Fraser Island, Day 1

Our tour guide, Shane, picked us up from our hotel at 8am in what was supposed to be this vehicle:

Apparently, a cable in the gear box broke on another tour the day before, so he had to go to plan B, which was smaller (pictures to follow). Positive: we were able to access more of the island as larger vehicles can't go everywhere; our group was downsized from the normal 20 to just 8 people. Negatives - we were crammed like sardines, however this can also be seen as a positive as we got to know each other fairly quickly.

After making numerous stops to pick up various people (3 Irish, 2 French, 1 Canadian + us), we arrived on the island around 1pm, had lunch, and headed off to our first destination. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island (98% of the island is comprised of sand) and is only accessible by 4WD. One can rent a 4WD and go it alone, but many people get stuck in the sand, so we figured it was worth the extra dollars to pay someone else to do the driving.

On the east side of the island there is 75 Mile Beach (technically, it's around 72 miles, but Aussies like to round - generally up), and cars just drive up and down the beach. Somewhat of an odd sight to see and it can get a little hairy with the tides, rocks, etc. People also don't swim off the coast as there are quite a few jellyfish and sharks.

The small blob in the picture is another vehicle - supposedly, the same driving rules apply on the sand, but we were doubtful the two policemen on the island actually did anything about speeding.

We drove along most of 75 Mile Beach and arrived at the Champagne pools - a cool area comprised of rocks that (obviously) form a pool where you can swim; Steven saw two crabs and was tempted to pick it up and take it home for dinner.

After the pools, we hiked up to Indian Heads, a large rock on the island with a good lookout point. Captain Cook was the first white man to discover the island and when he first saw the rock, he noticed some Aboriginals and named it Indian Head. Apparently, everyone was assumed to be Indian back in the day.

Again, it was really windy - note the crazy hair.

Back along 75 Mile Beach, we stopped at the Pinnacles, a rock formation with multi-colored sand...here is a picture of our vehicle as well.

Next to the Pinnacles is the Mahena, a ship-wreck located on the island. The story is it was a luxury ship in its inception, then carried soldiers between England and France in WWI, and finally ferried passengers between New Zealand and Tasmania. A Japanese company purchased it for scrap metal after the ship was retired and was in the process of towing it back to Japan when a cyclone hit the coast and the tow broke, causing the ship to end up where it is today.

Our last stop of the day was Eli Creek, a freshwater creek that runs into the ocean. There is a fairly strong current and some of our group decided to walk down the creek, while we saw a younger girl who had the right idea and brought a boogie board to ride down numerous times.

We cleaned up, Shane made us dinner, and most of the group headed over to the local bar for a few drinks before calling it a night.