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Woke up this morning horribly hungover, despite only having had 4 drinks and a reasonably early night! the heat here just does not work for me haha. Was up at 7 to pack, grab some free pancakes for breakfast, and get sorted to meet the groups to leave for Fraser Island at 7.45. We met and then spent about an hour or so sorting out all the equipment, making sure we all had everything, all the food and drink etc, checking out the car, and getting a few safety talks. It wasn't the most fun cos I wasn't feeling the best, but I managed the piece of mind to grab a packet of crisps before we left at least before we left. There was 7 car loads of us overall, with 2 lead cars (with our guides driving). We each had 8 or 9 in the car, and the 7 cars were split into two groups, each with a different leader.
I was a bit iffy about my group...they were mostly talking in Swedish and didn't seem overly exciting...but I was trying to keep an open mind! Once we were finally ready to go everyone got into the cars! My initial misgivings about the group seemed to be looking accurate when I asked who wanted their iPod on first and only ONE other person had one with them! What!? But oh well, one of the dutch girls passed hers forwards and I was left with the very important task of being in charge of driving music, so I was happy!
Despite my group being a bit iffy there was at least a bit of banter starting between the cars already which was a good sign!
So we headed off, with german guy (I think he was called Jan) driving. I was a little bit worried about his driving, he didn't seem to be staying on the road very well and kept trying to drive on the right…there was one moment where he turned a corner and went straight into the wrong lane with a car coming towards us…little bit scary haha! His English was very patchy as well so it was quite hard to talk to him. We did talk a bit, the german girl was ok but not overly exciting. The 5
swedish/finnish in the back were just talking Swedish the whole time. I tried to get them into conversations and even said in a jokey way a few times that I wished we all spoke Swedish/I would have to learn Swedish to join in the conversations etc…they just laughed and went back to speaking Swedish. I did find it pretty rude as they could all speak good English when they wanted to…they just didn't bother!
Anyway, after about a half hour drive we got to a long beach where the ferry left from, and all got out of our cars to wait. It was great getting to talk to Julia and Christina, and there was also Sven and Leonie from the bus the day before, as well as the northern irish from the night before! I got talking to Sven a bit trying to improve my german skills again (I was well and truly hooked on learning german now haha, this was the start of me harassing german speakers for a long time-they were everywhere though)! The ferry across was fairly quick, about 15 minutes or so, and we were soon back in the cars for some driving along the beach! It was absolutely class driving along, the beach was absolutely gorgeous and went on forever! Fraser is something like the world's biggest sand island and is just amazing. We stopped after about an hour for some lunch at a place with some shops and cafes etc. At this point the 7 cars had separated, so it was just our 3 cars. It was pretty class that we managed my car, Sven and Leonie's car, and Julia and Christina's car!
All the food was included on the trip, so each group had a crate and an esky (big cool box) of food. It was a bit of a fuss figuring out how to get everything off the back of the trailer and what was what…we had some slightly dodgy looking meat and cheese and salad for sandwiches. I was absolutely starving and wolfed it down but it was pretty good. Attempted conversation with my group while I was eating and then officially gave up and went over to talk to the german girls. Met a girl called Sian from their group who is from London and seemed really nice! I was just hoping that as the day went on the groups would be mixing more so I could escape the not so lovely Swedish!
After lunch one of the Finnish girls had a go at driving. We were headed for Lake Mackenzie, and had to drive through sand tracks through jungle…it was pretty cool, but seriously bumpy, and I had made the mistake of sitting in the back - felt so ill! We finally got there, and it was absolutely beautiful. It's a massive fresh water lake, with completely clear water, you can see right to the bottom even when it's like 10m deep. The sand was really white and so fine that apparently if you brush your teeth with it then it whitens your teeth, and if you wash your hair with it it gets really soft! I'm pretty gullible with all of these things, but even I had a feeling that this story was a bit like when the Scottish tell foreigners that a Haggis is an animal… Figured it was worth a try though! Haha. Chilled out in the water with the girls for a while, then there were two English guys, Luke and Ryan, in slightly ridiculous matching hats who had brought a ball with them, so we tried a bit of water volleyball. I am definitely not a pro at water volleyball haha. Was good craic though! The boys were very keen on us keeping it up for a really long time and it wasn't really working for us…despite their best efforts haha. I tried the teeth brushing thing and only really managed to get a lot of sand in my mouth haha, although I wouldn't really have known if they actually got whiter I guess! After that Sian and I went to cover our hair in sand…we figured if we were going to do it we would do it properly! Looked slightly ridiculous though haha, absolutely covered in sand, and then we sat exfoliating with it as well lol - think some people thought we were a little mad! After we washed it off though it did actually feel really soft, it was really cool! We went for a bit of a walk to look for some turtles among the reeds but couldn't see any unfortunately, so went back to join in the volleyball again. It was really
good craic, had a brilliant time at Lake Mackenzie, could have stayed there the whole 3 days! Unfortunately after a couple of hours it was time to move on, and we headed back for the cars.
This time it was my turn to drive! I was a little bit worried but as soon as I got behind the wheel I was buzzing, miss driving so much!! I'd also made an iPod playlist to get me through the journey so was absolutely loving life powering through the sandy jungle in a massive 4x4 haha. We got back to the spot where we had had lunch for a toilet break, and I was on an absolute high after getting to drive haha, think the guys thought I was a wee bit mad. Was talking to two dutch girls from the car in front of us though, who weren't sure about driving, but had saw me grinning away as I was driving haha, and I told them to definitely do it, because it was awesome!! They seemed really nice too, it was the first time I had spoken to them. The English guys seemed a bit annoyed that they couldn't drive as they'd not brought their driving licences with them - although they were equally happy to be able to drink all day haha. Soon we were back in the cars and off for another drive along the beach to our campsite.
We were literally camping on the beach, just beneath some trees. There was 3 tents for each group, and I wasn't really looking forward to sleeping with the german girl and german guy…in all honesty I had already decided just to sleep in the car, especially as I didn't have a sleeping bag ($10?! Not worth it! Haha) but I helped set up the tent and then went to check out the gorgeous beach while the leader set up our covered kitchen/"nightclub" area haha. By the time it was ready for us to cook dinner it was getting pretty dark, and the whole process of trying to cook dinner was majorly confusing…definitely far too many cooks in the kitchen. Wouldn't have been quite as bad if they had spoken some English every so often…but they were all still insisting on speaking Swedish, Eventually I just got bored and gave up, grabbed a cup of goon and left them to it, and chatted to the others/sat and chilled on the beach. Eventually dinner was ready (I managed to get my food first at least…although I definitely didn't get a huge amount haha…felt a bit like I was getting bullied by the Swedish but wasn't hugely fussed lol! Sat with the boys and ate my (actually quite nice) steak and potatoes…Luke had to cut my steak for me though haha, in my defence it was pretty hard with a butter knife on your knee trying to avoid the sand!
After dinner everything had to be safely stowed away on the trailer and covered so that the dingoes didn't get it, but most people just wandered off and Luke and Ryan spent a good half hour trying to get it on haha, they did a good job considering the dark and them not being completely sobre I thought lol! Then we got the music blasting from one of the cars and officially got the "bar" going haha…although a lot of people went down to just chill on the beach. Had a really good night, just chilling and having a few drinks, was awesome being on the beach!! Really got on with Sian, the boys, and the germans!
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