Right after my last Rotary presentation in Australia (#17 of 17!), Brian, Cheryl, my parents, and I headed north to Fraser Island! Fraser Island is famously the largest natural sand island in the world and that's really it... it is ALL sand. We did not see a paved road the entire time we were there. It is also known for being the last wild habitat of purebred dingos. What it is not so known about Fraser Island... is that the water to the East is the Coral Sea! Not one of the 5 of us knew that. Oops. No wonder it's so beautiful and tropical there!
To get to Fraser Island, we drove about 2-3 hours north to Tin Can Bay and Inskip Point where we caught a 15 minute barge to the island. Even just to get to the barge on the mainland, we had to deflate our tires, turn on the 4WD and trudge through soft sand!
On the barge leaving the mainland!
Our 4WD was loaded with supplies... while Brian spent part of this barge-ride break scanning the manual for how to use the "sand driving" mode.
My dorky dad forced me to practice what the Australian Government posters stated for "What to do when you encounter a wild dingo." Apparently you have to stand tall, cross your arms and stand with your feet apart... and if you are with another person, stand back to back... and then you have to slowly back away in unison? Absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, we did not have to try this with any real dingos.
Once we made it to the island, we had about an hour drive up the beach. We spotted our one and only dingo as we headed to our hotel at Eurong:
After checking into our hotel, we took off for Eli Creek. This was mine and my parents' first encounter with gigantic horse flies, which bite! Luckily, none of us easily frightened Americans were bitten but they are the size of... say... an American cockroach?!... and definitely made us do silly dances--we constantly were having to move around and swat them off.
Thanks to the camera's auto timer, we got some great group photos at the bottom of Eli Creek:
Dad, Cheryl, Mom, Brian, and me!
Can you tell we're enjoying ourselves?! :)
Day 2 was filled with a bushwalk around Central Station and then a swim at Lake McKenzie! Lake McKenzie and the other lake we bushwalked to both had the brightest and whitest sand beaches and the clearest water. Apparently, Lake McKenzie is so crystal clear because it is a lake filled entirely with rainwater. It looked as though we were at a tropical beach on the ocean in say, Fiji, and not actually in the center of an island off the coast of Australia at a LAKE! The shallow water was so warm... I could've stayed there all day!
Trying to find our way...
Fraser Island has a pretty unique landscape
The beautiful first lake we saw at the end of our bushwalk
Minor bushwalk to the lake
Crystal clear waters at Lake McKenzie!
Our own private beach!
Relaxing afternoon swim
It was after leaving Lake McKenzie when the hilarity ensued. We were trying to get to Lake Wabby before catching the 5pm barge back to the mainland. However, because there had been abnormally little rainfall that month, the sand on even some of the "main roads" (still referring to unmarked sand paths) had not gotten a chance to harden and pack down... so the Springers' brand new Range Rover got bogged!!
Side note: This current "getting bogged" experience actually occurred after we had a near-bogging experience when trying to go to Kingfisher Bay before Lake McKenzie only an hour or so earlier. The roads were so soft and sandy on that route, too, that it forced us to forego lunch at Kingfisher Bay Resort and head on to Lake McKenzie (which was ok by me, since I wanted as much time at picturesque Lake McKenzie as possible!!)
Getting stuck in the sand in the middle of Fraser Island luckily turned out to be a funny tale to tell since everything turned out okay in the end! We managed to free ourselves without having to pay lots of money to get towed or helicoptered (?) out of there, without either of the old men with us (hehe!) hurting themselves, AND without even missing our barge--which turns out, the 5pm barge really departs at 4:50pm and does not wait for anyone!
However, the process of reaching the happy ending to the "getting bogged" story left us with sore tummy muscles for days from laughing so hard. I'll try to give a recap as best I can:
So we were driving along on some very, very turbulent and bumpy roads... all 5 of us in the car jolting and jumping around... when somehow in a softer patch, we slowed to a halt and just couldn't get through. Brian tried to kind of ease through the soft spot, he clicked some buttons and turned some things and we all held our breaths... until we realized we were just completely stuck. We all got out of the car, and put our brains and our brawn together to try to get us out of this little pickle...
After the men of our group tried everything from letting out the tires more and digging the tires out to driving over the floor mats while pushing the car, Cheryl managed to find their handy-dandy travel book on Fraser Island and flips to the section on "What to do if you get bogged". Cheryl started reading aloud for us all to hear, "Driving in Sand: The number one rule for driving in sand is to maintain momentum. The moment you hesitate in the middle of a difficult section, you’re likely to be dragged to a stop. So, if you see a daunting section coming up, line up the path you want to take and stick to your guns till you’re out the other end. It’s always an exhilarating experience.” ...Oops. Too late for that.
Cheryl continued reading, "Oh ok here. Getting Unstuck: If you get stuck, don’t panic, and don’t keep spinning the wheels or you’ll just dig yourself in further." Oops. Already did that a few too many times, too.
"If it doesn’t look like the underbody is resting firmly on the sand (yet), clear some sand away from the front and rear of the wheels. Of course your passengers have disembarked by this stage in order to lighten the load. Passengers can help by pushing, but only if there are enough of them to make a difference (sand is a formidable anchor)." Well... we just learned that 3 women and 1 man does not make enough people to make a difference on a Range Rover. And lesson #2 learned was that yes, sand is indeed a formidable anchor.
Cheryl continued, "A Troop Carrier with 10 backpackers has a distinct advantage here! If this doesn’t work, grab the shovel and clear away more sand, also from under the vehicle, and lower the tyre pressures." Been there, done that for the last 20 minutes. I think whoever wrote this is getting his jollies knowing we'd all be reading his excerpt just a few steps too late.
"If this doesn’t get you free, you’ve probably spun the wheels so deeply into the sand that the underbody is resting on the surface and the tyres will never get the traction they need." Again-OOPS. I think some words that need not be repeated were going through all our heads!
Cheryl read on, "Use anything you can to provide a base under the tyres – floor mats, dead branches or other vegetation (never live), anything else lying around. You should now be able to drive out.” Ahhh! We had already tried the floor mats and driving over towels and everything!! NOW WHAT?
Finally, after we had gone through the entire chapter a few times and we were feeling quite confused about whether to laugh or cry about the situation, the section's last sentence proved to be of some help: "Once you’re moving, go for it!"
With us all chanting, huffing and puffing, and cheering one another on, we finally got the Range Rover out-- Brian just kept going for it once we got it moving! We had lost our flip flops and random supplies in the thick, soft sand but we just kept yelling for Brian to "Go go go! We'll catch up with you later! Don't stop!" We all chased him down and around the corner of trees to where the sand was somewhat more solid again and where it was safe enough for him to finally stop.
Albeit sweaty and tired, we climbed into the car and let out some laughs and cheers of victory! We were quickly off back down the path to try to catch the last barge of the day with less than an hour to go. Just as we are making it down the road to some familiar landmarks and we had gained our confidence in the mighty Range Rover again, the car speakers let out a simple, concise, mocking little "Sorryyyy" in a computerized female British accent. NOW THE BLOODY CAR IS SORRY?!!!! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life.
And so, it was several funny road trip misadventures like this (and a few accidental tours of some parking lots) throughout our 2 days on the island that led to my mom's quote to sum up our whole hilarious trip: "I think that we set a record on Fraser Island of the least seen in the longest amount of time."
Our last lesson of many learned from this trip-- seeing every single sight doesn't matter so much when you're with good company!
