Hervey Bay- Day 1- Fraser Island

Our first full day in Hervey Bay was a tour of Fraser Island, right across the bay. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, requiring a 4WD vehicle to tour around it. There are few roads through the island and most of them are very narrow. Thankfully, our tour guide Hayden was a seasoned pro at getting us around in our 20 person 4WD bus. A ferry brought a bunch of tourists and some vehicles across Hervey Bay to Fraser Island. We headed to the interior of the island for about 1/2 hour, slow going and very bumpy.

First stop, Lake Birrabeen, a freshwater lake, for a nice swim and beach time. The path to the lake had been washed out due to excessive rains, so everybody took off their shoes, rolled up their pants and waded through sometimes thigh high water to get to the beach.

From there, we headed to the Eurong Beach Resort, one of the 2 main resorts on the island, for tea/coffee.  Then we proceeded up the eastern coast of the island, driving up the beach the entire way- very cool! The Pinnacles were next on our list- a very cool site, basically over the many gazillion years of existance, this island had different colored sands and you could see the hills layered in different hues.



Next was lunch at a beautiful spot called Rainbow Gorge. We saw a bit of local wildlife...

A kookaburra with his catch, a leggless lizard.

A tawny frogmouth.

Our guide Hayden cooked us lunch on the barbi... ;)

Then more beach driving...

To the Moheno shipwreck...

Eli Creek for a refreshing wade...

And a quick rainforest walk before returning to the ferry to catch our ride home...

No dingos were seen, which was kind of disappointing, but we had a great time and learned alot about the formation of the island and learned some folklore from our guide. It was a very busy and fact filled, fun and tiring day. We saw an awesome sunset on the ferry ride home. We ate at a restaurant closeby, the Deck, and had an okay meal (and beers). Then we crashed...long, but awesome day!