Back South & Fraser Island | Week 29 | 15.04. - 21.04.24

On Monday morning we went to the northernmost point of our trip, Port Douglas. There we spent some time on the beach and then headed back south.

On Tuesday we reached Townsville from where we made a day trip to Magnetic Island. Unfortunately, swimming was not possible here due to the seasonal jellyfish season. We took a short hike around the island in the hope of seeing a few koalas, but unfortunately in vain. Nevertheless, the nature on the island is very beautiful.

On Wednesday we spent half the day in Airlie Beach and then drove further south, stopping near Yeppon.

On Thursday we stopped again in Agnes Water because we really liked it there. I went surfing and relaxed on the beach. Then we went to nearby 1770, a small town that was the first in Queensland to be reached by James Cook's expedition.

On Friday we finally reached Hervey Bay and Rainbow Beach. Both places are the starting point for Fraser Island. Here we spent time on the beach and surfing again.

Hannah drove back towards the Gold Coast in the evening and another friend came to me. On Saturday I set off with Emma to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, with a length of around 120km. Another special thing here is that you can drive around the beach island in a car (of course only with a four-wheel drive). From Rainbow Beach we took the car ferry to Fraser Island. We got stuck in front of the ferry because Emma's body wasn't really high and the tracks in the sand were very deep. Luckily a few young Australians pulled us out of the sand. Once we arrived on Fraser Island we went onto the beach highway. In any case, it is a lot of fun to drive on sand in a car (as long as you don't get stuck 😂). On the beach we saw some dingoes (wild dogs).

We stopped at a hiking trail and hiked to Lake Wabby. It is surrounded by sand dunes and forest, a spectacular landscape.

We continued to Eli Creek, a small stream where you can float on a swimming ring. We then stopped at the shipwreck of the SS Maheno. The ship was originally supposed to be towed from Sydney to Japan to be dismantled there. Due to a cyclone during transport, the tow ropes broke and all attempts to reattach the ship failed. As a result, the ship was washed up on the coast of Fraser Island and has been corroding there since 1935.

After we had looked at the wreck, we continued north on the island. At a certain point we had to turn around because we couldn't go any further along the beach and instead we had to take a bypass (Indian Bypass) which was unfortunately impassable for our car. Then we went to our camping zone right on the beach. Since the weather wasn't so good on Sunday, we made our way back to the ferry around midday and finally back to Gold Coast City.

In summary, I covered around 4500km on the entire trip along the east coast. The landscape changes towards the north and the climate becomes more tropical with a lot of rain. In any case, it was a cool road trip.