Easter Holiday: Fraser Island

Inga, Iain, Neil, Rudy and I got back to Brisbane around 12:30a on Friday, 28MAR08. Quickly turning around, unpacking and repacking, got to sleep around 1a just to get up 5 hours later. It was raining that morning, so Inga and I took a taxi to QUT, where we were meeting up with the rest of the group going to Fraser Island. We were to meet Neil and Rudy there (Iain hadn't secured a ticket in time and didn't go with us).

Irony set in as we had just taken a taxi to avoid getting wet, but we stood in the rain at QUT for 30 minutes before the caravan arrived. Don't worry, no one melted. We loaded up our packs, hopped in the four-wheelers, and set out for a 3 hour drive and a ferry ride to Fraser Island.

The drive there was quiet and sleepy. Because the caravan was late we had a rushed schedule upon arrival at Eurong. We unpacked, checked into our "hostel-hotel" rooms, grabbed dinner at the buffet, then went to my favorite part of Fraser Island: Lake Wabby. It is a lake created by a sand-blow. It used to be a river, but so much of the sand kept blowing across the river that it was no longer a river, but a lake. The sand-blow wall was HUGE. It rained all evening, so we were all drenched as we trudged through the sand. It was actually quite fun and a bit of a workout. Because of the rain the lake was super warm (don't ask me how that works). It was a lot of fun at Lake Wabby.

Afterwards we drove back to Eurong and went to the Beach Bar for a while, then it was off to bed for an early rise.

(Saturday, 29MAR08) We were up at 8a and on our way to a rainforest for a long walk. Inga and I stuck together and walked barefoot (we were one with nature). There was a funny episode where some on-coming Swedes were saying how dirty we are for walking the trail without sandals, Inga understood them and was disgruntled, shared the story with me, then we both laughed at the Swedes because we DID know what they said when they'd clearly assumed we had no idea what they were talking about - hehe.

The trees in the rainforest were enormous. I learned about a new favorite tree: the strangler tree. It isn't a parasite because it doesn't have a host (not technically). The strangler tree grows around another tree, steals it's sunlight leaf space (this causes the "host" tree to die), and then the strangler tree continues to wrap around the "host" for support. It's cool.

We went to Wangoolba Creek, what used to be Central Station on the island, then to a perched lake for lunch. Several of the lakes at Fraser Island are tea tree oil lakes - they're a "clean" brown. One of the lake's sand was so fine you could clean jewelry with it.

Through the day I got the tour guides to sing Waltzing Matilda on video. They taught us a really great children's nursery rhyme, too: A Home Among the Gum Trees (with lots of PLUM TREES)! Great fun with the motions!

Next up was dinner, then a nap for me. Tamara (one of the tour guides who was really awesome) demanded my presence at the Beach Bar that night, and we all had a blast. From the Killer Kangaroo, to the Shower, to the Popcorn, to the juke box and Grace Kelly ("ahhh") - oh, it was a blast! There ended up being an after-party in our hotel room, and me being such a sleepy-head, I fell asleep on my bed while there were 3 others still sitting on it, carrying on with the rest of the party, ha. I was really tired, I suppose. Oh, this was the night that one of the guys from Norway tried to say Rudy's name "Rurianda," haha - cracks me up!

(Sunday, 30MAR08) For the last day we grabbed breakfast, packed, checked out and were on the road. We stopped at Eli Creek (where I napped while laying out and caught some sunburn - eek!), the ship wreckage site (pretty cool), and the rocks that had three different colors of sand (pretty cool, too, but they were closed for some reason so our photos are from a distance). Then we had lunch and were back at QUT.

What a fun weekend trip with some great friends!!!

These photos are also on their way.

-Amanda