Fraser Island

Hey, sorry for the delay in this post. Either I have not been able to get this website to work or I have not been able to put photos up online!!

Well I have survived camping in the rain on Fraser Island. It just reminded me of Duke of Edinburgh Hikes except this time we had a 4WD we could hide in to dry out lol.

Last Tuesday we had a meeting at 7am to tell us about safe driving and camping on Fraser Island. It was at this point we were split up into out groups. I had 8 others in my group and we had a good time together. We headed down to the camp shed where we were given our 4WD vehicle and equipment. The next stop was Woolworths (the supermarket!) where we stocked up on food and drink for the 3 days. After getting our team back together and into the vehicle we were off to the ferry.

Once on the island our first stop was Lake McKenzie. It has lovely fine sand and the clearest water I have ever seen. It was lovely.However after 30mins of swimming there the rain came on! :( The rain continued until after we had the camp set up! Due to the weather we missed out the other attractions and headed straight to the beach to find a camping area. This drive along the beach was rather scary as we had the rain to put up with and the tide was coming in. I was driving at this point and was scarred of getting us stuck in the sand. We found our spot for the night and set up camp in our swimmers - no point getting our clothes wet! As the BBQ was being prepared, Lee and Cat performed a 'No Rain Dance' to try and stop the rain. Surprisingly this worked, and more than once over the trip!! We managed to dry off slightly during our meal and sat around chatting and drinking the rest of the evening.The first nights sleep was not the best I have had! When we got up in the morning we found paw prints from dingos, thankfully they didn't attack the tents! ;) After breakfast and packing up we headed to Eli Creek. Here you can walk up a boardwalk and then jump into the creek and let the current float you down the creek. However we seemed to be walking on our hands more than floating lol. It was fun though and a great way to clean ourselves up a bit!The next stop along the beach was the S. S. Maheno shipwreck, a ship that had been built in Scotland:After this we then visited the coloured sand cliffs. They did remind me a lot of Rainbow Beach (my first stop back at the beginning of November!).We then had the 30km drive up the beach to Indian Head. Here we could climb on the rocks and spot sharks, turtles etc in the ocean. I only say a stingray but others in the group spotted some sharks. On our way up to the top we did spot a dingo though:

Our final tourist spot for the day was the Champagne Pools. This is the only salt water that is safe to enter on Fraser Island. The sea is too unsafe due to the currents, rips and sharks!! Unfortunately the rain was pouring down on us when we reached here so we just had a look at them. It definitely was not the weather to take the camera out!! After this we headed back down the beach and stopped at one of the camping resorts to fill up with drinking water and to buy sweets and ice-creams!

We managed to find a more sheltered spot to camp for our second night. Thankfully by the time we got there the rain had stopped and stayed off until we got back to the hostel on the Thursday. We had a lovely pasta dish for tea and then some of the group went down to the beach to drink while some of us stayed and played cards.On our final day we parked on the beach and made the 2km walk through the forest to Lake Wabby. This was a lovely green coloured lake beside a huge sand blow. It was lovely and so refreshing. We stayed here quite a while and played ball games in the lake.Thankfully we had enough time to head back to Lake McKenzie to see it under clearer skies! It was lovely and we managed to spend quite a bit of time here.The final part was the drive back to the ferry which we made with an hour to spare. The trip was great fun and I met lots of lovely people while on the trip. I must say it did remind me how frustrating the rain can be so all of you back in Scotland have my sympathy again. I had started to forget how it can spoil your plans.

xxx