successfully made it to the island and set off with the girls navigating and the guys driving. Drove to Lake Birabeen which was stunning. We swam in the fresh water and felt a little bit like were had landed in paradise. After a leisurely few hours we headed towards our first camp site and pitched our tents in record time before it got dark. As the guys went off to play football us girls set about the task of making dinner (typical!) but because we were doing it it was of course a great success and soon enough everyone was tucking into a yummy barbecue, I even had some veggie burgers just for me. Due to the lack of music and adequate light we had to make our own entertainment so me and Sarah had a singsong which kept us entertained for at least an hour, mainly because we could only remember all the words to 2 songs. Through the evening we drank our goon and lemonade, a spritzer you might say, and the guys consumed an obscene amount of beer, vodka and goon obviously keeping up with the Irish cliche. The next day we got up bright and early (5.30am!) and set off for another day of sightseeing. We both successfully drove our hot pink jeep on the beach which made us feel very good, even the guys were impressed with our driving, we didn't get sworn at once! As evening came we pitched our tents again and cooked up a feast of pasta and drank some more goon whilst the guys drank even more beer. After another slightly uncomfortable night in the tent (we had to share with a drunk, snoring Irish man) we jumped back in the jeep and headed for Lake Mckenzie, another famous landmark of Fraser Island. After a few hours chilling out there we drove back to the ferry and returned to Hervey Bay. We handed the jeep back to the hostel and were thankful we hadn't damaged it or we would've been in trouble!
That night we had a few drinks in the bar and got talking to some Australian pilots. They flew the planes that people skydive from, unfortunately they weren't able to give us a discount on a jump! But they did take us to the airport and show us the planes and the runway all lit up at night which was really cool. We wanted to go to Noosa the next day but unfortunately the bus was all booked up so we had to spend an extra day there but we didn't mind as we were so tired from the trip and countless nights being kept awake by snorers that we were just able to have a lazy day napping and catching up on things. In the evening we met some more Irish people, had a few drinks with them and arranged to see them later on our trip. We got up super early to catch our bus to Noosa.
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