news from Oz
Sunday 4th Apr 2004, evening time
G'day, I've recently had a complaint that I have been ''very quiet'' lately... so I feel it's time to update you all!! Not to make you all jealous or anything, but I have spent the last 3 days on a 4WD Safari on Fraser Island & I don't know where to start! Ok, day 1 might be a good idea.... DAY 1 Early this morning we were put into groups of 9 & given a briefing by one of the local rangers. After checking all the camping equipment, collecting our food & loading up the roof of the Land Cruiser with all our gear we left Rainbow Beach & caught the barge over to Fraser Island - which takes around 5 minutes. We headed along the 75km stretch of golden beach up to central station where we spent some time checking out the rainforest. Next we went to Eurong - the closest place to civillisation on the Island. It has a bar, a convenience store, a few accommodation places and.. thats about it really. We carried on along the beach to Lake McKenzie - a fresh water lake with the most gorgeous coloured water ever! (By the way.. you cant swim in the sea surrounding fraser because of the sharks). Spent a few hours swimming & sunbathing & afterwards we decided to set up camp on the beach. We put up the tents, built a campfire and cooked tea - which consisted of steak, salad & potatos.. with a bit of sand for added texture. We partied into the night with the other campers & had a few visits from the local dingos. DAY 2 Got up around 7am, packed up everything & headed North to Eli Creek which was nice for a swim! Next we passed an old shipwreck sticking out of the sand which was pretty fascinating. We carried on along the beach & stopped at the champagne pools for another swim. We walked to Rainbow Gorge which is a massive sand dune with different coloured sands. After we walked to the top of Indian Heads where we could see some wicked views of the coast line & beach. We were supposed to camp back at Eurong but we left it too late & couldnt get beack because of the tides so we went to another place to camp on the beach For dinner we had stir-fry, noodles, veg & chicken, again with a sprinkle of sand for good measure - it was an absolute feast. There we lots of people fishing & camping nearby, so we joined them in the evening & got to talk to the locals. Around midnight we decided to go & explore the nearby sand dunes - 2 people were allocated to be on Dingo watch for the duration. DAY 3 We left around 10am & went to a local picnic area for breakfast. We had ''Aussie Bird in the Nest''... basically toast with a hole in the middle with a fried egg. By the time we'd washed up etc it was 12pm. We were supposed to catch the 3pm barge back to Rainbow but we stupidly decided to go back to Lake Mckenzie first because it was so beautiful & we all wanted another swim. This resulted in us missing the barge. Ooops.. We had to bomb it down the beach to make sure that we could catch the last barge at 5.30pm. At one point I wasn't sure we'd make it because the tide was coming in & we had to find an access point which took us onto higher ground. Luckily we found it in time & after rescuing a sleeping bag & trainer which flew off the roof, we arrived at the barge point with around 5 mins to spare. The people back at the hire company were pretty cool though & even though we were 3 hours late, they didn't mind too much. I can safely say it was one of the best weekends I've had in OZ so far & now I'm off to empty the sand out of my ears, nose & everywhere else. Sorry about the essay. If you made it this far congratulations. Hope all is well. Haven't heard from you all for a while, what's going on?? Lots of Love from me to you, xxx Christine (TB Euph!)