Fraser Island

Fraser Island is a big pile of sand in the ocean, and it is said that every grain of sand off the Australian east coast will eventually be washed up on Fraser Island. It's something like 150k long and about a tenth of that wide at the widest point. It's one long beach, with a ribbon of rain forest growing along its spine. There are no roads - this is strictly 4WD territory. The sea around Fraser is singularly unsuitable for swimming. If the rips and undercurrents doesn't drown you, the plentiful sharks will finish the job. Fortunately, the island has some redeeming features - 50 or so crystal clear fresh water lakes in its interior, one more spectacular than the next. The rainforest is the home of some unusual flora and fauna not found anywhere else. Dingoes wander around everywhere - they might look like cute puppies but one is wise not to forget that they are wild animals. The dingoes here are the only pure breed left in Australia. The ones found on the mainland has been crossbred with domestic dogs.

There are several ways of exploring Fraser Island, ranging from hiring your own beat up 4WD and DIY-ing it, to fully guided tours in purpose-built 4WD trucks. After some soul-, and wallet searching we opted for the tour option. Hiring a landy or something between the two of us would have been beyond our budget. Sharing the hire with random punters didn't appeal. We went with Trailblazers, a 3-day, 2-night trip with 17 people. We had a beach hut base in the middle of the island where we slept and ate, but most of the time we were out and about. The crowd was diverse, ranging from Leicester surgeons to Essex boys on a mission and everything between. Mark, our guide was very amusing, and not afraid to wind up the gullible. The first day saw us drive pretty much the length of the east coast, stopping for a dip in Eli Creek, a freshwater creek running out from the dunes at a rate of 90 million litres a day. A lot of rain falls on Fraser, and it trickles down through the sand getting filtered to such purity that it's actually unhealthy to drink. No minerla content means that the osmosis pressure in the body is too low and the water can't actually enter our blood stream. A bit like drinking distilled water. Anyway, after between 30 and 100 years after falling as rain, the water reenters the sea through one of these creeks. At Indian head on the north eastern tip we hung around and watched the rays playing the water below before returning to camp and a BBQ + beer and a long night. The next day we went to one of the fresh water lakes, Lake Birrabeen, a so called 'window lake' in that it forms a window into the water table. Picture card perfect. The water so clear, and the sands so white that it was too painful to look at without sunglasses. We spent most of the day here, swimming and generally lazing about. Most people visiting Fraser rave about another lake, Lake McKenzie. It's easier to access, so most people go there, which was fine with us, seeing that we got to have Birrabeen to ourselves. Today we went to another lake which had been formed by a different process. A giant sand dune has created a dam, blocking off a creek. We walked to this lake across the sands, a real desert landscape. The swim was a most welcome escape from the heat. At lunch time we made our way back to the truck, had some foor and made our way back to Noosa. A great trip.