Tuesday 15th June 2004 - Day 276/366 - Noosa, Queensland to Eurong Resort, Fraser Island, Queensland.

Sand really does get everywhere

Got picked up at 6.45 and driven up to Rainbow Beach via Noosa's North Shore Beach stopping at the coloured sands and the shipwreck of the Cherry Venture, spotting some hump backed whales and dolphins frolicking in the surf.

The coloured sands are 200 foot high sand dunes and have over 70 different shades of sand in then.

The Cherry Venture ran adrift in the 1970's during a cyclone and after numerous attempts to refloat her she's been left to rot on the beach. The council, in there wisdom,decided a few years back that she was unsafe and an eyesore so they're crushed the huge vessel back down to beach level. It's now even more of an eyesore.

The ferry to Fraser Island takes 10 mins to travel the 1 km. It's literally beach to beach. Apparently yesterday a toyota Hilux misjudged the ramp yesterday, drove off the edge and straight into 25 foot of water.

Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world. It's now world heritage listed due to an area of pristine rainforest. The island is 124 kms long and is 607 square miles. The island was mined until the 1970's and the black sand was used by the septics in there space shuttle program.

The island is home to purest breed of dingoes (so they say) which are far more pretty than I imagined. I imagined mangy mutts, but they're really quite nice.

I'm glad I did the guided tour. I hate the hoards of young backpackers. I wanna look justlike you. I'm frightened to be myself. Maybe if I was a few years younger. It's quite a good crew on the trip. The older people are only on a day trip, but there's about 7 of us staying the night and we're all the same age and get on well. Even the French guy. The guide was really informative also.

We drove up part of the 70 mile beach and then inland for a cold swim at the beautiful, but busy, freshwater Lake McKenzie.

It was then back inland to the Rainforest at Central Station before a lovely lunch at the Eurong Resort.

After lunch we took a trip up the beach and a forest walk and then up a dune to Lake Wabby. It was here that I saw my biggest spider so far in Oz. It's okay, they were only Golden Orbs. The Sand Blow was huge and quite reminiscent of the glaciers. The Lake was again Freshwater, cold and this time emerald green.

Back at the Resort we had another great meal and then a walk to the beach to check out the stars and the Milky Way. Then we hit the bar and I won the limerick competition and yes it was rude.