On Thursday, April 26, I went to Rainbow Beach and checked into Dingo’s, where I spent the night both before and after going to Fraser Island. There were only a few shops so the town didn’t take long to look around. I went for a walk along the beach but I only saw the coloured cliffs that gave the place its name from a distance because I was worried about being trapped by the rising tide and I had to turn back. In the evening, we were put into teams for Fraser Island and we had a briefing. I was in a team with five Germans, a Dutch girl and an Englishman, who all seemed nice.
The next morning we loaded our 4WD cars with our food, alcohol and bags, and set off for the largest sand island in the world. Having thought it was difficult to fit everything you need in a big backpack, it was strange to find that you can fit everything you really need in a small backpack. It was supposed to be a camping trip, but we were told that the four teams making up our group would be staying at the island’s Base Camp hostel. Some of us were quite disappointed about this until it began to rain heavily.
The weather meant that the island did not look as good as it did in all the postcards, but at least we didn’t miss out on seeing anything, and the lakes and creeks were still warm enough for swimming. We weren’t allowed to swim in the ocean because of the strong currents and the sharks. We were also warned about the danger presented by the island’s dingoes. We saw a few, but none of us had any problems with them. We all took turns to drive. Our team was the first to get stuck in the sand, and that was before we had even got the ferry to the island itself. We had to get out and push while group leader Darren took the wheel, and the other teams laughed at us.
We visited Lake McKenzie, Wanggoolba Creek, the Maheno shipwreck from 1935, the cliffs called the Pinnacles, Eli Creek, the rocky outcrop Indian Head from where there was an amazing view, Champagne Pools where there were waves unlike any I’ve ever seen and several members of our group lost blood after cutting themselves on the rocks, and Lake Wabby.
When we got back to the hostel, we played football on the beach until it got dark, and after dinner we played drinking games including I Have Never and Suck. When we were quite drunk we went down to the beach and sang our hearts out.
We headed back to Rainbow Beach on Sunday, April 29. It was a memorable trip and there are now several more friends I can look out for as we all head up the coast.