Once we had all been allocated our various vehicles and being told scary stories of dingo attacks, we were off, because we went over an Australian bank holiday we ended up with 80% of our trip being exchange students, which actually turned out as a blessing in disguise as it meant that us backpackers stuck together. The trip had an itinerary to make sure we saw as much as possible, and I'll go into more detail about most of the places in my next post, suffice to say it was up at the crack of dawn every day and nursing hangovers on bumpy rides.
Fraser Island is the largest sand Island in the world, which meant that the only way to get around was to drive through the sand (the beaches here doubled up as roads). Driving in sand turns out to be pretty hard, and everyone, including the lead driver got stuck multiple times. It didn't help that our car had to be one of the oldest I had ever been in (and that includes all the random ones we had in Kenya) but the aux cable still worked so all was good.
One of the things we kept driving past was the old ruin of the Maheno, a ship which was used to ferry the sick back and forth until it was finally sold for scrap and blew away in the storm landing on the shores of Fraser Island where it had now sunk three decks below the sand. It was sold to the Japenese and when they realised they couldn't get it out of the sand they had an auction of all the furniture in it. It's completely rusted through now and there is a fine of $300 if you stand closer than three metres to the wreck. Turns out health and safety in Australia is on a par with England!
We also made a treck up to Indian Head, a lookout point on the eastern beach of Fraser Island. It was called Indian Head because every time the brisith sailed past they saw aboriginals standing on the cliff top looking out at the sea and watching them. There isn't really a path up to the top so you have to make your own way up to see the spectacular views. Some backpackers who went the week before had seen dolphins and whales so I was really excited but no such luck for me! On the way back I did see my first pod of wild dolphins and I was beyond excited though you couldnt really see much mor than a fin and nose every now and then.
Fraser Island is one of the only places in the world where if you lie on the beach once the sun has gone down you can see the entire Milky Way from one side of the sky to the other. So off we went and it was amazing - I couldn't take my eyes off the sky, I only wish I had a camera which was powerful enough to capture it. I have never seen stars like that before and I don't know if I will again, it was spectacular! Waking up at 5am to watch the sunrise was also a must, and although it was difficult to drag some of the more heavy drinkers out of bed it was worth it to see the beautiful orange and pink skies.
As for dingos, I'm sorry but they look like shenzi dogs from back home. I know they are dangerous and go for the throat (only because the lovely humans took all their natural food sources off the island) if threatened, but then so do most wild animals. Still we were advised to only venture out with dingo sticks in case we got attached, which we didn't so all was well.
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