But first, to the 'Wet Side' in Hervey Bay, for a run around and a cool off.
The next morning, a nice early start, 7am to get the ferry across to start our 4WD bus adventure. The bus drives on the sand, it is a hairy scary bumpy ride, up and down the hills. Apparently, the bus drivers spend half their time dragging 4WD cars out of the sand (the other half of their time is spent laughing their head off at the silly stuck 4WDrivers stuck in the sand;)
There is no soil on the island, so all the trees grow out of the sand, it is pretty incredible.
Everyone drives along seventy mile beach at sixty nine miles an hour, it is a pretty busy road, for a beach, there was even a policeman breathalyzing people when we were there - not kidding!
Personally, I am still a little bit confused as to how an island which is made of sand actually has a 'beach'...(obviously I didn't ask that question on the bus, as we all know, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people).
There is even the odd light aircraft!
We had a little wade through Eli Creek, which was pretty, how shall I put it, ...'refreshing'.
And then a swim in Lake MacKenzie, one of over one hundred lakes on the island, a calm and crystal clear and slightly warmer than the creek at 24 degrees. Bliss.
On the tour, our guide talked a lot about the dingos on the island, he said that there are around eighty of them, they are wild indigenous dogs, who actually can be savage. After he told us the tale about a little three year old girl being bitten recently, I went from looking forward to seeing one to take a photo, to just hoping I spotted one before it spotted us!
We spoke to some fellow travellers yesterday who spent two nights on Fraser Island and booked a camping trip with inclusive showers and toilets, as you would expect. When they arrived, there were no showers, the toilets were ones you had to dig yourself and they were sharing a tent with complete strangers! When they wanted to use the facilities/hole in the evening, they had to go in pairs (with the new friends they had met in their tent, no doubt) and take a dingo stick with them to shoo them away!
Ok, rant alert, it is possible that he following paragraph may seem like a little bit of a whinge and a whine, please skip if this is going to upset you.
Fraser Island was beautiful, but unfortunately not completely the unspoiled idyll we were expecting. With around 120 permanent residents, plenty of tourist buses, four wheel drivers, campers, backpackers and upmarket resorts, it was actually a little spoiled, the plastic bottles I saw strewn along the beach by unthinking louts really angered me, I do think they should have a no idiot policy on the island, that might be helpful. What happened to 'take only photographs, leave only footprints'?
We had a lovely day, and certainly it was so unique and special, I am very glad we did it, but I was glad it was just a day trip, and I didn't have to camp with those dingos in the dark;)
Love
Est xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment