Tag 8 - Hervey Bay / Fraser Island

For today we decided well in advance to take a guided tour to “Fraser Island”. With a length of over 120km, the island is considered the largest sand island in the world and offers several attractions such as: B. a freshwater lake with a beautiful beach and crystal clear water, kilometers of beaches and plenty of adventure when driving on the “roads”.

We were picked up promptly at 7:15 a.m. by our guide Toni, who already had a couple of doctors from Great Britain with him. Two girls from Denmark completed the tour group for the day and we took the ferry to the island.

The island is only permitted for four-wheel drive cars and buses, but that's not a problem for Australians - everyone drives a huge car here anyway. ;)

You look for roads in vain, the routes are on pure sand and progress would be impossible without all-wheel drive.

Toni rocked the box to the first stop without any problems and after a little refreshment we went to “Lake McKenzie” for a swim. The water was totally clear and turquoise blue thanks to the sand, wonderful to look at and even nicer to cool off in.

Back in the car, our guide told many interesting things about the island, tourism and at some point mentioned in passing that the car's 4WD system (four-wheel drive) sometimes does faxes.

Shortly afterwards we got stuck and a friendly Australian pulled us out of the first sand hole, because pushing didn't help anymore.

The whole thing was repeated three more times a short time later because the cart couldn't be raised and we tried to get through the sand dunes with a lowrider, so to speak.

At the next stop, at a former village of woodworkers who, fortunately, had cut down the last tree on the island thirty years ago, Toni tried to restart the system.

We used the time for a walk through the rainforest and a little refreshment in the form of beer and wraps.

The first doubts slowly began to arise as to whether we would be able to make it to the beach with the vehicle. Toni was confident and gave his best, he already had several decades of experience.

When we got stuck the seventh time and couldn't make any progress after three tow ropes broke, we had real concerns about whether we would even be able to catch the last ferry to the mainland.

Two coaches with 20t tow ropes then pulled the Land Rover to the next town. Unfortunately there were only a few minutes left to visit the beach, but we were lucky and a dingo (Australian wild dog) stopped by. Originally we would have actually made further stops and driven across the beach in the car. However, the cart stayed on the island and we were fortunately taken along on the bus by a tour group, reached the last ferry in time and even saw dolphins.

After a warm shower and tortellini, we ended the day in the camper.