The Trip: Chapter 4 - Fraser Island

After picking up Elz and spending another few days in Byron watching her get burnt it was time to get underway again.

After 90 minutes in the car we decided it was time to surf again - we were in Surfer's Paradise so naturally the waves were pretty bad.. I tired of this and was seeing odd shapes under the water so came in after an hour or so. Yeremy soon followed and he to seemed to have seen wierd shapes. We turned around to see Adam paddling rather rapidly in and then running up the beach... "Dude there was definitely a shark down there!" we decided to let the lifeguards know and walked over, as we rocked up the guy was giggling to himself: "They're only Manta Rays Guys" he said, without us saying a word. We looked back out to sea to see two rather large black shadows slowly cruising along the shore. Bastard Fish.

Since we'd quickly made fools of ourselves we decided to leave, stopping overnight in Brisvegas then continuing North to Noosa via Australia Zoo again and getting up at 6am for Dawn Patrol - Noosa was our last surf, and my first ever cutback! Oh yes.

After passing a worrying amount of churches and evangelical retreats we rocked up into Hervey Bay - gateway to Fraser Island. After checking in and paying the exorbitant extra charges I was soon pleased to find out that the rather attractive girl in our room was also going to be in our car on the island...

...later in the bar we had a briefing about the island and met the rest of our group:

Tom and James - two Bristolian lads. Excellent drinkers and mayhem advocates.

Eric and Mo - German lads but legends all the same.

Vanessa and Laura - German girls, a little quiet except when there is an open bottle of Jim Beam nearby...

Emma - the aforementioned girl from our room, a marine biologist from Norfolk.
And then of course us gorgeous lot...



It was shaping up to be quite a good car... after a few beers and ordering our meat and alcohol supplies we purchased food and returned to the pub.
Waking at a cruel 6am we went to load up the cars... ours was identified by the joyously large pillar of beer in front of it.Car loaded and another annoying briefing later we were underway - go go signs that give me ideas...On the ferry we discovered that Tom had recently got a Tattoo in Byron Bay. A tattoo of James' lips. On his ass.
First thing on the island we headed to Lake McKenzie via a brief traffic jam

McKenzie's a beautiful, if a little overcrowded place - the water's so clean you can just swim and drink... we did both lots. Go Go group photo.

Then on to Lake Wabby, which is slowly disappearing thanks to that giant sand dune...we were really getting into our group photos....Then on to the Maheno - a random shipwreck on the beach halfway up the island



Then it was time to make camp... we ended up on the same part of the beach as everyone else - this meant party time. But we had to put on our makeup first...


We also came up with the brilliant game of "Wanker" - basically everyone sticks their hand through a hole on the plastic beer ring thingy and pulls. The one with it left on their arm is the wanker and has to keep it on for the rest of the trip. Soon we were all covered in them.
Partying on the beach, me and the girls needed a quick nap before sunrise...

We then spent a while wandering around looking at each other wandering what to do. (Turns out we excelled at this). We eventually got underway long after everyone else, just in time to be trapped by the tide as it covered the very driveable wet sand, forcing us on to the soft, dry sand. Curses. Ely Creek was the only option - an nice little river you can wade up and then just float your way down to the sea...

We soon tired of this so decided to bury then run over Yeremy...

With the tide finally out enough we could move on, not long before we saw a dead dolphin washed up... not nice...

We headed to a campsite for lunch, I kept finding interesting creatures to poke
The site was run by some resident aboriginies and they had removed the dolphin from the beach and buried it nearby. We were lucky enough to see part of the farewell ceremony for the dolphin spirit until we were asked to move on. Turns out it was more of a private thing.

Later on we made camp on the beach again, soon everyone else turned up. It was the girl's turn to cook. The guys just drank. Professionally. This culminated in an epic game of "Asses of Fire"...

.. and also the impossible situp game...
Germans can be so gullible...

Much drinking and shenanigans later it was daylight again and time to move on... there were more lakes to see!

...after the lads visited the salon we covered most of the south of the island before reconvening at the ferry port to head home, there was just enough time for one more group photo...
Back at the hostel we cooked the rest of our meat and had a good few beers while sifting though the 800 or so photos we took between us. (Hence the epic length of this entry). Most of us were to meet up again further up the coast, Emma and I had a bit of a thing going by the end of the trip which continued to Cairns and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her when I'm home.

Some groups on Fraser Island just party. Some just want to see everything. We did both. To excess. This has been the best thing I've done out here so far and I think I mostly have to thank the group I was with for that. You're all legends and I hope to see you all again soon. I'll bring the toilet roll.