Fraser Island (QLD Trip)

Located off the east coast of Australia, ca. 200 km north of Brisbane, lies Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. The 1630 sqm island itself contains more sand than the Sahara Desert.
April 15 we reach this island by ferry, the only way of access. Four-wheel drives (4WD) are a requirement to move and thus not surprisingly also our tour bus (from Cool Dingo Tours) is perfectly adjusted to the sandy conditions, i.e. also 4WD. Seatbelts are more than recommended on the motor-cross-like roads.

Day 1:

First of all we leave our luggage at our overnight accomodation, in the Kingfisher Bay Resort.

In the early afternoon a walk through the bush

leads to this green lake, Lake Basin. Falling leaves from the trees create not only the green colour but also render the sand on the bottom of the lake impermeable. Quite a rare phenomenon...

The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. The most popular is Lake McKenzie (see pictures below). It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter. The beach sand is nearly pure silica and is good for washing hair, teeth, jewelry and exfoliating the skin.

Day 2:

Off to the east coast of the island and along the Highway, the 75-mile-beach that you can see on the pictures. Regular speed and alcohol controls are conducted by the police on that rather sandy than tarmac road which however is really declared as highway.

A major landmark of Fraser Island is the shipwreck of the Maheno. On June 25th, 1935 she was being towed from Melbourne to Japan for scrap metal when she was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island.

Another attraction are the Pinnacle Sandstones, coloured sands...

...and huge sand dunes like this one at Cathedral Beach:

A nice bath in the Champagne Pools...

...before climbing Indian Heads. From the top one could see why swimming on the beach of Fraser Island isn't really recommended: because of sharks... Dolphins could also be seen (but like the sharks too small to take a photo from that distance).

Despite 4WD: also driving in the sand needs to be practiced...

Dingos are common on the island. These animals are some of the last remaining pure dingos whose remaining number is estimated to ca. 150 on the island. Until 1995 there was no history of dingos attacking humans, however caution always has to be excercised...

Well, these were another two great days of my trip. But in the early evening we have to take the ferry back to mainland Hervey Bay. Back to the Palace Backpacker's.