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Fraser Island
After yet another early night because it goes dark at around 6.30pm. We got up and drove to Agnes Waters and the town of 1770. We sat for about 30 minutes just looking out at the still water of the ocean, so peaceful and lovely. Then just down the road to Agnes Waters we decided to have a couple of hours on the beach and watching some surfing. After about an hour on the beach we were covered in sand, a tad windy. By that time is was dinner time and we made some tuna salad wraps. A quick freshen up at the beach side showers was also in order.
That afternoon we drove for another couple of hours to the town of Bundaberg, where there are lots of farms offering fruit picking jobs. We didn't pick any fruit... we just had a quick look around and a shop at the local supermarket to top our supplies up. Later we spent the night at Sharons nature park on the outskirts of town. After tea we settled down into the back of sherbert and enjoyed the movie 'dinner for schmucks'... hilarious!
The next day we drove further south to the town of Childers where we stopped for a while and ate our breakfast. After our brekkie pit stop it was back on the road, destination was Hervey Bay (the gateway to fraser island)...
We camped at the YHA hostel near the harbour end of town. It was a lovely afternoon, so we went and got a couple of soft cones from Mcds and got a crate of XXXX beer from Dan Murphys liquor store... by far the cheapest store for beer we had seen advertised!! That evening we ate a lovely tuna salad which was really nice and refreshing... Unfortunately LUCY spilt the brine from the tuna tin all over the place.... tuna smell in the camper-car for the next few days it is then!!
The following day was the reason we had come to hervey bay... we were going to fraser island! We went on a day tour with a very good company called unique fraser. It was a long action packed day. It all started by meeting at unique fraser at 7.40am, conveniently next door to where we were staying. There were 13 of us going on the day tour, we got divided into 2 different groups... in our group everyone was from the UK and our tour guide and jeep driver was Troy. The other group were all europeans and went with the german tour guide (think he was german!) After a short drive and getting to know everyones names, we reached the ferry. The ferry across to fraser island took around 45minutes. There were an english couple in our group who were quite pathetic... they said they didn't want to be always in the back of the jeep... so we had to always swop seats after each stop... every stop though they would hang around and try to be last to the jeep so they never went in the back... pathetic southerners!
Anyways.. Once onto the island we were roaring down the sandy lanes through the rainforest heading towards our first destination when we stopped and watched a dingo for a few seconds before it darted of into the forest. Troy had warned us about the dangers of dingos... basically its ok if theres only 1 or 2 of them and you stick together... just be careful if you see lots of them. A 9 year old boy once died from a dingo attack on the island. That was the only dingo we saw on the island all day!
Troy drove us to one of the highest points on the island to Lake Mckenzie... a beautiful lake filled with just rain water which you can drink... yes we tried it and it did taste just like evian! We had a bit of a paddle around before enjoying some lamington cakes and some tasmanian cheeses in the picnic area... Peter destroyed the cheeses and Lucy has quite a soft spot for them lamington cakes. Travis was an aboriginal dude who use to live on the island... he was on our tour and showed us a welcome dance and some aboriginal words.
After driving through more of the rainforest we finally arrived at the spectacular 75 mile beach! Wow... Its an actual highway and runway... the speed limit is 80km per hour and has an actual police station just off beach. Small planes also use the beach to take people on tours above the island, and its an emergency landing strip for larger planes. We zoomed along the beach heading north... it was a brilliant sight with the waves crashing in from the right of us. Our first stop on the beach was the monero shipwreck. It was a large boat that ended up washed ashore and they never got it out of the sand. Further along we saw the pinnacles which are sand cliffs. At the northern end of the beach we visited indian head.... but before we got there we came across 2 vehicles stuck in the sand... smart, looks like we can't get through!? Troy had other ideas... he told us 'hold onto whatever you can'.... haha. He put his foot down and ploughed the thick sand at the side of the stranded vehicles and made it bumpily through to the otherside... it was hilarious, the look on the faces of the people who were stranded was priceless. They must of thought... oh thats how you do it then! haha.
From Indian head the views were stunning, looking into the islands sanddunes, down and up the shoreline and out to the ocean. We took quite a few pictures up there. After returning back down the hill to the jeeps we were greeted by the tour guides and travis... they served beer for the men and champagne for the ladies. Alongwith a very nice lunch which we ate on the beach... this time it wasn't a disaster like the Whitehaven beach experience. After lunch Travis played the didgeridoo for us, quite impressively.
After lunch we relaxed at champagne pools before heading back down the eastern beach and stopping at Eli Creek. At this creek we walked a few hundred metres inland, then floated back to the sea down the stream... it was quite funny as at times as we floated away and at others we had to push ourselves along. Peter jumped in the front of the jeep before the pathetic people could get there... HA! It was a fair long journey back to the ferry and we just made it in time after some impressive driving from Troy.
Once back on the mainland it was a short journey back to YHA in Hervey Bay... BUT we did stop by the side of some fields and watched some kangaroos bounce around as the sun went down which was really nice.
WE THOUGHT THE TOUR WAS REALLY GOOD AND THAT FRASER ISLAND IS FAIR AMAZING :-D
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