Fraser Island

Here are the links to the latest pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/16718975@N00/YA7DHq

http://www.flickr.com/gp/16718975@N00/i800h3

On our trip up north we had one disappointment: we could not go to the Great Barrier Reef. Our cruise to Lady Musgrave Island was cancelled due to the high winds and rough seas. Apparently all the cruises since Good Friday have been cancelled and most likely for the rest of the week, which is the busiest holiday period in Australia. We were told that everyone would get sea sick on the boat and when we got to the reef there would be nothing to see, since the water will be murky from all the waves. You have to admit that at least Australians are honest and do not rip tourists off, even though these cruises are the livelihood of many people. In fact the weather here in Queensland has been a bit out of whack from what I’ve heard from people here…high winds from the sea and quite a few showers…normally this is the best time of the year to visit. This problem is also present down on the Sunshine coast (500 km to the South)…we wanted to go deep sea fishing today and it is not possible at least through Sunday due to these winds.

So we made the best of the situation and explored a bit of the area around the Town of 1770 and Agnes Water. It is a very nice area and these are northern most surfer beaches on the Australian east coast. We also admired the night sky…it was so clear we could even see the Milky Way! In fact I have never seen so many stars in my life as here, since there is no light pollution. I can now point out the Southern Cross.

Then we drove south to Rainbow Beach, from where we would take a 2-day tour of Fraser Island. When we arrived at Rainbow Beach, it was raining and we had a lovely rainbow welcoming us :-). The tour to Fraser Island was with two 4-wheel drive jeeps with 18 people in total. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world…there is more sand here than in the Sahara desert. The island is a World Heritage Site and is quite large with no paved roads… every road is of sand. The main beach is 120 km long, with lovely surf…unfortunately one cannot swim here due to all the dangers of the sea (sever rips, sharks, stingers, i.e. Portuguese Man-of-war, poisonous sea snakes, etc.). In fact at some places there are so many stingers washed up on shore that they appear to be the normal beach rocks.

The tour started with an inland portion of the island to see the rain forest. At one time Fraser Island was praised for its hard timber; some of which is still in the Panama and Suez canals. The timber industry has long stopped and there are still some quite impressive trees left. We took a path along Wanggoobla creek, one of the many creeks…the water is completely clear and pure, as it is well water that is pushed up to the surface due to the pressure of the sand. We then went to Lake McKenzie, which is one of the many perched lakes on the island. The water here is also crystal clear. The beach and the water were lovely. We also saw the Pinnacles, which are sand dunes that resemble rock formations like in Arizona. We also saw the Maheno shipwreck and had great views from Indian Head. We saw 3 dingoes (wild dogs) and other wild life.