Fraser
Island is basically a gigantic pile of sand that's been there for a
really long time. You rent a 4wd truck, you take a barge to the island,
you drive around in the sand and the forests, and you camp. It's famous
for the sand thing, in addition to the freshwater lakes, dingos,
rainforests, gigantic moving sand dunes called 'sandblows' that
overtake and bury the previously mentioned forests and lakes (hopefully
not the dingos), and an old rusted boat.
We've got a bunch of pictures, and I mean a bunch. I usually blame
Brenna but it really was pretty cool. The pics are divided up into 16
sections listed below. If you think that's alot of pictures,
wait until you see the words.
Brenna
came up with way more words than
I did
(so far). If you have the time, you can read on through our
long-winded description of the
trip
below.
The first thing they do at the truck rental place is instill a fear of
god in you, relentlessly driving home how important it is to obey the 2
commandments of four wheel driving on Fraser Island:
- Thou shalt not drive in saltwater.
- Thou shalt not ride the clutch
There are several problems with driving in saltwater. The most obvious
is that splashing saltwater up through the bottom of the truck would be
really bad for the metal parts. Only slightly less well known is this -
"Never go in against a sicilian, when death is on the line!
Hahahahahahaha... " Sorry, the coffee is kicking in - continuing,
although you're not going to immediately get washed out to sea from a
little wave washing up, if you go slow it will wash the sand right out
from underneath your tires, like when you stand in the waves right
where they can wash up then back and you gradually sink down into the
sand. Then you're pretty much stuck in no time, and you're not getting
out. They have pictures all over the walls of the rental place showing
trucks upside down in the water, trucks halfway buried in the water,
trucks bashed against the rocks, etc. Usually people get stuck as the
tide is coming in, then pretty much nothing can be done until the tide
is out the next day and by then it's pretty much over for the truck,
not to mention your security deposit and the $5000 deductible for the
truck insurance.
In between the swimming reef-truck pictures, the consequences of
disobeying the second commandment are illustrated by burnt out clutch
plates nailed to the walls with $1200 price tags. I think they must get
alot of people who haven't driven manual much before renting the truck
(ahem... you know who you are ;^). Having said that, it was
good
to have them mention it because I've never driven in that kind of sand
and it would be really easy to ride the clutch in reverse as you're
trying to back out slowly from a parking spot in deep sand. I think
Randall (the truck guy) put it quite clearly - "As long as the clutch
is either all the way in, or all the way out, you're golden. When
you're pulling out, put it in first, step on the gas, and let the
clutch all out. There will be a little bump - care factor: zero - and
you're moving."
There was a 3rd commandment not really worth mentioning which was
simply don't drive like a drunken clown. The beach is mostly smooth,
but there are many bumps & things which you don't want to hit
at 80
km/h.
We didn't run into any real problems. The only hard parts were in
between the beach and the inland roads where the sand was really soft
and deep - a couple of times I'd go to pull through, then stop, and
have to back out and go again. But we never got stuck.
I was going to write more, but it looks like Brenna must have covered
everything...
Brenna's notes:
On to recent travels - we have just returned from a trip to Fraser
Island. As I'm sure your life was not complete without knowing this,
Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is located
about halfway up the east coast of Australia, just south of the Great
Barrier Reef. When they say sand island they mean it - if you are
hiking in the rainforest in the middle of the island and dig at the
ground with your toe, there isn't any dirt, its just sand. Its famous
for several reasons - it has some of the only rainforest growing
directly in sand, it has one of the only pure dingo populations in
Australia, it has around 50 pure freshwater lakes called perched lakes,
and its a cool island thats all National Park with only sand tracks for
roads. Most of the east coast of the island is one long uninterrupted
beach that is considered the highway of the island. Its where the
planes land, and the only place where you can drive faster than about
40 km/hr. So, we rented a 4WD and some camping gear and off we went!
As we picked up the truck we had to sit through a video outlining what
to do in the myriad of disasters that you can encounter while driving
on the island, (typical Australia - even the creeks can kill you) which
was restated by the staff who as we were driving off said "Now remember
whatever you do don't do this or that or this or ..." Fully terrified,
we made it to the barge and onto the island with minimal problems, and
for the first km or so we were pleasantly surprised by the roads. Then,
the real "roads" hit - deep soft sand, large ruts, and huge trees on
either side to run into if you make a mistake. Once we got the hang of
it it was actually quite fun, but we did wonder at one point if you can
get shaken baby syndrome while still in the uterus. That first day we
saw Lake Wabby - this is supposedly the deepest perched lake and is
rather quickly being engulfed by a large sandblow (read sand dune that
moves). The sand is quite steep and drops right into a deep green lake
complete with large catfish. It was warm and we would have loved to go
for a swim, but had left our swimsuits ("cossies") 2km up back at the
car. This was also the place where we nearly ran over a large goana
lizard sunning himself in the parking lot. Back in the truck, we
stopped at another large sandblow, and finally made it to the Eastern
Beach. Driving on the beach was fantastic. Hard smooth sand, crystal
clear blue water to the east, forested dunes to the west, and the
occasional freshwater creek with a washout on the beach to keep you on
your toes. We stopped at Eli Creek (the largest freshwater creek on the
island that we hiked up and waded down), and saw the Pinnacles, the
Cathedrals (both formations of hardened colored sand) and the wreck of
the Japanese luxury liner the Maheno before pulling over to the side of
the beach and finding a camping place in the dunes. Camping is pretty
fun - there are a few organized camping sites, but mostly you find a
deserted place on the beach and set up your tent. You try to hopefully
get out of range of high tide, but otherwise there aren't too many
restrictions. Unfortunately they don't allow fires, but the sunset
reflected over the ocean was pretty fantastic.
The next day we got up in time to beat the tides and made it to the
northernmost end of 75 mile beach to one of the only rocks on the
island - Indian Head. We hiked up, and from the top looked down into
the clear water to see tiger sharks feeding on schools of fish, a pod
of dolphins swim by, a humpback whale on its migration, and a few manta
rays, one of which decided to jump out of the water and do a flip for
us. As it was still high tide we walked up 20 minutes of beach to
another rocky outcrop where they have the "champagne pools", also
called "the aquarium". This is an area with low rocks that form pools
that the saltwater splashes into creating lots of bubbles, like
champagne. Its the only safe salt water swimming on the island as the
eastern ocean is too full of sharks and deadly rips. Back to Indian
Head and the truck, we headed south along the beach to check out the
Pinnacles more closely (we thought there was a hike so we got all
packed up with water and snacks only to get 20 meters in and realize
that was it. We ate the snacks anyway.) With extra time on our hands we
headed inland again to check out Lake Alom. It was a fun drive through
some incredible forest with huge trees, and the lake had a bunch of
resident turtles that were quite used to people so came quite close.
Another sandblow stop, and we were back on the beach where we found a
place to camp for the night within view of the Maheno wreck. For
sunset, we climbed up a nearby sandblow and had a fantastic view out
over the beach and the ocean.
Day three found us back inland at Lake Garawongera where we thought
about swimming (too cold) and instead spent some time hiking through
the forest. Back at the beach we found some dingo tracks, and through
trial and error finally found the entrance to another hike called the
Rainbow Gorge Circuit. It was a nice hike - out through the dune to the
forest then in between two large sandblows where one small spring
provides some green in the sand. Back on the beach we stopped at one of
the organized sites for a water top-off and to let some planes take
off, then it was to the near south end of the island where we stopped
at Lake Boomanjin. (which we were finally able to get to after digging
someone out of the sand who hadn't paid attention during their video)
Lake Boomanjin was remarkable in that the water was clear but totally
reddish brown - almost like red tea. Again we wimped out on swimming,
and fired up some tea and snacks instead. On to Central Station where
we camped in one of the best organized campgrounds I've been in (and
got hot showers - yay!).
Day four - (don't worry, this is our last day. You are almost done!) We
woke up to a drizzle which quickly passed, and started the day with a
hike along Wangoolba Creek to the Pile Valley. Wangoolba Creek is known
for its crystal clear water on sand - in the photos and in real life
unless you look closely you can hardly tell there is actually water
flowing there. I liked it best for its forest - it was a rainforest,
with huge palms, gigantic ferns, and minimal undergrowth. It gave an
eerie effect. Pile Valley is known for its huge satinay trees, and is
the only place in Australia where we have hiked in a pine forest. With
one last ditch effort at swimming, we then hit both Lake Birrabeen and
Lake MacKenzie, known for their pure white sand and crystal clear blue
water. We went wading, made more tea, had more snacks, but didn't get
up the nerve to swim. It was still winter, you know. Back to the barge
and back to the mainland, we played with some pelicans in Hervey Bay
then headed home.
