Fraser Island

I’ve just got back from probably my favourite few days of my travels so far, Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world.

Before we get into that though, we’ve got to discuss the bus journey to Fraser Island. Bus journeys in Australia seem to be a bit more chaotic than the ones in New Zealand, something always goes wrong. The bus was 30 minutes late picking us up, which was because someone had destroyed two of the seats by being violently sick on them. At least I only had a 3 hour journey on a bus that stank of vomit. 

We then had a little rest stop half way and got back on the coach to finish the journey. About half an hour after leaving the rest stop, the bus driver had a phone call, she had left someone behind. So we then had to go back to get the missing person before continuing. We arrived pretty late at our destination, but at least we didn’t have to smell the vomit anymore. 

The Fraser Island tour left the next day from Rainbow Beach. There is absolutely nothing to do here other than go and look at the rainbow steps on the beach. 

The next day we were all set to go on our tour. The tour has 30 of us split between four 4WD jeeps, taking it in turn to drive on Fraser Island, the roads of which are all made of sand. 

Dylan very quickly became the mascot of car 3, which was named “The Dylan the Dragon Car”. He kept his place hanging from the rear view mirror throughout the trip.

I was up in the drivers seat first (because of course I volunteered first), so I had the responsibility of driving our car, sorry the Dylan car, onto the island and to our first stop, the bluest lake I’ve ever seen in my life.

Driving a 4x4 is incredibly fun. There’s always a sense of danger that you might spin the car or crash. You really have to stay alert. Some of the group were nervous about driving and took it slow, but our legend of a tour guide, Tony, didn’t take any prisoners. He always made sure the convoy was going up to the speed limit so that we could get around as much of the island as possible.

After a solid day of exploring, we arrived at our campsite for the next two nights. We all had tents to sleep in and there was a makeshift kitchen and dining area. We all chipped in with the cooking and I took on the BBQ, I’ve never cooked for so many people! When it got dark it finally sunk in that we were camping in Australia, and the local wildlife made an appearance.

The group bonded with games and getting to know each other as the night went on. I misjudged how much alcohol I’d need and like others, drank my entire allowance in one night. Luckily there was a campsite shop!

Day 2 came around and we headed back out in the cars to see more of the sights of Fraser Island. It became obvious that we had a great group of people on the tour, so there were lots of group photos and shenanigans. The cars are fitted with radios for Tony to communicate with us, but we decided to fire him and take over with a mammoth day of radio quizzes.

The night meant more games in the campsite, but less animals for most of us. We were meant to check our tents before going to bed to ensure there were no unwelcome visitors. I didn’t bother but probably should have as one tent had a huntsman spider in it!

The final day arrived, and there was a sense of sadness in the air that it was almost over. There were a few more sights to see before we headed back. We also saw some dingos, lots of which inhabit the island. I’ve seen most of the main Australian animal hit list in the wild now, apart from a snake!

As we headed back, the music volume increased in all cars, as we belted out our final tunes. As we pulled back into the mainland, the entire group had a singalong to I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys, which definitely became our song of the trip.

Back at the hostel, some of us were staying one more night, and it was great reminiscing about our trip. With trips like these, it’s the group of people you are with that can make or break it, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to share this experience with. I’ll never forget it.