Let it rain

I am back in Sydney after spending an amazing 9 days up in Queensland. Before heading up North the plan was to stay in Brisbane for a couple of days before heading further north to Fraser Island and finally the Whitsunday Islands. Unfortunately on the way up we took a look at the calendar and realized that we didn't have as much time as we thought and when we got to Brisbane we pretty much had to pack up and leave not too long after arriving.

The trip up to Brisbane was interesting to say the least. As it turns out Australia's most distinguished apparently opt to fly vs. take the train which left us with a bunch of real winners on the train ride up. 30-something year old drunk, blue collar Aussie's forced us to sleep with one eye open the entire ride to ensure that we arrived with all of our luggage. Once we finally did get to Brisbane (14 hour train ride) we rented a car and headed to Hervey Bay, the mainland point en route to Fraser Island.


Fraser Island - February 12th - 13th, 2009

My expectations heading into our two days on Fraser Island were pretty much non-existent as I really didn't have any idea what the island was all about, aside from a few people who had travelled there telling me how cool it was. I honestly think this is a great way to do things while travelling. If you go in with nothing more than a recommendation, it's really tough to be disappointed and in this case I was pleasantly surprised and borderline overwhelmed.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world which makes it's contents that much more fascinating. We were picked up by our tour guide Fritz, an older Austrian-Australian who was a cross between Glen Huffman and my Uncle Lawrence; funny, friendly and entertaining. There were 22 other people on our tour ranging from young backpackers like us, to a Canadian retired couple who formerly lived in Winnipeg and were frequent patrons at The Dak.

We arrived on Fraser Island via ferry and set out to explore the island in what was pretty much a tour bus on steroids. The steroids were necessary though as the islands roadways are made up entirely of sand and would be pretty tricky to maneuver through if you didn't have the proper vehicle. The ride down the bumpy and narrow roadways was entertaining as Fritz filled our heads with facts about the island. Our first stop was the Yidney Scrub Rain forest. We got out and were able to walk through the thick forests which was incredible. We had lunch at one of the Island's only restaurants and then hit the highway for the rest of the afternoon. The "highway" is actually nothing more than an open beach but it was awesome to speed down it with the open ocean always in view. We stopped at Eli Creek which is Fraser Island's largest freshwater creek and headed and then made our way to the SS Maheno shipwreck which was just a ways down the beach. Our final stop before heading to camp and having dinner was at Indian Head, FI's only major rock formations. As you can see from the picture it was a considerably big hike to the top but sitting up there made you feel like you were on top of the world.

We finally headed to our camp at Cathedral Beach where Fritz cooked us a great steak dinner complete with Kangaroo for an appetizer. We enjoyed some beers and the great company before we called it a night.

Our second day on Fraser Island started very early but was well worth it. We drove down the beach to a walking path were we hiked through a forest, then through about a kilometre of sand dune deserts to reach Lake Wabby, a freshwater lake in the middle of the desert. We had a swim and hiked back. Fraser Island is famous for it's large number of Dingo's that inhabit the island. Up until this point we had just seen one briefly while driving down the beach but this time we had one waiting at our bus when we got back. The rules were simple "don't run, and it won't attack you." I was able to snap a few good pictures but in hindsight probably shouldn't have got so close.

We ate lunch and then headed for another walk through a second piece of rain forest. It had just finished raining so this time everything looked a lot brighter. Our final stop of the trip was Lake Birrabeen, a freshwater lake with an abnormally low (but safe) pH level which is supposed to "make you look younger." Minutes after we arrived we were doused with sheets of rain. Nearly everyone adopted a "if you can't beat em' join em' mentality" and spent the final portion of the trip in the rain and in the lake.

After getting back to Hervey Bay, everything that I owned was completely drenched but I of course could care less. Fraser Island was an amazing introduction to Queensland and really a must do for anyone travelling to Australia. I had a hard time believing anything was going to top Fraser Island until we hit Airlie Beach and met Spank Me!...