"Lunch Time"After surviving my Noosa Canoeing adventure I once again headed further up the east coast trying to see and complete the rest of the places and things I had planned with the, now, very limited amount of time I have left. My next destination in store for me was a small city called Hervey Bay which has become a very popular backpacker stop off souly because it is the main connecting point to Fraiser Island.
Fraiser Island is the world’s biggest sand island and is also the only place in the world where you can see rainforests growing directly out of the sand. The World Heritage National Park of Fraiser Island is about 120km by 15km and is dotted with stunning freshwater lakes, it is also said that the island has more sand than the Sahara Desert.
The day after I arrived in Hervey Bay, Nine other people and I set out in our 4x4 Land Cruiser for a 3 day and 2 night self drive safari around the islands inland sand tracks and along the hundreds of kilometres of drivable beaches. When we arrived to the islands we had a basic itinerary that we were suppose to follow so that we could reach our camp site before high tide came in and the beaches, which we needed for access, became undrivable.
Itineraries are great but only if two things happen, you need to care enough and have the discipline to leave amazing lakes and beaches on time, and you also have to arrive on the island on time. In our case neither of these happened. Our ferry which was transporting us to the island was almost two hours late so by the time we were suppose to be starting the drive to our campsite we were just arriving at Lake Mackenzie, which rivals almost all the lakes I have seen in picturesque beauty and amazing sand beaches.
We ended up spending a couple hours swimming, tanning, and playing Frisbee before piling back into out Land Cruiser and starting our very slow and very long journey to our campsite. By the time we reached the last 20 km stretch of beach we had to travel it was now 45 minutes to high tide and there was almost no beach left.
Seeing as the night before in safety briefing we had in Hervey Bay we were specifically told not to go anywhere near the beach two hours on either side of high tide we were all a little unsure about what we were going to do. It was either sit out the tide and have to drive in the dark (which was a no no) or take the chance that we could make it up to the campsite in high tide and hope that all there talk was more of a scare tactic than the complete truth. Naturally our choice was "go for it, what’s the worst that could happen," and with me behind the wheel we set off up the very rough and slowly disappearing beach.
Luckily we made it with little complications. It was quite rough because of all the ruts and soft sand but with a few skills, I have learnt growing up in Canada and our sometimes traitorous roads, we managed the journey with out getting stuck. The only time that I was nervous was a creek crossing that we had to make that under normal circumstances, and if we were on time, should have been a few inches, but since it was high tide turned out to be a few feet. Thankfully after getting up enough nerve to give it a try the Land cruiser crawled through with no problems.
The next few days our group tried to stay a lot closer to the planned times and found ourselves in a lot less trouble. We drove around to explore some of the islands amazing views, gorgeous lakes, and shipwrecks. We also got to see some wild snakes and dingos which I almost ended up petting cause they look just like an ordinary pet dog. At night we would all gather around the campfires and listen to music and talk about everyone’s different travel stories. The trip was heaps good and was like unlike anything that I have done thus far in my trip.
Fraiser Island is the world’s biggest sand island and is also the only place in the world where you can see rainforests growing directly out of the sand. The World Heritage National Park of Fraiser Island is about 120km by 15km and is dotted with stunning freshwater lakes, it is also said that the island has more sand than the Sahara Desert.
The day after I arrived in Hervey Bay, Nine other people and I set out in our 4x4 Land Cruiser for a 3 day and 2 night self drive safari around the islands inland sand tracks and along the hundreds of kilometres of drivable beaches. When we arrived to the islands we had a basic itinerary that we were suppose to follow so that we could reach our camp site before high tide came in and the beaches, which we needed for access, became undrivable.
Itineraries are great but only if two things happen, you need to care enough and have the discipline to leave amazing lakes and beaches on time, and you also have to arrive on the island on time. In our case neither of these happened. Our ferry which was transporting us to the island was almost two hours late so by the time we were suppose to be starting the drive to our campsite we were just arriving at Lake Mackenzie, which rivals almost all the lakes I have seen in picturesque beauty and amazing sand beaches.
We ended up spending a couple hours swimming, tanning, and playing Frisbee before piling back into out Land Cruiser and starting our very slow and very long journey to our campsite. By the time we reached the last 20 km stretch of beach we had to travel it was now 45 minutes to high tide and there was almost no beach left.
Seeing as the night before in safety briefing we had in Hervey Bay we were specifically told not to go anywhere near the beach two hours on either side of high tide we were all a little unsure about what we were going to do. It was either sit out the tide and have to drive in the dark (which was a no no) or take the chance that we could make it up to the campsite in high tide and hope that all there talk was more of a scare tactic than the complete truth. Naturally our choice was "go for it, what’s the worst that could happen," and with me behind the wheel we set off up the very rough and slowly disappearing beach.
Luckily we made it with little complications. It was quite rough because of all the ruts and soft sand but with a few skills, I have learnt growing up in Canada and our sometimes traitorous roads, we managed the journey with out getting stuck. The only time that I was nervous was a creek crossing that we had to make that under normal circumstances, and if we were on time, should have been a few inches, but since it was high tide turned out to be a few feet. Thankfully after getting up enough nerve to give it a try the Land cruiser crawled through with no problems.
The next few days our group tried to stay a lot closer to the planned times and found ourselves in a lot less trouble. We drove around to explore some of the islands amazing views, gorgeous lakes, and shipwrecks. We also got to see some wild snakes and dingos which I almost ended up petting cause they look just like an ordinary pet dog. At night we would all gather around the campfires and listen to music and talk about everyone’s different travel stories. The trip was heaps good and was like unlike anything that I have done thus far in my trip.
On the final day was had our first mishap when we blew out a ball joint in the front end of our vehicle which resulted in having to drive through the sand and beaches in two wheel drive. Although it was a little bit more tricky we managed our way and never even got stuck.
Im now back in Hervey Bay and headed up to the town of 1770 soon and hopefully will have more exciting storys and adventures to write about in the near future.
"The Family For Three Days"
"Washing The Motor Down After the Three Foot Creek Crossing"
"Sunrise Through The Maheno Shipwreck"
"Cute Little Dingo"
2 comments:
Once again your adventures have amused me before bed.. Canoeing in the land of Oz.. I'm thinking with all your stories you will have a few people jealous here in canada. And I think Moe would love a dingo friend! miss ya, take care!
i think i count more chicks than dudes on this trip aswell, you know how to roll buddy.
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