Fraser Island

The day started with a briefing and safety video at 6.55 am (this was because our bus came too late for the 2 pm meeting the day before). After the briefing, the cars arrived and we got into our groups. I was in a car with Dutch Laura and Stephi, Swizz sisters Val and Susie, Danish twins Andreas and Christopher and their friend Peter.

After checking for scratches, taking photos of them and writing them down on an official document, our tour officially started and we all got into our cars. Peter drove first. We drove from the hostel "Frasers on Rainbow" to the ferry which would take us over to the island in about 5 minutes.

Dylan, Rens, Tommy and Sam on the ferry

We drove straight off the ferry and into the sand and within the first 15 minutes we got our first sighting of a Dingo. Everybody overly excitedly took photos of it but about 10 minutes later we passed another 3 in a row, of which no one took photos.

Our first stop was a 2 km walk away from Lake Wabby. To get to it, you had to walk through a dense forest and then through a sand dune area. Laura, Stephi and I were the last through the path, so we got to the sand dune alone - which was pretty sweet for photos! Lake Wabby is apparently very good for your skin as it has lots of tea tree oil in it from the surrounding trees.

The lake also had big catfish in it, which kind of look like sharks on this photo below! We met the rest of our tour group by the lake and spent about an hour just chilling, swimming and sunbathing. I also saw Marco again from Surfers Paradise, he has an underwater camera, which I am very jealous of!

Rens doing the symbol for bad surf

Tommy

We walked back to the cars and then drove to Eli Creek. A shallow, cold river which is supposed to be some of the cleanest water in the world. If you lay back and keep your chin up, you can float all the way from the top, with the current to the bottom. It was a really nice relaxing experience, even if it was a bit cold!

Next we drove to the camp site, where we stayed for both our nights on Fraser Island. The camp site is on aboriginal owned land which means you are not allowed to whistle or spit in the fire, as apparently this invited demons onto the grounds.

It was three to a tent so Laura, Stephi and I bunked up together and then we cooked our stir fry together as a car-group. It was really really tastey but by far not enough for all 8 of us! We had fruit cake for pudding and then the camp site party began.

Spiders near the toilets

The next day started at 8.30 am with Jeff our tour guide coming around the tents to wake us all up. This time Laura began the days drive. We drove to the bottom of a short walk to Campaign Pools.

Jeff explaining some things about the island

The view from the path to Campaign Pools was really breath taking, from either side you could see for miles.

And then we turned the corner and got our first glimpse of the actual pools...

Campaign Pools

Campaign Pools were so beautiful, I think that they are my favourite place so far in Australia and maybe in the whole of world (well the bits I've been to so far anyway!) Unfortunately we didn't have much more than 2 hours there before we headed back to the cars for lunch.

After lunch we walked up to Indian Head to watch some marine wild life. The views from here were spectacular as well. We spent about 2 hours just sat on the rock cliff watching the clear blue water below. It was a really peaceful experience and we were lucky enough to see sting rays, a turtle, a shark and some dolphins!

Cliff edge

Hairstyle by Laura

Blue land, blue sky

The view of the beach from the cliff edge

A turtle

A sting ray

Reflecting Sunglasses

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without being joined by the other group and another quick sighting of Marco from Surfers Paradise. I am starting to meet the same people over and over again!

Marco

Dolphins

After the dolphins, we drove on to the famous shipwreck on Fraser Island. This time Stephi drove. She managed to drive us through a biiiig splash of sea water, which Jeff saw and told us off for - woops!

Tommy and me

After the shipwreck, we drove to Eli Creek again and sunbathed while some people played volley ball. That was the end of our final full day, and we drove back to the camp site for a second day party (and steak for dinner! Again really tasty but by far not enough.) We played the drinking game "slaps" for about 3 hours that night, which was pretty hilarious but ended up with a very funny story of Stephi and Laura tipping over backwards on the way to the bathroom.

The last day started at 7.15 am with left overs for breakfast. We packed up the car, emptied out our tents and got our cutlery counted before heading out.

We drove for quiet a while in the morning until we got to Lake McKenzie which is a huge lake made up of only rain water. It has grown in the last few years which meant that when crossing over a bridge to get to a "secret beach" you were actually walking waste high in water!

Underwater bridge

At the beach, we met the other tour group, so Marco was there again, but we also saw female Sam and Harry from Gagaju/Noosa, who'd both started the tour from Hervey Bay, which was a nice end to our trip.

After lunch by "Central Station" which is basically the 'town center' of the island, which includes 2 hotels, one shop and a little restaurant. We drove for the last time, back to the island, along a very long dirt track.

About half way along the dirt track, we realised something was wrong with the car, so we stopped and realised that the left back tire had gone flat. We beeped the horn for the rest of the tour to stop and then waited for Jeff to come back and take a look at it.

Jeff and another tour leader came with cranks and other tools and spent about 15 minutes changed the tire with our spare one at the back, during this time, the two tour groups combined to come and laugh at our group.

But then the ordeal was over and we were back on track, driving a little faster in order to catch the ferry on time. I'm actually pretty glad it happened because now I feel that I've had the real experience with all the things that can go wrong and all the things that can go right!

We got onto the ferry, drove for about 10 minutes back into Rainbow Beach, tanked up, cleared the cars and then walked back to the hostel to check back in for one more night.

Overall, I think Fraser Island was one of my favourite experiences so far of all of my Gap Year and I am really looking forward to doing the Whitsundays which is kind of the same thing except lots of islands and I'll be seeing them on a boat instead of in a car.

But until then, I'll be in Agnes Waters!
Lucy xxo

Noosa

On my first night in Noosa, I stayed in Noosa Nomads, my first Nomads experience (I wasn't very impressed to be honest) where I met the very hungover Charlie from the Watford area. The first person I have met on my travels so far who is also from Hertfordshire! We spent about an hour chatting about A Levels and what it's like to finish school and start travelling. We were later joined by his 3 friends, Harry, Guy and Buster or Alex. 

That night there was another free "Sausage Sizzle" which I ate with another one of my room mates, Charlotte, and then we all headed into the hostels bar before heading to a club, which was so empty it was kind of embarrassing but I made the most of it anyway by dancing stupidly all night long. 

The next morning, I was up early as I was going to the Noosa Everglades Canoe Tour. I got a shuttle bus back to Noosa Junction, and then got the Everglades shuttle bus to a shop, where we were told to make sure we had exactly $75 ($50 for National Park Camping Licence, $20 as a deposit and $5 to rent a sleeping bag) and to have enough food and alcohol for the three days of the tour. 

We then all piled back onto our bus which drove for about another 30 minutes to get to the Gagaju camp site, which was directly next to the river. On the first night, we slept in dorm room style rooms with hammock style bunk beds (see picture below). I slept pretty well in them, though some of the other girls complained about how uncomfortable they were the next morning so maybe I was just super tired!

The first morning of the experience started at 7 am in the morning, a 5 minute walk up the track to a warm shower and flushing toilets facilities, and then back down to camp to eat breakfast and to make sandwiches for the afternoon. At 8 am we had to be ready at the side of the river, with life jackets and our belongings in a big blue water-proof tub.

"This is a self guided tour, so we wont be coming with you..." 

We were given directions to a rope swing and a beach and then we were pushed into the river and let loose. The mornings weather was pretty crappy so none of our group was really in the mood to row for 16 km, but eventually we got to the beach and then the weather started to turn for the better.

In a boat with English Leo and Harry.

With the weather slowly improving, we ate our lunch and took a couple of group photos, including an attempt at making a huge pyramid but it kind of failed a bit, due to lack of strength and climbing ability! (In case you're wondering why I am placed where I am, it is because my camera has self timer, so I had to run to get where I am each time.)

By now it was starting to get really sunny, so we decided we would go to the rope swing. One of the German girls on another boat took a couple of photos of me jumping into the river, which she put onto my memory stick later but some how they didn't transfer properly so now I don't have a copy of them any more, sad face!

On the way back, Leo, Harry and I decided we'd take it real slow and basically let the current take us back while we lay back and enjoyed the sun. The sweet life ;) We were the last back and arrived when the kitchen was real full, but I still made enough Spaghetti Bolognaise for me, Harry, Leo and a German girl whose soup had been stollen!

That night we played 'Risk' on Mexican Santi's ipad. Dutch Mike won both times, while Santi was always occupied in taking Mexico and Harry came second both times with his "all or nothing" strategy. Rens and Dylan were also there, who I'd met earlier on my trip for one night in Surfers Paradise. It's really great bumping into all these people I already know!

The next day started a little later, at around 9 am we got into our boats and paddled in the opposite direction to the day before. (About half of our group had decided to leave early this morning as they hadn't enjoyed the first day or the nights sleep in a tent as much as they thought they would).

This time we had better luck and it was sunny right from the start. This made paddling a lot more fun and it felt like no time at all before we reached the lake that we had to cross to get to the beach.

Harry enjoying the sun

Joining our boats together for a more sociable row

The best rowing team!

After a bit of confusion where we tried to park our canoes on someone private property, we found the correct place, tucked our equipment underneath the canoes and walked the 2 km to the beach. This was one of my favourite days so far. The sun was out, the people were funny and we had food and Goon (the backpackers drink here in Australia). So of course we got a load more funny pictures.

Of the 4 English girls who were in my group, only Sam stayed longer (the others left on the second morning) and I am really glad she did as otherwise I'd have been the only girl on the second row day. (There were other girls too, like the German ones, but they were anti-social and Dutch Steph and Laura were in our group too but I didn't actually really speak to them until the last evening!)

Tommy and male Sam really enjoyed their practical jokes that day (including Sam and Harry capsizing both our boats on the way back to the camp site) and Harry continued his tradition of taking at least one bare-bum-photo per country...

The whole group, without those that left.

The day ended with us paddling back to camp a little later than we were told to do so, and after the previously mentioned capsizing, we were slowly running out of day light. Female Sam had climbed in with Leo and me, we left male Sam and Harry to deal with their own boats and peddled on. Unfortunately they caught up with us pretty quickly again, but after I asked "nicely" for them not to capsize us again, they didn't. 

Instead they decided to start a race, to see who could get back the fastest, but that blew up in their own faces as Harry counted "1, 2, 3, swap" (on swap they would change sides peddling) but as both guys changed sides, their slightly filled-with-water-canoe tipped over and capsized them both again. It was pretty damn hilarious to watch! Especially because Harry had literally counted down for it to happen - "1, 2, 3 Swap" and exactly on "Swap" they capsized!

We all went to bed pretty early that night - after two days of paddling we were all a bit sore. In the morning, we realised that all of us except female Sam were on the same Greyhound bus to Rainbow Beach, plus Harry and Leo were going one stop further to Hervey Bay. So when we got off at Rainbow Beach, we said see you later to Harry and Leo, and all checked in to the same hostel. (Frasers on Rainbow). I was checked into the same room as Dutch Laura and Stephi (who by now I had started talking to and we were getting along great, so that was really lucky!) and Tommy and Sam were in the room next to us. We also saw Rens and Dylan again, and I found out that Marco from Surfers Paradise was in the hostel next to us! We were also all going to be in the same tour group...

Next stop - Fraser Island!
Lucy xxo