Jeep safari crazyness
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
1
8
26
Trip End
Feb 11, 2007
Gympie,
Australia
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Anyway from Bundaberg we caught the bus to Hervey Bay which is a gateway to Fraser Island. When we got to hervey we went for a wander, bought some food and generally just got sorted for our 3day/2 nite trip that we went on on monday. Other than that my ears were a tad blistered at this point and my lip too from our cruise round the whitsundays.
So monday came around and we had to be up at 5:45am for our briefing and meeting our crew to travel round the island with. I was really excited because it felt like we were going on a school trip but without the teachers so we were allowed to get drunk with no-one to tell us off and tell us what to do. Our group consisted of me, mel, jen and catherine plus a girl called rachael and three boys called andrew, luke and chris. We had to decide on the food and alcohol we wanted to take for the trip together. 2 of the boys who knew each other, luke and chris, were very quiet when we did this so we felt like we were taking over a little bit. It turns out they were hungover and tired from 2 nites out on the trot!
After sorting stuff out with money and people to go and fetch the shopping, we all piled into our assigned jeep for the next few days with our designated driver - Mel!! Lol! We had to drive in the 4x4 to the briefing place where they would tell us how to drive on the sand as fraser is a sand island. The talk was pretty clear - do anything slightly wrong and you will die! Dingos, snakes, spiders and big lizards called goanas are a threat on the island along with the tides, washouts and hump di doos (snad dip and sand humps) not to mention just driving on the bumpy sand tracks! If you damage the car in any way you have to pay for it obviously. That scared us a bit cos any expense is scary to us!
After all the safety checks and talks, we set off to the ferry terminal. About 5 mins down the road we realised our car was stuck in 4 wheel drive. We had been told this is very wrong for tarmac roads and can seriously damage the car, so we pulled over to try and get the car into 2 wheel drive. It wasn't having it! After trying for ages and time ticking away, we thought it would probably be worse to miss the ferry than to drive the short distance to the ferry terminal. So we drove on. We got to the ferry place and into the queue and then realised we hadn't sorted our ticket at the office - oooops! Meaning catherine had to run back and sort it out with seconds to spare.
The ferry crossing was uneventful aside from the fact it was raining and grey and we got blown around a bit. It was when we got off the boat and onto the island that the fun began - or scariness depending on how you look at thrill seeking jeep safaris on rocky, rooty, sandy roads. It was scary in my opinion but fun and terrifying all at the same time. We drove along tracks that would be hard to walk along, never mind drive on! We were heading for Lake Wabby which was across the other side of the island, not far from the eastern beach. Needless to say, at one point, we almost rolled our car when we were trying to negotiate a route around a massive tree root on a hill on a corner! According to the car in front our front two wheels were way off the floor!! We were all screaming in the back it was well scary!
Anyway we got to the lake in one piece, with a few bumps and bruises as lapbelts don't really work that well on those roads, and we walked down the path to the lookout point over the lake. The view was amazing (pics - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14754&l=ab845& id=510031269 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14757&l=e6780& id=510031269 ) - at one side was the rainforest the other was the green/blue lake and in between was a massive sand dune, or sandblow as they call them here. We hiked down the path through the forest and I was thinking all the way down 'bloody hell I've gotta come all the way back up this!" The lake was gorgeous, but walking there and back was crazy - the sand was very hot and dry which meant walking on it was like walking on very hot ice. DOWNHILL! My thighs and calves were killing me lol! We decided to have lunch where we were so preceded to, clumsily make sandwiches in the car, tryin to disuade the ants and flies from joinin us. The other thing there that was a problem was the sand flies. They kept landing on any bare skin we had (mainly legs and arms) and biting and/or stinging us and it bloody hurt! Kept wafting them away but they just flew and landed on another bit of skin! Mental.
After lunch we braved the roads again and headed for the beach where we would drive upto get to our next points of call. The beach driving was much nicer as the sand was hard and smooth and apart from the occasional hump or wash out it was much easier to drive on. We made it to Ely Creek with no problems and got out of the car to join a load of other tourists to wander up the crystal clear creek - which was very cold but great on hot skin! We took a few photos and moved on. Further up the beach we visited the Maheno shipwreck and took some great photos -it washed ashore in the 1930's when being towed to Japan as scrap. It's now a big rusty wreck that you aren't allowed to climb on because of the dangerous eroded edges. It was very impressive and with the sand around it and the sea behind, we wandered around for quite some time in awe of the massive structure, trying to recreate what it would have been like when it was afloat. The next stop was The Pinnacles which are colourful sand cliffs. To be honest even though I took a few photos, they weren't that impressive on the scale of what I had already seen that day.
By this time it was late afternoon so we headed for our campsite to put up our tents and make some food. We had a race between the boys and the girls to see who could put there tent up fastest! The girls won wooop! BBQ for tea which the boys took charge of and then some serious drinking began (bear in mind this was still only about 6pm). Well Leanne got very drunk and was asleep by about 10pm in the tent lol! Before this though we did mangae to wander down to the beach as the campsite noise curfew is 9pm so we had to move. The stars were once again soooo impressive I just sat and looked at them for a while and splashed about in the surf. It was a great start to the trip.
Day 2 started really early - the birds get up at stupid o clock everywhere in australia and the sun too so the tent was really hot and the forest was really noisy lol! I did however have to venture for the loo in the middle of the night as our campsite had proper loos and showers. Was a tad scary as we had been briefed about snakes and spiders and goin in pairs taking a torch to shine on the ground where you were about to step. It was an uncomfortable nights sleep (I was warm cos of jack's sleeping bag - thanks babe) due to the lack of pillow! Had to use my hoody! But I did get some sleep - think the amount of goon I drank helped - and the boys and girls sat down to a breakfast of cereal and cold sausage sarnies left from the BBQ. We were supposed to be going up the beach (yay no inland bumpy roads) to Indian Heads, a lookout point, and the Champagne Pools which are right up on the NE side of the island. Oh forgot to say we saw a huge lizard when having breakfast - it looked like a small croc lol! Anyway we packed up and headed off at 10am after being told it was safe to drive between 10-6 as the tide would be going out - NOPE! We got down to the opening onto the beach and saw the 2 other cars from our trip parked up as u couldn't go up the beach due to the sea being in. So we spent a lovely couple of hours sunbathing and messing around on the beach, paddling and splashing although not swimming as you can't OR YOU'LL DIE (hehehe)!
After waiting till the tide went out, we headed up the beach to Indian Heads, this time with Andrew, our welshie, driving. We arrived at the massive cliff about an hour later - bugger is what I thought cos we had to climb up it! Most of the group decided to climb up the rocks but me, jolly, jen and andrew opted for the safer and slightly less steep sand path. Walking anywhere in Oz is hard work in the heat but uphill is a killer! It was worth the walk though just for the view alone as it was panoramic, back onto the island and out to sea. This part of the island has the contrast again that never fails to amaze me - forest and snad dunes right next to each other. After trekking back to the car we decided to eat our sandwiches (already made at the campsite this time) and watch how everyone else drove through the deep soft sand at the entrance to the next beach that we had got stuck in when we arrived - yes we had to push lol! The key thing, it seemed, was to floor the accelerator in low 4 wheel drive. Fine we thought and got andrew to drive through it with our car screaming in protest at the speed! So we then headed for the champagne pools which were at the end of this next beach where we had to walk along a boardwalk from the car park, to these massive rock pools where the waves crash into them on a regular basis. Unfortunately, just as we got there, a girl from one of the other cars in our group came past us crying as she'd been stung by a jellyfish. That stopped any of our group going any deeper than knees in the water! I had a dip and sat in the shallows to cool off.
By this time it was getting cooler so we decided to head back to our campsite for the night and we saw one of the pure dingos that live on the island. Tea of pasta and sauce - u gotta love it when your backpacking, O and a shower! Heaven! After that we got down to some serious drinking games. We were having a great time playing and lots of wine was consumed. I got drunk yet again - think the reason is my alcohol threshold has gone down as we're not drinking much at all here. In fact we were having so much fun that another car from our group decided tyo join us (who we had nicknamed shipwrecked crew - we were filth crew on account of the fact that everything seemed to turn into an innuendo) cos we were obviously the best group for getting the party started. At curfew, we headed down to the beach, this time with an eski and alcohol. It was onyl when we got there that the drunkeness took a bit of a hold on me and I got a bit teary about missing a certain boy so I took myself off to stare at the sea and have a little bit of me time. Jen and the other girl in our group called rachel were feeling the same so we sat and had a little chat about our boys and how much we missed them! Sad ay but it made us feel better. We then meandered back to the tent, crawled in and passed out lol!
Day 3 started early again despite the mental hangovers. We got up to find everyone else had already left. Turns out they were up at 4am to got and see the sunrise and miss all the tides! Crazyness. We were planning on waiting till a similar time as the day before, before making a move down to Lake Mackenzie which I was very much looking forward to seeing. Anyway the day started with taking down our tents - not an easy task normally, but avec hangover it was even worse. We raced against the boys again and once again the girls came out on top! And we started about 10 mins after them! It was opnly when the tent was all packed up and in it's bag that we asked the question "where are the keys?" Erm "in the tent' was my reply. In my drunken attempt at safekeeping the nite before I had put the keys in one of the little tent pockets inside. Which is where they still were. After taking out the tent and finding the keys, we squished the tent back in the bag for the 2nd time. Luckily it wasn't too difficult.
After all this we headed off to see if we could drive down the beach. We got so far down then turned around as the beach was getting thinner and we didn't know where the tide would come too. So we turned back to go to the part of the beach we had been the day before where we knew it was safe. We sunbathed and I had a go at driving the jeep! I loved it, it was sooo easy much to my suprise! Take 2 - we set off down the beach and made it as far as the Ely Creek where our way was blocked with a huge pool of water and rocks that looked pretty deep. So we pulled up again and had lunch. After walking over to assess the deepness of the pool and watching a few other cars go through, we decided to go for it. Andrew put the pedal to the metal and we were through and set off again. After a few wrong attempts at finding the right road to go on to the lake from Eurong, we set off inland. There is a distinct lack of signposting in oz, or weird signposting anyway lol. Makes life confusing sometimes. But we were on our way and bumpily headed on our way to the lake. When we arrived and walked down the short path to the lake, I was amazed how beautiful it was. A massive expanse of clear, blue and turquoise water all ringed by soft white sand. Needless to say me and rach headed straight in for a swim! It was surprisingly warm. The others sat by the side and took photos and then I got out to dry off and sunbathe. It was a gorgeous place and the pics I have seen do not do it justice at all! You have got to go there!
Then it was time to head for the ferry and Hervey Bay again. After a very bumpy ride we arrived to catch the ferry on time and waited for our crossing. We all got back exhausted, a bit grubby and sandy but happy after a great time and a mcdonalds lol. We checked back into the hostel and got our own room - yay! Had another much needed shower and headed to the bar to meet all the others from our trip. By the time 10pm rolled around I was wiped out and I headed for my bed. Only to be woken again at half 1 in the morning and again at half 2 by mel, luke, andrew and chris coming to our room, being noisy and throwing crisps at me, catherine and jen who were all sleeping! Tut! Lol. The next day we tried to book our greyhound bus to Rainbow Beach but they were all booked up so we were stuck for another night at Hervey. It was no big deal as I spent the day sunbathing and reading my book and basically chilling out after a crazy 3 days. We went for a meal with luke and chris as a kind of farewell to them as they were leaving for Bundy in the morning and we wer booked onto the morning greyhound to Rainbow.
This has been a massive entry so I'm gonna stop there so it's all about fraser! Just to update you all I am now in Gympie which is where we've been staying with a relative of Jenna's. We've been here for three nights aswell as having one night in Rainbow before that. I'll do a blog on that when we get to brisbane as that's where we're off tomorrow and we're staying a whole week.
Lots of love to everyone and particularly to mum, dad and nic and especially to the girlies! Extra specialness goes Jack's way!! Love u xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
