Day trip to Fraser Island

Our Day on Fraser Island

Fraser Island is probably the main tourist attraction in the Hervey Bay area apart from whale watching. My thoughts were that we would put the Prado onto the ferry and drive around the island --- that was until we discovered the cost. You can travel from Devonport to Melbourne cheaper. For only a few dollars more, you can travel in a 4WD bus on a fully guided tour with lunch provided. Much as I would have loved to bash around the island tackling the 4WD tracks and driving along the magnificent beaches, letting the bus take the pounding and not the Prado had benefits. Many 4WD’s acted like bulldozers when confronted with sand piled high in the centre of the tracks and the surf spray would not have done them much good either. I think a vehicle would need to be fully detailed after such an ordeal. I’ll let Janice tell you about the trip.

It was 8 degrees when we headed off on our Fraser Island adventure.  We had our ‘layers’ on as it was going to be a beautiful 21 degree day very soon.

We were picked up by a rather chunky 4wd bus & taken to ferry.  The ferry has a resident cat which isn’t something you see often!  Once on the island we boarded another 4wd bus & told to buckle up as it would be a rough ride.  Brilliant fun – the island is all sand and so it is very soft in parts and you go up & down & sideways with a great commentary from the driver.  We were taken to Lake McKenzie which is a freshwater lake on sand!  Apparently Lake McKenzie has special qualities – you come out feeling great & it takes 10 years off you, which is why you see some men push their wives in for a second go (tour guides words).  This lake stays at a steady 21 degrees all year round & looks like something from Thailand. Photo of Brian hoping for a 10 year refurbishment in Lake McKenzie

 

We went for a drive on the local ‘motorway’ which was the beach.  It really is their motorway – it has speed limits etc on certain sections.  A little tricky though when there are people fishing as they can sometimes be in the way.  Great ride though on the beach, and the whole time we were all looking for whales. Photo of beach

 

We came across part of the beach where they were offering plane rides. Brian and I decided to try our luck at whale watching & went up on a 6 person plane ride, but we were the only group in 4 weeks who didn’t see one (that didn’t make us feel any better). Photo boarding plane and photo of Butterfly Lake.

 

On our way back along the beach in the bus someone shouted “whale” and I just managed to see a big spurt of water, so I know there were whales somewhere.  It had been a big 12 hour day of adventure.

Just to add a few things to Janice’s commentary. The whole island is made up of sand so the tracks are just that, wheel grooves in a sandy track with trees and bush on either side. Our tour guide/bus driver did a fantastic job negotiating these tracks with such a large vehicle and there were times we got through some soft sections by sheer speed with revving engine and wheel spin.

The beach highway is amazing. 120 kilometers of wide sandy beach with small rivulets every now and again pouring fresh water out into the sea. Hitting one of these rivulets at speed can be disastrous and we saw two 4WDs disappear in walls of water. as they were caught out by the depth but luckily they came out OK. The traffic is two way so the “keep left” rule applies. Washed up on the beach is the wreck of the Maheno. She was a cruise ship built in the 1800’s in New Zealand. She served as a hospital ship in WW 1 and was eventually sold for scrap in the 30’s. Whilst under tow to be scrapped, the tow cable snapped and she washed up on the beach.

It was getting dark as we made our way back to the ferry. Photo of loading ferry at sunset.