Days 37-40 - Insert funny testicular related title here...

Day 37
After a surprisingly painless 12 hour bus journey from Airlie, we arrived in hervey bay at 7.30am in good spirits, if not a little bit tired! We head to the hostel where we are to spend the night before our trip over to fraser island! Tom, Dicky, Carla, Steph, Robbie and I managed to wrangle our way into the same 6 bed dorm, which we’re all pretty pleased about. We get to the room and find that there is no air con and just a little floor fan... We expect the night to be a warm one! We have a bit of a chill out (sleep) for a while in the room! Here’s where the ‘fun’ begins, so I wake up from my nap with an excruciating pain in my right testicle. I think to myself at the time that it’ll go away in time, but it doesn’t and i can barely walk it’s that bad! I decide that I have to go to the hospital as we have fraser island the next day and i can’t afford to miss it! So since Steph is a paediatric nurse and is used to handling children in pain, I persuade her to accompany me to A+E for a bit of moral support! I get through triage and see a doctor in no time at all, then the wirdest small world moment ive experienced on this trip happens... A doctor comes through to examine my nether regions, and immediately i recognise an accent, he asks me where im from, i say north Lancashire near kirkby Lonsdale! He says he’s from preston!! Of all the hospitals in all of Australia!! In this one theres a doctor from preston handling my balls!! Anyway iget through another couple of doctors who recommend i have an ultrasound to see if i have testicular torsion or epididimitis, the previous requiring surgery... ‘luckily’ ive only got the latter and they prescribe a course of antibiotics and im on my way! The first thing to do after we get back is to buy all of our food for the days on fraser island, so we head out to Woolworths and do this! We get some lovely goodies let me tell you! As we have a very early morning the next day we just chill in the hammocks outside then have an early night!

Day 38
Day 38 begins with an early check out at 6am so we can watch the safety dvd for driving on sIand and camping on fraser island. WORST DVD EVER! Cringe worth to the max... Anyway we load the land cruiser up and add two people to the party, Mark (Dutch) and Flo (German). I volunteer to drive first so i can be responsible for looking after my delicate personal area... It’s just a short drive to the barge port for fraser, so i back the land cruiser on to the barge and join the others on deck and we’re on our way!
Its just a short 20 minute crossing and we arrive on fraser island eager to get started! But there is a problem with a wheel on one of the cars so our guide (Rango) must change it before we get going, luckily rango is a whizz with a jack and we’re on the road within 15 minutes! I have another drive along the sand tracks to our first stop at central station where all the logging on the island used to go through! We have a bit of a history lesson about the island and we’re back on the road again, with dicky driving this time! Next we head for a bit of a swim at a lake called lake mckenzie! Now this is an amazingly gorgeous spot, i could stay here all day but unfortunately we have to leave after about an hour! We head down towards the coast and onto the beach where we drive up to a place called lake wabby which is about 2kms inland from the beach We walk up the track and up to the top of what they call a sand blow, which looks like a small desert! He head down to the lake and have a bit of a swim which is lovely!
Another short walk back to the cars and we’re off to the campsite, its already been set up for us on the sand dunes behind the beach which is nice! We break out the goon and start on our heavy night mixing it up with an awesome meal of steak and salad prepared by Dicky! We continue drinking into the wee small hours and then its time for bed ahead of a busy day on the island!

Day 38
Day 38 begins with a very early, very hungover morning, we awake in the tent to dingoe staring us right in the face outside our tent! We’d seen plenty of them the night before but not this close up! Anyway we eventually head out up the beach afyer a bit of trouble with one of the other cars meant swapping it with another one! Anyway we head on up the beach towards Eli Creek (Hangover creek) to have a bit of a bath, this place is great and totally lives up to its name... my hangover is instantly gone after dipping my head in the cold water!! After this we head up maheno shipwreck, then to the coloured sands then to Indian head, which captain cook named after seein the aboriginals folllowig him up the coast and him thinking they were Indians! The view from here of the island is one of the most spectacular ive seen on this trip! We head back down to the cars and on to the champagne pools, where we have our afternoon swim! Then its a long drive down the beach back to camp! I’d better take a moment to talk about how good the driving these 4x4s on sand is! This is some of the most fun that i’ve ever had, it’s so rewarding learning a new driving style too! I get the long drive down the coast and its so much fun!! We get back to camp a little earlier than the day before so we have more time to get gooned and cook our sausages! We get playing drinking games with everyone and the group is really starting to gel now and everyone is getting along, we become pally with the English people there first, Jasmine from todmorden, Flora from London and emma also from London! Then there are the Swedes adam and pontuz!! Then theres the Germans, Flo, Hannes, Olli, Cathy and Stef. We all party the night away and have a bit of a guitar and singing sesh on the dunes before the goon gets the better of me and i head to bed!!

Day 39
Our final day on fraser begins with a drive to another lake which i cant recall the name of at the moment but we didn’t actually make it since we would have got stuck in the sand had we carried on, so we turned around and headed back to lake mckenzie where we had a spot of lunch and a bit of a party in the lake, putting people on shoulders and the like! I had 4 people on mine at one point, my back still hasn't forgiven me... After this we have a very mad dash to the barge... We've all never been so scared in our lives!! Oh well we all made it in one piece! Sad to be leaving fraser because its the best thing ive done on the trip so far! We head back to hervey bay and have a few beverages with the group we stay out pretty late but eventually we call it a night as we've got an early bus to catch!

Day 40

We've got to be up reletivly early this morning to catch our bus to noosa we all head down to the bus stop and heres my 3rd misfortune... So steph has left her bag at the hostel and the bus is just about to leave! I say I'll go back and get it with her thinking we'll just get the next bus, no big deal right? Wrong! We can't get the next bus so we have to wait until the next day...
Plus side being I can do some jobs around and about like buying a new phone!! Oh well! This is a pretty uneventful day so I wont bore you!

Thanks for reading!

Will