Saturday, June 13th, Fraser Island.
Bob: We hustled our breakfast so that we were outside the caravan park on the dot at 7:45. The guide with a tour bus picked us up there and drove us over to the ferry to Fraser Island. The ferry ride took about 40 minutes, but it was crossing an almost totally sheltered straight so the sea was quite calm. |
Monika: The bus picked us up as planned and took us to the landing of the ferry over to Fraser Island. The ferry trip was about 30 minutes and of course for me entirely delightful. I stood up on top deck, took pictures and enjoyed myself immensely. As we slowly inched into landing on Fraser Island, a sea-eagle flew up to a nearby tree to greet us. |
Bob: Once we landed on Fraser Island, we boarded a 4-wheel drive bus (!) and started careening around the narrow, soft, sandy backroads that crisscross it. Fraser Island's claim to fame is that it is an island formed entirely by deposited sand, absolutely huge amounts of it, and over the millenia the vegetation has covered the huge dunes and formed really unique ecosystems. |
Monika: Fraser Island is a UNESCO World Heritage area, has no paved roads, and is entirely made of sand. So 4-Wheel Drive vehicles are the only way getting around the island. Thus it was no surprise that our bus was a 4WD bus with massive tires. |
Bob: The bus ride was almost worth the price of admission all by itself. We went charging down these deep sandy "streets", bouncing up and down and slithering around turns. I would have probably gotten the bus stuck, but our driver was an expert and kept it going fast enough to avoid bogging down. So we rocked and rolled through the rain forest type of vegetation to our first stop, Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is a fresh water lake formed entirely from accumulated rainfall. Since the bottom is apparently an accumulation of decomposed organic matter somewhat like peat, the water is very acidic with a Ph value of 4, according to our guide, which is just fine for cleaning oxidation off of jewelry, but much too acidic for fish to live, unfortunately. We found the water to be absolutely clear and surprisingly warm given that it was technically the beginning of winter in Australia. We both paddled around a bit but since we only had about 30 minutes we didn't take the trouble to change into our swimsuits and go whole hog. In retrospect that was a shame because Lake McKenzie is one place that you can swim in Queensland without worrying about sharks, salt-water crocodiles, poisonous sea serpents, poisonous jelly fish, and poisonous sea shells that can kill swimmers. I suspect you'd have to be carefull to keep the water out of your eyes, but outside of that it sounded like a relaxing swim to me. |
Monika: Driving through the rainforest to a beautiful clear lake, Lake McKenzie, in the middle of the island was better than a Disney ride. We were constantly rolling and shaking Ever now and then you did wonder whether the bus would either tip over or get stuck, but of course we kept on trucking (bussing?). Our driver explained the fauna and flora and also the geology of the island which was basically created by the masses of sand that had accumulated over 100 million years, with trees and vegetation solidifying the sand and ice ages compressing the organic matter. This process finally resulted in a soft rock called "Coffee Rock" because of its brownish color. Fraser Island has about 30 different lakes that had three different origins, lakes on top of Coffee Rock have brownish water, lakes that are created by wandering dunes creating a dam are nice and clear, and then there are lakes that started from rain water accumulated in a valey full of compressed leaves and such. These lakes are clear but have a high PH level and therefore no fish. But swiming is great. Lake McKenzie is such a lake and we certainly enjoyed a good paddle in the lake. It had a beautiful sandy beach lined with sunbathers and swimmers. Here we were warned about the dingos. I had always thought that a dingo is a descendant of a dog brought over by the settlers that had gone wild. It turns out that the Dingos are really related to the Asian Wolf and were brought over 2000 years ago by the Polynesians on one of their visits to Australia. Dingoes thrived in Australia and were ultimately brought to Fraser Island by the Aboriginies. During the time of logging the dingos got used to human hand outs and now are quite aggressive. There were signs that told you what to do when you meet one - similar to the bear rules: Act like predator not like prey, and watch small children. |
Bob: Our next stop was an old campground on Wanggoolba Creek where a boardwalk had been constructed through an old section of rain forest. Although most of Fraser Island was logged over in the 1800s, in part to supply rot-proof timbers for the Suez Canal, that particular section had been spared and was virgin forest. Very pretty, lush, and exotic vegetation surrounded us. |
Monika: After Lake McKenzie, we drove to Central Station. From the late 1800's to 1992 Fraser Island was logged extensively and Central Station was the home village for the loggers, although by 1960 most of them had resettled to the mainland and came over by ferry. In 1992 Fraser Island was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage sight and as such logging is no longer allowed. At Central Station, we took a little walk along a creek with our guide explaining the different trees and ferns we saw. It was rather beautiful and interesting to see a creek running over sand only and therefore there was no gurgling. |
Bob: After lunch we drove down the 75-Mile Beach (actually only 61 miles long, but that's still plenty long!) to the Pinnacles, a huge, ruggedly carved and multi-hued sandune. The beach is a legal highway in Australia, so driving along at 50 kilometers and hour was quite legal. Our guide drove on the wet-packed sand where possible, but the high tides combined with rocky outcroppings that basically reached down to the shoreline occassionally forced us to make detours inland. |
Monika: On to one of the two resorts on the island for a buffet lunch. After that we dove on the sandy highway, the 75-mile beach on the east side of the island. This was registered as a true highway with a speed limit of 80, but watch out for pedestrians and airplanes taking off and landing! Of course, the lanes changed with the tide. As long as we were on the sand it was quite smooth. When we came to the entrance of a creek it got a little wobbly, but it was really wobbly when we went on top of the coffee rocks that at some places stretched into the sea. At a couple of those places we even had to detour up into the dune and back down. We stopped a couple of times: once at a landing strip to let people take airplane flights and once at a spot called "The Pinnacles", which turned out to be spires of sandstones of many different hues, to turn around. |
Bob: Returning down the beach we stopped off to see the old cruise ship Maheno, which had grounded on the beach while being towed over 50 years back. Although the lower decks had become submereged in the sand, the rest was now a picturesque wreck on the beach. I watched in fascination as the waves broke over the tangled, rusted superstructure of the old ship. |
Monika: The next stop was at the Maheno, an old luxury liner that had run aground and then during WWII and then used for target practice by the Australian air force. |
Bob: At Eli Creek we made a brief stop for the restrooms, but I was interested in the sightseeing aircraft stationed there. These aircraft are allowed to take off and land on the beach, and they gave a 15 minute sightseeing flight for $70 Australian. It was really, really tempting as I like to see things from the air, but as I rather prefer flying myself I stayed with the group. |
Monika: Our last stop was at Eli Creek a little larger creek flowing into the ocean. Here we were supposed to have some time for swimming, but we were behind timewise and had to make sure to catch the ferry back to the mainland. While driving back along the beach I looked out at the water and suddenly saw a spout, I nudged Bob and he too saw it. It really should have been too early for whales, but we had heard that there were a couple of whales that had come back early this year. I was delighted to have spotted the spout. |
Bob: We returned to the ferry landing and crossed the straight just as the sun was setting over the mainland. We saw plenty of birds fishing for their evening meal and even a dolphin on the return trip. I thought Frasier Island would be a place I'd definitely want to return to and maybe spend a few days on some day in the future. That way we could actually take a day for swimming, another day for driving on the beach, and another day for walking around and exloring the rain forest. And if I could find someone to rent me a off-road motorcycle, that would make getting around those sandy roads on the island a perfect blast! Reluctantly returning to the mainland, we had dinner and worked on our journals for the evening to try to capture some of our experiences before turning in for the night. |
Monika: The trip back to the ferry was again across the island through the rain forest. When the ferry was leaving the sea-eagle was in his tree and the circled around the ferry to say good bye. The ferry ride back into the sunset was a magical ending to a beautiful day. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Australian Walkabout | Epilog |
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