East Coast Adventures
Follow the Rainbow to Fraser Island
17.01.2012
Rainbow Beach
Our starting point for our trip to Fraser Island. Arrived the day before for our safety briefing and for a meet and greet with our group. There were 8 to a 4x4 and the 4 of us were paired with 3 German lads and their Taiwanese friend. We got along instantly mostly thanks to Fiona’s 20 questions the 1st morning! A short ferry ride and we were driving on the white sands of this all-sand island, created by years and years of drifting sands. It’s strange you would think nothing could grow on this type of surface but a lot of the island is covered by rainforest. We visit Lake Wabby on Day 1 which is surrounded on 3 sides by eucalyptus forest and a massive sandblow on the other side. It’s 13m deep at the centre but you would never think it just by looking at it. We dove straight in to cool off after the drive here – driving in the soft sand is slow and there’s a lot of it especially after high winds which greeted us at our campsite on the first night! Cue lots of tent pinning down for the night! We woke finding ourselves in a flattened tent and surrounded by a lot more flattened tents! Slept through 95km winds that night! Day 2 was a bit of a washout as one of the cars broke down (aka ran out of fuel) and the rest of us kept getting stuck in the soft sands that had gotten so much worse after the storms. We did manage to reach Eli Creek, the Maheno Shipwreck and Indian Head however, each of which were a treat!
Day 3 we headed to Lake Mackenzie which was absolutely beautiful with its crystal clear blue freshwater and white sands. I got to drive the track on the way out and it was great fun, the 4x4 bumping its way up and down sand hills, almost burnt out the clutch at one point (oops!) but our lead driver came to the rescue! We headed back to the ferry that afternoon after an amazing few days. I’d really recommend this place to everyone!
Went on a bushwalk from the hostel the next day which was cool. It was to a massive sandblow although smaller than that one on Fraser where the guide taught us how to throw a boomerang and to sandboard down a really steep sanddune! Great fun! Our time in Rainbow beach was well spent!
Posted by elisasdiary 15:36 Archived in Australia
