I have wifi again, although it isn’t great, so excuse the lack of pictures.
I chose to do a trip to Fraser Island over New Years, a UNESCO heritage site. We had a pep talk the night before where the tour company squeezed in the fact that we were in tents and had no showers, which was marvellous of them.
We had to leave the hostel on the first day at 6am, and headed off to the ferry port in the four wheel drive cars. Once on the island, we were soon fearing for our lives due to the off-road driving. First, we headed down to a rainforest with a fresh water river running through, where we also stopped for lunch. After, there was a bit more off – road driving until we got to Lake Wabbi – a bit of a walk from a beach through a forest, then onto a sand dune, and finally into the lake. The lake contains fish that eat the dead skin off of your body.
After the walk back to the beach we drove to the camp where we cooked dinner, seperated into groups. Because of the fact that I’m a chef I opted to cook, not going to lie but I didn’t want someone to give me a rare or cooked to shit burger, and of course I had a backseat driver. All of the suggestions I responded that I’d just do it to their food and they could clean up the mess. It worked.
We had a few drinks, half the group were playing ring of fire. It’s a game where everyone has their own rules and everyone is convinced that their rules are right, kind of annoying so I sat out of it and chatted to some people. After a while we left the campsite where the night sky was the clearest I’ve ever seen it, and I doubt I will see anything like it until I see the Northern Lights someday. Of course, as we are in a country where half the wildlife wants to kill you, we had to take jagged plastic poles in case a dingo came after us.
The second day the weather wasn’t so great, I started off couting at least 50 mosquito bites. It was a lot of driving and the novelty of having your life flash before your eyes had worn off. The first stop was the Champagne Pools; a lot of people didn’t really partake just because it was a miserable day. On the way back, we stopped off at the famous shipwreck, then Eli Creek, which is a lazy river.
The last day we went to Lake McKenzie, probably the highlight of the trip. The lake is clear, and the sand you can use as a body scrub as well as shampoo. We stayed there for a couple of hours and true to form, I got sunburnt. A couple of hours later, we were waiting for the ferry.
Overall, the trip had its good and bad; I wish we were treated like people on holiday and not backpackers as it bought the Reading and Leeds Festival experience to what should have been a fantastic few days. I joke that I am a one man wolfpack like the guy in the Hangover films, but after the second night with 22 other people I needed some peace and quiet. I wouldn’t go again just because I’ve done it, but if I were to go again, I’d definitely pick a different company.