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Guido's Down Under Experiences: October 2004

FlyingDutchman
2006-03-19 20:04:29

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the day before, so we could watch a video about the island and meet our group. Four girls (Danielle, Claire, Laura and Gemma) from the Whitsunday Islands sailing trip were doing the Fraser Island trip at the same time, so we made sure we were in the same group. Besides us, there were two English girls and two German guys in the group, so not a bad female-male (7-3) mix at all.

On Friday morning we packed all the stuff on the car, got some 4WD instruction (not that I needed that), and we set off in convoy (6 cars with about 10 people each). I decided to book a self-drive tour to Fraser Island, because (1) it would be quite costly to get my own 4WD onto the island, (2) I did not want to rough it too much before selling it next week, (3) the rental vehicles would be better, and (4) I figured it would be more fun with a larger group as well. Besides, I figured I would be doing much of the driving anyway, since I was one of the few with actual 4WD driving experience. As it happened, I did drive about half the time, so that was pretty cool.

After getting off the barge onto Fraser Island, I drove us to Rainbow Gorge, where we made a short hike. Next stop was the 'Maheno' wreck, that was laying on the beach. We stopped shortly at Eli Creek, before setting up camp next to a group of Irish. We spent all evening cooking, eating, and drinking lots around the campfire.

Saturday morning we had breakfast, packed all the stuff onto the car again, and continued driving on the beach to Indian Head. The best place to drive on Fraser Island is the beach, because the inland roads mainly consist of loose sand, and the maximum speed there is 35km/h, whereas the maximum speed on the beach is 80km/h. That seems pretty fast though, especially when the car is leaning over towards the sea. Driving on the beach is best during low tide, when there is a lot of hard sand to drive on. Unfortunately, we drove up to Indian Head with the tide coming in, so we had ...