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Ben & Sara's Trip
Hey Guys
We had a pretty packed week so I thought I better add another update because the next week is a bit manic as well so may well have a lot to tell you then!!
Since the last entry we've made it about 1100km up the coast from Noosa Heads to Airlie Beach. Not all at once though as we had a stop off at Rainbow Beach on the way. Rainbow Beach was the base from which we travelled over to Fraser Island for our 3 day 2 night 4x4 self drive safari. We arrived in Rainbow at 3.30pm on the 16th and we went straight into a meeting where we met the other members of our group and worked out our shopping budget etc. We had a group of nine people (4 English, 2 Irish, 1 German, 1 Swiss and 1 Czech) in an old Toyota Land Cruiser named "Priscilla- Queen of Fraser Island"!! After checking over the Jeep and packing all the stuff into it we did our shopping and then got ourselves an early night.
The next morning we rose at 6am in order to get ourselves all packed up and over to the rental place before we could head onto the Island. We packed all our bags, food and camping stuff into a Tarpaulin on the top of the 4x4 and then drove round to sign the contract and sort out insurance etc. From there it was a short drive to Inskip Point where we got a Barge across the water to the Island. At this point I was driving and it was my first experience fo 4x4 driving but it was really cool. Beach driving is really surreal because we could go 50mph on the beach but every so often we'd hit some soft sand and the 4x4 would snake away a bit. We also had to watch out for wash outs on the beach as some of them can do a bit of damage to the 4x4. The only hairy moment of my driving was when we turned off the beach into Eurong, the largest town on the island (1 shop and not much more!) when I tested the van at a 30 degree angle!! We grabbed some lunch and then drove to Lake McKenzie (see the picture above) which is Fraser's most famous freshwater lake. It was absolutely gorgeous, a bit cold but beautiful nonetheless. Most of us had a swim in the lake and it was the first time in our trip we'd been in Freshwater so it was a nice change. We left the lake a bit later than planned and so we were in a rush to get to our first campsite. This meant we saw three of Fraser's landmarks at about 60kmh, including Eli Creek which was the deepest wash out of the day and was pretty uncomfortable in the back!! That night we set up tents and had a BBQ before going down to the beach to stargaze.
The next morning we were up pretty early and we headed up to Indian Head where you are supposed to be able to see Marine Life but all we saw was the rain heading straight for us so we beat a quick retreat. After packing up camp and having breakfast we drove down the beach towards Lake Wabby. On the way we passed the coloured sand cliffs of The Pinnacles, the shipwreck of the SS Maheno and Eli Creek. From there we made it Lake Wabby where we went sandboarding down the massive sandblow at the shores of the lake which was quite cool!! That night we camped at Central Station.
On our final morning on the Island we left Central Station fairly early and drove the Scenic Drive via Lake Birrabeen where Sara had a mud bath, I'll put the photo up soon it's hilarious! We also visited Lake Boomanjin which was a bit of a disappointment but we bumped into a couple we'd met Black Water Rafting in New Zealand which was weird!! After lunch at the Lake we made our way back to hook Point to get the Barge back across to Rainbow Beach. It was a bit sad to leave Fraser as we had a really brilliant group and we'd made some good friends so we didn't really want to leave, although the sand was all over our stuff and getting pretty annoying!! Back in Rainbow Beach we returned the 4x4 without any damage so we didn't have any charges to pay which was a relief considering we'd been through Saltwater twice which could have cost us $1000!! That night we all sat in the bar and had some food and drinks together.
The next day we had to check out of the hostel but as our bus wasn't until 3.30 we left our bags there and walked down to the beach. The weather again was our downfall so we headed back to the hostel were most of our group were chilling out so we sat around chatting with them until our bus was due. The Czech guy in our group, David, who it has to be said is a Legend was also catching our bus as he is also on our Whitsunday trip so we will be travelling with him all the way to cairns which is really cool. All the guys of our Fraser trip came out to wave us off at the bus stop which was quite funny. Our bus then took us to Hervey Bay where we had a 3 hour wait for the next bus to Airlie Beach which took 13 hours!!
The bus itself wasn't too bad but we'd mixed up our dates so we were gutted when we realised that we were sat on a bus through the England game but fortunately Scotty hooked us up with some updates and there were a few people interested in the score. When we arrived in Airlie Beach at 9.30am yesterday we couldn't check into the hostel so we booked in with our sailing trip and paid reef taxes etc. At 11am we checked in and went straight to the room and crashed out. Yesterday evening we just did the boring stuff like cooking and Laundry and then today we have been mooching around the shops and went for a walk with David along the boardwalk, we saw a tree snake and to be honest we'll be happy if it's the only one we see while we're here!! We're staying up tonight to watch the Czech Republic play Italy with David and his Slovakian mate so that should be quite amusing. Tomorrow we are off to Sail the Whitsundays so we will try and put another update on after that. We've also booked our buses from Cairns down to Adleaide via Alice Springs and Ayers Rock which should be interesting as we have a 26hr journey and a 20hr one in pretty quick succession, I don't mind buses but that will be a real test!!
Hope everyone is OK and please keep us updated with e mails what is going on at home.
Lots of Love
Ben and Sara xx
p.s. Sorry if this one is a bit disjointed.
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