We have just come back from spending the weekend away with Mick and Veronica on Fraser Island. The weekend started early with some birthday celebrations for Veronica on the Thursday evening. Veronica’s dad Rob came to look after the children for the weekend so we celebrated her birthday a day early. We were joined by Greg and Colleen, Mick brother and wife and Chris, Mick’s sister. We had a lovely evening, eating soup and bread and Veronica opening her presents. I think she had a great evening, the highlight was our present – the sparkly shoes we had seen in Caloundra and Phil had stopped Veronica buying. We then secretly went back to the shop and bought them and hid until her birthday – they were Vivienne Westwood shoes – jelly shoes but with sparkles!!!! Colleen had made Veronica a beautiful dress which went with the shoes perfectly!
Veronica modelling the dress Colleen had made for her…
We headed off to Hervey Bay after Rob had left to do the school run. It was a five hour journey to get onto the barge but we got there in plenty of time. The barge takes about 40 mins to get over to the island. Before we got on the barge we let our tyres down so that the car would be able to handle the sandy roads.
Fraser Island stretches over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres at its widest point. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world. Fraser Island’s World Heritage listing ranks it with Australia’s Uluru, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef. There are no roads but sandy tracks all over the island. It is great fun driving, although you have do go slowly and watch the lumps and bumps.
On the first evening we went straight over to our accommodation – although it is only 16km to the resort it took us nearly and hour to get there. Our accommodation was ok we had a two bed roomed apartment which had a kitchen. The only downside to it was it didn’t have any heating in it. So we heated the rooms in a more unusual way. Obviously in the summer months this is not a problem, but it was just a bit chilly in the evenings.
On our second day at Fraser we took to the car and went 4wd all over the island. We first went north as far as we were happy to go. As you are driving on the beach – you must watch out for the tides as you can get stuck some where and we really didn’t want to damage the car. We had taken the Pajero as we felt this was the best car for the 4wding. We headed straight up the beach – we all had a go at the driving – even Phil!!
You had to watch out for the dips and the creeks. Some of the creeks were deeper than the others and some had a steep ledge which you had to negotiate – or not. Sometimes it was really hard to see the creeks until it was a little late – only a little sea water in the car!!! Wow what a lot of fun we all head. We drove up to Indian Head 60km from our resort – all on the sand and walked to the top of the hill. From here you could see for miles and se saw a number of large fish or sharks.
As we were walking down we could see a coupe of humpback whales in the distance. We carried on up a bit more – slightly scary point where you had to drive round a very sandy part and quite a few cars got stuck and had to be pulled out. We made it and we were all very happy about that!!! Parked the car again and took a walk to Champagne pools. This is a little inlet and it is called Champagne Pools as the water has to come in over rocks and it foams just like champagne. It was warm but not really hot so we decided not to go for a dip – although there were many who did go in.
As the tide was on its way in so we headed off the beach and went and had lunch at Lake Garawongera which is a fresh water lake, very pretty. When you eat on the island you have to be very careful of the dingo’s, they tell you where you can eat and sometimes it is enclosed with a fence. a couple of years ago a child was taken by a dingo so there are warnings everywhere – most people follow the signs but as usual there are some who feel they are better than the signs and put others in danger. Dingo’s are usually OK with adults but children are at risk if they are not careful.
On the way down to the beach we had a blow out on the front tyre. Bob and Mick had it changed in no time – while Phil and Veronica entertained themselves.
It was lucky that we had been made to stop because when we got back down to the beach Mick called out that he could see a whale. We stopped the car and climbed out and we all saw two humpback whales playing in the sea which was great. The photo’s do not do it justice – it was a brilliant sight and they played for about 10 mins before disappearing off into the sea. A great days was had by all.
Following day we decided to stay inland. There are many lakes on the island and we knew it would take us some time to get round them with the tracks as bad as they are. We were also conscious that we now didn’t have a spare tyre. A repair kit was purchased just in case. We headed south down the beach and took the turning into Dilli Village. This is where we first encountered a motorcyclist on the road waiting for help. Bob and Mick jumped out and helped the man get his bike upright. He was fine but he had lost it on a very sandy corner. It the bike was huge and the man was not very big. His friend did come back for him but only after we had helped him. He was going to turn back and go up the beach but his friend persuaded him to carry on – so we followed him and picked him up quite a few more times. Each time he wanted to go back but his friend talked him round each time. The roads were difficult for a bike to go on as they were so sandy – it was like driving in flour.
We first went to Lake Boomanjin, then to Lake Birrabean, then onto Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is the prettiest of the lakes, clear blue water. It was very inviting but we decided it just wasn’t hot enough to strip off and jump in!!!! Our final lake was Lake Wabby. It is pictured here behind Phil. We just saw it from above as it was a long walk below and we were running out of time!
We headed back to the resort and ended up on the beach where Veronica had her first taste of fishing with Bob. While they were by the sea Phil was in the car and saw a lone dingo coming up the beach. It was all ok as she stayed in the car watching from a distance. They didn’t have any luck with the fishing – apparently this year is the worst for fishing on the island (so we were told by another fisherman!)
Our final day on the island – we decided to go up the beach again and visit the Maheno wreck.
On the way we decided to have a little look for a geo cache which was overlooking the wreck. We climbed to the top of a sand dune and searched, and searched but we did not find it. We had a great view of the wreck.
The wreck is one of the most photographed pieces of rust!!! She sank in 1935 and has been there ever since. We thought it would be nice to take a short flight over the island. the previous day we had seen the aeroplanes on the beach – but when you want to find one they are no where to be seen. We drove down the beach until we found a ground crew car- he told us to go back up the beach to Eli Creek. We did this, but there wasn’t any plane or crew there, so we went back to the wreck. We found the crew there, and they sent up back down the beach to Eli Creek where we finally got into a plane!!!! We had a short flight over the island – it took off on the sand and flew over the sea. Our first sight was a whale with a calf swimming along. The pilot went round in a circle but she had gone. We then went over the land and saw how dense the vegetation is over the island and then saw the butterfly lakes and some sand dunes. It was a great little flight and we were very pleased we had driven up and down the beach to get on the plane!!!
We headed off to catch our barge back to the mainland, on the way we spotted a dingo on the beach having a feed.
We were all very happy, we had all seen whales and dingo’s which was great. On the way back on the barge we were treated to a dolphin show who were playing alongside the boat and then we could see them still playing as we sailed away. A long car journey home to find that Rob had survived looking after the children, although they had had a good time I think he was tired from the experience.