Off Roading on Fraser Island

VIP treatment on the beach
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So we had arrived at Harvey Bay with one aim; to get onto Fraser Island. Its the largest sand island in the world, with plenty of good opportunities for scenic photos!

After spending some time in the local information office, we booked ourselves a package of a hostel for the night, a flight over and our own 4x4. We had wanted to join a larger group and have a chance of meeting people but we were tempted by the fact we'll be doing all our own driving on the island and we get a plane over there!

Posted by Adam

View over Lake Wabby
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The flight only lasted 15 minutes but it was a plane to ourselves which was very nice. The pilot was however a learner and the plane was only an 8 seater so we were all pretty nervous at take off! After flying over Fraser we landed on the beach on the east coast; a 75 mile long beach, with cars driving on it!

Our 4x4 pulled up almost straight away and after a very brief detailing on what we can and cannot do we were off on our own. The main highway is the long beach, although you can drive for quite a few miles before seeing another vehicle. We started by heading North to the Maheno Wreck, a shipwreck right on the beach. On the way though we had an exciting moment where George took the crossing of a creek at a higher speed than desired and the thing came to a halt. After getting worried as it wouldn't start and fearing the credit card was about to get a hammering it finally jumped back to life. Good times. When we arrived there was a few bus loads of people milling about but after waiting we had the place to ourselves and took some amazing photos of the wreck.

Group at Rainbow Sands, Frasier Island
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We carried on north to Indian Head, a bit of a trek up the cliff to the viewpoint at the top but it was a good view. Not happy with the amount of walking we had just done we walked back down to the beach below and a couple of kilometres later we arrived at Champagne Pools. From there we decided to really go off road (the beach was not enough!) and go through the rainforest. There are tracks to follow to certain points on the island but the real fun was the off roading along windy roads, steep embankments and over fallen trees. We ended the first day with a view over one of Fraser's freshwater lakes, Lake wabby. After a few beers sat on the roof of the car watching the sunset we went to the hostel in Eurong it was for some dinner and a load of Goon!

The next day we woke early to visit Lake McKenzie, another freshwater lake, surrounded by beach and rainforest. A bit of sunbathing later and a close encounter with a Dingo attempting to steal Natalies bag we 4x4'd our way to Rainbow Gorge. This promised to be an area of huge sand dunes, all in different colours. The size turned out to be true, although we were slightly let down by the lack of Rainbow-ness about it. Still, we had the place to ourselves again and it was an experience being there under the perfectly blue sky.

We had to catch the plane back that afternoon so we rotated drivers again and headed back along the beach to the plane. Another 8 seater plane back accross to dry land showed us a different view of the things we have just visited, which although it was good flying low accross the forests and dunes, it came no where near to actually driving on the beach and bush and having the freedom to go where we wanted. A definate once in a lifetime experince.