Four Wheeling on Fraser Island

Erik's parents had about 10 days to spend with us as part of their big holiday (exploring Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji), and we thought it would be fun to take a trip together somewhere during that time. We ended up choosing Fraser Island, home of Great Sandy National Park. I found cheap flights to Sunshine Coast Airport, which is about a 2 hour drive from Rainbow Beach, where we would take a ferry over to Fraser Island. We were lucky to find an awesome car rental company for our 4WD rental (most people do the Fraser Island trip flying into Hervey Bay and renting from there where there are tons of 4WD hire companies), and Richard, the owner, met us at the airport with our vehicle, fully stocked with camping equipment for our 3 night adventure. After a quick stop to stock up on food and drinks for the next few days, we headed north until we reached Inskip Point, where we drove onto the Manta Ray Barge for a quick 10 minute journey over to Fraser Island.

Erik lowering the tire pressure to prep for driving on sand.

Almost there!

Not much traffic on these roads...

...but there are still speed limits, in case you were wondering!

The tricky thing about driving on Fraser Island is that you have to be aware of the tides. You can only drive on the beach within 2 hours of low tide (before or after), or else you may get stuck on the inland roads which are really slow (though quite adventurous because you never know what type of road conditions await you!). When we were there, some of the inland roads were closed due to flooding, so we had to be particularly mindful of the tides.

We camped the first night at Central Station, so we took inland roads to get there. On the way, we stopped by Lake McKenzie, which is known for its resemblance of an ocean beach and not a lake. However, when we arrived, we found it flooded due to recent heavy rains. It was still a beautiful sight, but with the flooding and the sun setting, it did not look that much different than a typical lake, minus the super soft white sandy bottom. Here is one of Erik's pictures of Lake McKenzie from his Fraser Island backpacker trip in 2002, taken with an old school film camera, of course! :)

Lake or ocean? If it weren't for the trees it would be hard to tell!

On the second day, we went to check out the Hammerstone Sandblow and Lake Wabby. Jill ran sprints up the sandblow. Erik, Dan, and I sat in the lake to avoid being eaten by massive horsefly-like creatures, which we soon learned could be captured and fed to fish in the lake!

Hammerstone Sandblow is to the left and Lake Wabby is just behind Erik.

That's a lot of sand. Apparently the sandblow might eventually engulf the lake!

At some point during that day, it started to rain, and it never really stopped until we got off of Fraser Island. We were still able to enjoy ourselves, but camping is always much more fun when it is dry! Due to the rain, we made a stop in one of the "towns" on Fraser, appropriately named Happy Valley. There, we found comfort in a couple of adult beverages (which were surprisingly cheap given the fact that we were isolated on an island and surely the price could have been double what we pay on the mainland), watching the rain as we sat outdoors under a covered deck. Once we thought that the timing of the tides was suitable for beach driving, we kept on exploring.

The dingo. Visitors are encouraged not to feed them so that they learn survival skills, but it's hard not to want to feed them when they are this skinny!

A better way to get to/from Fraser Island?!

Eli Creek, nature's lazy (and cold!) river.

Doing well with the sand driving!

The Maheno Wreck

Our next night was spent camping at Waddy Point, towards the north end of the island, just a couple hundred meters away from the ocean.

There were tons of HUGE frogs at our campsite!

We had hopes of getting a great view of the island from Indian Head in the morning, but it was raining once again. That did not stop most of the group from swimming in the Champagne Pools, where water comes crashing in from the ocean, creating a natural pool. Interestingly, that is the only place for "safe" ocean swimming on Fraser, due to the fact that apparently there are lots of sharks on the east coast of the island and saltwater crocodiles (those are the big kind!) on the west coast.

That day was a big day of driving, as we had to make it all the way back down to the barge landing by 5pm. Due to the timing of the tides, there was no way we could spend our last night on Fraser Island and make our 11am flight safely.

Our only snake sighting of the trip, fortunately!

Toes in the sand at Lake Birrabeen. Rivals the sand at Whitehaven Beach...and this is a lake!

Once back at the south end of the island, we boarded the barge to leave Fraser Island. We spent the night at a campsite just a few minutes from the barge landing, another good waterfront location. In the morning we headed back to the Sunshine Coast, leaving our trusty 4WD behind and heading back to the dry city of Melbourne. Fraser Island is truly a unique experience, and it was awesome to be able to share our adventures there with Jill and Dan!