Sandy shores - Fraser Island

One of the things that was high on our to-do list on Australia's East coast was a visit to Fraser Island: the biggest sand island in the world and home to the purest strain of dingos. You'll find many more trivia on Wikipedia. Anyway, we chose Hervey Bay as our jumping point to Fraser. At the campsite, we booked an overnight tour with Fraser Explorer. They picked us up at 7:20 am, and after a few more pickups, drove to the ferry to Fraser Island. 

The 'roads' on Fraser Island

Since there are no roads on the islands, only 4WD tracks, our tour was in a 4WD bus. Our group was about 20 people, ranging from twenties to sixties. The first stop was Lake McKenzie, a gorgeous blue lake. It is filled with only rainwater, and absolutely transparent. And pretty cold this time of year. Unfortunately all the tours stop at the lake at about the same time, so it is rather busy. Since we were on an overnight your instead of a day tour, we could stay a bit longer than most. 

Lake McKenzie's picture perfect blue water

The next stop was Central Station, the former loggers village of the island. Our guide told us a lot about the history and nature of the place, and afterwards we walked a few kilometres through the rainforest. We walked past 'the invisible stream', which was aptly named. We really had to look twice to see the water, it was that clear! 

Fraser Highway (75 Mile Beach)

Our bus picked us up at the end of the track, and we headed for Eurong beach resort to have lunch. And that was pretty good. We have been cooking ourselves for the last few weeks, and made pretty decent meals. But it's lovely to have someone else do the cooking, with obviously more than one pot! 

Sand blow

After lunch we drove on 75 Mile Beach, also known as the Fraser Highway, to one of the giant sand blows. Fraser Island is completely made of sand, and continues to built up. On the east side of the island are multiple sand blows, and the rainforest grows on the west side of the island. While we were up on the sand blow, we look down at the ocean.... And saw our first whale! July is the start of the whale migration and many humpbacks can be seen off the coast of Fraser. And they're pretty close, a few hundred meter at times. 

Our first whale!

When we came down, we headed back to the resort, and just before we got there we spotted a dingo! Whoohoo! Now, from all the brochures and travel books, you'd think that Fraser is teeming with dingos, but rangers are trying to minimise contact at the moment. Quite a few areas are closed to the public due to their mating season, but also because there have been multiple attacks, even fatal ones in the recent years. But at least we saw one! 

Curious dingo

We then had a little nap before dinner. It's either our age or the many early rises we've had so far... The lorikeets are everywhere in this country and start screaming at sunrise; that's 6am folks! Anyway, after dinner we went to the Mexican buffet, and ate way to much. We shared our table with four twenty-somethings, and we all did the same.... Going out for dinner it pretty expensive here, and if there is food included, it's usually a burger with chips. Having a different style of food, and loads of veggies, was a real treat!

After dinner we made an attempt to go to the beach bar, but that was so pathetic we decided to head to bed. But man, our room was cold! Even tough the winters are very mild compared to the Dutch winters, it still is mid winter in July. We found 2 extra blankets and a small electrical heater, that we all used. 

View from Indian Head

The next morning we had another lavish buffet for breakfast, and left at 7:30. Because of the high tide we had to make a few detours, but made it all the way to Indian Head; a rocky outcrop with great views. We didn't now where to look.... Several pods of humpbacks breaking and blowing in front of us in the ocean, manta rays at the bottom of the cliff, and sea eagles just above us. We lost track of time just sitting there, and had to hurry down. Our next stop were the Champagne Pools, two rock pools just north of Indian Head. 

A pod of humpbacks, three in a row

After a picnic lunch we drove south again, and stopped at the wreck of the SS Maheno. We had driven past it on our way up, but it was mostly submerged at that time. Because the tide was lower now, we could see most of it. The Maheno drifted ashore in 1935, when she was towed to a shipyard to be dismantled. So no casualties at this particular ship wreck. 

Our guide told us her story. Sailing from 1905 till 1935, her main route was from Auckland to Sydney. And she held the record for the fastest trip from Sydney to Auckland for 25 years. She must have been a remarkable ship. And she sailed back and forth to Sydney at the same period in time that my grandfather was there. I suddenly realised that I was probably looking at the wreck of a ship that he saw sailing in his years. One of those moments when time seems to fade.

The Wreck of the SS Maheno

We took the ferry back to Hervey Bay at sunset. Because it was already dark during the trip from the ferry to the campsite, we saw some wildlife in the way there, most notably were a fox and an echidna.

Sunset from Fraser