Hervey bay is a delightful little beach town where it seems the primary purpose of visits are to take trips to fraser Island. We were here, however, just to relax, which we did. Our hostel, woolshed backpackers, was made up of little wood cabins nestled among greenery. The beach itself was beautiful, and empty-always a bonus. We walked and rested and enjoyed the sunshine, as well as being amazed by the outdoor purpose built gym equipment along the cycle/jogging path. I made many attempts to pretend I was going to go for a run an enjoy this novely but never quite made it!!
Following our short stay in Hervey Bay we travelled a few hours south to Rainbow Beach. Here our purpose was indeed to visit fraser Island! Our trip was organised through our hostel, pippies, where we met our group and had a briefing on very importand information such as how to not smash up there car and what to do upon dingo encouter! Fraser Island is apparently the largest sand Island in the world. Somehow a whole lot of sand gathered there and now vegetation grows on it. It is full of rainforests and freshwater lagoons, and apparently things that can kill you! Firstly there are the deadly dingos, which look a little larger than dogs and have a fox-like tail. But they are not so friendly, if you are lucky enough to survive a dingo encounter there are a few other things to be wary of. The ocean for example, with its strong rip tides and carpets of blue bottom jellyfish, not to mention the sharks that live in there. Back on land, where you think you are safe (providing there are no dingos nearby) one must be wary of spiders and snakes too! Australia is a dangerous place!
Still the 11 of us were acquainted with our vehicle and off we set, soon we were gliding along a beach on the way to lake mackenzie, a stunning freshwater lagoon! A bumpy sand ride later and we were in our first campsite-central station-where we set up a 'barbie' and enjoyed the wonders of goon (wine in a bag-mmmm!)...The next morning took us to a ship-wreck (who knows what ship or what happened to it but it was pretty cool) then to indian head, a big cliff where you can see the sharks swimming below, I stood back and took pictures instead! That evening our second campsite brought us to Daniel the aboriginal, who tought us the didgerydoo and gave us a great insight into the traditional way of live in Australia. Women are infact not allowed to play the didgerydoo and must ask permission to touch or talk about one. The aboriginals are traditionally friends with the islanders, including the fijians, and it did not suprise us then to hear how they used to make spears to kill people-the punishment for women who touch the didgerydoo in fact! (whether they ate them too is a mystery-we didnt fancy asking!) Our time soon came to leave fraser, which was sad as our group had all got on so well! Yet homeward bound was not so smooth sailing for while singing along to our music in the car it suddenly appeared we had indeed stopped moving. So we clambered out of the car to pull some sand out from under the tyres. Still the car would not move. We tried again. The rain came. The tide was coming in. Soon all of us were on hands and knees digging for our lives before the tide soon came in and washed the car away and we were all eaten alive by sharks! Thankfully a few kind passers by stopped and were able to tow us out and put our car back into 4 wheel drive (it had slipped to 2), and we were on our way home!
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