Some of you may have noticed that I am already back in Germany. Anyway, I will complete my Australian diary just for the sake of completeness.
The highlight of my Christmas vacation truly was the trip to Fraser Island. It’s the world’s largest sand island, covering 1600 km². One of the most common ways to explore the island is a self-drive tour, sharing a 4WD vehicle and camping equipment with a group of other people. In our case the group was relatively small, only eight people. You’d think that camping with six strangers is risky, not only in terms of skill level and camping routine but especially in terms of annoyance. Luck was with us, the group – consisting of four Swiss and four German people – was just fine. Actually, we matched very well.
The whole island is 120 km in length and we drove ca. 100 km up to an outlook called Indian Head. Can you imagine 100 km of perfect sand beach? However, swimming is dangerous due to deadly undercurrents and man-eating sharks in the water. Fraser Island also features largely untouched forests and crystal-clear freshwater lakes, such as Lake Wabby and Lake Lake Birrabeen. Besides the beautiful landscape and flora, there are also animals to watch – in case they show up at all. There are signs all over the island telling the unexperienced tourist about how to cope with dingoes (native wild dogs) but it was not until the morning of the very last day that we actually saw some of them roaming around the campsite.
There are hardly any roads on Fraser Island. People just drive their cars on the beach or on inland dirt tracks. Unfortunately I don’t have any images of these tracks but believe me, there are good reasons for allowing only 4WD cars on Fraser Island. It is quite a challenge to drive a vehicle through the woods and although not a car maniac I must admit having enjoyed it.
It started to rain heavily on the second evening and when everyone woke up soaked the next morning (which was also the last) we decided not to visit any more places and return to Rainbow Beach immediately. Having returned we saw on the news that a cyclone had hit the Fraser coast and the campsites on Fraser Island had been evacuated. If that isn’t luck then what?!
