Naively, I underestimated the sand factor
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
14
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Fraser Island,
Australia
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
We did attempt to go to the casino cos it was a nice big snazzy one with loads of games but the first day we were turned away cos Simon was wearing flip flops. So the second day he braved the sweltering heat in jeans and trainers, only to be told he wasn't allowed in cos there was a rip in his jeans. So no casino for us. Probably just as well. I think I could end up with a gambling habit otherwise - I always did find those 10p machines addictive.
And so it was onto Hervey Bay - our base for doing the 3 day 2 night 4WD tour of Fraser Island - the world's biggest sand island
Complete Fraser Group
. We were picked up from the bus by a guy from Manchester/Leeds (sorry not great with accents!) who insisted on permanently wearing a sunvisor upside down and backwards which began to really annoy me over the next few days cos it just looked stupid. I don't think I've seen such a stupid look since the 80s.Our 'group' for the self-drive tour consisted of...
Me, Simon, Miwa (a Japanese-Russian-American girl), Aine (Aussie girl with Irish parents hence the unpronouncable name), Sarah & Rachel (the Swiss Misses) and Stu, John & Dave (Team Canada).
It ended up being a great group with the right mix of people and without any major arguments - the biggest ones being the Swiss Misses getting annoyed at the boys for not getting up on time and at Miwa for driving too fast and nearly killing us.
Simon and I got roped into doing the shopping for the group for the next 3 days which was probably one of the most stressful experiences of my life. Food shopping for 9 people, 7 of who you've only just met including one veggie, for 3 days on a budget of $130 is not easy. And when your time is cut from 1hr to 40mins its even harder. It like Supermarket Sweep without the prizes
Don't bring your offal here
.Not surprisingly to Simon (as it will be to my mum) we went over budget by about $50 but another group went over by $130 but they were mostly Italian and weren't willing to skimp on food quality.
We had to be packed and ready to leave by 7am which we considered an early start, until we got the the car hire place and were told the next 2 morning we'd have to be up at 4:30am. The copius amounts of alcohol we'd bought for the next 2 nights now seemed to be a bad idea...
Driving the 4WD was amazing, although having the lives of 8 other people at stake was a little scary. Over the 3 days we went to some amazing lakes and some average lakes and consumed vast amounts of sand.
"I don't think I've ever eaten so much sand" - Miwa
We were educated in the language of Canadian - "sweet", "out of control", "intense" and the various ways in which these words could be used. Team Canada were the kind of people who are great to have on a short trip - full of energy and enthusiasm and you could always rely on them to come out with some baffling phrase or question
Early mornings aren't good for Simon
.Dave (to Miwa)- "So, do you like swords?"
Miwa - "What?!?"
Dave - "The Japanese like swords."
On our last day we came across Team Italia - one of the other 2 groups from our hostel - who'd broken down after someone (allegedly) let the air out of their tyres. After much deliberation they decided 2 of them should try and drive the car to the nearest garage place so 2 of the Italians got in the car which generated my favourite phrase of the trip by their Aussie cousin - "Maybe I should go, at least I speak English."
The trip was amazing, probably my highlight so far. I forgot how good trips can be. Its sort of nice to be stuck with a bunch of people you don't know for a few days to see what happens. I can't wait to be stuck with 29 people in Africa for 6 weeks.
Bring on the Whitsundays sailing trip. Less sand, more stingers.
