Does “Dingo Danger” sound familiar? If so you’ve most likely been to Fraser Island, destination three on my travels up the east coast, but perhaps the most memorable.
I met my new friends and instantly knew we were going to have a good time. We all just clicked. We chose the 4WD option and what an adventure it was, although not all went quite to plan…
So off we went in our rickety old 4WD, the first hurdle was reversing onto the ferry, which I had the honour of doing, despite never having driven a 4WD before and suddenly being responsible for seven other people, which was rather daunting. Anyway I soon got over the trauma and off we went.
Finding paradise
Landing safely on the island armed with our map, food, water and goon. We made our way onwards, literally bouncing to the ceiling on every bump we went over.
First Stop,Lake McKenzie. Breathtaking, amazing, I have never seen such a beautiful place before. With crystal clear waters and porcelain sands, I knew I had landed in paradise. We lazed around on the beach, went swimming and polished our jewellery in the fine white sands.
The only off-putting thing was the creepy old man in Speedos!
Next stop was Indian Head where we hoped to spot dolphins and stingrays. However, as we trekked up to the cliff edge the storm clouds suddenly rushed towards us. Within two minutes we were soaked as we ran back to our van. Engine on and off we go, or so we thought… The engine did not start. We tried again, and again. No ignition.
With the tide rapidly coming in and monsoon-like rain pelting our 4WD, it seemed we were in a bit of a pickle. But it was fine, we were all travelling – instead of crying we all laughed. Luckily some friendly people helped us out. After pushing the van we were away, although he told us not to stop driving again until we had to – the pressure!
It was raining and we were lost so we though we would pitch up for the night. We were on our own and so a bit of goon and group bonding turned into a messy night. The goon also persuaded us that going swimming would be a great idea – despite the warnings about tiger sharks. Luckily, we’re all still here to tell the tale. The next day more lovely sights but also more problems with our van! We visited the lovely Eli Creek where we floated to the bottom with the help of a gentle current. Also the Maheno shipwreck where we all got a bit snap happy.
That night we were joined by some other tour groups so we had a bit of company for another evening of stargazing and dingo watching.
We woke for our last day and discovered the van wouldn’t work, yet again. Everyone else had left so we were on our own. We tried
pushing it and all the other tricks we had learnt in our two days. Still nothing.
Our ferry just hours away, we called for help only to be told we’d have to wait at least a few hours! A few hours that we didn’t have. As some of the group headed off in search of toilets they were discussing our dilemma when a man overheard them and came to our rescue.
Jump leads in hand he got our van started and off we went back to safety and to our ferry. Whilst we missed out on the champagne pools and Lake Wabby, I wouldn’t have changed our trip for anything.
Landing back at Hervey Bay, we had to laugh out loud at our adventures of Fraser Island.
