Day 79 - Fraser Island to Hervey Bay

  Hervey Bay, Australia
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

After yesterday's fun & games I quite fancied a nice chill day, a boot up the beach to the famous Maheno shipwreck, up to survey the view at Indian Heads, then back down the beach for a swim in Eli Creek before cutting inland and making our way back to the west coast to catch our 4pm ferry.

Well it didn't QUITE turn out that way...

The beginning went to plan, we were up early, in the jeep, picked up some water & ice for Emile, then got onto the beach for about 8:30.

We turned left, and just drove, it was awesome!

75 miles of hard sand, with forests & multi-coloured rocks on our left, and the breaking sea on our right. We were also lucky with the weather again, bright blue skies with the odd fluffy cloud and a fair wind.

We did well to get there early because we pretty much had the beach to ourselves.



The speed limit on the east coast beach is 80 km/hr, which felt fantastic after the 30 mp/hr max yesterday, when our average speed was probably nearer 15 km/hr!





The 'island highway' also doubles as a runway, so we saw lots of planes touching down on the sand, which brings all the road traffic to a standstill.



Katie was loving driving on the hard sand, and before we knew it we'd crossed Eli Creek and reached the Maheno shipwreck.



The Maheno used to be a luxury liner which sailed up & down the east coast of Oz, before it got caught in a cyclone in the 50s (I think) and was washed ashore on Fraser Island.

Needless to say it was swimming with jeeps full of backpackers, swarming around it like ants, so I grabbed a few photos and we sped off north to the cliffs at Indian Heads.



Along the way you could really see the different colours of the rock by the side of the beach. One part is called the "rainbow rocks" due to the colours, and another part is called "cathedral rocks" due to the spikey shape of the rocks.



Indian Heads is the furthest north you can safely take the jeeps on the east coast, it's a volcanic feature which gives excellent views north and south, up & down the beach. Again there were tourists all over it, but you could still get a great view all around.





We were lucky when we were up on the top because someone spotted a dugong, which is better known as a 'sea cow', a very gentle creature which looks like a cross between a fat dolphin and a seal. It slowly makes its way along the coasts eating sea grass, hence the comparison with a cow.

From so high up we had great views of his journey, it was just a case of waiting until he came up for air to see him properly!



After soaking up the views we hot-footed it back to the jeep as the clock was ticking. It takes 1.5 hrs to get from Eurong to Indian Head, and we had to be off the beach today by 12:30pm to beat the tide.

I think we left Indian Head at about 11am, so we didn't have much time to play with if we wanted to get into Eli Creek, so off we sped, hitting the bumps & small creeks at top speed, which reminded us of the buckeroo conditions of yesterday!



When the water gets too high up the beach, you have to take a 'rock bypass' which takes you (steeply) inland and around the rocks, and then back onto the beach. These are a little difficult to get through, especially if you meet another jeep coming towards you!



We got to Eli Creek and had time to get about 5 minutes down the creek before we had to turn back.





It was a lovely cool freshwater creek with a sandy bottom, and it was PERFECT for kids, with Mums & Dads pulling their little ones down the creek on boogie boards, floats, rubber rings, anything that kept them afloat really.



With no time to waste we sped south again, and were soon upon Cromwell's Break, a particularly tricky road taking you inland above Eurong, and a better route to Lake Wabby, our only planned inland excursion today.

We'd been warned that a lot of vehicles get stuck at the entrance to this track, because it's steep and the sand is very soft. We put Jimny into 'low range', got our wheels straight, lowered the tyre pressure to 20 in each tyre, psyched ourselves up... and went for it.

Katie did really well to get us through the soft sand, nearly to the top when... disaster... another jeep was coming towards us. This is never pleasant, but even less so when there are no turning points either side of the road and you're going uphill, because the downhill jeep always has priority.

If you're both on the same level, then it's a battle of wills. The advice we were given in our briefing was simply "stay where you are and make the other guy move". Unfortunately it seems that everyone on the island is given the same advice!

As soon as we came to an enforced stop (to avoid a collision!) we stalled, and sunk into the sand. There was now another big jeep behind the one in front of us, so it was getting worse by the second.

To cut a long story short, we remembered what the dude had done last night, so we got the foot mats out, dug sand away from all the wheels, and reversed backwards, with the help of the Indian guys in the jeep in front of us.

They were able to get up the bank (they had a much more powerful jeep than us), so I told Katie to just punch it as hard as she could and we'd make the other jeep get out the way!

Luckily they got the message just in time, and were able to reverse backwards as we chased them back up the hill!

When we hit the crest, we sighed a big sigh of relief, and I realised that every inch of my body which was not covered in fabric was covered in sand! Niiiiiice...



We managed to avoid any further problems until we turned a sharp corner about twenty minutes later, to get onto the track for Lake Wabby... and encountered the most ferocious pot-holes we'd seen on the island.

In fact they were the deepest, widest pot-holes we encountered in the 2 days, absolutely impossible for our small jeep to get through. When we came to a stop, the front left wheel was just suspended in mid-air, it was nowhere near the ground!

This photo taken after we got out really doesn't do it justice, but it might give you an idea. Our little jeep was suspended on that big lump of sand, and the wheels were mostly swinging away underneath!



This time I didn't just get covered in sand digging us out, but also oil. If you guys have never had the pleasure of being covered in oily sand, keep it that way, it sucks ;)

This time I folded the foot mats under the left front wheel, threw some thick branches on top, dug out all the other tyres, and dug as far under the middle of the bottom of the jeep as I could manage with a stick, and hoped for the best.

Just as I was about to start pushing, a big truck full of bronzed German backpackers came round the corner, and ran down to help. I have never been closer to kissing a German man in my life! (am I missing anything Rob?!)

It definitely helped having 6 of us pushing, and we were able to get Katie out of the holes backwards, and she managed to take another road round them. As we went past we yelled and gesticulated our thanks to the German guys, and off we set for Lake Wabby again.

I must admit that by this time, I had pretty much had enough of Fraser Island! All I wanted to do was get back to the ferry in one piece, and get back to our normal hire car on the mainland.

I was EXHAUSTED after the digging & pushing, covered from head to toe in oily sand!

The track up to Lake Wabby was not easy, but not as bad as yesterday, but we were still relieved when we saw the car park.

I decided to wash in the lake rather than the gents toilets, and off we set. 

We saw a sign saying it was a 1.5kms walk to the lake, mostly downhill, but we knew this meant a knackering walk back up the hill to the car later!

We reached a scenic viewpoint quite early on, and it looked amazing.



Apparently the lake is being rapidly covered by a HUGE sand dune which encroaches by a few metres each year. One day it will move far enough inland that it will actually fill the lake completely, which will be very sad because it was absolutely gorgeous.

We couldn't believe how each lake on the island was so different, and so special. Only Lake McKenzie and Lake Birabeen looked anything like each other, all the others were very diverse.

We both loved the blend of sand dunes and water here, I've never seen anything like it.

The only problem was that the lake looked a LONG way down from where we were admiring it!

It took us about 20 minutes to get through the trees, and at the end of the path suddenly you saw sand everywhere, piled up almost as high as the tops of the trees! A few metres later you could see sand OVER the top of the trees, it was really cool.

We then had a nice steep climb over the sand dune (i.e. over the trees) and then you could look down and over the massive dunes, towards the lovely little lake.

Imagine trying to get a golf ball out of this bunker?!

 

The closer we got, the better it looked.



We walked down to the water, and Katie had a good swim around with the cat-fish!

 

As I couldn't get my ears wet, I decided to scale the dunes to get some cool photos. It was hard work, but I kept thinking what a great workout it was, and even broke into a light jog. Ray!

The run back down to the lake was incredible, imagine running and jumping down the side of the biggest sand dune you've ever seen, until you get to a lake at the bottom. Awesome.



We recuperated for a few minutes, and then began the tiring climb back up the sand dune, through the forest, and up the mountain, past the lookout and back to the car.



By this time it was about 2:30pm, so we had just over an hour to get to the ferry/barge place, which was cutting it fine.

We should be ok, providing we didn't get stuck, or have any problems... but I honestly had one of THOSE feelings deep in the pit of my stomach.

Sure enough, after 20 minutes of pretty intense soft sand, we turned a corner and saw a huge hill in front of us, and about 6 vehicles stuck! We both swore loudly, I looked at my watch, and tried to stay positive.

I got out, and walked up the hill to see what was happening. One of the big trucks was stuck in very soft sand with big holes either side (nice combination!), and it was also right next to a car which looked suspiciously like a station wagon?! Presumably it must have had 4 wheel drive, but it definitely didn't look like it had enough power to get out of there. It didn't look good, we could be here forever...

I talked to a few of the backpackers who were also a bit worried about not getting out of the spot, and then I walked further up to see how many vehicles were affected.

I counted 9 vehicles in all, most of which were on the main track, only a couple were up on the sides. I thought it was hopeless, these big powerful jeeps were getting stuck, and we were in a glorified hairdryer on wheels! Doomed, doomed, we're all doooooomed!

I told Katie that I thought we were in trouble, the holes and sand were going to be almost impossible to get up without us being pushed, but thankfully there were loads of people around, so we might, just might be ok.

It was a logistical nightmare, but everyone seemed in good spirits, which seemed to make all the difference.

In a real team effort, we managed to LIFT the station wagon up the bank, push the stuck jeep up the hill, convince the vehicles at the top to reverse down and up the bank, and finally there was some tangible hope. If we could just get up the nightmare hill, we could still make the ferry!

It was soon our turn to go for it, so Katie reversed a bit, and then just punched it as hard as she could in 2nd gear. The engine was screaming, the tyres were spinning around like a dentists drill, I was a complete nervous wreck, and Katie looked like she was giving birth!

Miraculously we got through the worst bit of the hill without stopping, only to get stuck right at the top, with only a few metres left. I was absolutely crushed, but pulled myself out the car again, recruited some friendly young Swedes, and we basically pushed the jeep up the remaining 10 metres of sand at 45 degrees with Katie's foot down, and got it over the hill.

As Katie sped over the hill, I just collapsed in the sand, almost face-first. I was sooooo tired.

A few minutes later I rejoined Katie, and prayed out loud that we didn't meet anyone else on the track otherwise we would definitely miss the barge, we didn't have time for another drama.

If that happened we'd have to stay another night (it was as expensive as Uluru in the hotels here) and we'd also potentially lose another day somewhere else because everything is so tight on our Oz schedule....

I think we met a couple of other jeeps on the way, but didn't get stuck, and we were soon flying down the tracks, which got much easier as we got closer to Kingfisher Bay on the west coast.

I remember giving Katie a big kiss when we saw the "Kingfisher Bay 5 km" sign, we were nearly there!

We had a few hairy moments before we reached the sealed road, but when we did I let out a primal scream of pure elation, Katie visibly relaxed, switched back into 2 wheel drive, and we even had a few minutes to clear the sand out of the jeep and have some lunch before we got on the ferry.

Sadly the sandwiches Katie made this morning were absolutely soaked (she put them in the Eskie which had a bag of ice in it, mmmmm.....) and totally inedible, so we made do with a tomato and some greek yoghurt & honey.



The ferry crossing was an absolute joy, we even got to stretch our legs and do some sun bathing before arriving back in River Heads just before 5pm.

 

We filled the jeep up with petrol at the first opportunity and then drove it back to the hire place, praying against all rational thought that somehow they wouldn't notice the badly damaged rim on the back tyre which had received the puncture.

Of course we had to come clean about the puncture, so they saw the rim, stroked their chins (never a good sign), and even looked under the jeep. We kept everything crossed, but they confirmed that we would need to pay for a new tyre and for the rim to be repaired.

It was "too late" for them to buy a new tyre (allegedly!) so they asked us to come back early tomorrow to settle the cost.

We were a bit sad that we needed to pay even more money, but SO HAPPY to get back into our executive saloon (automatic) car!

We consoled ourselves by getting a pizza takeaway & a great smoothie/milkshake from the ice cream place next door, and we were even able to get the pizzas half-price as it was "super Tuesday" or something at Eagle Boys Pizza! Result.

Unfortunately they screwed up Katie's order, but at least it didn't have meat on, so we drove down to the bay and had our pizzas on the beach as the sun went down. Could have been worse I guess ;)

We then went back to our hostel, did some washing, and some internetting. I called my Mum & Dad on the calling card, and then we crashed out, exhausted.

It was an incredible 2 days on the island, something we would unquestionably recommend to all of you reading this, it was just a shame it cost us twice as much as it should have done because of our puncture.

Looking back on it I'm sure we'll put it all down to a great experience, and we certainly won't forget it for a long long while!

I hope that your lives are a little less stressful back home!

lots of love,


Al & Katie xx