Australia - Fraser Island & Rainbow Beach

Fraser Island is one of the places in Australia that I think is considered a must-see by most. Allegedly, it is the largest sand island in the world, and I think the whole island is a national park. While day trips are possible, you really need a few days to see the island properly. Amongst backpackers, the standard trip is a 3 day/2 night tag-along 4x4 camping excursion, where a group of 20-40 pile into a few 4x4's with a guide in the lead car, drive around to the various sights, and camp at night. There are at least 5 different companies that do it, and there all pretty fungible from what I can tell, but I went with Dingo's, which is based out of Rainbow Beach, just south of Fraser Island. Because it's a full day on the island on either side of the 2 nights on the island, it also means a night in Rainbow Beach before and after that are generally included with the cost of the trip.

Day 58 - Tuesday, March 20

So, on Tuesday, I hopped back on the greyhound and headed north another couple of hours from Noosa to Rainbow Beach. That afternoon we had a briefing on the trip and got to meet the folks that would be in our car and in the other tag-along cars. We also learned that afternoon that just to the north, severe storms had led to tornadoes and flooding, causing pretty severe damage, and as a result greyhound buses weren't running to a few northern stops. I wasn't really concerned about the bus because I wasn't heading north until Saturday (4 days later), but it did prompt me to look at the weather. It became clear that the weather system that had led to the rain, tornadoes and flooding was heading south and would be passing through Fraser Island while we were on the island, meaning pretty terrible weather the whole time we were supposed to be there. Awesome. I had already booked everything at that point, so changing dates wasn't an option. So I ordered a 4.5 liter box of goon (goon is the Aussie's name for boxed wine) for myself for the 2-night trip and figured I'd try to make the most of it.

Day 59 - Wednesday, March 21

We had to be checked out of the hostel and ready to go by 730 for the trip to Fraser. It was overcast and grey skies, but no rain just yet. We loaded up the SUVs and headed over to the island. I somehow ended up driving first. Driving on the left and shifting with the left hand was definitely a little weird, but no major incidents on the initial drive, though I did accidentally turn the windshield wipers on when I meant to use the turn signal (those were switched as well), which got a chuckle from the others in the car. When we got to the island, it still wasn't raining, so the guide, who was also familiar with the weather forecast, suggested we head to Lake McKenzie (which some consider the nicest part of Fraser Island), because Wednesday was supposed to be the nicest of the 3 days. So we started the drive through the woods up to the lake, and sure enough it started to rain. I didn't even take the camera out because of the rain, but we all sucked it up and made the best of it and swam in the lake for a bit, which was actually still quite amazing to see even in the rain. Here's what it looks like when it's not quite so rainy:

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

Then we headed to the shipwreck of the Maheno, a pretty cool, and oft-photographed location. Again, I left the camera in my pocket, but snapped a couple as we drove by a few days later, none of which were as good as this guy's picture (again courtesy of my friend google):

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

Then we headed to camp, where we set up tents and it looked like I was going to luck out and have a tent to myself. So I set up a tent and threw my bag in it and went to help with dinner and dig into my boxed wine, while the rain continued to come down.

One of the things that Fraser Island is most known for is all the wild dingoes that roam the island. Dingoes are like a wolf-dog hybrid that looks pretty similar to any mid-size domestic dog in the US, but are more related to wolves and have been known to attack humans. We were warned not to leave any food in our tents because they've also been known to rip up tents to get to food. So after a good group dinner and putting a decent dent in my box of wine, I went back to get something from my tent and what do you know, the damn dingoes had ripped apart my tent and the neighboring one and my toiletries were scattered all over the tent and sunscreen was everywhere. Awesome. It seems it was probably the sunscreen that attracted them, so if you're ever in a dingo-infested area, keep in mind that they love the smell of sunscreen. I did some cursory cleaning up and decided I just needed to have some more drinks, and that's exactly what I did. Turns out maybe a few too many. Apparently I told the folks from my car that I was going to the bathroom and after about 20 minutes they got worried and went looking for me. Turns out I had passed out in my tent - my very ripped tent. So when I woke up at about 6am to even harder rain, I had mosquito (and horsefly? and ant?) bites everywhere they could get to, which was primarily my feet, my hands, and my face. Awesome. I really hate mosquitoes. and dingoes. and rain. and boxed wine. but mostly mosquitoes and dingoes. Not a great start to the trip.

Day 60 - Thursday, March 22

Somehow between 6am when I first woke up and 8am when I rewoke up to start the day and get breakfast and whatnot, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It seemed a minor miracle given the weather forecast, but perhaps my luck had changed. We headed to Eli Creek, better known as Hangover Creek. It is more like a lazy river that is only a couple of feet deep and flows with enough velocity that you can sort of just float down it. It gets it's unofficial name due to its alleged ability to cure hangovers. As it turns out, creeks can only do so much for a hangover, because mine wasn't exactly cured after a swim/float in the creek, though I did feel a bit better.

From there we headed up past some sand cliffs called The Pinnacles...

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

and to the champagne pools, so named because they are filled by the waves crashing against the rocks and as they pour into the pools they are filled with fizzy bubbles like champagne.

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From the pools, there is also pretty nice views of Indian Head, which was a destination later in the day:

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

Then we headed to Waddy Point and hiked up some sand dunes, and chilled out in the tidal pool/lagoon.

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

The entire day, our guide couldn't believe that the sun stayed out because every time he phoned someone on the mainland at Hervey Bay (a mile or so west of Fraser) or Rainbow Beach (a mile or so south of Fraser) they said it was pouring down rain there. Somehow we got spared and had nice weather pretty much all day. We ended the day at Indian Head:

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

I opted to set up a new tent when we got back to the campsite. Especially after learning that day that the dingoes on Fraser used to hunt wild horses and the way they kill them and other large prey, including humans, is that they go straight for the femoral artery on the inside of the thigh to bleed out their prey as quickly as possible. I figured sleeping in a tent open to the air with such animals roaming around wasn't the best idea. But more importantly, I wanted to keep the stupid mosquitoes out. With the new tent, the second night was much better than the first.

Day 61 - Friday, March 23

It poured down rain all night again, but again let up a bit in the morning. We made our way back down the island, stopping off at Lake Wabby, a greenish lake with very steep sandbanks on the edge of a large sandblow, which is kind of like a mini-dessert. With the rain, I left the camera in the car, so here's some more stolen photos:

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

When we got back to Rainbow Beach, I was greeted by an email from Greyhound saying that the following day's bus service I had booked from Rainbow Beach to 1770 (aka Agnes Water) had been cancelled because of flooding that prevented access to 1770. My best alternative was to rebook a 17-hour overnight bus ride on Sunday from Rainbow Beach all the way up to my next stop after 1770, which was Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands.

Day 62 - Saturday, March 24

The issues with the bus allowed me to take Saturday to just relax, do some much needed laundry, get a few blog posts up and generally just regroup and recharge my batteries after a rather exhausting 3 days on Fraser. Later in the afternoon, I did a short hike up to Cooloola National Park, which had a cool sandblow and nice views of the surrounding beaches from up on the cliffs.

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

From Australia - Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

Day 63 - Sunday March 25

I got on the bus in Rainbow Beach at noon, got off in Hervey Bay for a few hours to switch buses, and arrived in Airlie Beach a little after 8am on Monday morning. Luckily the bus wasn't too full, the air conditioning worked, and I was able to get some sleep.