East Coast: Fraser Island

So, it´s Christmas Eve tomorrow… I´ve got no plans so I guess it´s gonna be just like any other day really :/ Yesterday I went to Christmas in Domain-concert with Renar, Tim and Loure Lou. We met Sharon and some of her friends there. The concert started at 8.30pm but they had been there since 10am to reserve good spots. It was a huge outdoor concert with more than 100 000 people, all sitting on the grass, holding candles and singing along to the songs. There was a big stage and some popular artists and choirs performing, and the event was broadcasted live on television. Most of the songs were well-known Christmas carols and it really put me into Christmas mood :) They also had cool fireworks three times during the concert!

Christmas in Domain

Anyways, I´m still trying to finish writing my travel report so here we go…

Monday 10.12.

Our alarm clock was set to wake us up at 5.30am, after having slept for 3 hours. I felt surprisingly good after taking a shower and had no problems staying awake for the rest of the day. Our Fraser Island tour info session started at 6.30am at another backpackers. It was just a 3min-drive away from the hostel we had stayed at, but we managed to spend almost half an hour trying to find it. (I guess we were a bit tired after all…) When we got there they were already showing an info video telling about camping rules and driving tips on the island. Then we were divided into groups of 10 people and had to pay some fees, sing forms etc. before starting to write a shopping list. We were going to do a self-drive tour on Fraser Island, meaning that we were grouped with 10 people and provided with a 4wheel car, tents, sleeping bags and other camping equipment. We were given a suggested itenary of what to do each day so that we could see everything important on the island. So, since we had to cook our own food, we were taken to Woolworths for grocery shopping before driving to the ferry that took us over to Fraser Island. We also had to drive to this warehouse to pick up our camping stuff – tents, a grill, coolers, a table, a light, plates & cutlery, a water tank etc. – and were shown how to properly pack everything in the car. Our car was loaded with people, stuff and food when we began our trip. Fortunately we got more space as we kept eating the food.

Our 4w-drive car

First we took a ferry over to Fraser Island, where we had to decrease our tyre air pressure so that we could drive on soft sand. Didi (from Germany) had begun driving, and he ended up being our pro driver almost for the whole trip. Many other vehicles got stuck on the sand but we had no problems. Driving on soft sand is pretty similar to driving on snow and Didi had practiced that quite a bit. To be honest, I did get a bit scared every now and then when we were either driving really fast (80km/h – the speed limit on the beach) and lost control and just started sliding sideways, or were driving on sandy paths with deep hills. Anyways, we began our tour by driving across the island to the east coast of it. Some vehicles got stuck in front of us, and unable to pass them we had to wait till they were rescued. When we finally got out of the road going through forest and were on the beach everyone felt hungry, so we decided to set up our lunch table and have some sandwiches. After lunch we decided to head to the northern part of the island to see the Indian Head and Champagne Pools. It took us around an hour to drive up there. We were given an itenary about tide times, too, meaning that we were allowed to drive only during certain hours of the day when the tide was low.

A view from Indian Head

Jumping :)

Since I had been to Fraser Island before I had already seen most of the places and knew quite a bit about them, so I provided the others with some info every now and then. (That´s why I´m not going to write a lot about the places again. You can read more about Fraser Island from my older postings.) So, we climbed up to the look out at Indian Head, and then drove to Champagne Pools. The pools was the only attraction I hadn´t seen before. They´re basically rock formations with shallow and warm sea water. Unfortunately we hadn´t enough time to swim there because we had to drive to our camping place before high tide. We saw a dingo, though. It was walking around at the parking area and I managed to get a good picture of it. We ended up stretching the driving times quite a bit, but got safely to our chosen camping spot. You can basically camp everywhere on the island, either at actual camping areas or at camping zones on the beach. We chose to camp just on the beach, close to some other self-drive tourers.

A dingo

We built our tents and got started cooking dinner before dark. We used the grill to cook meat, veggies and corn, and had a delicious dinner. Then we just sat around and most people were either drinking or eating these “magic cookies”. Juulia and I didn´t have any of our drinks. We went for a walk on the dark beach. It was beautiful; hearing nothing but the waves and seeing tons of stars on the clear sky. We couldn´t walk far, though, because I was scared of dingos. Being quite tired we went to bed quite early. Juulia and I shared a tent with a Korean girl and boy.

Tuesday 11.12.

We woke up pretty early because sleeping any longer was impossible in our hot tent! Everyone else was awake, too, and we had breakfast and washed dishes. I was feeling quite sick; my stomach hurt and I felt weak and dizzy. I still don´t know why since I didn´t drink the night before and ate all the same food with everyone else. Maybe I was just dehydrated because of the heat or something. So I just sat in the shade feeling bad because of not being able to help the others cleaning the place and packing the car. We wouldn´t have been supposed to drive until 12pm, but we left at around 10am anyways. I got to sit on the front seat, which was a lot more comfortable than sitting on the back. First we went to take pictures of coloured rocks and then to see the Maheno shipwreck. Then we headed to the Eli creek, which is a shallow creek with clear, cold water running through forests and ending to the sea. Despite of the cold water Juulia, I and the Koreans went for a swim there. It felt refreshing and it was nice floating in the water. Then we drove further south and decided to have lunch on the beach near a small creek. After eating sandwiches Ming Young told she had left her thongs to Eli creek, so we had to drive back there to get them.

At Eli Creek

Lunch at the beach

Then we drove to … Lake. We had to walk a couple of kilometres to get there, which took quite a while for some of us. That´s because Mark is scared of spiders so he had to check the way and stop to take pictures of any big ones. Everyone else went for a swim in the warm water. Being sick I felt pretty tired after the walk so I just rested on the beach and enjoyed the scenery. It’s my favourite spot on Fraser Island: a small lake with clear water surrounded by white sand dunes on one side and by green forest on the other side. We couldn´t spend much time at the lake because we were again stretching the driving times. So we walked back and drove for a while before finding a camping spot. This time we camped more in the bushes. Juulia and I set our tent under some trees, which protected us from the sun in the morning. We also found a “window” on our tent and left it open. We had spaghetti and mince sauce for dinner. Mark is a cook so he prepared us a delicious meal. Everyone was quite tired and went to bed early.

The lake

Wednesday 12.12.

It had been a lot cooler to sleep in our tent. I felt good again, and washed our dinner dishes with Juulia and heated some water for morning coffee. We were ready to leave pretty soon and drove to Central Station, which is located in the middle of the island and surrounded by rain forests. It´s pretty amazing how much vegetation can grow just on sand! Juulia, I and the Koreans did a short walking loop in the forest while the rest of the group waited for us. Then we drove to … Lake to spend a couple of hours, just relaxing on the beach and swimming in the clean water. It was a really nice afternoon indeed. We had to be back at the wharf at 2pm to take the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We got there pretty early and had time to sit in the café and eat lunch before the ferry departed.

Breakfast at our camp

Our whole group at the ferry

When we arrived in Hervey Bay we had to take our camping gear back to the warehouse and then queue at the backpackers to check in. Then it was time to take a shower! It felt so nice after not having showered for 3days and having being all covered in sand. Juulia and I did some laundry and then walked a couple of blocks to the town centre to look for internet places. Unfortunately all of them were closed already, so we just sat at the dark beach for a little while before returning to our hostel for dinner.