Fraser Island, Day 2

Day 2 was the main reason why we came to Fraser Island - for the beautiful lakes!

After a night out, watching our fearless leader win a pool tournament at the local pub, everyone slowly crawled out of bed. Today was a day of lakes and swimming, yet Stephanie thought she had a good base tan and would not need much sunscreen. We had breakfast, consisting of cereal and toast, and loaded into the truck. We drove into the center of the island for our first stop - Lake McKenzie. It was fairly crowded as it is the most popular lake on the island. All of the lakes on Fraser are fresh water - there is a large water table underneath the island and since water weighs less than sand, the water rises to the top. Shane mentioned the sand can actually be used to clean jewelry.

In the next two pictures you can see a dingo that decided to join all the sunbathers. Dingos are not to be approached and not to be fed, even though they look pretty cute, but they are actually more scared of humans than they let you believe. These happen to be young pups who are apparently fearless.

Another one showed up later and took a bag from someone that had gone into the lake. The bag never returned.

After sunbathing, swimming, and napping for a few hours we piled in the truck for a trip to Central Station for lunch. This spot was converted from the hub of the logging industry to a park once the island was awared as a World Heritage Site a few years ago. We ate lunch and then walked around Wanggoolba Creek where Shane told us about various trees and other stories about the formation of the island. Basically, sand had been taken by the wind from the mainland and formed the island over millions of years. The Ice Age has something to do with it as well, but we can't really remember details.

Our next lake was Lake Birrabeen. It was almost a perfect circle with clear, warm water. Steven jumped in was amazed at how the depth changes so dramatically. Where the water looks clear it is only about up to your chest, but then it takes a steep slope down where the lake is dark, and gets very deep. We swam and sunbathed before walking back to the truck through the rainforest for our final lake.

By time we arrived at Lake Boomajin, everyone was exhausted and Stephanie was starting to turn a nice shade of pink. Steven went swimming while most everyone else primarily relaxed. After our tour guide got a nice nap we left for beach house, our temporary home.

Dinner that evening was pasta, which we both helped Shane make, and then Stephanie went to bed early (due to sunburn and a long day) and Steven went out to the pub again. This proved to not be such a good idea as he was quite tired and not feeling so well the next day.