Thru the eyes of Road Warrior Stefany
Today was extremely exciting! We headed to Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world and the 4th largest island around Australia. It’s also a World Heritage Listed site because it is the only place in the world where a rainforest grows in the sand. Access to the island is by ferry, so we packed small overnight bags and crossed Hervey Bay to the Kingfisher Bay Resort.
Our accommodations on the island reminded me a lot of the hotel Edna and I stayed at when we went to Manaus, Brazil: basic and respectful of its surrounds. They were eco-lodges made of plank wood whose stilts hugged the mountain creating level housing. Each lodge had 5 rooms (no AC) and 2 shared bathrooms. On the plus side, they didn't sway like Manaus. But it was just as incredible waking up in the rainforest in Fraser as it was in Brazil. ☺
After getting settled, we headed back to the beach to catch the sunset. It was a little cloudy but still nice. Once the sun had settled and the moon began to shimmer, we headed out on a Night Nature Walk with one of the guides from the resort. We were all excited to spot some of Australia’s elusive, nocturnal creatures. Sadly, it wasn’t in the cards tonight. We looked high and low, but all we spotted were some small spiders and cane toads. Cane toads, as we learned, are the horrible creatures for the Australian wildlife. Because of the poison they secrete, the rapid rate at which they reproduce and that they aren’t indigenous to Australia (they are originally from South America and were brought to Australia as pest control, but the pest they wanted to control wasn’t in the toads diet), they are wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. Due to these facts, our guide encouraged us to kill any baby cane toads we saw and alert him of any larger ones so that he could return and collect them in order to freeze them to death – apparently, the most effective way to kill them. He was a little strange, so we just ended up politely nodding and nervously laughing.
The next day we headed out on a 4-Wheel Drive adventure through Fraser Island with our guide Rick. We climbed, we dropped, and we rocked side to side. It was so much fun! Like a roller coaster on wheels.
Our first stop of the day was at Lake MacKenzie – one of Fraser Island’s most famous perched, fresh water lakes. The sand was pure white and the water was crystal clear. I’ve never seen water like that! Lunch by the lake was also pretty great: grilled Barramundi (local white fish) and steaks for everyone. Yum!
After enjoying our meals, we hopped back into the trucks and headed to a hiking trail. The plan was for the guides to point us in the direction of the trail and they would meet us at the end with the trucks. There was only 1 glitch…it was raining. Though it wasn’t raining very hard, so no one seemed to care and we headed down the trail. Except that about 5 minutes into our hike it started pouring rain and thundering. Luckily, we were all still in our bathing suits so we frolicked and skipped our way thru the rain and rainforest to the trucks. One of the guys even decided to channel the aborigines, creating a headdress from palm fawns, searching for fresh water and swinging from vines. It made for some great hiking entertainment.
The next stop on was the beach, which we reached by driving on the beach. It just so happens that the main highway on the island is the beach, so cars literally drive on the sand at high speeds. The sand is so impacted that the cars don’t sink in. Very neat! While driving on the beach we had our first wild dingo sighting. He looked like a skinny mutt. Yeah for our 1st wildlife sighting of the day!
Our last and final stop of the tour was Rainbow Beach. Like its name indicates, this is an area of the beach where the sand is literally the colors of the rainbow. In the area where we stopped, we spotted yellows, reds, oranges and black. We also learned of the dangers of driving on the beach and not understanding what areas are the highways. There was a car that we came across that was overturned and half-buried in the sand. According to Rick, it had only been 5 days and the car was already covered up to its doors in sand. Intense indeed.
We wrapped our tour by continuing our drive down 40 Mile Beach to Noosa Head where we spent the night. As we exited the sand highway to rejoin the pavement, a rainbow appeared over the ocean. It was a full rainbow that seemed to span the entire length of the beach. I thought it was the most fitting farewell to Fraser Island and its adventures.
Tomorrow: Noosa Head, Brisbane and Surfer’s Paradise
