Fraser Island

Tuesday, 10th September

We had an early start today – BOTH of us saw the sunrise, the third time in a month for Himself!  We had arranged to join a tour to Fraser Island and were picked up at 7.30 am.  On our way from the caravan to the front gate, we passed one of the swimming pools and noticed a couple of wild ducks enjoying an early morning dip.

Our 4WD bus took us to the barge/ferry for the 40 minute voyage to Fraser Island.  As we were coming in to land, an announcement informed drivers to put their cars into 4WD before driving off the barge.  It was immediately apparent for the warning.  Being a sand island, all roads on Fraser Island are sand, which moves with every vehicle that passes, becomes soft when it is dry and slippery when wet.  These roads, if one could call them that, would have to be the roughest we have ever been on.  There was just no let up from the constant bouncing and being thrown about.  Our first stop (and relief from the road) was at Central Station, where we were able to walk through the sub-tropical rainforest along the banks of a creek; the water was so clear that it was virtually impossible to see.  The creek just looked like a dry creek bed!  Back onto the bus for some more bouncing to our next stop – we had a short walk through the forest while our guide organised our morning tea.

More bouncing about to help settle morning tea, and we arrived, thankfully, at Lake McKenzie.  The water level was quite high, so there wasn’t a lot of the fine, white sand along the edges, but it was still very beautiful.  Unfortunately, the weather had been cloudy all morning, so we didn’t really see the lake at its most beautiful.  We had time for a swim, or paddle for some of us (Cat watched from the top of a pile).  We were ushered into a dingo-proof enclosure to eat our provided lunch even though the dingo warnings seemed a bit unnecessary – no dingos had been sighted at this stage.

Back onto the bus to shake our lunch into place while we crossed the island to East Beach; a couple of us were looking a pale shade of green when we stopped at a lookout shortly before reaching the beach.  What a relief to drive along the sand, apart from a few bumps just to keep us awake.  We drove north to the wreck of the Maheno, which ran aground in 1935 and was used during training exercises by Z Force in World War 2.  After taking a couple of photos of the wreck, my camera died, despite recharching the battery last night.  Not happy, Mr Nikon!  In fact, I have not really been impressed with the camera since I bought it last year.  We continued on to the cliffs of coloured sand, the colours were very intense today (use your imagination or google an image) owing to last night’s rain.  This was our turn around point and we returned along the beach to Eli Creek.  There were a lot of campers in this area with their vehicles parked along the creek, drinking parties happening, most of the tour buses arrived at the same time as us.  Unfortunately, we probably didn’t see the creek at its best, but still went for a walk along its bank and even saw a snake – the most exciting experience at Eli Creek.

Afternoon tea was waiting for us after our walk, then back onto the base for a fast drive along the edge of the sea until we reached a resort where we were to head inland off the beach.  It was then that we saw a dingo (google dingo images)  on the edge of the water, digging up half rotten fish buried in the sand; they obviously tasted okay!  Unfortunately, we had to return to the soft sandy and bumpy roads for the drive back to the barge – an hour to drive eight kilometres!  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset (imagine this too) on the return voyage and didn’t arrive home until after 6.00 pm.

It was a long and enjoyable day, we have now been to Fraser Island and don’t need to return to it.