Our Fraser Island Camping Trip - Day 1

(Sunday 11th December 2011)

HB had been planning this trip for months .... probably, I suspect, from the moment he found out he was being posted to Brisbane. Once he found out definite dates for his Christmas leave, Operation Fraser Island was put into action.

The first part of a holiday inevitably involves some time spent in transit. Some of the Half-dozen slept .....

.... while some of the others encouraged their toys to be extremely annoying. They were so annoying that they were partly banished from the interior of the Landcruiser....

.... this happened while HB was letting some air out of the tyres at Inskip Point, Rainbow Beach. You can see the beautiful, lush bushland reflected in the window.

Just minutes afterwards we were on the beach at Inskip Point spit watching the vehicular ferry/barge, the Manta Ray, make it's way back from Fraser Island.

And very soon after that we were on the barge, taking in the beautiful sights of the Great Sandy Strait and eagerly awaiting our landing on Hook Point. Here's our Teddy looking very cute, in a toothless kind of way.

Mousie, Teddy and Kitcat saw fish in the water as they looked over the side of the barge.
The Landcruiser on the Manta Ray vehicular ferry.
The Half-dozen on the barge with Hook Point in the background.

Once we drove off the barge onto the beach at Hook Point we had to decide whether to take the inland road or try the beach route. As the tide was still fairly high I was worried about driving on the beach. HB decided to follow the other 4WDs who were heading off around the point, so we did. But we quickly faced the prospect of driving through sea water to get around large pieces of driftwood and dead trees which had washed up onto the shore.

We followed the 4WD in front of us around the first clump of driftwood, through the shallow waves, only to be confronted with a whole stretch of beach littered with more dead trees. Not wanting to take the risk of getting bogged in waterlogged sand, or finding ourselves in a situation of not being able to turn around further up the sandy shore, we decided to return to the barge landing and take the inland route.

It was very bumpy! I've never driven over such deep, rutted, corrugated gravel road before. I reminded HB that all the information we had read stipulated 30km on all inland roads so he slowed down a little bit. However, a little way down the road was a 50km sign so he revved it up and we bounced and ricocheted our way along the inland track from Hook Point nearly all the way to Eurong.

All that bumping and bouncing was bound to have some effect, and as soon as we got back out on to the beach some of the girls needed a toilet break. There aren't many public restrooms on the island so we walked up into the dunes, keeping an eye out for dingoes all the time. During that time HB took this photo of our 4WD & trailer .....

.... and just after that he discovered that the bumpy drive over the inland road had caused the trailer's leaf suspension system to partially collapse, on both sides. Nevertheless, we managed to make the long drive up Seventy-Five Mile Beach, all the way from Hook Point at the southern tip of the island past Eurong, Happy Valley, Poyungan Rocks, Yidney Rocks and crossing the mouth of Eli Creek. Then we travelled a little further past the Maheno shipwreck and the coloured sands of The Pinnacles before finally reaching Fraser's @ Cathedral Beach where we set up our camp site.

The first thing we saw as we drove up to the site was a dingo trying to get into a rubbish bin - and I had thought the camping area was fenced!! We were glad we'd talked to the Half-dozen about the dingo issues on the Island, and took the opportunity to reinforce it again.

Everyone was tired and hot (100% humidity and 33°C) by dinner time, but we were looking forward to exploring this beautiful part of Queensland over the coming days.