Fraser Island - Monday 17 June 2019
Fraser Island is a world heritage island for a reason - it is awe inspiring and rugged (if you ignore the resorts!), natural and different. We have visited a number of times, and done something different every time, but today was right up there - because we were in control of what we wanted to do.It meant an early-ish start, as we wanted to be on the 9am ferry. so we were packing the car at 7:30am and on the road by 8am, for the drive towards Hervey Bay and the ferry terminal at River Heads. Our necessary permits in hand (even if the parks pass was being finalised online as the car was reversed onto the barge!), we went upstairs for the 45minute trip to Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island. By 10am we were letting the air out of the tyres and having our elevenses before hitting the sand trails.
The resort set up and the rest of the island are totally incongruous. The resort has bitumen roads, comfortable multi storey buildings, swimming pools and facilities. But from the second you drive through the dingo fence on the edge of the resort, you are in another world. Towering forests of Blackbutt, Kauri Pine and various gums, thick undergrowth and sand paths. Yes, these are the roads. In many places, the "road" is so far below the natural ground level because decades of vehicles travelling on them have eroded and compacted the ground.
They are also single track, with the odd passout where an oncoming car can pull over to wait for the other vehicle. In most cases, you have to reverse up to one of those.
We took the track to Lake Wabby, thinking that woud be interesting to see. We hadn't been there before, and nor had Neill and Jude - it's nearly 30 years since they were last here. Its very rough - Jude and I described it as a Berlei track (the ladies will work out what I mean) but certainly natural - it is a sand island after all. We pulled up at Lake Wabby and walked the 500m to look out over the magnificent fresh water lake at the bottom of the sand dunes.
Back in the car for the last 10 kilometres to the eastern beach - which on Fraser Island is the "highway". We firstly decided to have lunch, but then all took it in turns to drive on the beach. So much fun, mostly flat and hard but with some bumps, rocks to navigate and of course, oncoming cars - and planes!. Although we have timed this trip perfectly - there was certainly not too many people around which will change drastically in school holidays and in summer.
Our afternoon was passing us by so we headed inland again, with our final stop identified as Lake MacKenzie. We bumped our way along the rough track again (beach driving was very comfortable in comparison!) until we could park and walk through to the lake. It was still beautiful, and the water temperature quite lovely (although Jude and I weren't as game (on so many levels) as the nubile young girls already there frolicking in their bikinis) so we had a quick paddle, took some photos and hit the road again.
We needed to be back at Kingfisher Bay for 4:30pm, which we timed perfectly, even managing time to put air back in our tyres before boarding the ferry. It was well and truly dark before we arrved back on mainland Australia (they don't call it the north island here?!!!!) where we went and picked up Janne and took her with us to the Showgrounds for dinner. It was an awesome day, capped off with some lovely time spent with Greg's aunt.A fellow blogger, also a traveller, writes the most eloquent and verbose stories of her travels. I had every intention of trying to emulate her, and fear this certainly doesn't do Fraser Island justice. Nor do the photos. Suffice to say, this is a magnificent part of the world.
posted by Tracey @ 8:39 am
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