The last three days have been total action-packed rustic madness. The weekend kicked off with my arrival at Rainbow Beach, from where I would be leaving for my camping trip on Fraser Island. I got off the bus and soon after, joined 50 other backpackers for our prep meeting. The Fraser Island trip works like this: you show up and divide into 5 groups of 10-11 people. You don’t know the people (unless you’re traveling in a large group and want to remain together) and whom you end up with is basically luck of the draw. The group dynamic, even more so than the weather, can make or break your trip. The next morning, you meet in your groups and receive all your gear. This includes your Jeep, tents, food for 3 days, gas stove, pots and pans, and a map of the island with vital high-tide info (you drive on the beach, so if you don’t pay attention to the tides, you could end up as shark bait). Anyone with a license and over 21 years old can drive the Jeep…it’s a self guided tour and so there is no tour guide. The group decides where it want to go and when. After that, you drive around the island for 3 days, camp where you want, eat where you want, and all you have to do at the end is show up at the ferry with the Jeep intact and all your gear accounted for.
So after our got divided, we got a chance to talk and get to know one another. I had met a girl earlier in the day who asked me to join in with her and her friend, so I ended up in a group that was made up of 5 girls and 6 guys. Everyone seemed really nice right off the bat. The group was made up of two 19 year-old boys fresh out of high-school, a couple, a Spanish girl, two old ladies (that’s me and the other 28 year-old girl), a guy and a girl who were not a couple but were traveling together, and 2 other guys whose choppy English made for complete hilarity when we played our drinking games). That night, we all hung out in the bar and went to bed early, as we had to be ready to leave by 7:30 am. We got our Jeep, chose our drivers, loaded up the roof (all quite time-consuming) and off we went. We arrived in the island and it was high-tide, so we had to drive on the bumpy inland road. It took a long time to reach our first destination, and we got there later than we’d hoped (we got stuck in the sand along the way had we all had to get out and push) but when we finally arrived, we were awestruck. Our first stop was Lake McKenzie. It’s a pristine fresh-water lake nestled in sand as white as snow, surrounded by small delicate trees. It was right out of a fairy tale.
The pictures can’t convey the true color of the water. I was continually surprised that the water was fresh…I’ve never seen a lake that looked so much like the ocean before. It was a truly special place, and sadly, we only had about 2 hours there all in all. It gets dark so early now that we had to leave to give ourselves time to see the shipwreck and to then find our campsite (always an adventure in itself).
There was a storm brewing by the time we left the lake, and when we reached the shipwreck, the sun had already gone down. But the encroaching thunderheads added that element of eeriness that a shipwreck wants, so even though I was hoping to catch some afternoon light, the scene was almost more interesting for the lack of it. These shots are not perfectly exposed, but you can get the drift.
We did manage to get back the next day to catch a sliver of remaining sunlight so I got this shot as well:
By the time we left the wreck, it was already getting dark and we were having a hard time finding our campground (it didn’t help that it wasn’t on the map and no one could remember the name of it!) Eventually, we did manage to piece together the name and got there just in time to use the remaining light to set up our tents and food. The campground we were using that night was on aboriginal land and is the only place on the island where campfires are allowed. This is a considerable draw, so most of the other groups, including ones traveling with different companies, were camped on that site for the night. It was a good time…we set up our dinner and had a feast, and after that all the boys were painted in white body paint in preparation for the aboriginal dance (the girls painted eachother). At the end of the show (which was actually quite good), everyone got up and joined in dancing.
I tried to go to bed early that night, but, um, no. People were shouting and playing music well into the night. Between that, the brutally hard ground, and the torrential downpour that began at about 4 am, I think I managed about 4 hours of sleep. We were up with the sun and happily eating breakfast when the next downpour began in earnest. I’m not gonna say that wasn’t a pain in the ass. Our stuff got totally soaked as were trying to load it onto the roof of our truck, and we still had dishes to wash so my friend Miriam and I ran out into the rain in our bathing suits and scrubbed the pans. That was a sight to behold.
Once the roof was loaded, off we were, and in another hour or so, the storm cleared and the sun made its way out. At that point, we had arrived at our next locale; an incredible lookout point called Indian Head. From there, you get great views of the huge ocean and the gorgeous coastline of the island.
After the lookout, we hiked the entire length of the beach on the other side of the point to reach a beautiful spot called the Champagne Pools. It’s basically a big rock pool, but really lovely and it was so nice to be able to spend the day there just relaxing in the sun. Determined not to be caught in the dark once more, we packed up early and made our way to our next campground…a deserted stretch along the beach behind some sand dunes. Wow. What a beautiful and hilarious evening.
We watched the sunset and ran around acting silly for a while and all the girls got together to cook a delicious Asian stir fry (cooking for 11 people with 2 burners and only a pot and a small frying pan took some serious creativity). We spent the night playing cards, listening to music, singing and dancing around like fools. After we had totally gorged ourselves and were all gamed-out, we turned off the accessory light of our car and all piled together to look up at the gazillions of stars.
We all did go to bed early that night, but once again, like clockwork, the rain began at about 4 am. This time however, one of the pegs came out of our tent and the girl I was sharing a tent with and I woke up in a pool of cold water. Joy!! So much for a nice leisurly (dry) dawn breakfast…we booked it out of there. Luckily it was our last day and we wouldn’t have to use those sleeping bags again. We packed the truck up as quickly as possible and made our way towards our final destination, Lake Wabi, This lake is an emerald colored fresh-water lake that sits at the bottom of a huge sand dune. You can run, roll, or do whatever your heart desires down the hill and land face first in the lake at the bottom. It takes about 45 min to walk to the lake, but it was cold and raining very hard, so some people didn’t want to venture out. Of course, being the insane person that I am, I decided that not only was I going to the lake, but I was going to jog there to avoid getting cold along the way. I recruited one of the 19 year-old boys to come with me, and off we went, running through the woods in our bathing suits like wild animals. It was SO FUN, and I think the rain just added to the experience… we made it there in less than 20 min and wow, jumping into that lake after 3 days without having showered (and frankly, sweating like pigs after that run) felt pretty good. I don’t have any pictures of the silliness that ensued when the rest of the gang got there because I didn’t bring my camera with me, but you’ll just have to imagine a group of 11 people running/rolling down a sand dune (one of whom was holding a poor, broken, useless blue umbrella).
Here's a ridiculous picture from someone else's camera of me tackling the hill.
Sand everywhere? Check.
Mental problems? Check.
We spent about an hour at the lake, but it poured the whole time and although that was pretty awesome, it did get quite cold. So we all ran all the way back to the car and some of us figured we’d splash around for a while and enjoy the rain… I mean, there is something really amazing about being outside in a storm like that.
By the time we got back on the road (well, back on the shoreline actaully), the rain was easing up and the sun was trying to come out. We made it back the ferry with ample time to spare, and were back safe and sound (and dry) at our hostel by 2pm. I tried to take a nap, but that just wasn’t happening. I then figured I’d go online for a bit, but every time I looked up I saw someone I’d met from somewhere else along my travels. At one point I was talking to someone and a friend from NZ recognized my voice from across the room and came over to say hi. It was impossible to even concentrate... I can’t believe the number of people I’ve been running into (people I spent significant quality time with that I never thought I’d see again). So funny, and so comforting to be alone and still have friends everywhere.
Anyway, tonight, our group had a massive feast all together at the hostel. We all got on so well…everyone was so easy-going and even the people I thought were quiet and reserved turned out to be such good fun. I’m so happy with how the weekend turned out, but will be grateful to have a few days to recoup before I begin my Whitsundays sailing trip (great barrier reef). If the group on that boat is half as good as the group we had this time, I’ll be an even happier camper.
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