Australia - Rockhampton, Hervey Bay & Fraser Island

Our Cabin in Hervey Bay
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After leaving Airlie Beach we caught the Greyhound Bus down to Rockhampton. The journey took nearly 7 hours and the air conditioning was rubbish so it was a hard journey. It was made better by the driver showing Casino Royale on the way (gotta love Bond!)  We used Rockhampton as a stopping point to break up the journey down to Hervey Bay, Rockhampton is famous for its steak but we didn't try any due to Teresa's Vegetarianism. The weather was so hot in 'Rocky' (as it is known by the locals) and was 35oC without any wind (far too hot for us Poms!) We couldn't even go for a swim in the river due to there being crocodiles in the area. In the end we settled for sitting by the pool at the Hostel (its a hard life!)

Hervey Bay Beach
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After leaving 'Rocky' we caught the 6.45am Greyhound down to Hervey Bay. We are staying at a nice Hostel where we have a double room in a Cabin that also has a kitchen in it which is good. Hervey Bay is a nice place and again like most of the East Coast really laid back. On our first full day at Hervey Bay it was 32oC and the sun was out so we decided to go to the Beach. It was 11am on a Saturday and the beach was empty (crazy as in England it would be rammed). In the evening we went to listen to some Christmas Carols by candlelight. Picture the scene.... we were sitting on the floor in our t-shirt/vest top and shorts at 7 in the evening with about 200 Fruit Bats flying overhead listening to Christmas Carols...... not a situation we thought we'd find ourselves in in December - Hervey Bay has a large colony of Fruit Bats! It was quite good to get into the Christmas spirit a bit as we've not really felt it with all the sun. After the Carols I did an interview for a local TV station which Teresa found hilarious.

Largest sand Island in the World

4X4 Bus when it got stuck!
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We checked the weather for the next few days before booking a trip to Fraser Island for the Sunday. Fraser Island is the largest sand Island in the world and is approximately 125km long and 40 km wide. The only way to travel on Fraser Island is by 4 wheel drive, because of this we booked ourselves onto an organised trip where we would be taken to the main sights. After catching the ferry over to Fraser Island we were loaded on a 4 wheel drive bus and met our driver 'Cam' who had clearly driven the tracks before as he drove through the single sand tracks across the Island at 50km/h throwing the bus all over the place.

The 'Maheno' Shipwreck
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We crossed the Island before reaching the 'main road' which Is another word for the eastern beach or 75 mile beach as it is called. We drove up the beach passing the other smaller 4x4's before reaching the Maheno Shipwreck. The Maheno was being towed by another boat when a cyclone struck which broke the rope which eventually led to the Maheno becoming beached on Fraser Island where it has remained ever since. After leaving the Maheno we headed south down the beach where we passed another bus that had got stuck in the sand, we stopped to help but managed to get ourselves stuck as well, we all got off and helped to dig us out before a 3rd bus came along and pulled us and the other bus out. Once we were moving again we stopped at 'Eli Creek' which is a freshwater creek which runs out to the sea from the centre of the Island. We were able to walk/float down the creek which was good fun.

The main road on Fraser Island
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After an all you can eat buffet lunch we we taken to Lake McKenzie which was to be the highlight of the day. The beach at Lake McKenzie is regarded as one of the top 10 in the world and has 98% silica sand so was really white. It is also a fresh water lake which made swimming in it much nicer than the see or a pool as there was no salt or chlorine. Whilst in the water we saw a Dingo on the beach (fact of the day - Fraser Island Dingoes are said to be the purest strain of Dingo in Eastern Australia). After leaving Lake McKenzie we needed to make up some time to catch the ferry back to the mainland so the driver completely ragged it back along the sand tracks, we covered 10 km in 15 mins which was pretty impressive considering the conditions.

Eli Creek
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It rained the next day in Hervey Bay so we had a quiet day and did some washing before coming up with the idea of hiring bikes on Tuesday to head down to the Pier. We ended up hiring a Tandem which worked out cheaper than 2 bikes, it was pretty funny riding it too although Teresa got travel sick on the back as she couldn't see where we were going. We don't think we'd hire a tandem again but are glad that we did it for the experience. The Urangan Pier is around 800m long but had good views of Fraser Island from the end, there were also thousands of crabs on the beach below it.

The Beach at Lake McKenzie
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After spending more time on the beach we headed back to the Hostel to sort out our stuff before heading to Noosa for a couple of nights and then onto Brisbane.

Until then,

Barney & Teresa

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