Yep, that's right. It is an island made solely of sand. Even the rainforest on the island grows out of the sand...the only place in the worlds where this happens. This was a very fun trip. We drove from Brisbane to Hervey Bay and checked in to our hotel. It wasn't quite what we had in mind, so we decided to check out within just a couple of hours. We ended up driving all around Hervey Bay trying to find another hotel to stay in, and our last resort ended up being a place we thought was too expensive, but come to find out, the guy checking us in gave us the hook ups, and it was wweeeeellllll worth it. Basically it was a 2 bedroom apartment, overlooking the water, huge balcony, jacuzzi bath and plasma screens in every room. We were in heaven. Take a look...
We didn't get to spend much time living this lifestyle, as we had to leave by 5:30 the next morning to get to our 4x4 rental place at 6. We sat through a briefing session on the truck that we would be driving for the next 3 days, and then headed over to Fraser Island by ferry. We were told we would be driving on sand the whole time, as there were no paved roads, but we weren't quite expecting it would be so bad. Driving through the middle of the island was treacherous. It was constantly bumpy and the truck would develop a mind of it's own at times, swerving every which way. It was kind if like driving through potholes all the time, without the ability to dodge them. We almost got stuck a couple of times. One time, we were trying to find our hotel, got sent on a detour, and found ourselves trying to climb a hill while the tires were digging themselves deeper and deeper in the sand. We ended up reversing down the hill and found an alternate route. The second time we tried driving through very soft sand at too slow of a speed and got stuck in no time. Luckily there were men standing around waiting for helpless soles like ourselves to get stuck. They helped us get unstuck by guiding us in reverse and finding a better place to park. Sarah then found it amusing to stand on a hill and watch every other car go through what we had just gone through. At times everyone would have to get out of the 4x4 that was stuck and help push it backwards. You could tell the people that knew what they were doing. The would start from way far back and just gun it the whole way through the soft sand hill. They were the lucky ones who made it to the other side. Other than driving through the middle of the island, we would drive along the eastern side, on the "highway". This was not an ordinary highway. There were no marked lanes or no median, just other 4wd vehicles and an occasional plane landing or taking off from the same road you were driving on. We were also only permitted to drive at certain times of the day, during daylight hours and during low tide. During high tide, the water would come in too far and there wouldn't be enough road to drive on. We were definitely excited to get back to civilized driving off the island.
While on the island we were not allowed to swim in the ocean, as there were sharks. So we visited the lakes, hiked up to an awesome lookout point, and then found Champagne Pools. We spent a lot of time at Lake Mckenzie. It is said to have one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand is sparkling white, and the water is clear blue. It is breathtaking! The water was cold, but we sure did go for some swims. You could go out pretty far, not be able to stand and see the bottom of the lake very clearly...amazing! We also visited Lake Birrabean, which resembled Lake McKenzie, but the sand wasn't as clean. They do say though, that the silica sand is good for cleaning jewelry. I didn't give it a go, though. We did a short hike to Lake Wabby, which was an emerald lake, but didn't have much time to spend here. Champagne pools was a small area as far north on the island as we were able to go, with ocean water enclosed by rocks. And when a big wave comes over the rocks, it makes the water look foamy, which is where it gets it's name. I think Indian point was my next favorite place on the island, second to Lake McKenzie. It was a beautiful lookout point, where we saw turtles, sharks, whales, dolphins and manta rays.
On our way back home after Fraser Island, we stayed in Noosa for the night. We again saw koalas as we walked along in the Noosa National Park. One was awake and moving about, not like the one we saw before that was sleeping. Supposedly they sleep for 20 hours out of the day. We must have caught him at a good time.
us girls hanging out in noosa
doesn't this look like an upside down texas?
isn't he sooo cute?!?!?!
sunset in noosa
I have a video of the cute koala climbing a tree, but I am having problems getting it on to youtube. But when I do, I will post it. =)
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