Fraser Island

So, we booked this pretty wicked sounding trip to Fraser Island. The Discovery Group. It was a bit expensive, but its quite near the top of ‘the list’ when everyone tells of the places that we have to see. Fraser Island, apparently, is the worlds largest sand island. They have fresh-water lakes, rainforest, and an incredible 75 mile long beach which also acts as the main road down the island. In the uniquely ‘creative’ Australian way, it’s called 75 Mile Beach.

We loaded into the 4WD (The Aussies say it ‘Four double-you dee’) tour bus called “The Warrior”, which was definitely the most bad-ass tour bus I have encountered.

Maheno Shipwreck

Wild Dingo

Fraser Island was pretty wicked that first day. We checked out the Maheno shipwreck, saw our first wild dingo, and enjoyed a few other local sights on the way up the island. On the north end of the island, there is a big overlooking rock called Indian Head, which we climbed and were promptly hit with panoramic views, including Humpback whales (no less than four) and dolphins (we first thought they may have been sharks) which you could see rounding up the schools of fish and pushing to the surface of the water, where they would “boil” on the top, before gobbling them up.

Indian Head

We headed back south, towards where we would sleep for the night. On the way we ran across a local aboriginal who was demonstrating some of their native words, and playing the didgeridoo. We also stopped at what is apparently the only shop on the island, so we could all get some refreshments for the evening. Being the only shop on a remote island in a remote island country, it was quite dumpy, and quite expensive. A liter of Jack Daniels was $69!! We found a reasonably priced bottle of Australian wine, and ran on our way.

 

It didn’t set a great expectation for what our accommodations for the night would be like, but we looked forward to our first Aussie Barbie! When we got to our lodgings, we were quite happily impressed! We had a huge apartment, which we shared with a girl named Kate from our tour bus. She turned out to be pretty nice, and we all had some wine then went down for dinner.

The BBQ was awesome, probably the best meal we will eat for quite some time! We all had a fun night chatting and learning about each others’ countries and ways of life, and the small stereotypes and idiosyncrasies that we run across travelling in Australia. All in all? It was an awesome first day of our tour, and we are very excited to see what happens tomorrow!