Day 77-80 Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

We left the caravan in Hervey Bay and took the ferry across to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is another World Heritage Area (along with some other places we have visited on the trip - Shark Bay, the Bungle Bungles and the Wet Tropics). It is largest sand island in the world and is special as it also has areas of rainforest.

We camped in the rainforest at Central Station campground where they had fences to keep the dingoes out. The dingoes on Fraser Island are very pure, but there have been some problems because some people have fed them and some of them became aggressive towards people and had to be put down. Now they have fences to keep dingoes away from the campsites. We carried sticks around just in case.

We saw 6 kookaburras at the campsite.

The roads were very sandy and bumpy. We nearly got stuck a couple of times and needed low gear. At the start the sand was very dry because there has not been much rain but it rained the first night which made driving a bit easier (luckily the tents didn't get too wet).

The first day we went to Lake McKenzie and paddled around in the water. The lake was not the same as Mum and Dad remembered it but the sand was still very white and the water was clear. On the way back the road was very bad and the car felt like it was dancing.

The next day we drove to Eurong and then out on the beach. We went much faster on the beach because the sand was flat. There were lots of other cars driving on the beach and even a few caravans! We visited the wreck of a ship called the Maheno which was wrecked on the beach in the 1930s. The Maheno was a very fast ship in its time and sailed between Australia, New Zealand and North America. It was also a hospital ship during World War 1. The ship was being towed to Singapore at the end of its life when it was struck by a cyclone and the tow line broke.

Then we went to Eli Creek and floated down the creek and walked to Lake Wabby where we ran down the sandblow and into the water. Dad kept saying the sandblow was huge which was really annoying.

The final day we went to another lake (lake Birrabeen) and went for a walk through the rainforest then back to Lake McKenzie for lunch. Then we caught the ferry back to Hervey Bay. Fraser Island was lots of fun.