Coral Coast including Fraser Island - Friday 2 March onwards

Friday 2 March:

We got up at 7.15am and headed for the bay ready to greet Mystique. He was already there along with quite a few people but we managed to get into the water and stand next to him. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to touch him but we did feed him some fish. He comes into the bay every morning to feed. Apparently he is the alpha male in his group, but the rest of the family are usually too timid to approach humans. Once he is done feeding (which is strictly monitored by the Australian Environmental Protection Agency) a tour boat follows him out to see the rest of his pod in the river estuary.

Our next stop was Hervey Bay where we stayed at Fraser Lodge caravan park. The caravan site was great and it's part of the Big 4 group which are the sites we like. The lovely receptionist helped us in choosing the right tour for Fraser Island where we would be staying over night in a resort and we were allowed to keep our van on the site at no extra cost until we returned. At around 6.30pm the sky became filled with thousands of bats flying over to Fraser Island to feed. The bats completely covered the sky and were flying over for about 10 minutes. It was an amazing sight.

Saturday 3 March:

We got picked up at 7.30am by Steve who would be our tour guide on the island. We booked the tour through Fraser Explorer Tours in the end but it didn't matter because once on the Island all the tours are merged. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and has 1,500km of 4WD tracks running over it. As soon as we got off the ferry we got on a small 4WD bus with 17 other people and headed for Central Station where in the 90s a young boy was killed because he had wondered into a cave which had a family of dingos. The Central Station camp is now closed and after this 500 dingos were killed around the resort. We headed for Walgulva(?) Creek which is in sub-tropical rain forest. It was a lovely walk which took about 40 minutes and we managed to see a Lace Monitor on our way around. There were also a large number of eucalyptus trees but throughout the history of the island there has been no evidence of koalas living here. We drove along the beach, which is just like a busy road, to Eli Creek which was great. Carl and I paddled through the tiny creek which was quite narrow and the water was freezing. We managed to see an eel which swam right past us. An Irish couple took our belongings back to the bus while Carl and I crawled back through. It was too shallow to swim but so refreshing. Steve, our tour guide, used to fish on the coast of Fraser Island and said that bronze whalers, tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks are a regular visitor to the coast. This and the fact that the cross currents are very strong make it unsafe and forbidden to swim in the sea. After here our last stop for the day was Indian Head, named by Captain Cook. We climbed to the very top of a cliff where we saw horse mackerel and stingrays. When we returned to our bus we saw a wild dingo which looked really skinny. Steve explained that the Aborigines and forest workers used to feed the dingos but after a while they were told that they were not allowed to give them food. The dingos then used to feed off the wild horses but the wild horses were removed from the island because it was feared that their hooves would ruin the sand dunes so now the dingos have no food supply at all.

After our first day of sight seeing had finished we returned to our accommodation which was in Eurong and checked into our hotel. Carl and I had decided that we would upgrade to have our own room and we're so glad that we did. If we didn't we'd have had to share a room with four or six other people and sleep in bunk beds. But our room had a queen size bed, a single bed, a kitchen, big shower and a balcony. We hadn't stayed in a proper bed for over a month so this was amazing. Over dinner we got chatting to a German couple called Simone and Rene and an Irish couple called Orla and Emmet. Orla and Emmet were the couple who took our belongings back to the bus while we crawled through the creek. We all got on really well so we decided we would go to the beach bar while happy hour was on and we stayed there all evening. Orla explained that her uncle told her that you couldn't rip, crinkle or burn an Australian note. You certainly couldn't rip or crinkle one but non of us believed that you couldn't burn a note so Orla pulled out a $5 and tried to burn it with a lighter and it did burn. It was the laugh of the evening and she'll kill me for putting that on the blog. We also discovered that Emmet is incredibly short sighted. Apparently they had camped in Hervey Bay the previous ecvening and seen all the bats going over. But Emmet didn't have his glasses on so he didn't believe they were really bats when Orla told him.

Sunday 4 March:

After breakfast we arrived at a stop on the 75 mile beach and took a walk to Lake Wabbi. We had to walk 1.8km over what looked like a desert in the stong heat and over six large sand dunes. It was not our idea of fun and it was very hard work. I didn't enjoy it one little bit. It took about 45 minutes. It was the hardest thing we have had to do so far. We eventually arrived at the lake which was a fantastic welcome for everyone on the tour and we just dived straight in. Lake Wabbi is pure spring water so it was very refreshing. It was also full of catfish. On the way to the lake Orla and I were constantly being attacked by the big march flies which are evil. Carl was also attacked and he was trying to squirt the fly away with his water but his feet got tangled and he did a back flip onto the sand which made everyone laugh. If you belt them out of the way their intention is to come back twice as angry to bite you. And they do bite. When Carl was swimming in the lake one landed on his forehead and bit him.

Our next stop was Lake Mackenzie. Our highlight. The lake is formed by rain water only but it tastes like bottled mineral water. The sand is so fine it can be used to polish your jewellery. I didn't even have to rub the sand on my jewellery. It gets clean just by swimming. Also it's good for exfoliating and the water is lighter than hair conditioner so when you get your hair wet it feels so smooth, soft and silky. After here we caught the ferry back to Hervey Bay and returned to our campsite where we stayed another night.

Monday 5 March:

On the way to Town of 1770 we reached the 6,000km mark in our van. We had a look around this place which didn't take long because there's absolutely nothing here. Mistake number 1. I had to stop on the main road and wait for a lace monitor to cross. We booked into Captain Cook Caravan Park which had a bar and restaurant and after booking in we were told that they weren't open. Mistake number 2. We parked very close to a wasps next so had to move and it was hard to find a spot which was flat. Mistake number 3. If it wasn't so late in the evening we really wouldn't have stopped here at all. A big mistake number 4. We cooked on the barbeque and we must have had about twenty huge flies all around us making their buzzing noise which was horrible. We couldn't wait to get out of here. We used our mosquito net for the first time over the two front door windows so that we could get some fresh air into the van. It's getting hotter and hotter the further north we travel.

Tuesday 6 March:

The mosquito net was a big success. Even though there was hardly any breeze all night it was still much cooler. We left 1770 as soon as we possibly could in the morning and drove to Rockhampton which took a couple of hours. We booked into a Big 4 campsite called Tropical Wonderer Resort which was absolutely lovely. There was a restaurant on site which we didn't use. In the evening we got talking to two Irish guys camping next to us and an American guy who actually camped by the side of us at Hervey Bay but we didn't recognise him. He only recognised us because of Gert.

Wednesday 7 March:

After a great night at the site we paid for an extra night. There were quite a few places we wanted to see, the first being Capricorn Caves. I directly Carl the wrong way which he gloated about for so long it became boring but we eventually arrived just in time for a tour. The tour took one hour and fifteen minutes and was great. We saw a couple of very shy wallabees and quite a few tiny bats in the cave. Inside the cave there is a chapel where people can actually get married by candel light. The sound made inside this chapel is amazing. The caves were originally discovered by a very bored guy called John Olsen back in 1882 and it took him two years to explore and map them. He realised that matches and candles really weren't a good, reliable way of getting about because they kept blowing out - leaving him in total darkness along way from the surface. So he used a rope tied around himself and the other end tied around a tree outside the cave and felt his way back out using the rope. No one actually knew where he had been disappearing to all this time either. At the end of the tour we had to guide ourselves through Zig Zag Passage with Carl and I going first. The tour guide was very quick to inform us that a few weeks ago a man got too scared and came back to the start but she had moved outside and there were no lights for him so he freaked out. We did manage to find our way through a very narrow passage which only went on for about ten metres and then over two swinging bridges which were fun. Carl walked in front of me and as he took a step I went bouncing in the air.

Koorana Crocodile Farm was our next call but we had missed the tour. The lady was kind enough to give us our own tour and we were even allowed to climb over the fence so all that was between us and the crocodiles was a piece of chicken wire and boy did we need it. As we walked past this 800kg crocodile it went for Carl and made a huge dent in the wire, needless to say Carl jumped out of his skin (This was totally justified - the thing was huge and definitely wanted me for dinner). I wish I'd have caught it on camera because the crocodile really did go for him. His mouth opened so wide and the sound of his snapping mouth was so loud. This crocodile called Monty had half his mouth missing because he had a fight with another crocodile and the other croc ripped it out. He can't feed on his own. Monty is 85 years old and apparently in this environment could live another twenty years. We were introduced to all the other crocs while the guide fed them and I managed to video them being fed. Then we got to hold a crocodile which was only a week old and one which was a couple of months old. The crocodiles we had seen here were so much bigger than at Australia Zoo. And it was a proper crocodile farm as well. The crocs we weren't introduced to were bred for their meat and skin which was a bit sad really but still very interesting.

Back at the camp we chatted to a couple from Israel who had also been at Hervey Bay and noticed our van. They showed us a video of them sky diving which looked fab.

Thursday 8 March:

Some thief stole our margarine from the fridge so I had egg on dry toast for breakfast. Carl woke up with about five coldsaws on his bottom lip and was pretty swollen. We drove to Rosslyn Bay where we caught a ferry to North Keppal Island and did some snorkelling. We managed to see all sorts of sea life including many stingray which scared us a little bit because they were buried under the sand and all you could see where their two eyes poking out. A couple swam right past us as well. We then went to an observatory point where we fed huge cod and then caught the ferry back to Rosslyn Bay. We drove for three hours and arrived at Emerald Cabin and Caravan Park which I had booked earlier on the telephone. Emarald is a mining town in the middle of nowhere. On our way there we had seen loads of huge coal trains over a mile long moving to and from the mines. We arrived at around 8pm and the lady who I spoke to on the telephone and her husband came to give us our key. They have lived in Australia for quite a few years and have the same surname of Orton and are originally from Bedford which isn't far from where my family name if from - Nuneaton. His daughter has also traced the Orton name back to the 1700s. It's a very small world.