Fraser Island

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Left Noosa and got back on the bus to Hervey Bay. Along the way we stopped for a few hours at Rainbow Beach where we were shown how to throw a Boomerang and play the Didgeridoo-neither of which i mastered! Before starting my 3 day Fraser Island tour I had a free day in Hervey Bay but as I soon discovered there really isn't very much to do without a car so just had a very relaxed day and just went down to the beach with my book for couple of hours and got ready for my Fraser tour which was organised through the hostel. Before setting off we had to have a meeting to organise groups, shopping, drivers etc and then pack up the 4WD's with all our stuff and camping gear for the trip.

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Got the barge over to Fraser Island which was pretty quick and then we had our first experience of driving on Fraser 'Roads' aka Sand. We had been given a suggested itineriary to follow so our first port of call was Central Station which is a main info point and good place to do bit of a walk as well as picnic. Following the plan didn't last long  as a german girl in the group who'd already been to Fraser before neglected to share with us the information that we had gone the wrong way, apparantly we needed to learn are own lessons!! We instead decided to head to Lake Birabeen which turned out to be a good decision as it is a stunning Lake with perfect clear water and white sand and not as busy as some of the island's other main spots like Lake McKenzie. After that we drove alond the Beach 'Highway' which was cool especially the first time and stopped at a few places like the Maheno wreck, Rainbow Gorge and Eli Creek. We were camping both nights at Cathedral Beach at a private part of the camp site there run by the hostel in Hervey Bay so had pretty good cooking and bathroom facilities and only had to set up our tents once which was good, especially for me who hadn't got first clue of how to do it! As there were a few different groups all out there from same hostel was nice and sociable and everyone had few drinks after dinner and when got later went down to the Beach as was a noise curfew as families camping nearby too.

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On our second day on Fraser we headed up to Indian Head and walked up there. We had a bit of a struggle getting our 4WD off the Beach there as was place where they were all getting stuck, took fair number of attempts but got there in the end although a few different people hand to have a go driving! From there we went over to the Champagne Pools which are cool but think the name makes it sound better! The prob also was that we had ages to spend there because there are only certain hours you can drive along the beach due to the tides so we had to wait until the time 'window' reopened. As soon as we could we went back to Eli Creek to spend longer there and walk down it and most people floated back down it but decided to give that one a miss and walked both ways. Matti the finish guy in our group earned the approval of the aussies as floated back down with a can of VB beer in hand! It was actually pretty busy as think fair few people were over for Australia Day making the most of the long weekend so lots of Aussies flags on all the cars!

On our final day on Fraser Island we decided to set off early as wanted to fit a lot in on the last day but took while for us to pack up all the camping gear and all. We finally made it to Lake Wabby which we had intended to do the first day and that was pretty nice but with the walk up to and over the Sand dunes took bit longer than we expected so we didn't have time to go to the other place we wanted to and instead headed straight to Lake McKenzie which was the last place we had to visit and had quite long there. It is an amazing Lake but the weather was less good and fairly cloudy so didn't see it at its finest but was really lovely swimming in the beautiful water albeit somewhat cold! After a few hours there we had to make our way back to the Barge and back to Hervey Bay to get rid of all the sand had managed to pick up!!