On Friday early morning we were picked up by the Fraser Explorer Tour at our motel and driven to River Heads where the ferry departs to Fraser Island. It took about half an hour across and then we got onto our 4WD (four-wheel-drive) coach. The ferry was absolutely full, about 4 or 5 coaches and several jeeps were waiting for all the visitors.
Our guide Butch advised us to always were the seat belts and after a few kilometres we knew exactly why: it was very, very, VERY bumpy!
Fraser Island is a sand island and the "roads" are not being smoothended out, the hills add to the challenging ride. Our guide pointed out that the coach is from the MAN brand, german made and the most reliable vehicle for these conditions. (YES!) Our first stop on the island was Lake McKenzie, there are about 40 lakes on the island. All of them only fed by rainwater and therefore very clear. We had a quick swim in the lake.
Then we headed for Central Station and had a quick walk along the Silent Creek and thorugh the subtropical rainforest.
At 12:35pm we had a lunch buffet at a resort and then hit the beach. Yes, we drove on the beach at 80 km/h in a 4WD coach! That was quite an experience as well! We stopped at the Pinnacles, a sandcolored stone which is a sacred Aboriginal site.
Then we drove back to this shipwreck of a former cruiser. It got hit by a bomb in 1935 and you can only see the top two levels, the other four or five levels are under the sand!
And then... we got on a little sports plane! Oh yes! We paid extra for this also very bumpy but absolutely worthy flight over the island for 15 minutes. And it was great! Thanks to my lovely friends Imen and Uwe I took the opportunity to do this together with Markus (he took a video with his GoPro).
After the flight we also walked in the Eli Greek and as we drove back to the ferry we were also lucky enough to see two wild dingos.
The ferry back took a lot longer and we got transfered to our motel by 6:30pm. Unfortunately the motel is booked out for the weekend, so we changed to the Aussie Wooldshed Backpackers (what another strange name). Our next stop: Bundaberg!
Yours island-driving-and-island-flying Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!