Fraser Island - day 43,44,45

After spending the afternoon at the lagoon in Airlie Beach and then taking the night bus to Hervey Bay, we arrived at the Palace Hostel at 7h in the morning, just in time for the meeting for the self-drive tour on Fraser Island. We were divided into 3 groups (=3 cars; 9 people per car) and then sent off with the Toyota Land Cruisers to get all the camping gear and do some food shopping for the 3 days we were gonna spend on the biggest sand island in the world (123km long and 25km wide). We took the ferry from River Heads to Kingfisher Bay Resort and then drove over the sandy forest path to Lake Wabby. The view was stunning! The lake is surrounded by a huge sand dune on one side and by forest on all the other sides. We stayed there for a bit, cooling off in the water and playing some water volleyball. From there we drove onto the Eastern Beach... that was just crazy! The beach is recognised as a national highway!! But you have to share it with airplanes as well!! Anyway, Pierre drove the car during the 3 days and had the best time driving on that beach! We stopped near Eli Creek and set up camp there for the night. We made some hamburgers for dinner, they were delicious! The stars and the moonrise were amazing that night! We hung out with one of the other groups who was camping right next to us. The next morning we got up at 8h30 and walked to Eli Creek, which has some of the clearest water we've ever seen! It was pretty cold, so we walked through it instead of swimming in it. After walking back to the car and having lunch, we drove over the beach to the Maheno ship wreck. After a quick stop at the Coloured Sands, we drove on to Indian Head. We saw a dingo and some turtles on our way. After climbing up to the lookout, we saw some whales and more turtles. The view from up there was incredible! When we got back down, we drove on to the Champagne Pools, having some trouble with very soft sand at one point and nearly getting stuck... The Champagne Pools are the only place on the island where you're allowed to swim in the ocean cause they're behind some rocks, so the sharks and jellyfish can't get there. It was very cold, but still a nice place to have a swim! We drove all the way back over the beach and set up camp further south, with the other two groups. We had spaghetti for dinner and then some "smores" for dessert, it was delicious!! We went to the beach to look at the stars and then sat around to listen to Saara play the guitar and sing some amazing songs! Saara is one of the girls who was in our group and she and Nick are part of a band called You Can Be A Wesley and they're really good!! It was a great night! The next morning we were woken up by a ranger who wasn't very happy about the fact that the other group had left all their stuff outside (coolboxes, table, beers...) cause the dingoes are everywhere and steel lots of stuff! After getting up and packing everything again, we drove to Lake Mackenzie, another incredible place!! We swam abround for a bit and then just chilled in the sun. Just before leaving, a dingo came out of the forest and stole somebody's make-up bag! hahaha, so funny!! After lunch we drove back to Kingfisher Bay Resort and took the ferry back to the mainland. We all returned to the same hostel and had dinner with our group. It was great!! Mainly thanks to the people in our group! Thank you all for making it so much fun!!

Weather: cloudy and sunny, no rain!!