Chasing Amy-Lou

My last official weekend in Brisbane, before I embarked on a five week stint as an Au Pair, was spent on the magnificently beautiful Fraser Island.

Located off the East Coast of Australia, with access from Rainbow Beach or Hervey Bay, an approximate three hour drive from Brisbane itself, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It boasts some stunning views, fresh water lakes, rainforest walks and miles and miles of sandy beaches.

The Island is inhabited by wild Dingoes which if you’re lucky, can be spotted while driving along the sands. They may look like cute dogs but beware, they’re not, they’re actually quite vicious so we were told to stay pretty much well away from them. I still got a bit giddy when I spotted one though.

The length of Fraser Island is about 75 miles and is around 15 miles at its widest. It’s made up of sand that’s been accumulating for the last 750,000 years and produces its own water from the coffee rocks and sand sediments. More info about the Island can be found here: Fraser Island.

My visit to Fraser consisted of a three day, two night tour provided by Sunset Safaris. We were collected in Brisbane at around 7am on Friday morning by a 16-seater bus which would be our mode of transport for the whole weekend, and driven to Rainbow Beach where we caught the ferry across to the Island. There are of course, other tour companies to choose from such as Cool Dingo Tours or Dropbear Tours, each of which vary slightly in the itinerary and how they operate. The tour I choose was a guided one, where we were driven around the Island by a tour guide and stayed in a resort (Eurong) with proper beds and hotel-style catering. Other companies offer self-guided 4×4 experiences which means your group will split up and jump in several 4x4s, taking it in turns to drive while the leading vehicle will be driven by one of the guides. These tours usually camp on the Island rather than basking in luxury like we did (I’m being sarcastic here) and tend to be a tad more rowdy than the bus tours. That’s not to say we didn’t have fun, we did…I perhaps had a little bit too much fun, especially when the alcohol made an appearance and a bunch of Aussie guys came on the scene, but that’s digressing, ahem…

After landing on Fraser just after lunch on the Friday, we headed to the Red Canyon where we stopped off to admire our first of many views of the magnificent beaches, with pure white sand and crystal clear blue water. Truly breathtaking. From here we headed to Lake Wabby which was accessed by a 45 minute trek through the rainforests but boy was it worth it. Emerging from the trees we were greeted by vast, canyon-like, sand dunes that were just perfect in colour and looked idyllically untouched. A few hundred metres around the bend and our eyes settled upon a beautiful lake, fresh-watered and created from what used to be a river.

We made our way down the dunes and rested our towels on the edge of the lake. Taking the plunge, the water cold at first but wonderfully refreshing and serene once submerged. Swimming about the lake, taking in the atmosphere and the scenery, it felt like a mini-paradise, and it was easy to see why people loved this island so much; and this was just the beginning.

That evening we were treated to Mexican style food on the resort, followed by a walk on the beach to gaze at the stars; a truly magnificent spectacle viewing them on the Southern Hemisphere; so bright and in such abundance. This was followed by a few (too many) drinks at the resort bar and some interesting conversations with a bunch of Aussies who were there on a Christmas works party. The plan after this was to go to bed, get up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise, then go back to bed till it was officially time to get up at 6am. Yeah…that never happened…and I’m genuinely gutted that I failed miserably in my attempts to wake up so early as the sunrise was pretty incredible. Alcohol has a lot to answer for.

Saturday was probably one of the most jam-packed days I’ve had since I’ve been in Australia. We left Eurong at around 7:30am and made our way across the sands to a fascinating natural stream called Eli Creek. With over four million litres of water flowing from its mouth, out onto the beach, and then into the ocean every hour, it is considered to be one of Fraser Island’s most popular natural wonders (source: Eli Creek).

 

Leaving Eli Creek around 10:30am, we continued north to one of the most spectacular ocean views I’ve ever seen; it certainly beats Blackpool that’s for sure. Indian Head is the most easterly point of the Island and is located at one end of the Seventy Five Mile Beach. Indian Head was given its name by Captain Cook after he witnessed a number of Aboriginal people gathered there one evening, for at the time, ‘Indian’ was the collective name given to the native people of many different lands. The views from the cliff edge span for miles and miles and the beaches appears never-ending, the ocean touching the horizon. If you’re lucky you might just spot a shark, some dolphins, turtles or manta rays; we had all four: a genuinely blessed visit.

The afternoon was spent basking in the Champagne Pools around the other side of Indian Head, a collection of pools formed by volcanic rocks; Fraser Island’s very own Jacuzzi. The natives call the spots ‘natural fish traps’ due to the rocks that protect the swimming holes and the fact the waves crash over the rocks into the shallow pools. It’s the only place on the east of the Island where you’re actually allowed to swim in the saltwater (swimming in the sea is not recommended as it is not patrolled and poses many dangers to tourists such as strong rips and sharks that infest the ocean).

A stop off at the Maheno Shipwreck and a second dip in the frighteningly popular Eli Creek rounded off the day before we headed back to the resort for more food and more drink. En route we spotted a couple of Dingoes suspiciously eyeing up a few campers who were set back from the ocean. I thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t camping on the beach that night, didn’t fancy coming face to face with a wild rabid dog while taking a piss at 2am!

Our last night on Fraser was a pretty drunken one: goon, vodka, coronas, some toxic-looking, bright green cocktail, chats with Aussie blokes and a beach walk that ended up with sand EVERYWHERE and a grazed shin. Pretty successful I’d say.

Sunday morning arrived and the hangover was a bad one. With temperatures set to soar to the late thirties that afternoon, what better way to start off the day than a stroll through the rainforest…yeah…alright then? If it was an attempt to make me and the rest of our bleary-eyed tour feel any better then I think the word of the day would have to be ‘Fail’. We then took the short drive to Lake Birrabeen where we settled on the white sands before taking a dip in the last of our visits to one of over 100 fresh water lakes that the Island boasts.

I was sad to leave Fraser Island as it had given me an idea of what I’d been missing over the last eight weeks, that enriching experience, that adventure: truly immersing myself in the Australian culture and heritage. Had I been travelling continuously, stopping off in places like this every few days I think my experience of this wonderful country would have been a lot different: more enjoyable, maybe; more hectic, definitely; but it’s only provided me with a taste of things to come and in five weeks time I’ll be on the road once again to see what else Australia has on its doorstep.