Comedy of Errors

We set off early in the morning in our bright pink 4x4 that was ominously named, "Rollie" for the Fraser Island Ferry. Our first stop was Woolworth's were the 9 of us each pitched in to buy food & grog for the weekend. Possibly the most painful grocery shopping experience of my life & the occurrence of our first big mistake. We sent 3 guys from the UK to go to the bottle shop to get alcohol for the weekend. As we emerge from the parking lot, we see them victoriously standing over 20 boxes of goon. It's like boxed wine, except on further inspection, it does not claim anywhere on the box to be wine; it simply said "chablis." It's cheap, it's gross, it's nasty and apparently made from fermented fish bones. But, it does the trick if you are looking to get silly on the cheap. It tastes about as good as it sounds. Ick.

Armed with heaps of goon and the Aussie equivalent to Raman Noodles, we set off for the ferry launch. We only stalled the car 7 times in 10 kms! =-)



We set off for the barge, completely unaware of what lie ahead. None of us had any real 4WD drive experience, most people couldn't drive a stick shift on the road, never the less in sand. It was all very unnerving. At least on the ferry ride over, we could relax and enjoy the weather ~ for at least part of the way. It started to pour down rain halfway through the ferry ride and didn't stop until late that afternoon.

The first day of driving was to take us on inland tracks to Lake Wobby, one of the fresh water lakes on the island. The inland tracks are tricky to drive on because it's all soft sand and unrelenting hills. Plus, obviously it's not a two lane highway, so if you are driving along and someone is coming the opposite direction, it gets a little tricky. Downright scary when these monster vehicles (think massive four wheel drive tour busses) from the Kingfisher Resort on the Island come whizzing by with no patience for weekend warriors. The island was packed because of the long weekend and the "traffic jams" we got in were pretty amazing.



You also have to realize that we were driving an old beat-up Toyota Land Cruiser manual transmission that had the seats ripped out of the back and benches down the sides like a paddywagon with three people up front & 7 people in the back plus all of our gear in the main part of the truck because roof storage units made the vehicle top heavy and more prone to tip over. We were doing a pretty good job of almost tipping quite often; the added weight up top would have just put us over the edge! It was close quarters to say the least!

It started to rain harder and harder and good ol' Rollie started to leak. It was hot & humid and now we were wet. Screams of "Get me off the effin' sand dune!" quickly began. I truly think the guy who was driving the truck was on a verge of a nervous breakdown between the conditions and having 9 back seat drivers is enough to make anyone moody.



Finally, we arrived exhausted & hungry @ Lake Wobby. After a 40 minute walk down this long trail, we came to this massive canyon of sand with a small lake in the middle of it. Families were taking sleds and sliding down the sand dune which was almost a kilometer long and a straight 45 degree angle like it was snow! It really was an impressive sight! The lake was emerald green in color and against the yellow-orange tones of the coloured sands made for a lovely sight. We all got down the the bottom, inspected for crocodiles (which don't even live on the island, but still, you can never be to cautious) and went for a swim. The catfish kept nipping at our toes, but other than that it was lovely. The sun finally came out and we all sat in the shallows of the lake, had a beer and for the first time really starting having fun. That is, until we realized, getting down the the lake was the easy part! Now we have to trek back up to the top of this sand dune and back along a trail that was completely uphill. We would sleep well tonight!



When we got back to the truck, we decided we should go to one of the established campgrounds to get water & use the barbeque and facilities their for dinner and washing up. So, we set off further north passing the Maheno shipwreck which has been a landmark on Fraser Island since the 1930s if I remember correctly. We stopped to take some quick pictures, get some use out of our tentinus shots playing on the rusty ship & hurried up the beach to get to the campground before dark & the tide came in. Once the tide comes in, there is virtually no beach to drive on and you're in basically stranded where you are =)



Since we had such little time, we broke into two groups, the girls made dinner while the boys went down to pitch the tent on the beach. We did not have the permits to stay in the campground because the hostel figures that a bunch of backpackers will never obey the 10pm quiet hours and they are probably right. All was going well until darkness fell and we found out that they only provided us with a torch that had to be hooked up to the car. Sh!t. After digging in my pack for a bit, I found my headlamp, thank goodness. But cooking by the light of one headlamp was not fun. But, goon makes everything a little bit better.

Then we ran into our second problem of the night. We went to go fill our big water jug and the spigot has a big sign on it saying "Not Potable Water." Apparently, for potable water you have to drive back down to Central Station (a good hour or so away on those inland tracks) to get drinking water. We were screwed. We had no water. Luckily, I had my filter bottle, but it was slow going. We stocked up on the ground water to use the bottle for the night and figure the rest out tomorrow.



As we are freaking out about that, the boys come back, defeated with tents and poles strewn all over the back of the 4WD. It's too windy to pitch the tents down on the beach; it just can't be done. What to do? If we illegally camp in this permit, we face a hefty fine from the rangers and the hostel and will get kicked out way after the tide is up and will be forced to drive through salt water, which means we have an additional fine from the hostel. We scarf down our nasty "backpacker's special" sausage and steak (using those terms loosely) and head down the beach, with the tide encroaching and everyone kind of freaking out of the prospect of having to sleep in the truck parked in the dunes.

We eventually found a sheltered area where we can pitch the tent if we use the van as a windshield and all 10 of us pitch each tent 1 at a time. It was that windy and ridiculously difficult, but we did it thank goodness. We all gathered around our one headlamp and drank goon and ate "Home Brand" (store brand) cookies that were disgusting, but we were so hungry it didn't matter.

The stars above were absolutely amazing. We kept seeing shooting stars and the sky was unlike anything you've ever seen before. It was like being at the planetarium, but in real life!
After some silly uni drinking games, we all went to bed knowing that we had limited windows due to the tides to get where we needed to go. Early to bed, up at 6am to beat the tides. We all went to bed happy to know that tomorrow had to get better and worried that the dingoes would kill us in our sleep!