Awesome Fraser Island camping Day 2

 The rising sun woke all of us up nice and early.  Some of us were a little hungover, the rest, like myself, were doing just fine.  Once up, it was time to pack everything and get breakfast cooking.  Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with tomato and onion with bread (there was no real easy way make toast).  The rest of the groups we had camped with were ahead of us leaving, but we took our time and made sure to get a nice meal in.  Apparently, one of the groups left their food outside and had most of it taken by several dingos (which we never saw).  Sucked to be them :P

Breakfast was delicious.  Mmm.

We left and headed back South down the island.  The itinerary suggested that we head back to town, stock up on ice, and then continue to Lake Mackenzie, which is what we planned to do.  On our way back down we hit a traffic jam.  There was a huge line-up of cars waiting to access a one lane route around rocks on the beach.  Someone told us that a truck had gotten stuck and was waiting to be towed and everyone was waiting on that.  

So what were we to do?  Instead of waiting in line, we backtracked a few minutes to a place called Eli Creek, a beautiful fresh water creek, and planned to play there a bit and wait for the line-up to dissolve.  Eli Creek was sweet!  A group of us walked to the beginning of it and swam down.  I loved it!!!  The water was crystal clear and you look beside and see small fish swimming along with you.   

You would often see planes fly by and some would land right on the beach.

After we were done, it was time to see how the line was doing.  Unfortunately, it had not lessened at all.  In fact, it was slightly larger than when we left it.  Shitty.  There were lots of trucks hauling 25ft+ boats from a fishing competition that was being held on the island.  It had ended I guess, and everyone was in a rush to get home.  Watching a truck pull its massive boat up some the tracks was wild as they grew quite steep and rocky at times.  

Anyways, so here we were stuck in massive line-ups waiting to get past the 3 rock by-passes so we could get to the small town on the island.  At one point everyone in the back jumped out to walk along the beach, which was faster than the truck was headed.

It ended costing us about 2 hours to get through it all, but we persevered.  We made it to the town, stocked up on ice, and met the 3 other groups we'd left with.   Along the wait, C.J. heard from another driver that a big storm was on its way and that we should camp inland tonight.  We made plans for that and decided to use the campsite close to Lake Mackenzie, which would let us spend the most time possible at what we'd heard was an amazing place.  We let the other groups know that's what our plans were, headed out of town to a water tap, and passed them all again on our way to Lake Mackenzie.  We literally drove past them all without stopping figuring that we'd all meet up again at Lake Mack.      

That didn't happen... Take note for tomorrow.

We trucked it up to the campsite, only to find out it was closed.  Fuck.

Check out the fences they use to keep away the dingos.  Pretty intense.  The cables along the ground are electrified.  

I found this massive tree here when we stopped to figure what to do next.  

What were we to do?  The closed sign suggested some other campsites, so we decided on the closest one, Lake Boomanjin, but since it was much further South, we headed to the lake first.

Even with the crappy on and off rain, and the little sun, it was still absolutely beautiful.

Swimming in Lake Mackenzie was one of the coolest things I did while Australia.

Check it out:

Even with the clouds, still was great.

When I got there I immediately noticed a stretch of light blue water, which then sharply darkens.  That boundary line in where the lake suddenly dropped much deeper.  

Look at me, I'm having fun!

Luckily, C.J. had a waterproof digital camera so he was able to take some underwater photos.

Here I am diving down to grab some of the bottom.

Here is a picture of the group of us in Lake Mackenzie.

I dove down pretty deep and took this shot of C.J., Ashley, and Connor.

Lack Mackenzie is the clearest lake I have ever seen.  Swimming in this lake was wonderful.  You can see people at distances away that you wouldn't think possible underwater.  I tasted a bit of the water to see if it was salty at all.  It. Even. Tasted. Good.  Take that as a measure of just how wickedly awesome this place was.  

Here I was happy we'd had lots of fun there; we made plans to come back tomorrow.

We were all reluctant to leave when it came time.  And seeing as time was of the essence (we were not supposed to drive at night), we needed to head out to make sure we had plenty to set up camp.  Our first stop was Lake Boomanjin, a campsite about an hour South of Lake Mack.  Once we got there, none of us liked the look of it.  There were already about 8 trucks there, none of which were yellow tops.  Interesting. 

We were having lots of fun during the trip though.

I went for the retard face unlike everyone else...

Onward we went.  Dilli Village was about 40 minutes to the Southeast.  It was a fun and quite bumpy ride to get there, but we all had plenty of drinks to pass the time with.  Poor C.J., I think he was the only completely sober one at this point, but that is the sacrifice he made being the driver.  He made up for it later in the night, no worries.

We arrived at the campsite, but first drove a bit to check and see if camping at the beach was a viable option.  It wasn't.  The tide had come in, and it would have been impossible to get to the beach site, short of a trip as it was.  It was starting to get dark at this point, and we looked to see how we would camp here.  Dilli Village, we learnt, was one of the few campgrounds that you have to pay to camp there.  $10 each to camp for the night.  Fuck that.

So back to Lake Boomanjin campground it was.  At this point were driving in the dark, which was no big deal, it was more of the fact that we'd wasted time getting here and our asses were getting a little sore that was annoying.

The goon began flowing...

Needless to say we made it safe and sound (and a little more inebriated) back to Boomanjin.  By now there were, I'd say, 15 trucks there, and finding a spot to pitch our tents wasn't the easiest.

It was here where we all worked beautifully as a group.  Some went off to set up the tents, others began preparing our dinner, which was vegetable stir-fry.  Another delicious meal.  It was supposed to have chicken as well, but the chicken bag had popped in our cooler.  Thankfully most of the other food in there was properly sealed.  We got everything done quickly and efficiently.  Great job!

And after eating it was party time!  

There were plenty of other people to meet, and since we had our truck's music blaring, lots of other campers came to visit us.  We were party central, and we all partied by truck for the night.  The goon had been flowing freely for awhile already, and it continued.  At one point, the rain turned on heavily so the party moved to the back of the truck.  It soon stopped, and we all slowly began to pass out.  There was a small storm in the middle of the night I remember waking up to, our tent managed to stay dry.

It was a great day followed by a great night.

Andre\/\/  /\/\eades

***The next day we ran into a big surprise.  Make sure to check it out.