Fraser island in the distance
Indian head
Camp on the first night
Pinnacles
Wreck
Eastern Beach that ran the whole length of the island
Wreck
Eli creek
Eli creek
Lake Wabby from the lookout
Lake Wabby
Sunset the second night
Team photo on the beach where we camped the second night
The dingo outside our van at Eurong
Team photo in front of the largest tree on the island
Lizard
A kookaburra that wasn't afraid of people and was eating the crumbs from our table
Lake Mackenzie
Lake Mackenzie
The beach surrounding Lake Mackenzie
Lake Mackenzie
Our team name
Lake Mackenzie
Group photo in the back of the car
Roads on Fraser Island
Group photo
View from the island towards the mainland
Sunset as we were on the ferry back to the mainland
The cat that lives on the ferry and climbs all over (and in) the carsFraser Island is the world’s largest sand island. It’s a long thin island off the coast of Southern Queensland. It claimed that it contains more sand than the Sahara Desert??? With my Whitsunday Island cruise I booked a three day 4x4 safari around Fraser Island. The company puts you into cars with up to 10 other people. Lots of backpackers do the Fraser Island trip and I had heard lots of good stories about the trip.
The way my itinerary had worked out I had a few days slack in Hervey bay (Departure point for the trip) before the trip. I asked as soon as I arrived at Hervey bay if I could do it the next day. I didn’t fancy spending two days in a quite town where there isn’t much going on. To my total surprise, it was okay!!! I was shocked as usually Australian companies are quite strict! The way things turned out I was going to be in a car with three people I mad met off the Oz Experience.
We met really early the next day to sign contracts and meet everyone on the car. There was going to be three cars leaving that morning, each with 10 people. In my group was a group of three English girls and a Dutch girl, who were all travelling together, the group of three English people that I knew from the bus, a German and Dutch guy who were travelling together and me. Everyone seemed really nice.
As soon as we had watched the safe travel film and signed contracts we were off. First stop was to kit out our 4x4 van with tents, a stove, eskies (cool boxes), etc etc. This was a total “The Generation Game” affair with teams racing to fold up tents, pack the vans in small groups etc. There was even motivational clapping. Bizarre. Fully packed we got a map and headed to the supermarket to buy our food for the trip. We had made a list beforehand which made the shopping real easy. All in all we had to put in au$15 each!! (about 6 pound). This was a total bargain considering we had cereals, burgers, sausages, pasta and vegetables, biscuits crisp etc etc. One of the other groups spent au$300 on theirs!!!! How we laughed.
After leaving the supermarket we were then on our own!!! We had to find our way over to the ferry terminal so that we could get across to the island. This was fairly straight forward and everyone was in high spirits. We broke out the alcohol and had a celebratory drink!!! The ferry trip was pretty straight forward and although dolphins live in the water between the island and the mainland, we didn’t see any.
The island has many “roads” that crisscross the island. There are no street lights and the signage on the island is poor and so we were told not to drive at night. The beaches on the island are also designated highways and we could drive on them between 10am and 4 pm. We could only drive when the tide was out and there was enough wet sand that was firm enough for the tyres. We therefore had to plan our itinerary around these constraints. We had a suggested itinerary but this just listed places and not times.
We had to drive across the island to the east coast and then drive along the beach to Indian head. There we were supposed to camp for the night. The plan was to get there before it got dark (around 5:30ish). The drive across the island was bumpy to say the least and the “roads” are just paths of flattened sand that are as wide as a single car. Our first hair raising experience was when we came across another 4x4 coming the other way. Both cars had to drive up the side of the “road” to let the other cross. Because all the equipment and food in the car is stored in the top compartment of the car, it makes the car very top heavy. I had heard stories of cars tipping over on the island. When we passed the other car we went up on one side (the side I was sat) and I felt the car tipping. Apparently I let out a blood curdling scream as I could see the car crashing over onto the other car!!!! We passed okay but it was a scary experience. We had to leave a joint au$10,000 deposit with the hire company and we would have each lost au$1000 if the car had tipped. Phew. All was okay and we continued to make our way around the island.
We finally made our way to the beach. It was already 2pm and we only had a few hours of safe driving time to drive up the beach and find our camping spot. The beach was lovely and wide and all along the way we are passing other cars. We were warned to look out for wash outs on the beach. This is were a river flows out to sea and washes the sand on the beach out to sea making a little channel that can be set deep into the sand. We were told to watch out for Eli creek in particular.
We were all chatting away and getting to know each other. Someone had brought some speakers for an i-pod and so we were all singing along to the occasional song when a good one came on. All of a sudden the front of the car dipped down and everyone slid to the front of the car and then the back of the car dropped and bumped back. Everyone was thrown upwards. As I was at the back I felt the bump the most and smacked by head against the top of the car. I also had a can of bourbon and coke (pre-mixed cans are so handy by the way) and this went everywhere as I tried to cover the top with my finger!! We stopped and realized that we had speed over Eli creek at 80km per hour!!! My head was aching and I had a lump on my head for the rest of the day!!! I was not impressed. Crazy Dutch driver!!!
We slowed down at that point and made Indian head just before we timed out. We had a brief look and also a look at the nearly Champagne pools before we decided we needed to move. Due to the time we decided that it was too risky to drive on the beach (we didn’t want to get stuck in the soft sand up the beach) and so we headed for a nearby camp site and hoped that there was somewhere to stay there. We were told though that we couldn’t camp at camp sites without paying for a pitch (and often these were booked weeks in advance).
We found the camp site and as we expected we couldn’t camp there. We were stuck as it was now getting dark and we couldn’t go on the beach. We headed down a road off the campsite and hoped that we could find a small spot on the beach to pitch our three tents. We were surprised to see a long stretch of tents along the side of the beach. As it turned out there was a fishing competition on the island and a load of aussies had pitched tents along the beach and further down the beach they had left their boats and cars. The beach was fairly wide at this point. This part of the beach was still part of the camp site though and so we continued to drive through it hoping that we could tack on the end. We got to the end and the beach just stopped. Luckily some aussies came out to our car and said that they knew some people that had paid for some spots and that they weren’t going to be here until the next day and so they let us stay on the empty stops!!! Result. They were really nice people and didn’t mind that our tents were going to surround their tent (although their tent was more like a moveable house, complete with generator).
The other two cars had followed us down to the beach and so they were also lucky as they camped with us. All in all we had 9 tents with 30 people. We were close to a toilet and showers and we really lucked out with the spot. We started to get our camp set and split the group into setting up tents and making the food (which was a BBQ). The food was yum and after a few drinks we joined the other two cars around some lights and drank the night away. It was really weird as it felt really late but in fact it was only 2am when we all headed off to bed. The aussies joined us for a while and we had a good evening in the end.
The next day we got up early and headed back to champagne pools and Indian head to spend some time there until we could drive on the beach. Champagne pools are so named as they are pools in the rocks on the tide line, When the tide comes in it splashes over and through the special holey rocks into the pools and foams like champagne bubbles. The pools are really nice to just float the time away. We spent at least an hour there and then headed off back down the beach towards the centre of the island. We stopped off at a wreck that had washed up on the island and also at Eli creek where you could float down the river and be washed into the sea. (We spotted the wash out this time!). We akso stopped at the pinnacles which were cliffs made of coloured sands. The weather was gorgeous and everyone was having a good time.
Our next stop was at one of the many freshwater perched lakes on the island, Lake Wabby. The lake was set amongst sand dunes (unsurprisingly) and forest. The lake was bright green due to the algae living in the lake and was absolutely freezing. You could roll down the side of the dune into the lake!!! The Dutch guy did this at least ten times!!!! No one wanted to leave but we had to find somewhere to camp.
We were told to camp somewhere on the beach near Eurong. We had tried to coordinate with the other two cars so that we could all meet up again and camp together, We found Eurong pretty late in the day and so we had to find somewhere quick. We settled on a spot just off the beach behind a dune. There was no sign of the others and so we would be camping alone. The spot was pretty remote and there wasn’t anyone else for a fair while.
We would be using the bush to go to the loo from now on!!
As we were putting the tents up it started to rain!!!! We were cooking pasta and so it didn’t matter if the table got wet. The food turned out to be really good and we all tucked in. After packing all the dirty dishes and pans into a box for washing the next day we got down to some drinking and some drinking games. It was still early when the rain started to bucket down. We all rushed into the car and continued to play drinking games in the back of the car, all crammed in. There wasn’t much room even during the day when everything was packed away but with all out stuff crammed in the back to keep it dry we were really like sardines in a tin. We played some really funny drinking games and everyone said that they had had a really good night. We all turned in after peeing in the pitch black bush with a torch in our mouths looking for Dingoes.
Dingoes live in the wild on Fraser Island and after some clever people started to feed them (because they naturally look skinny) Dingoes now approach people expecting food. A few years ago they approached a few kids and pulled one away and killed the poor boy. Since then there has been spot fines for anyone feeding a dingo. We were all on the look out for dingoes (as they are essentially large hungry wild dogs) and they apparently are attacked to the sent of women? We had heard some howling that night in the dark and so we knew dingoes were around. When we woke up the next morning the girls said that they were awoken in the night by the sounds of the dingoes rustling outside their tent and we saw paw prints around the camp where they had been looking for our food!!
The next day we packed up and headed for Lake MacKenzie. Lake MacKenzie is a beautiful fresh water lake with white sounds surrounding it. Our first stop though was at Eurong to dump the rubbish. Whilst there a dingo came right up to the parked car and tried to grab our dust bin bags. I spotted it and jumped in the car with the bags. The dingo didn’t move for about 15 minutes and passing cars stopped to take pictures.
En route to lake MacKenzie we stopped at a forest and found the islands largest tree. It was so large that it took five people holding hands to surround the trees circumference!! Pretty impressive considering the tree had its roots in mostly sand!!! We found lake around lunch time and had a few hours there before we needed to get on the ferry. The lake was beautiful and crystal clear. The sand was nearly as white as snow and so fine that you can clean your jewellery with it!! We sunbathed and listened to some music before heading back to the ferry and back over to hervey bay.
All in all it was a really good trip. The rest of the people in the car (codenamed Dodgy dingoes) were a great laugh and everyone got on really well. It has been the highlight of my trip so far…..
The way my itinerary had worked out I had a few days slack in Hervey bay (Departure point for the trip) before the trip. I asked as soon as I arrived at Hervey bay if I could do it the next day. I didn’t fancy spending two days in a quite town where there isn’t much going on. To my total surprise, it was okay!!! I was shocked as usually Australian companies are quite strict! The way things turned out I was going to be in a car with three people I mad met off the Oz Experience.
We met really early the next day to sign contracts and meet everyone on the car. There was going to be three cars leaving that morning, each with 10 people. In my group was a group of three English girls and a Dutch girl, who were all travelling together, the group of three English people that I knew from the bus, a German and Dutch guy who were travelling together and me. Everyone seemed really nice.
As soon as we had watched the safe travel film and signed contracts we were off. First stop was to kit out our 4x4 van with tents, a stove, eskies (cool boxes), etc etc. This was a total “The Generation Game” affair with teams racing to fold up tents, pack the vans in small groups etc. There was even motivational clapping. Bizarre. Fully packed we got a map and headed to the supermarket to buy our food for the trip. We had made a list beforehand which made the shopping real easy. All in all we had to put in au$15 each!! (about 6 pound). This was a total bargain considering we had cereals, burgers, sausages, pasta and vegetables, biscuits crisp etc etc. One of the other groups spent au$300 on theirs!!!! How we laughed.
After leaving the supermarket we were then on our own!!! We had to find our way over to the ferry terminal so that we could get across to the island. This was fairly straight forward and everyone was in high spirits. We broke out the alcohol and had a celebratory drink!!! The ferry trip was pretty straight forward and although dolphins live in the water between the island and the mainland, we didn’t see any.
The island has many “roads” that crisscross the island. There are no street lights and the signage on the island is poor and so we were told not to drive at night. The beaches on the island are also designated highways and we could drive on them between 10am and 4 pm. We could only drive when the tide was out and there was enough wet sand that was firm enough for the tyres. We therefore had to plan our itinerary around these constraints. We had a suggested itinerary but this just listed places and not times.
We had to drive across the island to the east coast and then drive along the beach to Indian head. There we were supposed to camp for the night. The plan was to get there before it got dark (around 5:30ish). The drive across the island was bumpy to say the least and the “roads” are just paths of flattened sand that are as wide as a single car. Our first hair raising experience was when we came across another 4x4 coming the other way. Both cars had to drive up the side of the “road” to let the other cross. Because all the equipment and food in the car is stored in the top compartment of the car, it makes the car very top heavy. I had heard stories of cars tipping over on the island. When we passed the other car we went up on one side (the side I was sat) and I felt the car tipping. Apparently I let out a blood curdling scream as I could see the car crashing over onto the other car!!!! We passed okay but it was a scary experience. We had to leave a joint au$10,000 deposit with the hire company and we would have each lost au$1000 if the car had tipped. Phew. All was okay and we continued to make our way around the island.
We finally made our way to the beach. It was already 2pm and we only had a few hours of safe driving time to drive up the beach and find our camping spot. The beach was lovely and wide and all along the way we are passing other cars. We were warned to look out for wash outs on the beach. This is were a river flows out to sea and washes the sand on the beach out to sea making a little channel that can be set deep into the sand. We were told to watch out for Eli creek in particular.
We were all chatting away and getting to know each other. Someone had brought some speakers for an i-pod and so we were all singing along to the occasional song when a good one came on. All of a sudden the front of the car dipped down and everyone slid to the front of the car and then the back of the car dropped and bumped back. Everyone was thrown upwards. As I was at the back I felt the bump the most and smacked by head against the top of the car. I also had a can of bourbon and coke (pre-mixed cans are so handy by the way) and this went everywhere as I tried to cover the top with my finger!! We stopped and realized that we had speed over Eli creek at 80km per hour!!! My head was aching and I had a lump on my head for the rest of the day!!! I was not impressed. Crazy Dutch driver!!!
We slowed down at that point and made Indian head just before we timed out. We had a brief look and also a look at the nearly Champagne pools before we decided we needed to move. Due to the time we decided that it was too risky to drive on the beach (we didn’t want to get stuck in the soft sand up the beach) and so we headed for a nearby camp site and hoped that there was somewhere to stay there. We were told though that we couldn’t camp at camp sites without paying for a pitch (and often these were booked weeks in advance).
We found the camp site and as we expected we couldn’t camp there. We were stuck as it was now getting dark and we couldn’t go on the beach. We headed down a road off the campsite and hoped that we could find a small spot on the beach to pitch our three tents. We were surprised to see a long stretch of tents along the side of the beach. As it turned out there was a fishing competition on the island and a load of aussies had pitched tents along the beach and further down the beach they had left their boats and cars. The beach was fairly wide at this point. This part of the beach was still part of the camp site though and so we continued to drive through it hoping that we could tack on the end. We got to the end and the beach just stopped. Luckily some aussies came out to our car and said that they knew some people that had paid for some spots and that they weren’t going to be here until the next day and so they let us stay on the empty stops!!! Result. They were really nice people and didn’t mind that our tents were going to surround their tent (although their tent was more like a moveable house, complete with generator).
The other two cars had followed us down to the beach and so they were also lucky as they camped with us. All in all we had 9 tents with 30 people. We were close to a toilet and showers and we really lucked out with the spot. We started to get our camp set and split the group into setting up tents and making the food (which was a BBQ). The food was yum and after a few drinks we joined the other two cars around some lights and drank the night away. It was really weird as it felt really late but in fact it was only 2am when we all headed off to bed. The aussies joined us for a while and we had a good evening in the end.
The next day we got up early and headed back to champagne pools and Indian head to spend some time there until we could drive on the beach. Champagne pools are so named as they are pools in the rocks on the tide line, When the tide comes in it splashes over and through the special holey rocks into the pools and foams like champagne bubbles. The pools are really nice to just float the time away. We spent at least an hour there and then headed off back down the beach towards the centre of the island. We stopped off at a wreck that had washed up on the island and also at Eli creek where you could float down the river and be washed into the sea. (We spotted the wash out this time!). We akso stopped at the pinnacles which were cliffs made of coloured sands. The weather was gorgeous and everyone was having a good time.
Our next stop was at one of the many freshwater perched lakes on the island, Lake Wabby. The lake was set amongst sand dunes (unsurprisingly) and forest. The lake was bright green due to the algae living in the lake and was absolutely freezing. You could roll down the side of the dune into the lake!!! The Dutch guy did this at least ten times!!!! No one wanted to leave but we had to find somewhere to camp.
We were told to camp somewhere on the beach near Eurong. We had tried to coordinate with the other two cars so that we could all meet up again and camp together, We found Eurong pretty late in the day and so we had to find somewhere quick. We settled on a spot just off the beach behind a dune. There was no sign of the others and so we would be camping alone. The spot was pretty remote and there wasn’t anyone else for a fair while.
We would be using the bush to go to the loo from now on!!
As we were putting the tents up it started to rain!!!! We were cooking pasta and so it didn’t matter if the table got wet. The food turned out to be really good and we all tucked in. After packing all the dirty dishes and pans into a box for washing the next day we got down to some drinking and some drinking games. It was still early when the rain started to bucket down. We all rushed into the car and continued to play drinking games in the back of the car, all crammed in. There wasn’t much room even during the day when everything was packed away but with all out stuff crammed in the back to keep it dry we were really like sardines in a tin. We played some really funny drinking games and everyone said that they had had a really good night. We all turned in after peeing in the pitch black bush with a torch in our mouths looking for Dingoes.
Dingoes live in the wild on Fraser Island and after some clever people started to feed them (because they naturally look skinny) Dingoes now approach people expecting food. A few years ago they approached a few kids and pulled one away and killed the poor boy. Since then there has been spot fines for anyone feeding a dingo. We were all on the look out for dingoes (as they are essentially large hungry wild dogs) and they apparently are attacked to the sent of women? We had heard some howling that night in the dark and so we knew dingoes were around. When we woke up the next morning the girls said that they were awoken in the night by the sounds of the dingoes rustling outside their tent and we saw paw prints around the camp where they had been looking for our food!!
The next day we packed up and headed for Lake MacKenzie. Lake MacKenzie is a beautiful fresh water lake with white sounds surrounding it. Our first stop though was at Eurong to dump the rubbish. Whilst there a dingo came right up to the parked car and tried to grab our dust bin bags. I spotted it and jumped in the car with the bags. The dingo didn’t move for about 15 minutes and passing cars stopped to take pictures.
En route to lake MacKenzie we stopped at a forest and found the islands largest tree. It was so large that it took five people holding hands to surround the trees circumference!! Pretty impressive considering the tree had its roots in mostly sand!!! We found lake around lunch time and had a few hours there before we needed to get on the ferry. The lake was beautiful and crystal clear. The sand was nearly as white as snow and so fine that you can clean your jewellery with it!! We sunbathed and listened to some music before heading back to the ferry and back over to hervey bay.
All in all it was a really good trip. The rest of the people in the car (codenamed Dodgy dingoes) were a great laugh and everyone got on really well. It has been the highlight of my trip so far…..
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