Whilst in Byron Bay, Pete and I did some research into a 2night/3day 4 wheel drive camping trip to Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world, just off the coast from Hervey Bay. We caught the greyhound bus to Hervey Bay, stopping off for a night in Surfers Paradise, which was very commercial and would be good for shopping if we had any money! Once at the very undesirable 'Koala Hostel' in Hervey bay, we attended a meeting where we met the other people going on the trip - there ended up being 2 groups of 8 of us and we all stuck together for most of the time. The meeting was a bit of an information overload, including a video about how to stay 'dingo-safe' - no joke, as I will explain later! The next morning, after getting up at 5:45am to be bombarded with even more information about what we could and couldn't do with the trucks and being told the millions of different ways we could lose not only our $60 bond, but thousands of $$$s in general, we were off to the ferry port! On the first day we couldn't drive on the beach due to high tide, so we took very bumpy inland roads to Lake McKenzie - the most beautiful freshwater lake. The water there is so pure you can drink it and it is so many shades of blue where the depth changes. After a brave swim (it wasn't warm!) we decided to have some lunch, where I was told, while happily munching on a cheese sandwich, that there was a red-back spider (one of the most deadly) right next to my leg! Quickly moving on, our next stop was Lake Wabby, a bright green lake in the middle of sand dunes with a large population of turtles and catfish. Apparantly it's green because it is surrounded by tea trees, so swimming in it is really good for your skin. We had lots of fun jumping down and running up the dunes! We had to leave to set up camp then and ended up camping in an area very popular with dingos (as the ranger later told us!) We found this out for ourselves as soon as we started cooking and so heeded the advice of the video - don't go to the toilet by yourself, as they've been known to attack individuals alone. Our closest encounter with one was when we decided to go star gazing on the beach (I have never seen such a beautiful sky as I did that night). We were all sitting in a huddle on the beach (with me unfortunately on the edge) and turned off our torches to better see the stars. I was happily taking in the information one of out group was giving me about the Southern Cross when I heard a noise.. I said "What was that?" and we all snapped on our torches to see a dingo, no more than 2 metres away from me! We were more careful after that! Due to the tides, we had to get up at 5:30am the next day in order to be able to drive on the 75mile golden beach to get to Indian Head. Indian Head is a volcanic rock formation with great views of the Island and is also a renowned tiger shark breeding ground! You can't swim in the sea anywhere around Fraser Island because of the sharks. Unfortunately, the sea was so rough, we couldn't spot any, but the views were worth it. We left our truck for a while and walked the 3km along the beach to Champagne Pools. These are amazing rock pools, also formed from volcanic rock and the wash from the sea that splashes up on to them bubbles over and looks like foaming champagne running down the rock. Normally you can swim in them when the tide is out and feel the bubbles, but again it was unfortunately too rough (and too freezing cold!) for us to do that. After a less-dingoish night, our final day was my driving premiere! Pete has forgotten to bring his driving license away with him which was a real shame, but although scared (for starters I haven'd driven a manual since I passed my driving test 4 years ago!) I was determined to have a go! I decided to try driving on the beach, which you might think easy & smooth, but I guarantee it isn't! You have to be careful not to go into the sea water (we'd lose our deposit) but also, not to go too high up onto the soft sand because the truck would get stuck. The worst bit was crossing 'wash outs' which are streams where the fresh water lakes overflow and run out of the rainforest onto the beach. Sometimes they can be really deep & someone has to test the depth by walking through it before you drive through. One of these wash outs is called Eli Creek and thats where we'd decided to go that day! Well, I didn't go very fast, but I also didn't stall once which I was proud of! But I was less than impressed when the others told me I had to park on the other side of the creek & therefore drive through it! The scary thing about this is if you stop, the water washes all the sand out from under your wheels & you get very bogged! But I did it - it wasn't very deep in truth, but it was quite a big drop down and up again! Anyway, Eli Creek is famous because you can walk into the rainforest and then float down the creek to the beach, so we had some fun trying to do that in the shallow water and a yummy, picturesque breakfast. Our final sight that day before our return ferry was Lake Birrabean, another stunning freshwater lake, but not quite as beautiful as Lake McKenzie. Then, back to the mainland & although we had lost 2 tent pegs, we got our full deposit back - yay! Onto Airlie Beach & the Whitsundays...