To think that I was once a nervous driver...you should have seen me on Fraser Island! Give me HGVs, tractors, coaches or caravans, I reckon I am skilled for life after driving a 4x4 jeep full of 10 screaming passengers on the world's largest sand island!
Of course I was happy to admit that I held a full driver's license and could therefore 'help out' with 'a bit of driving' here and there over the course of the three days, but little did I know that I was the only driver in the group who is used to driving on the left, consequently I was forced to drive from the word go. So off we set from the hostel, all the camping gear loaded up on the roof of the vehicle, all ten Germans and Swedes strapped into the back of the car and raring to go for three days of fun and games on Fraser. Vehicle into gear, slow manouvering out of the hostel driveway and careful driving along the road to the ferry crossing.....with the handbrake on....no wonder the bloody car was so slow and couldn't pick up any speed!! Once I released the handbrake the jeep lurched forward, causing much 'hilarity' and calls of 'woman driver' from the Germans in the back. Charming!! My excuse was that I was used to driving an automatic the last time I drove in New Zealand, but apparently this excuse was void as automatics still have handbrakes...so really I guess the woman driver thing was taken on board and I seemed to improve after that.
It was quite a struggle actually driving up to the barge. The sand was so fine and soft that the jeep got bogged straight away, meaning that I kicked my group out and told them to push, and when that didn't work they had to dig the sand from behind the tyres, I had to reverse a little and then heavy accelerator to get us moving again. My foot was heavy on the pedal but the jeep was moving at a snail's pace...we were happy that it was moving though and we did finally make it onto the barge.
It didn't end there. Once on Fraser Island we were again facing sand pits and soft hills that required much team work, lots of pushing, lots of sweat and tears to actually get anywhere. It was a hard first day but we eventually came off the dirt tracks and out of the worst of it and found ourselves cruising along the beach, waves lapping, wind in our face, happy Germans in the back, the odd dingo passing by....suddenly everyone relaxed again and we stopped off by the Mahino Shipwreck before finding a place to set up camp for the night. We were travelling in a group with a second jeep from our hostel and I delighted in hearing the English language again as we started making dinner all together. I got lots of praise from the other group on my driving abilities that day (good job they weren't around for the handbrake incident in the morning!!) as I had been the sole driver in the group whereas the guys in the second jeep had all taken turns. My group all seemed a bit too nervous to take over, and left the scary stuff for me! I didn't actually mind though, as throughout the day I was building up confidence and getting used to the way the 4x4 moved etc. Those things are indestructible I swear, you can actually feel quite safe in them believe it or not.
We had some drinks that night before getting up at 5am the following morning to get moving again. There were only certain times of the day that you could drive along the beach according to the tides, otherwise we would have been stranded for a few hours at the tents. Driving along the beach at dawn was a really amazing experience, watching the sunrise over pristine beaches, just stunning! We drove for three hours to get to Lake McKenzie, where we stopped to cook a big breakfast and then swim for a few hours in the beautiful clear lake. The water was so clear and we enjoyed a good relaxation on the white sandy beach too. We had to pile back into the cars again in order to sync with the tides and make it over to the next destination which was Indian Head, right at the top end of the island and another few hours drive. I think we all underestimated how much driving was involved to get around the island. Indian Head had some beautiful lookouts, and from one point we could see turtles and stingrays in the ocean below us.
We had lots of laughs that evening as we got back to camp, namely due to the dreaded dingoes. Dingoes are somewhere between a dog and a fox, they hunt for food and are known to be a bit vicious. We were warned to be so careful about leaving out food and drink, food scraps in dish water, toothpaste etc and we even had to dig 50cm holes in the sand instead of peeing in bushes! Anyway, the evening was first disrupted after we heard a rustle and realised that the dingoes had run off with some leftover sausages, scandal! So the boys all ran off with shovels and sticks to bark at these dingoes and try to recover the sausages (lost cause). This routine was replayed when the dingoes tried to take the rubbish bag and only found empty beer cans in it, and similarly when the dingoes popped up just metres away trying to sniff out food. So what was initially a bit of an intimidating situation, camping around wild animals, turned into a comedy show as our new 'Dingo Kings' held the fort together and kept us thoroughly entertained with their heroic acts. The Dingo Kings even escorted us to our toilet facilities en masse and kept a lookout while several girls had a group pee, wary of dingoes nipping our bums (it has happened, we were told!). What lovely guys, taking good care of us.
Getting up at 4.30am the next morning wasn't easy at first, but again, the sunrise outside our tents over the beach made it well worth it. It's the most beautiful part of the day in my opinion, but I'm usually in bed and miss the daily spectacular all because i'm too busy being lazy. Maybe I'll turn into a hippy tree hugger and make sure I get up at the crack of dawn each day just to appreciate nature's beauty...
Lake Wabby was our next stop off that day. We were the first group to arrive that morning, so no one else was around as we ran down the sand hill and splashed about in the gorgeous green water...lovely stuff! It was another boiling hot day and we really enjoyed chilling out for the morning and cooling down in the lake. We also visited Eli Creek before heading back to the barge to cross back to the mainland. By this point, I had started to develop a massive headache and was beginning to recognise the early signs of sunstroke, so started to guzzle lots of water. It was too late really but I managed to get us all back to the hostel in one piece before crashing out in my bed that evening and being rather sick all night! That'll teach me to not drink enough water!
After Fraser Island, Annika and I continued further south of the coast towards Noosa, where we stayed in a bush camp for three nights to go canoeing. It was loads of fun, if a bit hard work going up stream at times, but very scenic in our boats. At one point we started to pass the time by singing songs from Titanic and various Disney films at the top of our voices! We met some nice people in our group, one of which we ended up going to Australia Zoo with a few days later (Steve Irwin's zoo). Saw lots of lovely animals, especially those darling Koalas, ahhh!! We also got to feed kangaroos. Hoping to see more koalas and roos in the wild, as I'm not too keen on the whole zoo thing, infact there were some areas which surprised me as they seemed quite small and un-natural for the animals...I thought that given all that Steve Irwin was about, the enclosures would be huge and very realistic, but it often wasn't the case. Hmm. God bless his soul anyway, what a funny guy he was.
Annika and I parted ways after Noosa, as she'd already been to Brisbane, Byron Bay and Sydney and couldn't afford to travel them a second time. So she fast tracked to Sydney where she caught the Indian Pacific train from Sydney to Perth, taking four days and three nights to arrive!! She had tried to convince me to go with her, but I chose to take a flight instead, which only took 5 hours! So for about a week I was travelling solo again, enjoying a bit of city life in Brisbane, meeting up with a friend that we'd met in Thailand, heading down to Byron Bay (like a slice of Heaven on Earth) and then spending some time in Sydney where I stayed with my friend Jon in his apartment. I loved Sydney. The day I arrived we went for a nice evening stroll around the city where I saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, before eventually ending up at a nice restaurant in Kings Cross for some lasagne and garlic bread. Lovely stuff. While Jon was at work during the days, I went off into the city where I met up with a friend called Kitty that I'd met in New Zealand. She now works on the Sydney Skytower, so after coffee she smuggled me into the lift for free (saving me about $40) and left me up there to enjoy the panoramic views of Sydney, on a perfect blue sky day! I saw Kitty a couple of nights later in an area called The Rocks, and we watched some fireworks over Harbour Bridge and had some drinks in an Irish Bar. Later that evening, Jon took me out to, well, his end of town shall we say (!) on Oxford Street, where we danced the night away in a very flamboyant club. Going to what I thought was the ladies loo was hilarious, full of guys touching up their hair and adjusting their outifts, then one of two queens grabbing my face and saying "but darllinnngggg, you're BEAUUTIFUL!!!". Love it! Like walking into a room full of fans haha!! It was pretty hair-raising as my friend and I were queuing with a load of idiots to get a taxi back home later than evening, but I have to say, the taxi drivers in Sydney really do look out for us ladies, and always saw me to my door to check that I was safely inside before getting back in and driving away. How good is that! Jon did pick quite a dodgey area to live in though, round the corner from a large homeless area and just off the street from the Red Light District...dear oh dear.
So after a great few days in Sydney I made my way to the airport to catch my evening flight to Perth, taking 5 hours to arrive, also being delayed for nearly two hours, and having a time difference in Western Australia of three hours. It is crazy how massive this country is. By the time I finally got to bed that night it was 4am, but 7am my time, so the next day I felt rather jet lagged, even though it was only 3 hours time difference! I am staying with a friend of my aunt & uncle at his lovely house in East Perth, and have started doing some waitressing for his catering company. Have earnt a fair bit of money already which is great. Tonight I am doing a function on a boat which sounds like a lot of fun.
So all is good in my world. Though it takes some getting used to having to work again after six weeks of playtime on the East Coast. Happy memories though!
