Fraser Island

- wildlife australia
A few weeks ago, I joined a guided, self-drive 4WD camping tour on famous Fraser Island. That’s the largest sand island in the world and you need a 4 wheel drive car to get around there. On the east coast is a long beach which, at times, can be full of tourists in their 4WD vehicles. In the center, it’s rainforest, growing on sand which is pretty cool. The west coast is quite well protected and I didn’t get to see much of it.

I’d rather walked than driven in a car, but at the time I still had this misconception that walking with a tent and on my own would be too hard. I then had the choice of either joining a big bus tour or doing what I ended up doing.

We had two 7-seat cars, one Australian guide, 4 German boys (18-21 years old), me and 8 other international participants closer to my age. Whoever wanted to drive could take turns, but we were under some time pressure so I didn’t. It’s like driving on snow and harder than you’d think.

My group was nice, just the boys were a bit too young, and I couldn’t stand the guide. He loved to hear himself talking and took himself very seriously. He was knowledgable though, and keen to educate us about aborigines, geology, flora and fauna. The company provided us with tents, gear, and food, we helped cooking and doing the dishes. The guide had put up a camp toilet because he was legally required to do so, but then he used peer pressure to make everyone go in the bush instead. He didn’t want to clean it. What a dick.

Anyway, Fraser Island is pretty, would be even prettier if it wasn’t full of tourists. We saw a wild dingo munching away at a whale carcass, that then one night (the dingo, not the whale’s ghost) ripped open one lady’s tent who against better knowledge had stored food (cereal bars) in a bag in the tent. The dingo took the bag and distributed the contents in the area, but they could be recovered for the most part the next morning.

Camping happened at the beach right behind the small foredunes. Great stars at night! Nice sunrise, too. During the day, we spent a lot time in the car, driving from one swimming hole to the next lookout. All in all, it was nice enough, and could have been great fun with less driving and less of a jerk for a tour guide.

Anyway, here are pretty pictures:

Fraser Island ahead

Nice beach. 75 miles of beach in fact.
Camp toilet.

Wild dingo.

Wreck.

Red canyon.

Crazy French ladies brought their stuffed animals.


sunrise