Fraser Island Part 2: The Places

Hello! I'm finally back from my blog hiatus :)

If you haven't yet, you should go check out "Fraser Island Part 1: The Logistics, The People." It will give you a good overview of what the trip to Fraser Island was like, how we were driving around, where we were sleeping, who I was with, etc. This post is purely dedicated to showing you some pictures of the various places we saw as we drove around Fraser. So, if that's what you're looking for, keep reading!

Lake McKenzie.
Lake McKenzie is a freshwater lake in the middle of Fraser Island, and it's easily one of the most picturesque  beautiful places on the island. We went here out very first day on Fraser. The sand was so so white and so soft, and the water...it really did look that blue. It was gorgeous. We were able to just chill out here, lie on the beach a bit, swim in the water. Apparently the sand here is just as nice as the sand at famed Whitehaven Beach, in the Whitsundays. Since I won't be able to make it to Whitehaven before I leave, this will just have to take its spot :)

Lake McKenzie

McKenzie again - so blue!

Eli Creek.
I unfortunately don't have any good pictures of Eli Creek, but here's a glance at where you get in. Basically, Eli was a natural lazy river! It's a cold (like, really, really cold!) freshwater creek that flows down onto the beach. It's sandy, and really nice. We all climbed down those stairs and stood shivering while working up the courage to just start splashing one another so that the water would feel nice. Eventually, we caved - and then it felt so nice. We floated/walked down the creek, and then walked back up against the slight current.

The entry point for Eli Creek

Maheno Wreck.
This, clearly, is a giant shipwreck sitting on the sand on Fraser. This stop was mostly just a photo op - nothing really to do, but still very cool to look at. Unfortunately, I don't know the story behind it to share with you now. But I did get some pretty pictures, and this was certainly a magnificent thing to see. I just wonder what it used to be like...

Maheno Wreck

Wreck, in B&W

Wreck and coastline

Champagne Pools.
Oh my gosh, these were one of my favorite stops! The first picture below aren't the pools, just a look across the beach that I snapped while we were walking to the pools from where we parked. That green area going out into the water across the beach is Indian Head, which was our next stop after the pools. If you look at the second picture though, you'll see the actual Champagne Pools. They were basically just big "pools" that were protected from the waves by a ring of rocks. They were so peaceful. You could just go out and sort of float in the water while the waves crashed on the rocks. I spent time here on the beach, relaxing, in the water, relaxing, and on a rock, in the sun, drying...and relaxing. This was a beautiful and peaceful site.

A scenic walk to the Champagne Pools

The Champagne Pools - so peaceful

Indian Head.
This stop was another photo op, and very beautiful indeed (I probably sound repetitive...but Fraser Island was, all around, beautiful)! We walked up from the beach and out to the edge of the outcropping, where you could get a good view all around. Looking behind us (the second photo), we could see a huge sandy area in between the forests. It just gives you a sense of the amazing landscapes across the island. Then there's me, cheesing it up for the camera with the beaches of Fraser Island behind me. (Note: you can't swim in the ocean at Fraser!!! There are too many sharks, it's too dangerous and they don't allow it. That's why we stuck to the lakes and creek).

Indian Head

View from Indian Head - note the huge sand-blow

Yours truly, on Indian Head

Lake Wabby.
Woooo, Lake Wabby, my favorite of all our stops!!! This place was literally an oasis! Here's the story. We went to Wabby on Sunday, our last day on Fraser. It was our final stop of the trip. I woke feeling a bit, ahem, under the weather. I did not feel like being around anyone at all, so I sort of just kept to myself as we drove to Wabby. I just wanted to sleep. We get out of the vans at Wabby, and Wayne says we need to walk a bit. The furthest we've had to walk to any of our places has been 10 minutes or so, so I assumed that's how long it would take. Thirty minutes later, we are still hiking through a trail in the woods! Needless to say, I was far from pleased.

Then we come out of the woods - and all there is everywhere is SAND. Like, we're talking the Sahara. I thought it was a joke. "Lake Wabby used to be here...it dried up!" You know, like in Holes. But I followed the crowd, and about thirty seconds ahead, up over a little hill and then down a steep slope - Lake Wabby. It wasn't the prettiest or bluest or most scenic stop we made on Fraser (though it was really, really unique, the way it was just there in the middle of this huge sand-blow type thing. But it was literally like an oasis in the middle of the desert.

It didn't instantly save my mood, but a quick nap and then a dip in the water did. I missed out on rolling down the sand and straight into the water, which a couple of the people did, but that's okay. Lake Wabby was just such a neat, unique place - and really loved it!

Lake Wabby - just a huge fake out!?

The oasis that was Lake Wabby

The slope down into the lake

Lake Wabby

Andddd that's it for the stops! Again, if you haven't yet, go read the Fraser Island Part 1 blog post so that you can find out more about my trip to Fraser - including dingos, vans and revolution. Fraser Island was amazing, and now I'm sort of glad that it took me so long to write this post. It's allowed me to go back through all of the pictures and remember how great an experience it was!

As always, thanks for reading! Coming next...a weekend trip to Melbourne, and spring break...in Thailand!

Our caravan, beach driving on Fraser Island :)

Till then, g'day mate!

-Ryan

Fraser Island Part 1: The Logistics, The People

Well...this is really, really overdue! I'm sorry!

To be completely honest, keeping this blog is kind of a pain (clearly). But it's definitely worth it...I want to share with you guys all the amazing things that I'm doing, and I'm looking forward to having a record of it for myself once all is said and done. So don't worry, this blog still exists...I've just gotten a bit behind!

Over a month ago (yeah, really behind) I took a 5-day trip to Fraser Island with some friends. Fraser is located north of Sydney, off the coast in Queensland. It's a special place because it's one of the only places in the world where (temperate, I believe) rain forest grows out of the sand. So, it's got a really unique look to it - you'll be on the beach in one moment, and driving through the woods, on sand, the next. 

The big thing to do on Fraser is to go on a 4-wheel-drive type tour where you get to drive basically these big vans on the beach and just everywhere. And then you camp at night. So, this is what we did!

Photo of the 4WD vans on the ferry to Fraser Island

Zack, Nicole, Kirsten, Hannah, myself, and our guide, Wayne! After the trip.

That's what the vans look like. So basically, we flew up to Brisbane from Sydney on Thursday. Then we took a bus (I think like 5 or 6 hours?) to Rainbow Beach, where we stayed overnight at a really awesome hostel. We didn't meet anyone that night, but the next morning we got our "safety briefing" and met the people who were coming in our van with us. It was the five of us, plus three Englishmen backpacking around the world - Joel, Will, and Phil. We all loaded into our vans - there were 4 vans in total on our tour, I believe. We drove in caravan-style, with Wayne always leading the way. We had to take a ferry across the little inlet to Fraser Island - and then drove right onto the beach!

Driving on Fraser Island


Basically, we spent the next two days or so - until late Sunday afternoon - checking out some of the best places Fraser has to offer: Lake McKenzie, the Champagne Pools, Indian Head, Lake Wabby, and more (see "Fraser Island: The Sights" for all of these places)! We set up camp at the end of the day Friday, and camped there both Friday and Saturday nights. This aspect of the trip was a bit of a welcome surprise. Everyone on the trip was a backpacker, so everyone was really young, social and fun. We got to know Joel, Will and Phil pretty well in the van, and at night we got a chance to meet and connect with the rest of the people on the trip. It was mostly English people, though not entirely. 


(For some reason, Blogger isn't letting me do captions on these two photos...but below is our home base and then Joel, Hannah, Phil, Will and Nicole in the van, and then some night shots)

Another interesting thing about Fraser Island is that there are dingoes everywhere! Dingoes are the wild Australian dogs that are sort of like a cross between a pet dog (in that they are adorable and you want to pet and feed them) and wolves (in that they could actually feed on you if they wanted to, I suppose). One night I was brushing my teeth sort of by the edge of camp and there was a dingo that ran RIGHT past me! Wayne has been camping in our spot for years, and he actually knows the dingoes that come around there. Apparently it's always the same ones, and he's seen them there since they were pups.


 Each night, we saw them at least four or five times, sort of just circling the camp. One actually got into one of the tents at one point early on because people had food in it! It was pretty crazy, very very cool. I didn't snap any pictures of them myself, but my friend Zack did:

After two days of caravaning all over the island, checking out great places, meeting cool people and nearly getting eaten by dingoes, we headed back to Rainbow Beach for Sunday night. This was a great way to close out the trip. Everyone felt pretty close by that point, and the hostel we were at had organized a series of games for the night - so we had a blast doing that. The games were basically musical chairs (musical kegs), a game where you had to bounce a ball off a wall and into a can, and, finally, flip cup. 

Obviously, the Americans (us) started getting pretty competitive about the flip cup part. Somehow, it wound up turning into a Revolutionary battle - America versus England. No, but literally...in the finals, it came down to our America team (us 5 + Ben, a turncoat Brit) and the English team (our van mates! gasp! plus a few others..including a Canadian). It was an epic battle of good versus evil, has-been world power and current superpower.

AMURRRICA:

vs.

ENGLAND:

The battle raged...

And out of the wreckage, one team emerged victorious....America, of course!!!

And then we led all these kids in some games of beer pong in the hostel lounge. After singing the National Anthem. Yeah, we were those kids...and it was beautiful.

All-in-all, it was a great finish to a great trip. Beautiful scenery, fun people, such a unique experience...defnitely one of the highlights of my time abroad thus far. The next day, we had a looong journey back home, complete with flight delays and everything. But it all worked out just fine, and the very next day we all found ourselves missing Fraser and Rainbow Beach and all the cool people we had gotten to meet.

Now, get yourself over to the other Fraser Island post, so that you can see pictures of all the amazing things we saw on the island!!! And check out these last few photos below, from random points throughout the trip, that I thought would be nice to include. Sorry the captions still aren't working, but there's just a lot of people shots...inclusing a picture of our entire group, in front of the Maheno Wreck on Fraser:

Thanks for reading! Oh, and last thought: no, I didn't get to drive, because I can't drive manual. Although, in the end, our van wasn't even manual. Oh well! It was fun getting to relax and just SNACK with everyone else.

Thanks for reading!

-Ryan