Home Our Trip Queensland 40-Fraser Island
40-Fraser Island

25th November 2008.

A two day trip south from Airlie Beach with an overnight stop in Gladstone saw us arrive in Hervey Bay in time to put the caravan into storage, purchase our permits and get to the ferry at River Heads in time for the 4:30 ferry across to Fraser Island.

Some prior homework and bookings are required before visiting Fraser Island. You need to book the ferry well in advance as they only do so many crossings a day and even at this quiet time of the year, we couldn't book the time we wanted and had to settle for the last crossing at 4:30pm. Due to the high tide on our arrival, I knew we wouldn't be able to reach the first few campsites and would have to beach camp on the first night with no amenities, which wasn't really a problem for me, but the girls weren't that impressed. You also need to pre-book campsites. An invaluable source of information for anyone doing the trip is "Discover Fraser Island, Your Guide to a Complete Experience" published by Hema. It contains all the info you'll need including names, addresses and phone numbers, maps and advice, very good book.

Anyway, we head across on the ferry full of anticipation as Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world at 122kms long and 5.25kms wide covering 400,000 acres. The first few kms are gravel which quickly turns to sand as we cross the Island to the eastern side. The girls perk up as we arrive at the Eurong Resort thinking we might be staying there, but the smiles soon disappear as we continue through onto the beach, turn left and head north. As it's high tide, we're restricted to a narrow strip of soft sand to drive through between the vegetation on one side and crashing waves on the other WOW, what an idyllic location. I can already see why this is a 4WD adventure mecca. As it's getting on for 6pm, start looking for a suitable place to pitch the tent. You can only camp in designated areas which are generally behind the sand dunes and gives good protection from the winds.What a beautiful place to spend our first night with the sea right on our doorstep. I'd  warned the girls about the dingoes and we all knew what to do if confronted, coz apparently, they've been a bit of a nuisance lately. Just finished dinner and Marlene calmly calls Avril and myself who are a few metres away from the tent in the darkness, "there's a dingo near you, walk back to the tent" Sure enough, as I turned, there it was and fortunately it just strolled off never to be seen again. A nice bottle of red keeps us company as we sit back, relax, listen to the waves and watch the visitors come and go, absolutely awesome. Usually when camping, the girls sleep in the tent and I sleep out under the stars, but we decide to all sleep in the tent just to be safe.



Early rise next morning, pack up and continue heading north and the beach is like a motorway with 4WD's everywhere. Arrive at Eli Creek and notes warn of deep washouts and it's only passable 2 hours either side of low tide. Umm, that's still a few hours away, the waters still 500mm deep but see other 4WD's going through so off we go and get through all right. Next stop is the Maheno Wreck and it's definitely deteriorated a lot more than what we saw in the brochures. Then come across "The Pinnacles" with their colourful rocky formations rising out of the sandy beach, such a contrast with awesome colours. The colours and formations actually reminds us of some of the places we saw in Western Australia. The sense of freedom and exhilaration of driving along the beach at Fraser Island is undescribable, it's every adventurers dream come true.

Continued heading north up around Indian Head and the Champagne Pools and the scenery, adventures and 4WD driving gets better every minute. Another inland bypass at Middle Rocks and we get bogged good and proper. The photo doesn't look like we're bogged coz as soon as the car stops moving, I know any further action will just sink the tyres deeper and make it harder to recover, so the best action is to stop and plan the recovery. I Can't move forwards or backwards and have to lower the tyre pressures even more, dig around Tinkerbelle's tyres and eventually we're off again. Saw ospreys, turtles and snakes on the way to Sandy Cape, the northernmost tip of Fraser Island. This has to be another highlight of TravellingOz, it was absolutely awesome standing on the tip seeing the two currents meet and watching them clashing and competing against each other, unbelievable. The girls decided it was time for some fun and to get artistic and leave their mark, at least until the tide came in and washed it all away.

Getting late so headed back down south to "Frasers at Cathedral Beach", a proper campsite with all the ammenities. On the way back, stopped where we'd seen the snake and all that was left was some blood in the sand and a few bones, the ospreys had obviously had a good meal. After a long day, hit the sack early but the dingoes kept prowling around and kept waking us up. Next morning off on the "Forest Drive", another awesome day with some really good 4WD bush and sand tracks.

Another sunrise, but there was something special about the 28th, my 60th birthday and another milestone in my life. The girls cooked me egg and bacon for breakfast while I opened my cards. Again Marlene clicked the camera when I wasn't expecting it and I look like a grumpy old fart. Decided not to crack the champagne coz had quite a bit of driving to. The girls still don't like the camping and are trying their best to convince me to get back to the mainland today coz Avril wanted to treat me to dinner for my 60th. Told them we would move further south near one of the resorts and camp down there and have dinner at the resort, so we packed up camp and headed off.

What they didn't know was that I'd already phoned the ferry the day before and changed our booking to 2:30 today as I knew we could do the "Lakes Drive" and arrive at the ferry by lunch time. I'd let Avril in on my plans, so only had to put up with Marlene's protesting.

We're on the road by 8am and as it's full tide, we're again stuck with the narrow bit of soft sand to drive through as we head south. Arrive at Eli Creek and suddenly remember the warnings of "deep washouts and it's only passable 2 hours either side of low tide". Bugger, that's gonna hold us up and we'll definitely miss the ferry, so walk up and start wading across the Creek to check the water depth. The currents not too bad and it's around 600mm deep and other 4WD's are starting to line up around us. Hummed and hard for a while, then decided Tinkerbelle would make it alright, so engage low ratio and off we go. Get through the sand alright then down into the Creek and she's going well. Three quarters of the way across, the nose suddenly dives and the front of the bonnet is now underwater. It's amazing what goes through your mind and how many thoughts you can have in those milliseconds of impending disaster. I've seen photos of cars submerged underwater on beaches and in rivers and I visualise Tinkerbelle being stranded there, bugger "keep your cool Ken and just keep her moving along". The water is now halfway up the windscreen and she's still going, then just as suddenly as she dived down, we tilt skyward and drive up and out the otherside. The sands extremely boggy so keep going for about 100 mts till we reach some firmer stuff. My heart was still pounding as I reflect on what might have been. Can't repeat what came out of the girls mouths, but they sure were relieved to be out of the water.  Pity the camera wasn't set up to film us going through, but we did capture it all on the incar video that sits on the dashboard. The three stills through the windscreen were extracted from the video. Anyway did the Lakes Drive and arrived at Wanggoolba Creek with 45 minutes to spare before the ferry left. You should have seen the smiles on Marlene's face when she finally realised we were heading off and no more camping.
 

Life On The Road:

Another valuable lesson learn't, "walk across the whole Creek next time when checking the depth". When we first went through, it was all the same level, just shows how much things can change in a few days. Fraser Island was everything we expected it to be with some of the best bush, forest and sand drives we've come across. The whole place is an adventurer's paradise and a magical experience.

Avril took us out for dinner to celebrate my birthday and a good time was had by all. Although friends and family phoned, it would have been nice to have them all with us to celebrate me becomming an old fart, but that's the price of life on the road. Still only feel 40 :)

Sunday 30th came round to quickly and we had to get Avril to the airport early to catch her flight. It was really great having her over to spend some time with us and we're gonna miss her.
 
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