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17th August 2009
This weekend I went to Fraser Island which is the largest sand island in the world and the only place in the world that rainforest co-exists with sand. It's about a 4 hour drive up the coast from Brisbane, and a 10 min ferry ride across. The only way to get there and around the island is by 4x4 because since it is all sand there are no roads, not even any mud. It's the strangest thing to see rainforest growing out of sand!! We set off at 7am Saturday morning from Brisbane and picked up a small group from Noosa and there was 10 of us in total, all aged 19 - 25. A lot of them were from Germany and Switzerland and everyone was really friendly so by the end of the weekend we had all made some good friends. From as soon as we were on the island our guide was telling us all about the aboriginal history of the place (which is really unusual for an Australian), we drove along the beach quite a lot, it seemed to go on for miles - which I guess is why it's called the 75 mile beach - and where the sand was so soft we were being thrown around everywhere in the vehicle, not a trip to be done hungover!
First stop was Lake Birrabean which was surrounded by gorgeous white sands and filled with crystal clear water which was a bit cold but was such a nice break from the hot sunshine and was gorgeous to swim in. Our guide found a turtle that he showed us all, it was tiny! As our group were led on the sand afterwards drying off one of the other girls asked me how long I had been in Oz for. When I told her 5 months she replied 'how come you are still so white!' she has only been here two weeks and was so very brown already!! I was definitely the palest there but I didn't get sunburnt this weekend - yay! Even though it was sunny and 27 degrees and there was no shade anywhere, it was lush though with it being such nice weather and still officially being winter! Some of the tracks around the island inland were a bit hairy but it all added to the fun. We then went on a walk through some of the rainforest - I just kept my head down and hoped I didn't see any spiders, although our guide did show us a couple of holes where funnel-web spiders lived, yikes - and after headed to the resort where we would be staying in 4-bed dorms for the night. The backpacker's was fully booked so we got upgraded to some normal 4-bed rooms, bonus. That evening the food theme was Aussie night which made me chuckle since it was roast dinner! Unfortunately no Yorkshire puddings or stuffing, and strangely they had mint jelly when the meats were beef and pork, but it went down in my tummy very well all the same. The next morning was to be a full English breakfast so I felt right at home :) Later that night we all went down to the beach to see the stars, I can't believe how many you can see from the sky in Oz , there are literally thousands of them! It was beautiful but bloody freezing! We were pretty tired after the long day so went on to bed after some had a few games of pool and then some of us made it up for sunrise.
After breakfast we were told to meet at 8am to head off for the next day's excursions. Only a few of us were there on time but as luck would have it our guide was asked if any of us wanted to go on a flight over the island because there were 5 spare seats, so the punctual of us that wanted to did. On our way to the plane we got to see a dingo too! They are naturally wild on the island and she was just strolling along the beach. On the flight it was so beautiful to see so much rainforest and the lakes in between and to go over the surrounding ocean which was also really clear - we didn't swim in that though because of sharks :( - by the time we had finished our guide met us with the rest of the group further down the island where we had landed and we drove on the a part of the beach that has coloured sand in the cliff side (known as the Pinnacles). Next was a ship wreck, and wreck really was the operative word! I'm pretty sure it is just the Australian's attempt to salvage some history of their own, the SS Maheno has been washed up there for the last 75 years and is basically numerous chunks of rusty metal slightly resembling the shape of a ship today, but still made for some good photos.
We then went on to Lake Wabby. The water was a lovely as Lake Birrabean but has a green colour because of the seaweed as the bottom. It was just as cold too and we got to swim with lots of fishies, including some cat fish. The trek up the sand was a killer as we made out way back to the beach via more rainforest. There was so much white sand around this lake it looked like snow! Once back at the beach we had to head off the island as quickly as possible because the tide was coming in. It felt like the weekend's trip was over so quickly but everyone was so tired after being in the hot sun all day and being kept so busy all day for 2 days so the journey back down the Oz coast to Brisbane was a very quiet one with lots of them catching some sleep.
Interesting fast no. 3: The word kangaroo is an Aboriginal word for 'I don't understand'. I had heard the story numerous times from other backpackers with it just being known as a myth but I have found out it is actually true. When an Englishman first asked an Aboriginal what the animal was called the Aboriginal replied I don't understand but the Englishman thought he was replying with the name of the animal. So that animal is now known as a kangaroo!
There was a French lad on the trip to Fraser, and like we called the French frogs, he said they call us roast beef. How bizarre!!!
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