Australia

8th March

Fraser Island

It was another early 6am start for a 7pm leave for the tour bus heading over to Fraser Island for 3 days. Josh has disappeared to the bathroom therefore, I had to carry both of our big bags to the storage locker. I gave Josh a pillow hit/fight for this haha. Our tour started off on the 2h journey to the Island only stopping off at a petrol station – a tourist spot famous for having the largest cactus ever recorded planted outside.

Once we got to Rainbow Beach our guide designated 8 to a car for a 4 car tag along. I wanted to be put with the girls we’d got talking to but, we ended up in car 4 with 6 other lads. Erasmus (Scandinavian) started off the drive in our 4×4 to the Ferry crossing and then Gaetan (Frenchy) took over on our way to our first stop at the campsite to eat lunch sheltering from the rain. I then drove us along the sand (my first time on sand and in a 4WD).

Our tag along snaked it’s way to our first lake visit – Lake Wabby. Walking through the forest in the rain, with the mosquitoes was a nightmare and the rain hurt when we reached the open sand dunes above the lake.

Once we got over the dunes we were confronted with the steepest dune leading down to Lake Wabby. There was nothing for it but, to strip and leg it into the fresh freezing water. We had endless fun, the boys had diving competitions and Alex (guide) created a ball made of compressed sand for us to throw around without dropping. This only lasted 8 throws. Haha! He also told us there catfish (some of the boys saw 3) and Sucking turtles. Many of us weren’t sure whether to believe the turtle but, definitely felt tiny fish nibbling our feet. A great start to the adventure, apart from the mosquitoes eating us as we walked back due to being rushed so fast by Alex no one remembered their repellent.

This pretty small freshwater lake lies within the Great Sandy National Park on the eastern side of the island. Supposedly super clean however, there is fear it will eventually disappeared due to the Hammerstone Sandblow creeping into its waters.

I was also allowed to drive our car back as it was such a short journey to and from the lake. Once back and as dry as we could get we had dinner cooked by car 2 – each car had a job, our car (4) were in charge of lunches. The rest of the night consisted of drinking games, music and much drunkenness on Goon (boxed wine).