Sand, Dingoes and 4WD
Trip Start
May 03, 2008
1
35
44
Trip End
May 02, 2009
Where I stayed
Fraser Island,
Queensland,
Australia
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Anyway, our reason for stopping off here was as a jump-off point to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world's largest sandbar island and has a rainforest growing in the sand. It's also a world heritage site and we were about to attack it, like so many other backpackers, 4 Wheel Drive style! We had booked our trip on Cairns with Fraser's Backpackers and our vehicle was quite distinctive, it being bright pink!! This was a self guided, self drive, 3 day 2 night tour so we met everyone the night before to sign our insurance waivers, get an idea of what we'd be doing on the trip and get to know the people we would be spending the next few days with.
The next morning our group got up early to check out and be shown around our pink 4WD, how to use it and the repeated warnings not to drive into the sea or we'll lose our $1,000 bond!! There were 2 groups of us altogether, 9 in each 4WD and ours was called Rollie. We set off to Woolworths to buy groceries and a smattering of alcohol (one cool box for food, one for drink!!). Paul was driving and it looked like this was going to be a difficult machine to manoeuvre - then we realised he still had the handbrake on! On the way to Woolworths, the other group were pulled over by the police - driver not wearing seatbelt, $250 fine!
Once all the disasters were over, we stocked up and headed for the ferry. We had a strict budget to stick to and only went over by about 40cents each so not too bad. On the island, we drove through these inland sand tracks that were really bumpy. Central station was the first stop to fill up the water tank. A very nice family having a BBQ gave us all sausages/snags and then we were on our way to Eurong, a small village with a few shops and the entry way to the beach. Once on the beach, the going was a lot easier.
We changed drivers on the beach and after a few dig outs for the jeep, we drove to the freshwater Lake Wabby. We walked through a forest trail to get there but my sandals kept filling with sand (they're getting on a bit and there are holes in them but they're still great!!). I ended up having to go barefoot if I wanted to get there at all. It was worth it though, the water was clean and cool and we had catfish swimming around us. Nobody can swim in the sea because it's full of sharks and other nasties so this was a welcome cool down spot. Some of the guys ran up to the top to the sand dune and rolled back down. I preferred to stay in the water rather than burn my feet on the sand. Simon decided to brave the sand in search of the perfect photo. He made it halfway before he had to hot foot it back for his sandals!
Once we were all cooled down, we made our way back to Rollie and drove to Eli Creek, where our two groups were to camp down for the night behind the sand dunes. There was a crazy English girl driving with a heavy foot but we all survived! Once we got there, we had to put up out tents in the rising winds. I must confess, I'm not much of an outdoors person and I had never actually put up a tent before so this was a first for me. Luckily, one of the girls I was sharing with (it was 3 to a tent) was an expert and we had it up in no time!
That done, we went about starting dinner. We had gotten a backpackers special at a butchers so we had a BBQ with sausages, burgers, steak etc. As it was a BBQ, we naturally had all the men do the cooking while the girls sorted themselves out with some drinks and put some make-shift seats out. It had started getting dark by the time we finished eating and the reprieve we had gotten by not cooking was replaced by the dirty dishes. We had to boil water and dig a big hole to pour the dirty into afterwards. The hole had to be elbow deep so the water would be broken down properly by the island's ecosystem.
We put down some tarp so we could sit on the ground near our only light source and it must have been soon after this that we realised we were surrounded by a family of dingoes. Dingoes are native to Australia and are kind of like a wild dog but their habitat is shrinking and Fraser Island is one of the few natural environments they have left. We were warned not to feed them or run away if we see them. They tend to not attack, but if they do, they go for small children. They kept to the outskirts of the camp and were probably drawn by the smell of the food. Every time we shone a torch into the dark, we usually saw a dingo staring back at us! One of the girls was scared because she's afraid of dogs but other than that we were all fine with it.
There are no toilets on Fraser Island so when we needed to go to the toilet we had to go a reasonable distance from camp to dig a hole. Girls have to go in groups or at least pairs because apparently, when we bend down we can look like children to the dingoes! We spent the rest of the night having a few drinks and batting away the giant flies.
We were up soon after sunrise the next morning because it was too hot to stay in the tents once the sun was up. We went down to Eli Creek and used the facilities. You can walk beside the creek along a boardwalk and wade back through the creek. The friend of the crazy driver from the previous evening was driving but got nervous when she got stuck in the sand and I had to take over. It was good that it happened that was as I didn't have time to be nervous about it myself! Driving on the beach is so cool!! It's really thick sand so you can't go too fast but not too slow either or you'll get stuck. I drove all the way up to Indian Heads which took about an hour and I was very proud that I didn't get stuck once!! My system was to stay in as high a gear as possible so if Rollie started to get stuck I could go down a gear or two to keep it moving without stalling. It seemed to work anyway!
For the most part, I could drive on the firm sand near the surf (but not in it!) but there were times when I had to move into the softer sand to avoid the sea or other drivers. It was mostly smooth going, there were occasions when we suddenly got caught in other cars tracks and rollie would veer off in that direction but nothing none of us couldn't handle. There were washouts to look out for too. These were streams, and sometimes rivers, that were flowing into the sea and some of them cut really deeply into the sand. They were hard to notice too so every now and then someone would shout out "dip" and we'd all hang on!!
We got to Indian Heads without any dramas thanks to my wonderful driving!!! This is a far as we were allowed to drive so we all got out and climbed up the rocks to see the view of the ocean from the rocks. We did a little shark and dolphin spotting and then set off for Champagne pools a bit of a trek away. It took ages and the first part was the worst as the sand is so deep that it makes walking almost impossible. We had to try to walk in the tyre tracks of the jeeps that could go down there because the sand was a bit firmer there. We finally got to a beach so we could walk on harder sand but it was still long walk to the Champagne Pools but we had it on good authority that they were worth the trek so we persevered. To say we were disappointed when we got there was an understatement. It smelled really bad and wasn't as picturesque as we had been led to believe. We also ran into the problem of no water and no drinking water available for the long walk back. Some of us resorted to rations, others took the plunge and filled their bottles with not for drinking water. I took the rations approach as I didn't even like washing my hands with that rank water!
Once we made it back to our pink beacons we had lunch, drank the rest of our juice and had a game of rounders. Then we set off for the nearest place with clean water. Once we were all re-hydrated we headed back down the beach with a stop at the Pinnacles coloured sand rocks and another stop at the beached shipwreck which we'd passed earlier in the day. After a few photo's we drove on to our camp for the night.
Dinner was spaghetti bolognese. Nobody was too enthusiastic about cooking after the day's activities so I decided to step up and do the cooking. One of the Japanese girls helped and I found out after that she's a chef at home - she very politely ate the food all the same! We had another night drinking but without any dingoes for company and, not being able to keep up with all this drinking lark, I fell asleep at one point. We played good old-fashioned charades and a few drinking games.
The next morning we had an early start. We were going to Lake McKenzie and wanted to beat the crowds. I was first up and as I was walking from the tent one of my shoes gave up the ghost and came undone! I was none too happy to say goodbye to my very versatile sandals but into the bin they had to go and I was left barefoot. Barefoot may be a little dramatic as I had a pair of trainers with me but they're not much good in the sand! I made my way over the sand dunes in my bare feet to catch the sunrise that was already in progress and watched a crab beside me clear its nest of sand. I managed to grab a bowl of cereal due to my early rising but everyone else had to pack up and leave quickly so we could leave on time.
The trip back along the beach was nice but turned bumpy as soon as we headed inland. We got there without too many injuries - the day before Simon got the hotplate down on his toe and my fingers got caught between two crates to mention a few. When we got to Lake McKenzie we were greeted by an inquisitive dingo obviously used to people. The lake was a short walk away through a forest track that I had to now tackle barefoot. We weren't exactly the first there but near enough. The lake is surrounded by silky, white sand and the water is cool and clear - definitely worth the bumps and scrapes on the way!
We found a good spot near some trees and chilled out for a bit. The lack of breakfast was telling and everyone started to get a bit peckish. It was decided that two people would take rollie to Eurong (about 45 mins away) to get pies and sausage rolls for everyone. Six people ended up going for one reason or another and the rest of us waited at the lake. We waited for ages and eventually we had to start packing up our things as it was getting near the time that we had to head to the ferry. They showed up eventually and we started for the ferry. We were further delayed by a fender bender in front of us where the guys involved wouldn't get out of the way. We finally got aboard and back to Hervey Bay, toilets and no sand in your food. My mission after that was to find an infinitely inferior replacement for my sandals and try to get the sand out of my hair, shoes and clothes. I have to say that Fraser Island was by far the best thing I've done in Australia so far and would recommend it to anyone. It does depend on the group you're with but we were lucky enough that everyone was on the same wavelength. Moving on to Rainbow Beach.
