It’s already the last day of January, time flies. Time flies especially on Fraser island, since we had such an amazing time on this big island off the coast in Australia.
At 4:00pm I had to be in the briefing room of the hostel. Arriving, there were 20 others gathered who were all getting ready for Fraser island. An hour of talk followed by one of the guides. We should bring swim gear, shorts, flip flops and plenty of food and alcohol.
We got divided into 3 groups. I ended up with 6 Germans. I was a bit anxious about it at first, but it all worked out fine in the end. We had to make a shopping list. The first question I got was “how many slices of bread do you eat for lunch?” So after some calculating the shopping fuhrer did not write down ‘5 breads’, or whichever, no there was ‘150 slices of bread’ on the shopping list. German efficiency all the way.
After buying enough food and booze, we headed back to the hostel. We got summoned into the briefing room again and got some bad news. The whole camp site was flooded and tents got washed away. The trip was either going to be cancelled, or we had to pay extra and stay in a hostel instead. There was a debate going on regarding the extra cost and such. In the end, we either had to pay or the trip got cancelled. Luckily, we decided to go for the trip anyway.
The next morning I had to wake up at 5:30 to check out at 6:00am. We had to watch a whole training video regarding driving a 4x4 jeep on the sand. After watching that training video which contains very bad acting. We headed off to get our jeeps. All the groceries in the back. Beer in the blue fridge boxes, some ice on top and we were good to go. Off to the ferry.
After the 30 minute boat ride we arrived at Fraser island. We headed off to our first spot, a nice lake where we could go for a swim. Really blue water. It was still dry, which was very fortunate. It had been raining the day before really badly. The forecast basically said 3 days of rain.
After our swim it was my turn to get behind the wheel. A very heavy clutch paddle, the steering wheel and gear stick at the wrong side, but apart from that it was just a big car. Driving is a lot of fun, going through the small sandy roads, loads of bumps in the road, it definitely brought a smile on my face. I ended up yelling “more power” while accelerating through those windy roads. I felt a bit like Jeremy Clarkson. The germans started giving me names like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
We headed to the hostel to fire up the barbie. (Aussies tend to shorten words, so they won’t say barbecue.) After dinner the serious drinking began. Around 11:00pm we were all in a good party mood. Part of our crew were 4 loud British girls. That’s how I’ve been describing them ever since. They sure do know how to get a party started. At our first swimming session they already gave everyone a nickname which started with the same first letter and was typical for Australia. We had Outback Ollie, Jungle Jess, Scott the Shark etc. I became Eucalyptus Erik.
So the 4 loud British girls started yelling skinny dipping. About an hour later about 15 of us were running towards the pool behind our hostel. About 40 people were sitting outside the pool, enjoying a drink. In the pool were about 5 or 10 people, they didn’t stay in long as soon as we’ve entered.
I must have had good karma cause I woke up quite fresh and not hungover at all. The second day involved more scenic stuff and loads of swimming. The best spot we went for a swim was the Champagne pools. It’s a little area at the beach which is covered by rocks. The waves crash on those rocks and it’s a beautiful sight. The rocks are covered in small sharp shells, so we were to avoid those rocks. Unfortunately when I tried to get out, I got washed over by a wave and ended up cutting my hands. feet and legs up. So I came out with a red track behind me.
Just like my Whitsundays trip, there were now even 4 nurses in our group. The 4 loud British girls. Again, no sympathy was given. As soon as I was diagnosed by light cuts, and nothing serious. I heard things like “man up”, “you’ll live” and “maybe we should amputate your hands”.
I managed to live through my injuries and we went off to see more scenic stuff along the island. Followed by another ‘barbie’ and a good night of drinking. The last day we headed for a big lake in the middle of the Island. Very blue water and it was a very refreshing swim. After the lake we headed back on the ferry to arrive in Hervey Bay again.
Fraser island was a very good trip. We had great weather, which was unexpected. I spent another night in Harvey Bay and made my way down to Brisbane today. Staying here for a few nights. Probably going to hug a Koala tomorrow.
