Backpacking in Australia: Part 4 - By Hayley Hobbs

Fraser Island:

Hi guys, so here is the 4th instalment in my series on backpacking in Oz! We left Airlie Beach on the Greyhound bus and endured another overnight journey to our next location; Fraser Island! We arrived at a place called Hervey Bay which is where most people stop before starting the tours of the island; so again, there were plenty of people around to have a laugh with before we set off. We stayed in a hostel overnight to catch up on some well-earned rest, and in the morning everyone who was in Harvey Bay for the Fraser Island tour was divided up into groups of 9. This time myself and all of my friends were together! Before we could set off on our next adventure we had to watch a safety video as we decided to give the self-drive tour a go, meaning we would be sharing the driving of our very own jeep! Exciting times!

Fraser Island is a small landmass off the Queensland coast and is the biggest sand island in the world. We were really lucky to have visited when we did as after our trip they cancelled the self-drive tours due to safety issues and concerns about the sand and steep invisible drops offs. There had been some bad accidents in the past, so cancelling them was the only option. We even got breathalysed by the police on the 75 mile highway….aka the beach! We spent the first night on the island with an aboriginal tribe! There camp looked like something out of a movie. No one was there to meet us when we arrived so we walked into the camp looking for people and ended up walking into someone’s house (well, wooden shack) to find that the owner was asleep, so we had to wake him up! The tribe spoke English and were really friendly, but there didn’t appear to be any children in the family. We put our tents up and lit a camp fire to relax in front of while he told us stories. After a few drinks he took us down to the beach and showed us tricks with the sand where he made it light up, it was magical! When it was time for bed I didn’t dare go to the camp toilets on my own as they were full of spiders. In the end we decided to go to the toilet in pairs so one person could watch the spiders while the other person went to the toilet. I kept a look out while one of my friends was on the loo, but I must have done a rubbish job as when I turned around there was a huge spider dangling in front of her face! Eeekk! Anyway, during the day time we drove our jeep to different points on the island for sightseeing. One of the best locations was Indian Head; a huge sand mountain! From here we had excellent views down to the sea and could spot sharks on the water as it was so clear!

We spend the second night on the island at a tourist camp site in a different part of the island along with lots of other tourists. However, this camp site was a bit more strict than the aboriginal one. We weren’t allowed to have a camp fire at our tents and had to make our food on another part of the camp site. The reason for this was to stop dingos and snakes from getting close to the tents as both are dangerous to humans!

On the last day we woke up and went to Lake Mackenzie. We had an itinerary which said to go for at least an hour to fully appreciate it, but quite a few of the people we had met said to go earlier and spend as much time there as possible, so we decided to wake up early the next morning. Unfortunately we woke to a flat tire on the jeep, which the boys fixed, but it took a couple of hours off our time. When we eventually got there it was very beautiful and deserted as we were the first people to arrive. The water was so clear and shallow; it was the perfect way to end our Fraser Island trip before we boarded the ferry back to Hervey Bay. Once back on the mainland we caught the Greyhound bus to our next stop; Agnes Water (aka 1770).

Best things about Fraser Island: The self-drive jeep was the best bit, but they don’t do that anymore due to safety concerns. The Aboriginal camp was also awesome!

Worst things about Fraser Island: The Spiders in the camp toilets! Also the camp fire issues and dingoes in the tourist camp.

Tips: ALWAYS go to the toilet in pairs and use sleeping bag liners to stop the spiders from sharing your bed! Also don’t leave food lying around as the dingoes will take it. If a dingo comes near you don’t touch it and walk away slowly. Oh yeah, and take a powerful torch.

To be continued…

--Hayley