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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“We stopped for a potty break and saw our first wild dingo!” |
We had heard about how beautiful Fraser Island was way back when we were in New Zealand. Then when Sean almost got a job placement in Hervey Bay (the gateway city to Fraser Island), Indira did some internet research on the area, reading about the island and looking at pictures, and that clinched it.
Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and the only place on the planet where rainforest grows in sand. We flew into Hervey Bay and took a catamaran over to Kingfisher Bay Resort, our snazzy eco-friendly home away from home. The resort was designed to have minimal impact on the environment and it employs a host of rangers to educate guests on the ecology and protection of Fraser Island, while having fun of course! There were a ton of ranger-guided activities and we booked a 4x4 bus tour of the island for the next day.
We don't usually like big group tours but we are so glad we took this one. The bus tour was awesome. It was a specially made 4 wheel drive bus that hugged the slippery sand and careened across beaches and through ocean water easily. Our ranger, J.R., had grown up going to Fraser Island since he was a kid and had great personal stories as well as really interesting information about the geological features and the flora and fauna of Fraser. Along the road, he would point out trees and plants that had been used by Aborigines as food or "bush tucker". One interesting example was the cycad palm fruit, which the Aborigines would grind into flour (after an extensive detoxification process), mix with their own saliva, and make "muffins" out of them. J.R. also subjected us periodically to bawdy rhymes he had written, which he casually read from a cheat sheet while he was supposed to be looking at the road.
We drove to the interior of the island first and stopped at the white sands and fantastic multihued blueness of Lake Mackenzie. It was beautiful and reminded us of a sparkling beach in the Caribbean (as well as the rainwater-on-sand-dune Kai Iwi lakes in New Zealand which we had loved). Avani and Indira played in the water while Sean relaxed on the beach. Then we drove to Central Station, an area of dense rainforest, and we did a short lush bushwalk along Wanggoolba Creek, marveling at how completely silent the water was as it flowed over the sandy bottom.
We drove over to the east coast of the island and, after a hearty buffet lunch at Eurong Beach Resort, we cruised up the beach over bumpy rivers and waves coming in. The Tasman Sea looked pretty rough and J.R. said no one goes in the water because of strong currents and numerous tiger sharks. We checked out some pretty painted sand cliffs, the wreck of the Maheno, pretty Eli Creek, and then stopped for a potty break where we saw our first wild dingo! We drove inland to see a huge sandblow that is slowly moving from east to west across the island, covering forest and everything else as it goes. Then we headed back to Kingfisher Bay after a great (and long) day.
The next couple of days, we did some other ranger-guided beach and night walks and a fun canoe paddle through the mangroves (where Avani's feet were eaten alive by mosquitoes). It was great to learn more about native animals like sand bubblers and ghost crabs. And our guided canoe trip really brought home the importance of mangrove ecosystems, which serve as nurseries to many important commercial fish and crustacean species.
We also went on a native flora walk, where we ran into Auntie Rose, an elder of the Butchulla people who were the aboriginal inhabitants of the island. She sang us a song about Fraser Island, which the Butchulla call K'Gari, or "paradise". She told us how the Butchulla were completely driven off the island and how there is very little presence of the tribe on the island today. She also told us about an Aboriginal community farm started by the Butchulla in Hervey Bay and Sean and I vowed to leave early the next day so we could visit it. For the rest of our time on the island, we hung out in the pool where Avani showed off her swim-lesson skills, relaxed, and ate a lot. It was a fascinating stay filled with nature, history and fun in the sun.
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