Fraser Island with Cool Dingo – Part 1
Now, this has to be one of my favourite adventures so far.
Let’s get tucked in…
SO.
Another ‘must do’ along the East Coast of Australia and one you may well have heard of before is Fraser Island – the world’s largest sand island.
A few fun facts about Fraser Island for those of you clueless:
– The island stretches over 123km in length and 22km at its widest point.
– The island is world heritage listed (beauty that is crazily protected and preserved).
– The island is the only place in the world where rainforests grow on sand dunes at elevations of over 200m.
– You will find lots of wild Dingos, rare birds and endangered species here.
– The island is home to over 100 fresh water lakes.
We had NO idea what to expect, or what it looked like and I can tell you know… it most certainly exceeded all of our expectations.
We went with a 2 day / 1 night tour through Cool Dingo Tours which cost $335 dollars and included all food, accommodation, transfers & the 4WD tour experience.
So off we set on an 8am ferry from Hervey Bay over to the land of the unknown.
(Tours depart from either Hervey Bay or Rainbow Beach).
We spent the two days exploring the island on this super cool pink 4WD.
You can also book onto a trip where you drive smaller 4WD jeeps around the island, which admittedly look cooler and you can drive them yourself.
But after experiencing the difficulty of the roads I’m glad we had our gal Kirst on hand.
Oh wait, why are the roads difficult i hear you ask?
Perhaps something to do with the fact – they DON’T exist.
Aside from the roads running through the 2 resorts on the island, the only way to get anywhere on the island is on off road sand roller coasters – i kid you not.
Obviously, the caution needed to drive from one place to the next is pretty high which can cause journeys to be pretty long.
Would be handy if they have a motorway right?
Phew…
That, they thankfully do…
The beach.
The motorway.
The beach = the motorway.
Fo’ Real!
To get from one end of the island to the other you just drive like nutters beside (and inside) the sea!
We were having way too much fun and we hadn’t even explored anywhere yet!
Our lodge accommodation…
Our 2 day Fraser Explorer had a jam packed itinerary from the word go, making sure we saw all the highlights that the island had to offer.
First up, the beautiful Lake McKenzie.
A fresh water lake to DIE for…
Sand fine enough to exfoliate with, water fresh enough to drink & apparently wash your face and hair with the water and it makes you look up to 10 years younger.
Not sure looking 11 years old was top of my Christmas list, but it may benefit some of you guys.
Dad? Mum?
Best thing about these fresh water lakes?
You can swim, splash dive and go crazy and still feel cleaner and fresher than before you went in.
Next up, after a picnic by the lake, Kirst 4WD’d us to a little spot where we took a 45 minute walk through the most beautiful and suddenly most tropical of rain forests.
The scenery is amazing – you can literally go from sand dune deserts to tropical rainforests in minutes.
We went straight into another beautiful walk to a little village where there used to be habitants on the island.
Obviously now, as a world heritage site, there are many laws and you can’t live freely on the island.
At the end of our humid walk we were met with tea and chocolate cookies which is always a winner in my eyes & I may have even eaten 5 cookies.
But I’d just done 2 walks… so I’m allowed…
Right?
Before we knew it, the sun was beginning to set and we made our way back over the sandy roller coasters to our resort.
We all freshened up in the showers and together headed over to the Dingo bar for an awesome ALL you can eat dinner.
ALL YOU CAN EAT DINNER AND COOKIES.
IN THE SAME DAY.
10/10 rating for the trip so far.
Jokes aside, the food was really good and there was plenty of choice, so everyone was happy & extremely full.
The evening was then left to us to do whatever we fancied and so some of us headed down to the Ferry pier to watch the sunset…
Sunsets are one of my all time favourite places to be.
Ciders, sunset and good company.
Another ‘i’ll remember this when I’m grey and old’ kinda moment.
So beautiful hey…
(the photo below OBVIOUSLY)
We gazed until the sun slid below the horizon, reflecting on how far we were from home and how lucky we were to be exploring such a beautiful place.
Not a care in the world…
Though we had had a long day, we somehow found the energy to meet some others from our tour in the bar for a few drinks and a bit of dance floor limbo.
We chilled with some lovely Canadians that were too staying in our lodge & had a night to remember.
The nights that travelling does best…
♡
Thank you for reading, lots of love all the way from Australia…
Mollie xxxx
