I got back from Fraser Island yesterday, and travelled to Noosa on the bus this morning. Tomorrow morning I am going canoeing for three days and then on Monday I can have a rest!

I went to Fraser Island with 6 others - three German and three British - in a 4wd. 2 of them did all the driving and were brilliant - we got the car back in one piece and didn't get charged for any damages which was good! We'd met on Sunday and done our food shopping, and set off on the Monday morning. The tides were at funny times and we couldn't drive in high tides so we set off at about 7.45am and had to be off the shore of the island by 10.30 so we went inland to Lake Mackenzie. Lake Mackenzie was absolutely beautiful - the sand was as white as Whitehaven Beach and the waters were crystal clear. We spent a few hours at the lake and then drove to our first campsite and cooked dinner.

The next day we drove to Indian Head in the north of the island, and stayed at the beach during high tide. We climbed Indian Head and from the top were the most amazing views. I took a disposable camera because I'd heard too many horror stories about digital cameras and sand so I will get my photos developed soon and put them up here. From the top we could see north and south and the beautiful beaches stretched out for miles. The sea was such a beautiful mix of blue and green and we could see turtles, sharks, manta rays, and dolphins. We also went to Champagne Pools which are big rock pools that catch the sea water and is the only safe salt-water area in which to go swimming.

We camped that night at a campsite with only one other group which meant we didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone that night. We had a barbecue and I got to light a campfire, girl scout stylee :) I was so proud of it and it cooked our jacket potatoes perfectly, if I may say so myself :) We walked down to the beach in the dark which was incredible - the moon wasn't out but we could see so many stars because it was so dark. The stars were reflecting off the wet sand, and we could see the sky lighting up in the distance occasionally. That freaked me out a bit because in all my days in Cullercoats I have never seen that before, but apparently it was a thunderstorm happening miles and miles away. I loved it.

That night two girls from the other group walked past our site and one of them turned out to be Flick, a girl off my course at university! Of the whole of Australia, of all the other self-drive tour groups on the island (and there were many) and of all the other places to camp on the island, we ended up in the only two groups at that one campground! Crackers.

The next day we drove back via Lake Wabby which is in amongst a massive sand dune. It was beautiful, but we didn't really have time to stay for long, and it took ages to get there as it was a long downhill walk from the carpark. When we got back to Rainbow Beach we all went straight to bed, but got up again for the free BBQ in the evening. :) I was so lucky with the group we travelled with as everyone was friendly and made an effort. The whole trip was so much better than I expected and we were really lucky with the weather too :)