island of sun and fun

Travelling to Fraser Island was a mad, bad rollercoaster of an adventure.

The world's largest sand island is accessible only by 4wd, and so it was I found myself piling into the back of a Landcruiser with a group of nine crazy Irish and another English lass, Hannah.

Booking through Beaches, they stuffed up and put me on the wrong day - meaning I had a spare day to cruise around dead-end Hervey Bay when I could have been lazing in 1770. I was not impressed. I kicked up a stink and said it would mean all the things I had booked after (actually nothing) would be stuffed up. They were unsympathetic, unapologetic and unsurprised by the error.

Infact, I found it had happened to my friend Dotti three days earlier and to countless other people.

However, I got up early on the day I was due to go and hung around to see if there were any no-shows. No luck but they ended up kicking off a poor Asian chappy and putting me on instead. Felt rather guilty but was secretly pleased - especially as we had an awesome group.

We drove in convoy with a second cruiser - this one with three Seattle lads, seven Canadian girls and an Aussie lass. Team (North) America and Team Ireland. We were honorary Irish for the weekend which meant one thing - drink. A lot.

After a ferry ride to the island on a miserable Sunday morning, we disembarked and were left to the mercy of the rough sand-tracks. Deep ruts run across Fraser and you're meant to manoeuvre across the island along them. It was not easy.

We were often inching along tracks in convoy and tilting at a frightening angle to one side. Cue everyone in the truck leaning the other way...

Our first stop was Lake Wabby - a green lagoon with rainforest on one side and high hills of sand rolling towards the lake on the other. It was a stunning contrast between the white, desert-like sands and the green of the forest and lake.

We spent a few hours rolling and running down the hills, playing catch and watching the catfish swim around us. As we made to leave, it started to rain so we all ran back into the waters and splashed around until it stopped.

Later, we drove along the eastern beach past a shipwreck, vividly coloured rocks and over washouts and creeks. We had to be at camp at 3.30pm otherwise the tides would be too high.

We just about made it, skirting the incoming tides and ploughing through the soft sand to Cathedral Beach Resort - our base camp. Luxury compared to most 4x4 trips - we had a showerblock, toilets and kitchen at our campground.

Starving hungry, we cooked up a barbecue, put up the two six-man tents and began an evening of drinking. When the lights were turned out at 10pm, we headed down the track to the beach (getting a lift with Team Korea in their pink van) and continued the party and drinking games. Starting early, we were in bed early and unafraid of dingoes, snakes and spiders...

Our second day, we headed to Indian Head - a high outcrop of rock where we could look along the beaches and down into the dangerous waters below to look for whales, sharks and rays. We saw humpbacks in the distance, heading south for summer, dolphins playing in the surf. But no sharks.

Then it was a long walk along the beach and up to Champagne pools. Here, the water crashes over rocks and creates pools of water - the bubbles created by the waves pouring over the stones.

After sunbathing, we headed to Eli creek and sunbathed some more before racing the tide back to base camp by 4pm.

We had a crazy evening - recruiting the newcomers to our teams to play tournaments of the drinking game 'flip cup' with the losers singing songs to the winners. It was a very funny and rowdy evening.

Our last day saw us packing up camp and heading out to some stunning lakes.

We visited Lake Birrabeen - where pure white sand ran into the shallow crystal waters before sloping quickly down into blackness and the lava at the bottom of the lake. The contrast of black, bright blue and white was simply stunning.

After a few games of frisbee, it was then to Lake Mckenzie, the picturesque spot on many postcards. It was far busier with plenty of families and backpackers splashing about in the (once again, crystal-clear) water.

Team North America and we then headed for our ferry. A long wait was cushioned by many games of volleyball/keepy-uppy in which I was generally out by the third or fourth hit... some people are just not cut out for sport...

Shattered, we made our way back to Hervey Bay to return our trusty 4x4s and have a farewell drink or two...

1770

It is pretty much impossible not to have a good time on the East Coast of Australia. Well that is my experience of the past few weeks anyway. I am truly having a ball.

Since writing about my Whitsunday sailing trip I have flown a plane, driven a chopper (the bike not the whirly kind), sunbathed on stunning beaches, swam in pristine lakes and driven along miles of beach in a 4x4 with some mad Irish people.

1770 is a tiny town where Captain Cook first set foot on Australian soil (in 1770, natch). He may have anchored in Sydney first - but he personally never went ashore. So this stunning spot was named after that historic landing.

The town itself has a permanent population of less than 100, and most tourists stay in the nearby (also very small) town of Agnes Waters.

I arrived with my Chilean friends JP and Claudio, who I met diving, and headed for Cool Bananas hostel. Here, the atmosphere was laid-back and friendly. You could lay in the hammocks all day if you wished, or take part in the plentiful activities. Here, for example, you can learn to surf for $16.50 or take a trip to pristine parts of the barrier reef for very reasonable prices.

I chose to take a 'walk on the wild side' - a jaunt through the bush talking about tucker, snakes and spiders with Scott or the Clay King, as he is self-named. We visited stunning, untouched coves near Agnes Water and learned about the celebrity residents living nearby along with his conspiracy theories of differing degrees of ridiculousness. He painted us with a clay mask which we washed off by jumping from lava rocks into the surf below.

A strange but very nice man, he brought a carpet python he had found the previous week to the hostel that evening for us to see.

Chilean lads JP, Claudio and some Irish lads I met at the hostel all went in for a scooteroo tour of the landscape around 1770. This involved learning how to ride a chopper (motorbike) and chugging around the hills looking for roos. We then hotfooted along a fast road (just 70km an hour mum) to 1770 where we watched sunset with a basket of potato wedges.



The fun didn't end there. The following day, JP, Claudio and I went up in a tiny Cessna plane. Just the three of us and our pilot, Bruce, fit inside. The runway was a stretch of grass...




Bruce was great fun - nose diving the plane and allowing me to take the controls and actually fly the plane. I learned how to bank and go up and down... all the time we were flying over the stunning 1770 estuary - as beautiful as Whitehaven beach at the Whitsundays, watching for whales, sharks and mantas in the seas and looking at the surf below us.

After a while we landed on a pristine and deserted beach on Middle Island. The only was to it is by plane or boat.



After tasting fresh oysters from the rocks, we swapped positions and Claudio took the front seat. My fun wasn't over yet.

I was instructed to unclip my safety belt, put my knees to my chest and wrap my arms about them. Bruce then sent the plane hurtling towards the ground - I was weightless, floating up to the roof of the plane like a spaceman...




My adventures don't stop there. It was off to Hervey Bay next for my Fraser Island adventure but I will post pictures and tales tomorrow...