Fraser Island and Hervey Bay, Australia

Hervey Bay… The gateway to Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand bank. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Hervey Bay, but I was dissappointed with it. My vision was of something akin to Byron, a small charming place, growing but still maintaining it’s small, village feel. What you get driving into town is row after row of shopping malls and retail outlets. Then, when you get to the quainter parts, the bit of life that was there, disappears from trace. It’s as if someone had a load of buildings, and decided they’d just dump them randomly all over the place! Besides the malls, there’s not one central area to the town but, infact, several. This makes finding somewhere to eat and drink challenging - assuming you avoid the rash of fast food chains that seem to afflict every town in Australia.

But, there is a plus side to it. We stayed in the Colonial Log Cabins, which is run by the YHA which meant we had clean rooms. But, being cabins, we also got TV and a great kitchen - which meant we weren’t quite so bored by the lack of things to do in town. Then there’s tha aquarium. A quaint little place with some BIG fish - one called Greg - and a tank with sharks and turtles in. The turtles were cool as they come right upto the surface to be stroked - but mind the neck as they bite! Wandering around town, there’s lots of bats, which all come to life at sunset and head off Fraser Island to feed. On a slightly tangent, we also went to the cinema to watch V for Vendetta, which I can’t recommend enough. Excellent film! (Not going to do a review of it though)

So, now comes the good part, Fraser Island. I won’t lie, no matter what I’ve read and seen, I just wasn’t expecting much from this place. My mistake! It was gorgeous from the off! At this point I’ll admit that we took the slightly soft option of going with an organised tour, Cool Dingo, which meant we got to stay in comfort in the evenings and not have to worry about food - just about everyone I met said they’d run out of food on their tours.

Arriving on the island our guide, TK (may have been TC though, akin to Top Cat fame), greeted us and directed us to the toughest looking bus I’ve ever seen! It was basically a cross between a lorry, a bus and a monster truck. This thing was awesome! As you can imagine, there’s no tarmac as such on the island - except in the resorts - so everywhere is sand paths cut through the trees. This means lots of potholes, hitting of overhanging trees, and basic motion sickness problems - not wearing your seat belt is a mistake! And the way TK drove it defied belief. Nothing, and I mean nothing could stop him or his machine. At one point, we helped a trapped 4×4 by ripping it out of the sand trap, almost removing the front of their car in the process. The driver of the other car looked visible shaken, while TK just laughed it off!

Our first stop was Basin Lake, formed in a sandbowl, and home to fresh water turtles. You get an idea of how fragile the eco system is on the island as you can’t apply suncream nearer than 15minutes before swimming as it affect the PH level too much. The water felt so good on your skin, and we had the whole lake to ourselves. Nothing like swimming in fresh water, and the depth was unbelievable - we couldn’t reach it, even with face masks on.

Next, we hiked through to Central Station, a former logging camp on the island, where we stopped for what can only be described as a banquet - there’s was too much food for us. Hiking further into the island along the Wanggoolba Creek, known as the silent river - water in here is around 150 years old as it takes that long to filter from underneath the sand. We were surrounded by the lush rainforest, one of the only places in the world where it grows in sand. On the way, a lizard also momentarily stalled our progress as it was over a metre long.

To finish the day, we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie, which felt more like a typical beach as there was a golden arc of sand around one side where visitors to the island lay idly sunbathing. Although another fresh water lake, this one didn’t impress as much as the number of people made it lose that feeling of isolation we’d felt earlier at Basin Lake.

That evening, after even more food - it’s almost worth the trip just for the amount and quality of food they give you - we visited the resort’s main bar, Dingo Bar. Now, to my surprise (and amusement), Dai, Eamon and Dan decided to do Karoke. Dai and Eamon I understand, but Dan… He hasn’t got a musical bone in his body, or so we’ve all been led to believe. I’m not sure if this is the effect of alcohol or not, but they were actually quite good (I have low quality video footage of it that will get posted at some point). Chris, you may have a rival as the Karoke king! I feel a sing off coming on…

Day 2 saw me being wished a happy birthday by the whole bus - thanks to Dan and Dai for that little wake up greeting. Our first port of call was to head across the island to Seventy-Five Mile Beach, where we were to drive - at the buses top speed - to the Maheno ship wreck (The Maheno’s story on ABC). Seeing that old ship, and how the sea had reclaimed it was astonishing. You could still see it was a ship, and imagine how it had looked, but everything had turned to rust, and been eaten through.

Moving on, we carried on along the beach to Indian Head. Climbing to the top, you get a dizzying view of the ocean below, and the Tiger Sharks circling the bay. Despite having one of the largest beaches in the world, you absolutely cannot swim off it as you will get attacked by sharks! We watched them swimming around below, and then spotted a feeding frenzy going on out to sea with seagulls diving in to grab any remnants that came to the surface, looking like a scene from a David Attenborough documentary.

Past Indian Head, we came to the Champagne Pools, the only seawater on Fraser Island that it’s safe to swim in. These pools are cut off from the sea by rocks, but waves routinely crash over into the pools. Several people were trying to be clever and stand on the rocks as the waves hit, and soon wished they hadn’t as they were hit with such force. To my surprise, there were also brightly coloured fish swimming around in the pools, carefully dodging the human intruders.

Heading back along the beach, we stopped at Eli Creek for a quick paddle and afternoon tea. The creek cuts a path through the trees and shrubbery, and is home to some well hidden fish and eels - although I only know this from Roger who swam along with his mask on (our surrogate Dutch person, who’s name Dan forgot and promptly renamed to Roger, which amusing stuck).

That evening, after the usual spine jarring journey across the island, we all headed to Dingo’s for my birthday drinks. The evening started with a few games of killer on the pool table, laid on by the bar, and involving free shots (the barmaid was trying to make a new drink, and we were the guinea pigs. Thankfully it was really nice, and there was a lot of it). Next up came drinking games, and once again, 7’s was highly effecient at catching out those with poor numeracy skills. We also played a few more involving coins and nominations, which oddly enough usual involved me drinking for some reason. The evening ended for me a 5 in the morning.

The final day… What can I say? Despite having my alarm next to my head - I mean a whole 10cm away - I slept through it, and we all slept through the phone ringing in the lobby of our cabin. Thankfully, the last day was nothing special on the tour, and our chilled out day exploring the rest of the resort and swimming in the resort’s pools, passed the day nicely.

Fraser was great, and if I ever get the opportunity, I would consider going back and probably doing the slightly tougher way of a self drive. On the downside, and you may have noticed a certain abscence from my ramblings, we didn’t see any Dingo’s which I was looking forward to. Especially after someone on the tour before us had seen one up close on the beach as it aparently ‘posed’ for photos. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back there…

Links

Colonial Log Cabins
V for Vendetta website
Cool Dingo Tour
The Maheno’s story on ABC

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