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Tamie Poepping Australia |
Fraser Island
Fraser Island 4WD Adventure
Next, it was another long overnight bus ride (9 hr journey) from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay. From Hervey Bay we headed out on a bit of a surprise adventure. We had signed up for a 3-day/2-night, self-guided, 4-wheel-drive tour of Fraser Island, a massive sand island off the east coast of Australia. It had the potential to be a nightmare and from the various stories from other groups, it was for some. There were 2 groups from our company, Palace Backpackers, and a dozen others from different companies. We were very lucky to be matched with a fantastic group. We had only 7 people in our vehicle, which again was good luck since most other vehicles were filled to the 11-12 person capacity.
The entire east coast is a long sand beach but is also a patrolled registered freeway and probably the only road on the island where you can get above 20 km/h.
With so much good luck, we were bound to hit some bad luck. We had a flat tire on the first day, but the boys took care of it quickly. The next morning we awoke to discover that the vehicle battery was dead, but the company managed to get a nearby mechanic on the island over to fix it. And so we were off for a second day of adventure.
Dingo!!!
Wild dingoes roamed the island but weren’t much of a problem other than requiring all food and garbage to be stored in the vehicle at night.
We started out shouting “Dingo” whenever someone spotted one, but it quickly became our team logo and cheer, and we soon had the other groups cheering “Dingo” in return.
Water sports
We ventured into the water at some of the beautiful creeks, lakes, or sheltered reef pools (Eli Creek, Lake Mackenzie, Champagne pools), but not into the sea, due to sharks and jellyfish.
Suzanne (Germany), Carolyn (Canada), Sandra & Remo (Switzerland), Johan & Tom (Sweden)
Sand sports
The inner part of the island had mainly bumpy tracks of sand or rough vegetation which made for slow driving but lots of fun.
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