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Hi all,
Am back from Fraser Island and I am now the queen of camping!
Woke up at 7am again for the pancakes. I had to check out of the hostel and put our back packs into storage until we are back. I just prayed that I had enough types of clothes to keep me warm.
We loaded up the truck which took a while. We had 4, 3 man tents, roll mats, sleeping bags, cooking equipment and then the food. The food was brought for us but it was chosen well. We had steaks, chicken, veggies, rice, lots of fruit, OJ, apple juice, bread, wraps, cakes, biscuits - you name it, we had it. All we had to take care of were snacks for the evening like chocolate and crisps and booze. Have I ever told you about the boxes of wine in Oz? They are called Goon for some reason and are dirt cheap - about $10 for 4 litres of wine! We had a fair few of those packed away along with beer for the boys, 10 huge bags of crisps, bars of chocolates etc.. We were well equiped and ready to go.
The ferry was a 15 minute drive to get to and then about 15 mins to get over to Fraser Island.
Maps were given out and it was up to the team to decide where to stay. I was hoping for a nice little camp site with toilet facilities but we decided to go for a night on the beach. Excellent, I can cope with this - I thought!
We got onto the island and had a drive up the coast to a place called India Head. Had a short walk up the cliff and it was worth it - the views were spectacular.
After that we found a stretch of beach at the Maheno shipwreck and pitched up. I haven't camped for about 10 years so started to get excited about it all. We set up a lovley pitch and were then joined by 3 other cars from our hostel. It was going to be a big party night so we opened up the goon around 5ish. Bad idea because by 6.30 it was pitch black, most of the team was drunk and no one could be bothered to cook. No bother though, we had our crisps and biscuits etc...
I knew it wasn't going to be long after drinking all that lovley goon that I would need the loo. Off I went with my shovel. You have to dig a hole, do your business, then put your toilet paper in and cover it over. What an experience, especially as you had to take someone with you to look out for dingo's. Apparently then can attack from behind - not something I wanted to happen to me whilst my shorts were around my ankles!!
Anyway - I am now a squatting champion and could quite happily wee anywhere!
Everyone started to drift off to bed around 11pm. Lightweights. I carried on battling my way through the goon like a trooper. The night sky was amazing and I was in complete awe. I thought the best way I could appreciate it was to lie on the beach (sod the dingo's) and stare up at it. It was awesome watching the shooting stars etc...
I did start to think that I was being watched and thought I could see a dingo coming towards me (that goon does funny things to you!) I panicked and started screaming Gringo dingo in a crazy mexican accent and sprinted back to camp. It turns out it was someone having a wee on the beach - ah well, you can never tell! Got into my lovely warm sleeping bag with about 5 layers of clothes on - mmm, toasty!
Wednesday morning we all woke up feeling a little bit worse for wear. Considering the amount of goon i'd consumed I should have been a lot worse but I was up at 6.30 to see the sun rising over the ocean.
We took a drive to Lake Mackenzie which is infused with tea tree oil and apparently can make you feel a million dollars. Just what we all needed with our sore heads.
Went off to find a campsite for tonight and I was praying again for a proper camp site with toilets. No such luck, we all camped on the beach again. We made a proper dinner this evening, chicken stir fry and rice. It was the nicest thing I'd eaten in a while. No goon for me tonight - well only a couple of glasses - it would be rude not to join in!
This morning, I woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday! We packed up the camp one last time and headed to Lake Wabby. It's a freshwater lake which is slowly being taken over by a huge sand dune. It was a bit murky and was occupied by some huge, ugly cat fish - I wasn't going anywhere near that!
Headed back down the beach for one last time to catch the ferry and guess what - it was my turn to drive! Felt a bit scared but I did well. Driving on the beach is great. It just takes a little bit getting used to knowing when to put it into the 4wd. We all made it back in one piece.
Back at the hostel now and checked into diifferent rooms. I'm in with Leigh, Al and Mark and I think we're all going to join in with the $4 dinner again - bbq tonight.
Heading off to Airlie beach tomorrow for a sailing trip on Sunday. Can't wait for that. I've booked myself onto a chill out boat with only 12 people on board. The party boats have about 24 people on but I thought that would be too much after being at Fraser. You never know though, I'll take a new box of goon and see how it goes!!!
Love to you all.
J xxx
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