Friday, June 5, 2009

Awesome Fraser Island camping Day 1

Everyone was up bright and early to check out, store our bags, and have our morning orientation before we left. In the orientation we checked our camping equipment, checked the vehicle, and went over the suggested itinerary. We packed up the trucks, got everyone settled, and then the journey began!


We journeyed to the barge which would take us to the island. Just after we got off the barge is where I saw the first and only dingo of the trip. Which was strange we didn't see any because the island is supposedly full of them. He was just standing on the beach looking at the passing convoy of vehicles. Not everyone in our group saw him, but we all expected to see some more. Such is life though.




Our first leg of the trip was to drive the entire length of the island, all the way to a place called Indian head. Driving the entire island only takes about 3 hours, so that is what we did. The weather was nice and sunny for us, and we were all pumped and ready for camping.

Indian Head was beautiful and offered an amazing view of Fraser.

Check out Damien's awesome pose.


We climbed along the rocks and then Damien, Ashley, CJ and I climbed all the way to the top which had an amazing view of Fraser.



Luckily there were a couple other people at the top to help take some pictures for us.

I took these panoramic shots:


We then climbed down and had our lunch. The other groups that we left with had arrived as well.



Then it was time to leave. The tide was slowly starting to come in so we had to be careful driving back along the beach as big waves would come every now and then. Several times the truck would get soaked when we couldn't avoid the waves. Great fun :) Our next stop was back along the beach to the ship wreckage we had passed earlier. It is a mystery how this ship ended up here, but great for tourist photos nonetheless.



We took a nice group photo here as well.


Then it was time to stop at the campsite on the beach for the night. We all set up our tents and camping equipment. There were about 7 trucks at the site, all of which were 'yellow tops' and were part of Dingo's hostel camping adventure.



This shot gives you and idea of how close to the beach we camped.

As you can probably guess, a big party was slowly beginning to form. But before we started all the drinking games, we watched the sunset along the beach, and cooked our dinner. It was STEAK! And it was delicious.




C.J and I. Yes, I'm wearing a head lamp. Thanks for that Auntie Sally, it was very useful!


After dinner, Ashley, CJ, Damien and I went to the beach to do the dishes and almost died. Seriously (not really). The tide was in, and we were trying to wash dishes, when 2 huge waves came. The first soaked us up to the hips, and the second up to our necks. It was insane. None of us even saw the wave coming. We were incredibly lucky that we only lost a little frying pan as we have to pay for everything we didn't come back with. I was holding the big frying pan and refused to let go of it even as I was being dragged along the sand back out to the water. It was brutal, I ate lots of sand. Ashley's camera got soaked, my one and only sweater as well. We learned the hard way why you have to be careful along the beach when the tides in.


But that little incident didn't stop the party. No way! We played some drinking games, met other campers, and had wicked fun all night. After which, everyone passed out in our tents looking forward to the next day ahead of us.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of the trip. It involves a trip to Lake Mackenzie, a beautiful freshwater lake on the island with the clearest water I've ever seen.

[Andrew Meades]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Did you go with that whole group of friends to Aussie? Or did you meet all of them there? Your trip looks amaaaazing!