Fraser Island

It is the largest sand island in the world that is also a rainforest...and it was heaps of fun! The whole experience was simply brilliant...from the ferry across the Bay, arriving on the island and having no idea what was in store (there were no taxi's to our campsite, only vehicle hires and I don't have an international drivers liscense, so the hiking began...)

Elisha and I hiked for over 3 hours on part of the "Great Walk" which brought us to a beautiful freshwater lake called Lake McKensie. At that point we were knackered! (that's Aussie for tired) We asked every person on the beach if they would mind giving us a lift to Central Station, our campground, so we didn't have to hike the additional 8 kilometers (we had already hiked about 14km) Fortunately, we got lucky. A couple from Brazil (Nick and Cynthia) were also staying at Central Station and they invited us to eat dinner with them and camp next to their campsite. We combined some of the foods we both had and celebrated the night (Nick's 30th birthday) with a bottle and a half of chilled red wine. The kindness of strangers has been apparent to us on this trip in many ways, as you will notice when you continue reading.

Lake McKenzie, Frasier Island.

The next day we got a ride with Nick and Cynthia to Lake Birabeen. We stayed on the white sandy beach all day and hiked the 7 km back to our campsite, as Nick and Cynthia left for the mainland after dropping us off. Great people they are, and if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have been able to cook our food, get to our campsite before dark, and our spirits wouldn't have been nearly as high. The day ended with us camping at the other end of the park - far away from the other campers. We were the only hikers at our entire campground for all 3 days we stayed there!

On day 3, we took advantage of our privacy by sleeping in late and then venturing out to find the nearby creek. The 1 hour walk turned into a 3.5 hour adventure, with us getting a little bit lost on a rainforest trail. It ended up being things we did all trip. The creek right next to us the entire time and we were pretty much all by ourselves in the middle of the rainforest, on an island, off the coast of Australia... and the sounds we heard were unbelievable. The cicada's make a noise, all together, that is deafening! It really is unreal hearing an insect (thousands, probably) that masks all other sounds for miles to come. I couldn't hear myself think, let alone trying to talk over that.

These little guys, cicadas, are responsible for all that noise.

Finally it was day 4 and time to leave our temporary home. The tent and the rain tarp were totally necessary, and we are so thankful that we brought both. Thanks, dad. We tried asking everyone at our campsite for a ride to Kingfisher Bay which is where our ferry departs from. Unfortunately nobody was leaving on a Monday, or their cars were totally full. So we started walking the 17kilometers with about 50 pounds on our backs between the two of us (not each, thankfully!)

After about 1 kilometer, we got a ride! A father and son were going to another part of the island, and agreed to take us as far as they could without going out of their way. That was about 1.5 kilometers and. saved us about 20-25 minutes. We kept walking. And walking and walking and walking for 11 kilometers. Then we got another ride the final 3 kilometers, and got to our ferry an hour early. We snuck into the pool at the resort and cooled down in there for about 30 minutes. It was definitely the most rewarding swimming experience for both of us in our entire lives.

Total time walking during our 4 days on Fraser: About 12 hours on sand which made it much more difficult.
Total distance walked: About 50 kilometers

We walked from Kingfisher Bay to Central Station. That may not look far, but Fraser Island is massive. The east coast alone (just part of it, the part that looks straight) is a stretch of beach that is 75 miles long.

We got off the ferry and were offered another ride when someone overheard us asking for the next bus. Him and his wife had just gotten married on Fraser and left their cake behind by accident (so they met our ferry when it arrived and had their leftover cake delivered - a very meaningful cake it was). Finally, after walking around for a few hours, we called Jamie (our couchsurfing host from 3 days prior) and he picked us up and agreed to let us cook and rest at his house until our bus leaves at 1:25AM tonight. We hop aboard another Greyhound and arrive in Byron Bay at 11:05 tomorrow morning. Until then we are enjoying the luxuries of staying at a nice quiet residence in Hervey Bay.

This post is dedicated to the all of the kind people that helped us during our past 4 days. Without all of them, Elisha and I would have struggled a lot more to do all the things that we did. Today has been the best day of our trip so far. We feel accomplished and so so fortunate considereing where we are and all that we are able to do here in Australia. The kindness of strangers helped to lift our spirits even higher than they would have been otherwise.