Day 33: Fraser Island

We slept in and had a late start, and it was nice to take our time. Frasers at Cathedral Beach it is a lovely camping ground and we enjoyed the birds, and kept eye out for dingos. We started the day with a drive north to Indian Head and there was a blockage on the road while a couple of cars got bogged – Jim went to help because you never know when you need good unbogging karma. Eventually they got it sorted out and we made it through. By this time, the tide was high and we couldn't get any further north without serious water driving, so we decided to head back south.  Helen was very excited when the mobile phone chimed. I got a message - Yay. I managed to send one back, and had to stand on the car with my arm in the air, but I got it sent. Happy birthday Dad.

Fraser Island is a sand island, and that means that there is sand everywhere. Lots of different colours, consistency, softness and hardness but it is all sand. This is a place called The Pinnacles, and it is a big cliff of beautifully coloured sands.
We drove along the beach to Happy Valley resort and saw this small plane and commented on how low in the sky it was. It went past, and I lost sight of it. I was asking Jim if he could see the plane because I couldn’t see it on the left or right or behind us. Where did that plane go? Just then, brrrrr and the plane appears just over the bonnet and landed on the beach in front of us!

We travelled along the rough sandy inland road to Lake Garawongera, where we stopped for lunch. It was a pretty lake, but much too cold to swim (well too cold for us, but there were some kids who jumped in). We continued through the rainforest to Poyungan Valley, which was a lovely drive. The inland track was very challenging, but Jim was in his element. There were rocks, uneven sand dunes, offset holes in the road, soft sandy patches and corrugations. It was a slow drive and we averaged 14 km per hour over about 2 hours, but it was spectacular rainforest that was drove into, through and above.

As we drove back along the beach we saw a dingo annoying some fisherman, trying to get the bait or maybe even a fish. We got some great photos of the dingo and enjoyed just watching him – he was very persistent, but there are very clear warnings not to feed or interact with the dingos and there are big fines if you get caught. We saw many dingos, but didn’t ever feel threatened or notice any aggressive behaviour.

The weather at Fraser Island during the day is lovely at around 22 degrees, with a clear sunny blue sky, but the nights are cold and we did huddle around the citronella candle for an hour before going to bed very early because it was too cold to stay up.