Fraser Island

At about 70km long and 30km wide, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Although it's made up of only beach sand it has an amazing vegetation with ancient rainforests and huge freshwater lakes. A really unique environment that is worthy of it's world heritage status.

The most difficult thing about visiting the island is deciding how to get there with self-drive or guided options and about 50 companies marketing themselves as the best. We went for a 2 day guided trip with a company that matched our needs and budget and had good reviews.

Our tour started with a 1 hour ferry ride across to Moon Point, the island's most westerly point. We set off across the island and very quickly became surrounded by the unique vegetation. Amazing tree grass and Saw-toothed Banksia's whose seed pods need fire to open. As we bounced our way along the bumpy sand track we were also informed of the island's hazards and I must admit that even us African's were slightly concerned. Imagine what the pommies were thinking. The sea is full of sharks and they have a great selection of venomous snakes but most of my attention was focused on a particular spider. The Fraser Island Funnel Web is one of the world's most poisonous and had become firmly placed on top of my things to avoid list.

Some of the first Europeans to live on the island were only interested in cutting down it's trees. The Aboriginal people, who had lived on the island for around 5000 years, took offence to this and clashes began. In a very short space of time a law was passed stating that Aboriginals were no longer permitted to live on the island and most of the trees were cut down. Luckily the loggers were not complete idiots and when they came across an area of rainforest now known as Yidney Scrub they decided that it was too beautiful and left it alone. A short walk through the virgin rainforest gave us the chance to appreciate it's untouched beauty and the fact that it's all growing on sand.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the northern part of 75 mile beach (the eastern coastline) with stops at Eli Creek (freshwater), the Maheno shipwreck, Indian Head (with a viewpoint offering evidence of why swimming in the sea is not a good idea) and Champagne Pools, a tidal pool and the only safe saltwater swimming spot. We shared a tent with a fairly large spider but after a good braai and a couple of beers we managed to get some sleep.

The next day we travelled south and then back inland passing through a forest and stopping at 2 freshwater lakes. Lake Birrabeen, 1 of our stops, is a perched dune lake, 1 of only 60 in the world (with 35 being on Fraser). These lakes are surrounded by dunes and filled entirely of rain water. They have a waterproof floor that is made up of a mud-like mixture of vegetation, sand and water. The combination of white sands and clean water makes for a really special place that was a great spot to spend our last hour and a bit on the island. After checking our shoes and bags for any freeloading funnel web's we hopped onto the ferry and made our way back to the mainland.