Priscilla Queen of the Desert and our 4x4

Beach Driving along 75 Mile Beach (unswimmable due to Sharks)
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Fraser Island is a beautiful place, absolutely worth its spot as a world heritage site.  It is a relatively small island, about 150km tip to tip and about 30km wide.  However, there are no roads so a 4x4 is required to drive along the beaches and sand 'roads'.

After meeting the other 10 people at the hostel I soon learned that the majority of them had never done a trip before, let alone gone camping.  There was a German couple, an English couple, 2 Columbians, and 4 Brazlians.  As most were sitting back and seemingly nervous about this, because while food was paid for, we had to plan the menu and buy it ourselves.  No worries, I've done this before.  So I grab the pen and paper and start planning.  What took me a while to remember was the fact that on this trip, I didn't have to carry all my gear and food on my back.  This opened up a world of camping that I have rarely experienced.  A world of tinned supplies, glass bottles, food that did not have to be rehydrated, weight didn't matter. FANTASTIC!  But, a menu to satisfy 11, one meal to rule them all, if you will, this took some debate.  But we settled on it and were off to the supermarket with a $220 budget for 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 2 dinners for 11.  After figuring out portion sizes the total was $217.40.  Perfect, especially considering the group behind us ended up over $300 with the same budget.  What I was really impressed by was the fact that the only food to come back uneated/unused was 500g of rice (only came in kilo packs) and a loaf of bread. Menu was spaghetti bolagnese, Thai chicken satays with rice, french toast, scrambled eggs, deli meat sandwiches and sausages.

At Maheno Wreck
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So we hit the beach at about 60kph and drove around the coast and then inland to Lake McKenzie.  Inland roads are quite terrible and require that you drive about 30kph.  Lake McKenzie is absolutely stunning, this is a lake that is too pure for anything to live in (so we were told).  And it felt like it, pristine is the only world to describe it.

Leaving early to avoid high tide on the road (beach) we headed to find a beachside campsite.  I hopped on the roof and upacked the car, grabbed my tent, found a spot and pitched it in about 3 minutes, set up my thermarest and bed and turned around to find the rest of the group struggling with their tents.  After helping others I set about cooking dinner in the shelter of the 4x4.  I felt like Bob Blumer from the Surreal Gourmet, it was great.  After a huge feed for New Years we settled into the sand for a relaxed celebration.  Just after midnight I found myself wandering down the deserted beach with a full moon.  Just spectacular.  So many thoughts running trough my head.  Other sites included the Maheno shipwreck and Indian Head as well as Lake Wabby.  Lake Wabby is a small lake a the bottom of a 18m sandblow.  We took turns sliding down on a body board and into the water.

Cooking, Bob Blumer style.
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Besides feeling like a parent/camp counsellor at times it was a great trip.  Now off to Airlie Beach.