Day 114: Fraser Island - Noosa

It managed to rain for two days so today we decided to pack up and get the hell off this island!

And what a beautiful day it was.

There was a bit of a drama while we were packing up the tent. Three little guys decided they were going to help us, much to my dismay! Oly was trying to, unsuccessfully, shoo the lizards away while I jumped into the passenger seat of the car closing the door behind me. Feeling quite safe and relieved I sent out words of encouragement from the comfort of my steel fortress. It didn't even occur to me that the drivers door was wide open. I am sure you can guess what happened, when one lizard disappeared from sight I looked around and he was up on the door step looking in at me through the open door. That is the moment I wasn't having any fun any more!

These lizards had been patrolling the camp site every day, poking their heads into the tents and having a nose around, it made going to the ablutions in the dark like a dramatic interpretation of "run Forest, RUN!". I have no idea what these lizards are (Ben?!) and I am sure they are totally harmless and small in comparison to some of the lizards you get in Australia, but I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of one.

On our way back to the ferry we made a detour to Lake McKenzie past the beautiful and unexpected Maheno wreck. This ship ran aground in 1935 en-route to Japan after it was sold for scrap. She was then used for bombing practice in WWII, making her even more bruised and battered. It was amazing just to see this huge rusting ship that has been there for over 70 years in the surf, appear out of nowhere. It is spectacular.

We arrived at Lake McKenzie after a long 18km off-road jaunt through the forest. It is said to be the most popular of the lakes on Fraser Island, and it too was stunning. The whitest sand and the clearest, bluest, freshest water. Not a cloud in the sky. Idyllic. The sand, which is nearly pure silica, is said to be so fine it acts as a filter, cleansing the water and making it so pure it cannot sustain much aquatic life.

The road to the lake took us so long we could only afford half an hour of R & R before heading back to the beach to make our way to the ferry docking area. It became a little fraught as we raced against the incoming tide to get to there 5:30pm ferry which was the last of the day. I had visions of us being swept out to sea and having to clamber into our roof tent as we set adrift.

Fraser Island Photo Album

We have made it down to Noosa where we will stay over night. We are returning to Brisbane in the morning, because we have a plane to catch...

Em

Day 112: Rainbow Beach - Fraser Island

It was only slightly overcast as we set off for our fun filled 3 day jaunt over to Fraser Island which, incidentally, is said to have more sand than the Sahara, is 123km long, between 5 to 25km wide and is World Heritage listed. Not to mention, breathtakingly beautiful and littered with fresh water lakes with the finest white sand, the purest bred dingos and colliding sand blows and rainforests.

So... not much to live up too then.

After deflating our tyres in preparation for driving on the sand we got on the ferry over to the island. Neither of us had any experience in off roading and didn't have a clue. But hey, its a big island its not like we are going to drive into a tree on the beach or something.

There were a lot of backpacker tours on the ferry. We watched everyone driving off, most got away OK but a couple in front of us got bogged as soon as the left the ferry. A mixture of emotions coursed through us, relief that if we got bogged in we weren't the only ones, and panic that we too were going to get bogged and look like amateurs.

It was our turn to go, Oly put his foot to the floor and we sped off the ramp into the soft, soft sand and we were off! We zoomed past troop carrier that was bogged in further down and felt really bad that we didn't stop to help, but we wouldn't have known what to do anyway!

A few crazy beach driving hours later we arrived at our camp ground, Frasers at Cathedral Beach. This will be our first night in our roof tent so I am really looking forward to a good nights sleep. I just have to get up that ladder without falling off or something following me up it...

Em