Fraser Island – Jan 8th

Today we'd booked on a trip to visit Fraser Island the worlds largest sand island and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The island has been created by sediment swept north from New South Wales over the last 2 million years. The island was named after Eliza Fraser, a captain's wife who survived a ship wreck and capture by resident aborigines. She was dramatically rescued from the aborigines who were keeping her as a prize and once back on the mainland became a minor celebrity travelling the world and telling, often conflicting accounts, of her time on the island.

Fraser Island was rated the number one thing not to miss by the Rough Guide and although we knew we weren't going to see translucent seas and immaculate beaches we wanted to go. Originally we'd wanted to do an overnight trip but with the weather promising move heavy down pours we decided to book on a day tour starting from Noosa.

It was a very early start with a 6.45am pick-up. When we boarded the 4x4 vehicle we could hear our driver on the radio with the other vehicles checking the status of the roads and whether they were flooded. The route did take some unsealed back-roads and you can see from the pictures how flooded they were becoming from all the rainfall over the last couple of days.

It was about a 2 hr drive to the ferry port at Rainbow Beach. As it was still dawn we saw quite a few kangaroos about and even experienced a near miss as one hopped alongside the vehicle and then out in front of it. The driver reacted well but still had to slam on his brakes to avoid it. The journey to the ferry also seemed like a bit of a rat-race with competing Fraser Island tour companies racing along the same roads to the port.

 After a short rest stop we got to the ferry terminal.....or should I say spit of sand. The crossing took about 10 minutes – we saw ominous black clouds over the mainland but thankfully when we turned towards Fraser Island it was a bit brighter. Again on Fraser Island there was no port and the ferry just lowered the ramp and the truck drove straight out into the ocean. It was a very high tide and the driver had to work with the waves in order to get off the beach and onto the track. Because of the heavy rain we were being sent on an older track rather than the usual route which the driver warned us would be bumpy....he didn't lie.

 The track emerged further up the beach and we then proceeded for a good 30mins along the beach itself. We were told to look out for dingoes sitting on the dunes but we didn't see any. Half way along the beach we stopped for the obligatory morning refreshments which you seem to get with every trip, before carrying on along the beach. En-route we passed a large turtle which had been washed ashore.

We then turned off the beach and passed through a small village called Eurong with luxurious tarmacked roads before driving back onto unsealed sandy roads with many pot holes. This was definitely 4 wheel drive country. I was glad we were sat at the front of the vehicle so that the bumps were slightly less than for the poor people right at the back.

Eurong was surrounded by a protective fence to keep the resident dingoes out and had electrified cattle grids at each entrance as the dingoes had previously learnt how to walk across the old non-electrical grids. Apparently there were 200 people living on the island, mainly servicing the tourists, but there were also 200 pure bred dingoes living on the island as well.

The Roads

We drove along the sand roads to Lake Mackenzie where we got to get out of the vehicle and take a dip. The freshwater lake was lovely and blue and it was hard to imagine a better place to take a swim. With the beaches we'd visited before the waves had broken so close to the shore you couldn't swim so it was nice to float in water and not have to worry about them.

As is the usual protocol with day trips we had an hour free time by the lake before heading back for our barbecue lunch. The driver had been busy cooking this for us and we were offered steak, fish and/or sausages with salads, coleslaws and a selection of beverages.

I skipped on the wine ...

After lunch we drove half an hour to a place called Central Station (so called as this was where the island's loggers set up camp before deforestation was stopped) where we took a walk through the rainforest. Unfortunately just at this point it poured down and turned into a damp 15 minute walk. After this we drove back along the pot-hole filled roads, and back along the beach to the ferry port. Whilst waiting for the ferry we finally got to see a dingo scavenging along the beach.

 Before we caught the ferry the driver was radioed to say that the usual route back to Noosa had flooded and that he'd have to take a longer route 14km down another unsealed road to Noosa beach. This road actually turned into a popular thoroughfare with pretty much every 4x4 owner in Queensland taking this alternate route.

Once finally down off the road we drove back along Noosa beach. People who want to get away from it all are allowed to camp in the dunes along part of the beach however on this day they must have been stunned by the highway the beach had turned in to.

 We stopped again for afternoon refreshments by Red Canyon. These were some stunningly red coloured rocks created by iron mixing with the sand. We also saw some of the blue bottle jellyfish that had stung Andy in Byron Bay.

The final leg of the journey was via another ferry into Noosa where we again saw some kangaroos in the road.

When we'd picked up our hire car in Brisbane we'd been specifically told we weren't covered for water damage. We'd thought nothing of it at the time but after all the rain this non-coverage was starting to feel more and more of an issue. This morning we'd parked nearish to a river, and given the weather were a little concerned of the possibility of flooding, so it was a relief when we got back to Noosa and saw the car was okay.

We returned to Mike and Lyn's for a lovely meal and relaxing evening.