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HERVEY BAY/FRASER ISLAND
After a whole day on the bus up to Hervey Bay we are a more than a little underwhelmed on arrival. The hostel (Beaches) is fine but we have a complete nightmare over the trips that we have booked with them and end up having a massive row with one of the staff there (she's a total biatch) which is all a bit annoying. So we go out in search of dinner and realise that there is nothing here. There is literally one place open and we only just manage to catch last orders at the bar and kitchen at about 10pm! We are glad we only have a day to kill before heading out to Fraser and it's a relief to leave the hostel the following morning after all the trauma. By now though we are feeling a bit apprehensive about the trip - hoping in particular that we get a good group. No worries though as we have a really cool group - 11 of us in total: Sarah and Abby two chinese girls who live in London (not their real names, don't ask us why?! Leon, Tania, Liam and Coxy from Birmingham, Collette 'aka Mighty Mouse' from Essex (yeap, she is mighty and looks like a mouse), Nicole aka: Alpha Female 'if you hesistate you die' from Canada and last but definitely not least 'Rita Queen of Speed' from Portugal; the jeep and kit are also quality, so it's all good.
Day One
sees us mess up the directions a bit and so although we do make it to stunning Lake Wabi with time for a swim we end up being the last to arrive at the camp, we are a full hour after everyone else which is really embarassing as the ranger tells us off like we are school kids. Actually it is a bit like being on a school trip as he then goes into great detail telling us what we can and cannot do/touch/see etc as if we are totally incapable of making these decisions for ourselves. 'If you see a death adder dont go up for a closer look'. No sh*t Sherlock! Eventually he stops lecturing us all and we can start to put our tents up (by which time everyone else on our trip is cooking their dinner). This is obviously where we come into out own being such expert campers! We have our own little 2 person tent which goes up really easily but the other 2 big tents are not so straightforward, we eventually collectively get them put up and the group have just finished congratulating ourselves when we realise that they are back to front! Oh well, the group concensus is that we leave them as they are given that they are standing up. Anyway back to the important business of eating and drinking which was all good on the first night - dinner was a bit of a feast as there was plenty of meat & fish plus plenty of booze to wash it down. Everyone was pretty knackered after the 6am start and a busy day so it wasn't that late to bed on night one but we had a good laugh and an even better sleep (apart from Coxie who was scared of the snakes!!!).
On the second day,
Mark got everyone up at 6am so that we could make it down to Indian Head early enough to see sharks and stingrays. Unfortunately we didn't see any sharks but because we arrived there so early we were able to drive back down the beach before the tide came in right down to take in Lake Birabeen which was down on the last day's itinerary. We had a great time - the boys played beach cricket and the girls sun-bathed. That night when we get back to camp everyone is up for a session and Rita makes some sangria to get things off to a good start before the drinking games commence (although Sarah uses the over-30 rule to excuse herself from downing vodka shots, Mark doesn't). The guitars are brought out and the night is a classic - it is about 2am before we get to bed which is pretty good going for Fraser Island, particularly as the camp is supposed to all be in bed for 10, told you it was like a school-trip. Obviously on the final day everyone is knackered and inevitably this is when a few tensions arise and tempers are in danger of flaring - it's all pretty much driving-related though and nothing too serious. We eventually get to Lake Mackenzie where everyone flakes out on the sand for a few hours rest before we head off to catch the ferry back to Hervey Bay. Around this time we realise we have messed up a bit on the travel arrangements as we are booked on the overnight bus up to Airlie Beach tonight, giving us no time to enjoy dinner and beers back at the hostel with the guys from our group. It is really awful to have to leave everyone and head off to catch the Greyhound plus there are reports of severe weather and road closures due to typhoons further up the Coast but everything is booked now so it's onward and upwards!
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