Obligatory East Coast Adventure: Day 19

Like the Whitsundays there's shit loads of choice when you go to Fraser Island. The most popular are the 2 night 3 day self drive tours but you can also get guided tours ranging from one to three days or you can take yourself and your 4WD over and explore it that way provided you can be bothered to get all the permits needed to camp or visit certain areas. Because one day was enough for us for the Whitsundays we figured one day would be enough for Fraser so we booked ourselves onto a big coach for a one day tour. We also thought if the rain didn't hold off it'd be crap to camp overnight and we couldn't really afford anything too big. I discovered that morning I'd managed to max out my credit card which meant I'd gotten through a £2000 loan plus an extra £400 on top of that. Yep, that's pounds, not dollars. Bring on the overdraft.

On The Tour Bus

Crippled Bus

Fraser Island is basically a huge pile of sand that trees have managed to grow on, there are no sealed roads because you can't tarmac over sand and people frequently get bogged because someone thought it'd be a good idea to lend 4WDs to backpackers and tourists who have no idea how to use one. White settlers were interested in it for logging and promptly took over it, now its totally protected and you need a permit to wipe your arse. It's gorgeous though, you can see why they restrict access.

The Rainforest
Oh come on, I'd just spent three weeks in Cairns and Cape Tribulation, I've kinda run out of things to say about trees. Yes, they're lovely and green and pretty and would make a nice coffee table.

Eli Creek, Coloured Sands And The Maheno Shipwreck
We hit the main beach that runs down one side of the island and also doubles as the main highway, you have to be careful of tides though or you risk getting stranded. As the driver tore up the sand, swerving to avoid the salt water lapping up the shore, on and island made almost entirely of sand he managed to find a rock and hit it thus putting the bus out of action for 90 minutes. Fortunately he did this right near Eli Creek. Well there are worse places to be stuck I guess.

Eli Creek

Me And Irma At The Creek

All the water on Fraser island is fresh water right up until it hits the ocean. It's crystal clear and good enough to drink if you can put the image of hundreds of people a day swimming in it and walking through it while smothered in suncream and insect repellant out of your head. Eli Creek is really nice, we spent our time there just wandering up and down it and wondering when they'd get the bus fixed. eventually they did and we were on our way to look at some sand that was pretty colours and a shipwreck.

Maheno Shipwreck

In Front Of The Wreck

This is where it started feeling rushed. Because we'd lost so much time it was literally a case of jump out of the bus, take a photo and jump back on again before we drove on to Lake McKenzie, one of the more famous landmarks on the island.

Lake McKenzie
The driver had managed to arrange a later ferry so we could still fit the lake in but we still only had half an hour there which I was gutted about because this was what I wanted to see the most with its white sands and fresh, blue water with no stingers or stonefish or sharks or anything else that might take a fancy to your limbs. Its awesome here, if you get a chance to visit you totally need longer than 30 minutes to frolic in the water and chill on the beach.

Fresh, Blue Water...

Soft, White Sands

And I don't care what you say, Irma, I totally won that dunking competition. That's 2-1 to me. Yeah it is. Ha.

Anyway, one day isn't enough here. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to come back and see it properly.

written by

Koala Bear on November 19, 2007 from Fraser Island, Australia

from the travel blog: Sod Off Great Big Mission Round Oz

tagged RoadTrip, LovinIt and EastCoast

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