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Since the last blog entry we've been fairly busy. We've spent three nights in Brisbane, three nights in Rainbow Beach and two nights camping on Fraser Island.
The highlight of Brisbane was definitely dinner with Sara, an Aussie I used to work with in London. She took us to an Italian restaurant where you order pizza by the metre and to a dessert restaurant where I ordered chocolate and cherry cheesecake with double clotted cream and ice cream AND chocolate sauce. It was a real doorstop slice, a heart attack on a plate, and I'm ashamed to say I couldn't manage it all. It's the first time I have been defeated by cheesecake and I have dreamed about it since!
In Rainbow Beach we spent some time on the beach and chilling out at the hostel before leaving bright and early on the 31st for Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. The day before we'd had a briefing where they put the fear of god into us about the thriving dingo population: 'you WILL see dingos...they DO attack...do NOT go to the toilet alone', that kind of thing. I was pretty scared by the time we left but as it turned out I only saw one dingo the whole time I was there, even though others in our group spotted several more skulking around our camp and one stole Jak's flipflop whilst he was bathing in the sea. I did however see two snakes and lots of blue jellyfish washed up on the beach.
My greatest concern after the wildlife was that the showers would be too cold. As it turned out, I needn't have worried as there weren't any showers (or any toilets either eek). It was pretty brutal camping but still great fun.
There were 32 of us on the tour and we all took it in turns to drive our four 4x4s around the island. Jak waited until after he'd hit 100kph on sand before admitting to our group that it was the first time he'd driven since passing his test. My knuckles were white from holding onto the driving seat!!
Our first stop on the island was Lake Wabby, a beautiful freshwater lake surrounded by sand dunes on one side and tall trees on the other. Large black catfish swam around our legs and smaller fish nibbled at us as we attempted to wash ourselves as best we could. On the second day we floated down Eli Creek, fought the waves in the Champagne Pools on the beach, looked for sharks from allegedly shark-infested Indian Head (we saw nothing) and visited a rusty shipwreck on the beach. On the last day we spent a couple of hours at Lake Mackenzie, a beautifully clear rainwater lake, before leaving the island by barge. Of an evening we cooked, washed up in the sea, and sat around playing drinking games and chatting. It was pitch black and we weren't allowed to light fires so we had to turn the car headlights on us in order to see anything, which was a bit of a pain as the batteries kept dying on us. On the plus side the darkness meant that the stars were incredibly bright and looked almost close enough to touch :-)
When we got back to Rainbow Beach the hostel gave us a couple of free jugs a beer which we drank before collapsing into bed and sleeping the sleep of the truly knackered. It felt so good to be in a proper bed again!
Today we are heading another couple of hours up the coast, to Hervey Bay.
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