Ingo the Dingo

The alarm clock rang promptly at 5:30 a.m... and again the question: why?! Because! The tour to Fraser Island was on. We had to be at the meeting point by 7:20 a.m. This was not going to be just a normal bus tour, but a 4wd tour. That means we get to drive the cool pink jeeps ourselves. And since there are no roads on Fraser, that was an adventure in itself. Anyway, we volunteered to be drivers and had to watch a very long safety briefing video before we were allowed to start. At 10, we boarded the ferry. So, let's go, the adventure can begin. Even before we were properly on the road: car 4 is standing! We forgot to close the trunk, so all the sleeping bags were scattered on the road. Well, this is going to be interesting. Car 4 already had a reputation 😁 When we arrived on the island, Basti was the first to grab the wheel and safely and carefully took us to the first stop: Eli Creek. Eli Creek is an old shipwreck that was washed ashore over 100 years ago. It was used for bomb tests during World War II and now it's a popular tourist destination. Next, we made our way to our accommodation for lunch. It took us half an hour to cover 5km - just to get an idea of how slow we had to drive. For lunch, we had burgers, as always^^ After that, everyone set up their beds before heading to the beach. I drove this route. Somehow, I didn't enjoy having little control over the car when driving through deep sand 😁 Someone mentioned beach volleyball. Uh yeah... No 😂 We hung the net between two car doors, actually a really good idea! Near the field, there was a small river where we took a ride on water tubes. It wasn't particularly warm, but it was still fun. Good thing we found out afterwards that there are water snakes there too. Oops. Unfortunately, we couldn't go into the ocean during the 2 days because there were some tiger sharks waiting for us in the bay. Suddenly, the guide returned from his exploration tour and said, 'We have 10 minutes to pack our things and cross the little creek. If we don't make it, the tide will be too high and we won't be able to come back.' Well, if that wasn't a nice prospect. A night with the dingos. So, we hurried. And indeed.. One minute later and the cars wouldn't have made it through the water. Phew - lucky us. When we arrived at the accommodation, 2 girls prepared our dinner. It was supposed to be chili con carne. Ugh 🤢 luckily, there was plenty of garlic bread, which I claimed for myself. During the tour, we met 2 Brits and sat together with them for a long time after dinner. Eventually, the rest of us forced them to play a round of Werewolf. After 3 rounds, we armed ourselves with a stick and took another walk to the beach. The sticks were for defense against dingos. When we reached the bottom, the starry sky was incredible. The Milky Way right above us. Wow! Something like that can't be captured in a photo. Back at the accommodation, we got ready for bed. One of the Brits was in our room and apologized in advance for his snoring. It can't be that bad, we thought... Oh boy!! He deforested entire rainforests!! At times, we were really afraid he would suffocate. It was clear that we wouldn't get any sleep in that room. So, I went in search of available beds in other rooms. Luckily, a couple was cuddling in one bed, so I escaped. Basti tried to reduce the noise with some earplugs. More or less successfully. Of course, our other roommate couldn't sleep either. The next morning, we were thankfully able to laugh about it. A guy from another room asked who was snoring so loudly... and he was 3 rooms away!! Anyway, the Brit made everyone laugh all day. By the way, the alarm clock rang again at 5:30 a.m. because everyone wanted to watch the sunrise over the sea. Said and done. And of course - clouds. But red clouds! After breakfast, we set off at 7 o'clock towards Lake Mobby. Car 3 was usually too slow for us. Running gag: Come on car 3, the speed is the right pedal! 15 degrees Celsius outside didn't exactly make us feel like swimming. After a 40-minute hike through the forest and over sand dunes, we finally arrived. The water was warmer than the air, so it didn't take long for Basti to jump in. Back at the car, we headed to Central Station. We had to hike for another good 40 minutes to get there. As a reward, we had lunch - wraps. Around 2 o'clock, the highlight approached: Lake MacKenzie. But the actual highlight was the drive there. Basti took the wheel. All the cars in front of us were driving to the left to avoid the deep holes. Basti, of course, thought: oh, everyone is driving to the left, so the holes must be on the right. Crash!! And that for 10km. Backpacks flew, we flew, and we laughed... the car laughed all day long. Super awesome 😁 and yet we were somewhat glad to have arrived at Lake MacKenzie and still be alive 😂 But the lake turned out to be incredibly beautiful as well. Crystal clear warm water. This time, I was also brave and ran in. Just amazing! After that, we unfortunately had to drive back to the ferry and later to our Airbnb. There we met a car mechanic who took a closer look at Jeepy. Thank goodness! We had been checking the oil level in the wrong spot... now Jeepy is fresh again and ready for the next 1500km.

#car4isready