Fraser Island-Too Much Sand

Greetings everyone! (or just me depending on if anyone is still reading this...)

so as per usual I have neglected my little bloggywog in search of fun and due to lack of internet so there are mucho updates to get out. Last I left this bad boy I was heading to Hervey Bay/Fraser Island for a 2 night/3 day sand island adventure. And it was just that! We arrived in Hervey Bay at 7 am with little sleep under our belt but managed to rally and get excited for Fraser. We went to the hostel and were briefed all about the island through this absolutely hysterical video that the Australian Government has made...there were at least 5 minutes of the video devoted to dingoes and not leaving your children unattended. "The dingo at my baby!" just kept replaying in my head. We were put into a group with 4 Irish girls-Shelley, Carol, Clare and Trish, a Swiss German-Tomas, and a Swiss-French boy, Killian. The girls were absolutely hysterical and we bonded instantly, the boys had a bit of a time coming out of their shells but once they did our little team was made. We packed up the car and we were off on the ferry to Fraser! The larger group consisted of 4 cars, so about 28 people all together were on this trip which made for good times. There were these 2 Canadian boys that stuck out right away as they HAD to be the center of attention anywhere they were. One was this huge 6'3" firefighter named Jeff (he comes into play soon), the other was this little sprite named Mike. Claire and I affectionately referred to them as Big Canada and Little Canada. I hope they never heard us say it...

Fraser Island is basically just a giant pile of sand with lots of forest, and even more sand. All of the roads are really just tracks in the sand so it is off roading heaven. We went to Lake Wabby the first day which was surrounded by a huge sand dune so the thing to do was run or jump down the dunes into the water. I chose to watch as my accident-proneness and lack of travel insurance would surely have ended in disaster. Claire and I did get into a sand fight like any mature 23 year olds would do which was quite entertaining. I'd like to say I won, but that would be a lie. After Lake Wabby it was off to set up camp along the beach, along with several other cars. I think there must have been close to 75 people in our campsite and we all ended up converging and having this huge party on our tarp that was hysterical. The London boys that we had met in Mission Beach (see the photos...they are priceless) and then run into again at Airlie Beach, showed up at the campsite so that was a fun surprise. Drinking games were abound but we learned that they are not very practical to play with 30 people trying to sit in a circle. The night ended with all of us running around in the waves on the beach and attempting to do cartwheels.

While at Lake Wabby, Big Canada told me that he was a firefighter and also dresses up as Smokey the Bear and goes around to elementary schools educating the wee kiddos about fire safety. As Smokey was one of my childhood icons (Thank you McCall Ranger Station) I was all to eager to hear all about dressing like a massive bear and dancing around. I think he mistook my interest in the fact that I was talking to a mascot as interest in him. So later he invited me to go down to the beach for a walk and an herbal refreshment and I said yes thinking nothing of it. Best decision I've ever made, because I got the best pickup line I've ever heard. We were just sitting on the beach talking, and he leans towards me and says "come give Smokey a kiss". (seriously, I should be telling you this story in person because text just does not do it justice, but I cant not share it). I kid you not, I could not stop laughing and had to eventually get up and leave because I couldn't control myself. Smokey did not get a kiss, but will forever live on with that story. So boys, next time you think it's a good idea to refer to yourself in third person as your alter ego, just don't do it. It will end in tears. Of the girl you are trying to pick up.

The next day we woke up with the sun which was far too early and headed to Indian Head which is this big look out towards the top of the island. You could see for miles when you hiked up and we saw sharks and stingrays out in the water which was pretty amazing. Then we went to this little creek and splashed around in the water before setting up camp again. We had to set up camp early because of the tide and driving on the beach, so we decided to do what anyone else would do while stranded on the beach and not able to drive-drink. Fast forward to 7:30 pm and Jen passed out under the car. After one round of drinking games I was so exhausted that I just quietly rested my head and before I knew it, I was out. Apparently people tried to wake me up and I wouldn't budge so they just played drinking games over me. Fantastic. At one point Sean did get me up and told me some BS story about how they had switched islands on me and I was all alone with these giant frogs. I was still half asleep so I wandered out to the beach to see these giant toads before I realized where I was and that I did know everyone there. I tried to be social but was still dead so I crawled into a tent and admitted defeat.

The last day we woke up and headed to McKenzie Lake which is a perched lake-which basically means that if you dug down to the bottom and cleared all of the leaves, the lake would disappear. The result is this incredibly cool blue lake that has white sand that can polish jewelry and clean teeth. We played around that before getting in the car and heading back towards the ferry. We had to stop and fill air into the tires of the car and ended up getting into this huge water fight. This was a bad idea for 2 reasons. 1) Queensland is in a severe drought that we didn't know about and we were just throwing jugs of water at each other. 2) while trying to fill up my water jug I was hit from behind with water and immediately turned my head to run away, and immediately ran my nose into a metal pipe. Thankfully it wasn't severely injured but I had a huge welt on my nose for the rest of the day. It amazes me sometimes how accident prone I am.

Back in Hervey Bay we met some funny Aussies from Byron Bay area that taught us this hysterical drinking game that involves "putting on goggles" (making goggle shapes with your hands and holding them up to your face) and chicken noises. I'm definitely bringing that one back to the states. Our next stop was supposed to be Noosa, but it ended up being Brisbane due to poor bus planning on our part. More on that later..I have to go attempt to pack now.

Until next time...

Jen