Monday, 29 October 2012

3 days on Fraser Island

Where do I start. 
So all I knew about Fraser Island was that it is a 'must see' island of white sands and turquoise water, but it was so much more. 

6.30 we prised ourselves out of bed, free pancakes, a lost (then found) room key, a lecture on 4 wheel driving, dingo safety and sea dangers and we were ready to go. We were put in a group of 10, the only group to be driven by a tour guide, with 4 others groups following in convoy.  Team ARF-ur!



All the roads on Fraser Island are sand dunes so we were all thrown around in the car like clothes in a tumble dryer, a fast track to getting close to those we shared our 4WD with. One slight rock and your sat on the person next to you! Looking back, I miss the bumpy driving conditions, and every journey to and from the campsite. But every single thing that happened on Fraser Island added to the experience. The night I wore 6 flip flops, watching out for sharks in the waves,  the journey holding Hannah's sick bag, finishing off bags of goon then using the wine bag as a pillow, cutting my face getting too close to the limbo stick, our driver Darren, loosing my shoes on a 2 hour trek through a forrest in the WRONG direction, the many dark walks to the toilet armed with a dingo stick, the card games with goon, a campsite with 68 young backpackers, making it up a scary sand hill and waiting for the cars in convoy to make it (or not, in most cases), the hand sized spider, the fantastic weather, the times I collapsed laughing, the eagles, the birds with cocktail stick legs, making friends in the shower line, giving mouth to mouth to my finger puppet Notorious P.I.G, the creaking trees, irish people, getting lost in snake/dingo 
territory, getting my hair caught in the tend zip, losing most of my belongings, then 
finding them...all! And then all the wonderful trips we had at Lake Wabby, Lake Mackenzie, Champagne Pools, the natural lazy river, and the evenings cooking dinner in our groups.


The campsite: K'Gari, (Paradise) is owned by Aboriginals, and so followed 2 strict spiritual rules. 
1. No spitting into fire.... Reasonable, and easy to follow!
2. No whistling...
 The evil spirits are definitely out to get me now.  To me, a whistle ban is harder than a talking ban! Whistle just leaks from my mouth subconsciously most seconds of my existence, and so of course I got told off a lot. It was so strange to follow such a foreign rule, to be banned from doing something that I see as harmless and uplifting. But, I tried! :)

 I walked so hard my legs ceased up, and laughed so hard my stomach muscles 
cramped. And we have made some fabulous friends... Miss Power and Miss Fleming, to name just a couple. The thing I loved most is how a room full of complete strangers from all over the world, can turn into a family during a 3 day camping trip, even our tour guide noticed- 'the best Fraser trip to date'.


I can't do a day to day diary log of my 3 days on the island, because just too much happened and it would take too long. All I can say is...when I have a child, I'm calling him Fraser!



Next stop: Airlie Beach


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