Rhain and the Waves do Fraser Island!

Fraser Island is the Largest sand island in the world... Actually with the amount of sand we ate and brought back to the mainland I'm not sure if that's still true...(!)

There was 11 of us in the group in total for our Frasier Island jaunt. Me and Ken had banded together with a french girl - Olympa and one of my room mates; Simon (who was also from the East Midlands - Mansfield) and signed up together for the adventure. Then we also had Caroline, from Switzerland, Sarah and Rhian from Swansea, Rich from Holland and then three girls from Germany: . The day before we left we were subjected to a short video about Fraser Island and National Parks. The funniest thing covered was how to defend yourself from Dingos - the potentially dangerous native wild dogs that inhabited the island. Basically the video instructed you to cover your nipples and step backwards..?!

The real fears once we got on the island were more like: tipping the top heavy 4x4, having a puncture on the beach, getting caught on the beach at high tide or getting the truck hopelessly stuck in the sand... read on to find out how close we came to some of these and how many of these actually happened!

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Dingo!

We set off from the hostel at about 10 the next day once we'd loaded the 4x4 full of equipment, food and alcohol. It was about a 30 minute drive from our hostel to the barge on the beach which took us over to the Island. We lead the convoy of 6 white trucks onto the island before we all dispersed. Because of a high tide we used back tracks to get to Eurong - A small collection of shops with a car park and toilets. Simon was quite a confident and experienced driver, having driven mini buses for universities. Just before reaching Eurong Simon swapped with Rhain. She was a competent driver, but as we rolled over the soft sand we became bogged down!! We worked the van out of the sand as a team and were over the cattle grid into the Eurong car park. Next we hit the sandy island tracks again and headed for lake Mackenzie.




Having opened our first beers of the trip we got to Mackenzie island we parked up and made our lunch. Here we sighted out first Dingo! they're more like scavenging dogs than wild wolves and can be quite easily scared off.

The sky was cloudy but the lakes water was crystal clear! We played Frisbee and swam about in the cool refreshing water for a while. the photos don't seem to capture the purity of the water! It was a bumpy ride back towards the beach, but some how Rich from Holland managed to doze off next to me in the front seats...!


Cooking Up A Storm

We once again made a stop at Eurong to top up the cooler boxes with ice to keep the beers at a nice temperature before hitting the beach headed north for our chosen camp zone behind the sand dune. We had to get there before the tide started coming in at 5pm. The whole convoy had chosen the same camp zone and over the course of the afternoon we all parked up, forming a wind shield with the trucks around our cooking and seating area. Still the wind was persistent and the sand found its way into places we didn't know existed! Grrr.

The girls set up the tents (to my surprise!) as the lads unloaded the trucks roof and set up a table and windshield so that dinner could be cooked - before it got dark. I naturally took charge of dinner, flexing my cheffing skills! It was beef steaks with green salad and potato salad... with a light sprinkling of sand... the water took forever to boil for the potatoes and once the water did start boiling, Simon decided to drop the lamp in there...Ooops.

Lots of beers were drunk before me and ken decided to start on our stash of rum and coke! u can't be stranded on the worlds largest sand island without a bottle of rum! Arrrrrrrrr! I was a little late on the social scene, what with all the cooking but soon got into the swing of it. With it getting dark early and there being little to do but drink and dance to the car stereo music most people (well the younger ones...) flaked out before 11! Pha! With all 6 trucks there was about 70 of us partying. Me, Caroline, Rich (who had a nap earlier) and an interloper - Yvona from another camp kept going until about 1 before being the last to give in to the call of our sleeping bags.


It's A New Dawn... It's A New Day...

First job of the new day was to wash the pots from the night before so we could have our breakfast of bread and scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onion. rich Sarah and Rhian sorted the pots, tho they did get a bit wet. Namely Rich, who had his phone in the pocket of his shorts.. Woops. Lazily i cooked up breakfast before we hit the dusty track again!

Rich did the driving for the morning, we headed into 'Happy Valley' via the back tracks of the island. this was because the tide was still pretty high and we didn't want to chance the rocky area of the beach at this time. We had to pull over on some pretty steep banks at time to let other trucks by. Rich got good at this, I was amazed the 4x4 didn't tip over as we parked at some uncomfortably peculiar angles...

the first stop of the day was Eli Creek for more messing around in cool fresh clear waters. the creek was laden with tropical trees on both sides which Eels swam around the roots of as we waded down down stream with the current towards the sea. Some of us got wetter than others on the way, ehum.

We dried off and piled back into the 4x4, next was the Mahend ship wreck further up the beach. the ship wreck was pretty sweet, but we didn't stay long as it started raining. We drove further north, out running the raincloud stopping once we came to the 'Red Cliffs' .. which were exactly that. They had a canyon feel to them and were smooth from all of the sand erosion. It was beef and salad wraps for lunch.



Indian Head





Sarah took over the driving and we headed to the most northern part of the beach - about 45 minutes away. Here was a place called Indian Head. A 30 minute scramble (In flip flops - which I have come to hate) got us to the top of the amazing look out point. We could see right down the beach which we'd been driving up for the past few hours and down Waddy point to Sandy Cape. I loved watching as the waves slowly rose out of the ocean and started their run towards the cliff bases. The water looked an amazing vibrant blue as it restlessly attacked the base of the cliffs. Me and Ken individually went out onto the most dangerous part of the petruding narrow cliff where the drops were vertical at either side of your feet. Once again the wind was my enemy as it pushed against me with varying degrees of determination! For the few moments I stood tall and expressed myself I felt victorious! This was by far my favorite spot on the island.



Once we had got back down the steep hill we sped away in our truck back down the beach towards camp. This was by far the most painful ride down the beach as Sarah sped through some washouts that were deeper than we thought. Ouch!
Simon took the wheel for the second half of the drive home as we approached the rocks we had earlier avoided by going through 'Happy Valley'. I was certain we were going to tip over as the truck bounced vigorously from a steep left to right over and down the rocks. We were thrown around in the back of the truck like balls in a lottery machine... Simon stopped at one point in disbelief we were still upright. as we braced ourselves for the second area of rocks it turned out the first was by far the worst.


Moon Party!

We were back at camp by 4ish and quickly set about parking the truck and setting up the kitchen. By 4:30 the sun had began to set the and moon had already revealed itself in the sky. It was a full moon. This called for a party... A full moon party! I got a good number of photos and drank a good number of beers before the sun had set. The girls did a majority of the cooking that night... by 6 the moon was high and bright and the party was going. That evening we concocted numerous drinking games between us. The most entertaining of which was other people trying to guess your animal impressions. Me and Ken finished off our bottle of Gougers rum with coke in record time.


Bad Times!

On the third and final day we packed out our trash and headed for Lake Wabby and the famous sand dunes which surrounded it. First we went to get rid of our rubbish. As Simon returned from the waste bin sight he noticed that the back left tyre was looking a littlw low on pressure and flatter than the others.... We decided to change it... Rhian drove cautiously the rest of the way to Eurong where Ken had to unpack the entire roof to get at the spare tyre. Simon, me and Ken with a little help from Olympa proceeded to change the tyre in record time. the new tyre looked a lot better and we continued to lake Wabby. As we were on the way a wave slowly washed up the beach, closer than any had come before. Low tide wasn't until 2 and it was still 9 in the morning at this point. Rhian sped up and we got past it. But another wave washed up the beach just ahead us, this time even faster than the first! Rhian put her foot down and closed her eyes! Ken struggled to try and wind up the wide open window next to him on the passenger side. The salty sea water rose like a wall in front of us as the truck hit it at over 70kmh!

We were drenched..

I say we... it was mostly Ken. I just laughed as water trickled off the brim of his hat.

It was a good 40 minute walk to Lake Wabby, which was no disappointment. It was a vibrant green, invitingly warm and had a slight mosey smell to it. beside the lake was the massive sand dunes, which seemed to stretch for miles. We took plenty of photos. It was peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch.. You gotta try it! This was our last stop on the island and we had to leave to get to the barge by 1.

This time Ken decided to sit in the back of the truck... and Simon sat in the front passenger seat. But Rhian sped through another washout with the trucks windows open, Simon ducked as he struggled to do up the window. Once again water splashed up the side of the truck in through the windows... the water went over Simon, who was lent down and got Ken AGAIN who was sat behind us... Soo funny. he just replied with a sting of curses.

Ken, Water, Simon

Our truck was the last onto the barge, we hadn't even put the breaks on before the barge pulled away. That night we finished or remaining beers in a beach hut playing drinking games on Rainbow Beach and said our goodbyes!

We decided to call our group Rhian and the waves.....


Links to Photo albums!

Facebook Fraser Island Album 1

Facebook Fraser Island Album 2

Facebook Fraser Island Album 3