This was a strange concept! About 30 people meet in an office early in the morning, we then organise ourselves into groups of 8, watch a video about how to drive four wheel vehicles in sand, then we are given an itinerary and you're off! The first thing is straight to the supermarket for three days supplies because there's nothing but very basic stuff on the island. Fraser Island is the worlds biggest sand island - in fact (guess who has been reading the guide book) there's more sand on this island than the entire Sahara desert. Beautiful white sand too! There are no 'real' roads on the island, so only 4WD vehicles are allowed. The first picture is the ferry on the way to the island.
This little beauty is Lake McKenzie - the water is fresh and so clear you can drink it - what is unusual is that because the entire island is sand, it has this beautiful beach area.
This is us driving along the beach - only the over 21's could drive, so Elvis and I just made it!!!
This is a wreck of a passenger liner, Maheno that was converted into a hospital ship in WW2. When it had finished 'serving', its days were done and on the way to the knackers yard it broke free during a cyclone and ended up on the beach.
The four girls walking along, 'nattering' and using up more than their quota of air! We were on our way to Eli Creek. The water is crystal clear and again drinkable. If you walk all the way up the creek (remembering to take your paddle of course), you can hop on an inflatable and the creek will 'float' you all the way back to the sea - very relaxing as demonstrated in the next picture.
Beautiful beaches - miles and miles of white sand.
The next shot is from a lookout point called Indian Head - it's nearly the most Northern point of the island and during the migration season whales can often be spotted from the top of the headland.
This is Elvis at the wheel driving down the beach - it's a superb feeling, the vehicle almost feels like it is floating. Maximum speed on the beach is 80 kms (that's about 60 mph)
This is all the members of our group, we had a great bunch and had a great time. For our own records they are: Me,
Marta (from Italy), Susana (from Madrid - Spain), Elvis (from Blighty), Verena (from Germany), Ben (from Sweden) and Natalie and Dave from Ireland.
This was our camping spot on the last night - just far enough back from the beach to miss the waves! We slept in three big tents and sleeping bags - the sand had to be moulded into the shape of your body - else your back was in agony in the morning!
This is the enormous sand dune (up to 220 metres tall) on the approach to Lake Wabby - if you click on this picture and zoom in you'll see how big it is - those tiny specks on the far side of the dune (just below the tree line) are people walking down towards the lake
This is the same lake from the lookout point. Our group had a swimming race across the lake - I came second! Ben from Sweden won - but he is only nineteen!
The lake is surrounded on three sides by eucalypt forest and the massive sand dune on the other.
Fraser Island has lots of these little predators. The infamous Dingo. They may look small and scrawny but we were well warned about them. Anyone with small children have to be very care full - when you're not looking they'll snatch a child or baby. This one was hanging around our camp trying to get into our cooler box.
3 comments:
Everything looks so tremendous....all I would need is that water and all those miles of sand...and maybe a toilet!! What did you do for three days?
Aye, Ben from Sweden may have won the swimming race, but he won't have had to wrestle with a couple of Saltwater Crocs or saved the rest of the swimmers from giant box jellyfish. You're so modest not even mentioning them in the Blog.
Our hero.
Rust.
Aye, Ben might be a canny swimmer granted. But i bet if you give him a few pints of Vaux Samson he'd be like a buckled wheel!! I'm sure you would win that one Von.
elvis jnr
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