Fraser Island
When an Australian friend asked if I wanted to visit Fraser Island, I jumped at the chance! Fraser is a world heritage listed and is the biggest sand island in the world.
Driving me Sand!
We hired a four-wheel drive. Driving on the sand is a challenge and within five minutes we were ‘bogged’! Luckily we changed the tire pressure and continued the exciting journey. I had lots of fun driving along the white beach-I did the easy parts of course! The island is larger than I expected and we drove for an hour on a 75-mile beach before turning inland.
Lined with lush ancient rainforests, it was one of the most beautiful, natural and un-spoilt places I have been to. After deciding to have a spot of packed lunch, a crafty crow stole my box of crackers-yes a whole box and flew off clutching it greedily. I yelled and shook my fist at it but the black-feathered thief took no notice as he flew off with its new lunch.
A couple of hours later and we were at McKenzie lake. It was beautiful, with white sands, turquoise waters and looked more like a beach than a lake!
March attacks!
The only bad thing about Fraser island was the huge, hideous gigantic March flies! They were on the beach first thing in the morning and in the evening. They would land on me and launch a full attack biting repeatedly! Yes, you heard me right, the giant biting flies-the stuff of nightmares. The other awful thing about them is they would follow me no matter how far I ran! Trust me I tried to escape the nasty Jeff Goldblum-esque monsters, but they would just stalk me. I spent half my time screaming, running and wriggling around like the protagonist from ‘The Exorcist’.
Bingo-I saw a Dingo!
We were camping on a remote beach with no one else around. While we were sipping wine and eating our beach-cooked steak, I spotted a Dingo lurking in the shadows. Perhaps it was Dutch courage, but I wasn’t remotely scared. I was hoping to see one of these animals as they are famously some of the only pure Dingo’s left in Australia. Dogs are not allowed on the island to keep them pure. They are elusive and sometimes have a scary reputation. This one hung around spying, salivating over the red meat in the darkness-luckily he stayed in the shadows and didn’t try and sample British flesh!
Getting wrecked
On the final day, I visited the Maheno shipwreck on the beach. After being taken out of service, it was due to be sold for scrap metal on its way to Japan when it was hit by a cyclone and washed up on the beach. It’s still there in the same spot and has been since the early 1900’s! It was rusty, decaying but a really interesting thing to see on the beach. Everyone seemed to ignore the sign saying that you couldn’t go anywhere near it.
Next stop was Eli Creek-the largest freshwater creek on the island.
It was clear, green, cucumber cool and as refreshing as a cold G&T. It was fun to just float in the creek and let the current take you along to the end. I had to avoid crashing into the influx of sunburnt British tourists in front of me, who kept stopping to take pictures of their raw tan lines, swear at each other and boast about how drunk they were the night before. Cringing as I avoided a pile up in the water, it didn’t exactly make me proud to be British!
