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So we arrived at rainbow beach on the 16th May and instantly loved the beach and town. The hostel had a really friendly community with live music, good food and cool people.
We spent our first afternoon on the beach and looking around the local shops. We had a meeting at 4pm for our first Fraser Island brief. We had a brief with one of the trip organisers and watched some tutorial videos about the island, how to deal with dingos and 4x4 driving. We then set out as a group to do our shopping for the trip which included all food to survive on for the 3 days. We spent just shy of $300 for 11 people.
In the morning we were up very early for the last part of the brief before heading outside to load up our rented 4x4's. We needed to load all our camping equipment including, tents, gas stoves, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, 2 big cool boxes, a gas bottle, all our bags, table 2 big tarps and all our food on top on the vehicle! We then headed to the rental shop to get a talk on 4x4 driving and safety whilst driving.
It was great fun setting off and heading to beach ferry to the island. We got our first taste of 4x4 off roading on the way to the ferry. We literally drove on the beach and on to the ferry which just landed on the beach out of the water. We got on to the island and headed for an in-land road off the beach which was soo bumpy and long. After an hour we finally made it back on to the beach and took a quick break to take the amazing views of the 70 mile beach!!
From there I took over the driving and was under pressure to be off the beach by midday as the tide would be too high to drive on the beach. We made it to the site of the lake wabby walk and walked through the jungle to the lake. The lake and dunes were amazing. The lake was full of big catfish and was very cold to swim in. We spent the whole afternoon sunbathing before heading back to the 4x4 to do some more beach driving whilst the tide allowed and before the sun went down. Our first campsite was in the dunes just off the beach. We quickly got our tents set up and set about cooking our dinner, a typical camper’s meal of meat and pasta followed by beer and chocolate ;-)
This was also our fist sighting of dingo’s who were attracted to the smell of our food. They hung around most of the evening but didn’t give us any bother or steal any babies.
We were up early and had a fry up before repacking the car and heading to Lake Mackenzie. It was part beach part inland driving. However all sand! There were a few times we really needed to engage the low gearing of the 4x4 to get up steep hills and deep sand. It was tough but very rewarding driving.
Lake Mackenzie was amazing, as you have probably seen from the picture the colour of the water and the sand is breathtaking. The sand was incredibly soft and the water was crystal clear and safe to drink as it was fresh water. It was also warm to swim in!! This was by far the best part of the trip as it was unlike anything we had ever seen.
We spent a few hours there and had lunch before heading to Central station to set up our next camp, we decided to set up a shelter as rain had been predicted and our tents early. We then went for a walk along wangglooba creek which is an ancient rainforest valley. Some of the rainforest is amongst the oldest and unspoilt in the world. It also contains many rare and ancient species and is world heritage listed.
We cooked an amazing dinner consisting of burgers, bacon, cheese and egg!!! .... before having a nice warm shower, finishing off some beers and heading to bed.
It started heavily raining about midnight when we were sleeping and didn’t stop until late morning! We packed the tents and 4x4 in the rain but were a very efficient group so were quick when we needed to be. We got to see the Maheno wreck and Eli creek before heading back along the beach about 30km and on to the mainland ferry.
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