Day 27: Dingoing crazy

This morning we are off to Fraser Island - the world's largest sand island - 123Km from tip to tip, and probably with more sand than the Sahara desert.

We have bitten the bullet and gone with a tour of the place, as it was stacking up as pretty pricey to try and hire a 4WD vehicle, get the ferry over and sort all the permits.

I had romantic visions of us going in a nice small 4WD vehicle, a few of us, to gentle pootle around the island. Not quite so much, more like 40 of us in a big 4WD bus.

As we got near the island on the ferry, they started to give us general hints and tips about the day, all delivered in a relatively relaxed, said this hundreds of times, style way.

"We'll be driving on some quite bumpy ground, so of course make sure that your seat belts are on. There are a lot of dingoes on the island, so don't wander off on your own and keep any children close to you", at which point at least two sets of ears perked up. "What with the dingoes now? You're choosing to mention this when there's no way of getting off the island!"

We dock (or drive the ferry onto the beach, choose your own 'technical word' for it and there is much amusement at watching someone who has hired their own vehicle head dramatically up the beach about 3 metres, before stopping and then having to adjust their tires and dig their way out a little bit. Very glad we didn't hire a car now, wouldn't have even got that far!


One of the great joys of a tour trip is getting to know your fellow travellers. Our little group included a number of middle-aged australian ladies, all with their hair dyed the same colour. One of them, bless, was very loud and had no problem including the rest of the coach in her conversations and general stream-of-consciousness throughout the day. This included her asking Dan what the 'hazchem' sign by the petrol station meant (Dan held his tongue and didn't say "It means Safe to smoke") and also wondering on the bus trip back to the accommodation whether the bus could fit through the drive-through at MacDonalds.


The actual trip itself was good, with a drive through woods, forests and rainforest, and a walk through the rain forest as well. We drove down 75 mile beach, stopping at the wreck of an old liner, at a fresh water river which we walked up, and at the amazing 'coloured sands' stack. Turns out all sand is technically coloured.
We also went up in the hills to a lake that isn't fed by any rivers - it's a peat lined hole that holds all of the rain water. It was stained with tannins from the tea trees all around.

Tomorrow: Ever been picked up by the fuzz?