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We had a reasoned debate about how much luggage it was appropriate to take to Fraser Island for a 2 day 1 night tour. Failing to agree we decided to use Nick as an arbiter as he had previously done the same tour. Unfortunately Nick let me down big time and recommended that we take minimum baggage and travel light. For this heinous crime of treachery he has been immediately disinherited and, had I been savaged to death by dingoes because I failed to protect myself with adequate change of clothing, Bon would have inherited my not inconsiderable overdraft.
As it happens not having a cocktail frock (just in case) did not spoil in any way what turned out to be an awesome tour and one of favourite Oz experiences to date. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and a UNESCO world heritage site. We enjoyed some fantastic walks through the sub- tropical rain forest to take a dip in the most beautiful freshwater lakes and saw the iconic site of the Moheno wreck which ran aground 80 years ago and has been left to rot away on the 75 mile long beach. I was a bit disconcerted by the small fish nibbling my toes in one of the lakes (Lake Wabbi) until Rog reminded me that I would pay a fortune for a foot spa back in the UK! Luckily the somewhat larger catfish we could see did not decide to follow suit. Having loaded up the vehicle with Esskies (cold boxes) we went careering off around the island on the beach and the most incredible sand tracks which was great fun even though after 5 minutes we were regretting the huge breakfast we had indulged in that morning (because it was free!).
We were also lucky enough to see some wild dingoes on the beach and even kangaroos on the way back to the hostel in Hervey Bay.
Other travellers are so friendly and we met some really interesting people on the tour, many of whom are doing the same trip as us up to Cairns so we may well bump into them later on. We are shamed by our lack of languages and watched in amazement as one Dutch guy switched effortlessly from faultless English to French and Italian. One of the French guys (Luc) made us laugh - he clearly suffers from ADHD and found it impossible to sit still. Whenever we got out of the bus he would be off climbing a tree, jumping over fences or pulling off some dead wood - clearly a one-man wrecking team. Even on the boat home he was wandering around looking for mischief.
Rog is still mislaying the car keys and the room key at every opportunity but he has now has a new culprit to blame for his carelessness - apparently there are too many pockets in his shorts!
Today (Wednesday) was not so great! We drove from Hervey Bay to Agnes Water in temperatures of 32 degrees. Rather stupidly (as it turns out) we made the decision not to cross the road for petrol when the tank was showing quarter full but to wait for the next petrol station on the left. Some hundred kilometres later we had not seen a house, let alone a petrol station and the petrol warning light was flashing away alarmingly. The sat nav didn't help by continuously reminding us that we had been travelling for more than 2 hours and should take a break! We even turned off the air conditioning in an effort to conserve petrol (Bon would have been proud of us). Luckily we just scraped it to a filling station extremely hot, bothered and stressed. Lesson learned!
To add insult to injury when we finally made Agnes Water the beach was closed due to microbial issues from all the dead carcasses that had been washed into the sea following the floods! Delightful! We decided to take a walk instead and set off on a 4km hike to a lookout point but after about 400 metres we spotted a snake which slithered away from us really quickly. I was OK until it doubled back on itself in an attempt to outflank us and slithered up a tree! Woos that I am I just chickened out and we had to return to the car with me in a mad panic screeching loudly all the way!
Oh well - we did at least have a rather nice lunch in a lovely little place called Seventeen Seventy to mark the year when Captain Cook landed in Queensland and we move on to Rockhampton in the morning
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