The East Coast: Fraser Island

We swapped out our little Corolla for a equally ancient, monster Land Rover, and went to play around on the world’s largest sand island for 3 days. Fraser Island, you are phenomenal.After a brief rundown on the mainland of how not to get our 4×4 stuck in the sand, we drove aboard a ferry and set off to the island, armed with a map and visions of dingoes.

I’d heard about Fraser, but really knew next to nothing about it. I was not expecting a full on forest.

In some parts of the forest the trees looked hand-painted.

Our first stop was at Lake Mackenzie. A freshwater lake, on a sand island, surrounded by a forest.

This lake was one of the clearest I’d ever seen.

Traffic jams on a one way, soft-sand road took a bit of manoeuvering.

We had lunch under a palm tree, I was so happy to be up north again, I had been missing them so much.

Next we discovered the wonder of ‘sand blows’. Nomadic little deserts that are slowly moving around the island.

And this one was hiding another freshwater lake.

We were beginning to lose daylight, so we drove along the beach looking for an empty campsite for the evening. Fortunately the Land Rover was big enough to use as a living room/dining room because it rained. A lot.

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Today was our full day of Fraser exploration.

On our map was spot marked Kirra Sandblow, or “Rainbow Gorge”. We drove past it once or twice, but it was well worth the hunt.

There are 72 different colours of sand just on this one island.

This one was massive. It really felt like we were in a desert. It was hot, there was no shade, we drank all our water (this was a theme of the trip.) It was hard to believe we were still on the same lush green island.

A little further along the beach was a huge skeleton: the Maheno Shipwreck. It ran aground in 1935, and has been left on the beach.

I wonder how long it will be before the entire wreck sinks into the ground.

For a change, we thought it might be nice to set up camp while the sun was still out, and relax to watch the sunset. Two lawn chairs, a fishing rod, and a few brews set us up for a great evening.

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After another night of heavy rain, it was a soggy wake up for our final morning on Fraser.

We drove almost to the top of the island, to the Champagne Pools. When the waves crash over the rocks they foam up and you feel like you’re swimming in a glass of bubbly.

Our timing was incredibly lucky standing up on this point, there were Humpback Whales out on the horizon.

And on the drive back to Kingfisher Bay and our ferry pickup, I spotted the biggest jellyfish I have ever seen. If everything in Australia wasn’t actively trying to kill you, I would have poked it.

Trying to find the Red Canyon was a challenge as it has the most inconspicuous sign, but it was beautiful

After catching a bit of the AFL Grand Final, our ferry had come and it was time to head back to the mainland. Three magnificent full days on Fraser. But we weren’t finished island hopping.