It's Fray-zer not Fray-sher (Fraser Island: Day 1 and 2)

Starting on December 18th, after working 9 days in a row, I was rewarded with 6 days off. So, the night of the 17th, Lindsay and I flew down south to Brisbane en route to our final destination: Fraser Island. We took off right after I finished my shift and arrived in Brisbane at 9:30pm.

The city train system shuts down around 8pm, so our only option was to take an expensive taxi ride into the city center. Our non-Aussie cab driver was very rude. Anyway, we checked into an overly nice hotel. I say overly nice not because it was something extravagant or expensive, but rather because of how my lovely wife reacted when she saw it. In all honesty, it was a very nice standard room, nothing special. But compared to what we have been accustomed to it was a palace. Even when we are not camping we tend to chose some "frugal" and reasonable accommodation options (the only notable exception would be the resort in Kauai where we legally tied the knot). Examples of our "frugal" choices include the time we stayed in a cheap motel in Page, Arizona where we were harrased by a very inebriated Native American at 3 am, the brothel-turned-hostel in Airley Beach, Queensland, and the $15/night hostel with the meat locker room and child-sized twin bed in Panama City, Panama.

Lindsay's eyes lit up when we walked in the room as she announced, "Now this is what I'm talking about!" She knew the next four days would be spent fighting biting sand flies and warding off wild dingos in the hot and sandy wilderness void of showers, moisturizing cream, and hairdryers; she was going to appreciate this while she had it.

Lindsay spent about a half hour working that evening after we settled in the room. I had discovered on our cab ride that Brisbane has a bunch of Seven Elevens, so while Lindsay worked I walked down the street to the closest one and got a slurpee.

The next day we got up early, packed up, and walked down the street to the bus station. I had to stop in a pharmacy in the bus station to pick up some Sudafed for my cold and as I walked back to the counter I spotted something I had been looking for for 2 months to no avail: deodorant. Yes, Townsville has deodorant, that's not what I'm saying. But the deodorant here only comes in two kinds: spray-on aerosol or liquid roll-on. I never thought I'd be particular about toiletries, but I really missed my Gillette gel deodorant. And there it was, sitting on a shelf in a tiny pharmacy in a bus station in Brisbane.

We were "Greyhound'n it" from Brisbane up to the town of Rainbow Beach. It was actually a very nice and seemingly short trip, and we got to watch an episode of Steve Irwin's Crocodile Hunter show. We made good time and arrived in Rainbow Beach just after noon. Ten minutes later we got picked up by Adan of Brumbys 4x4 Rentals in a little Daihatsu Feroza. From there we headed down to the beach where he would be giving us a little driving training.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and a 4 X 4 is a must. Even when you are not driving on the beach, the sandy inland roads necessitate a 4x4 with adequate clearance. We drove 15 minutes until the pavement ended, switched the front wheels to 4WD and drove into the thick sand. Adan went over the basic rules of the road and how he wanted his vehicle driven. Rules number one, two, and three were "Do not drive in the salt water!" After a bit of demonstration on his part, Adan switched positions with me and watched me struggle to drive through deep sand with a stick shift on my left side. I was nervous but did okay. We returned to the shop, which was just a trailer in a small parking lot, to load up our camping gear and bags. Adan seemed a bit frazzled getting us situated with our gear, so it took awhile. After a very quick lunch we picked up our National Park permit, stocked up on supplies at the small IGA, and drove back to the beach to catch the afternoon ferry onto the island.

We landed on the southern tip of Fraser at around 4 PM. This was not by accident. All travel to, from, and on the island is dictated by the tides. In order to dive safely on the beach, which functions as the main island thoroughfare, you must travel within 2 hours of either before or after low tide. When the tide comes up, the road goes away. After about 25 minutes of driving we had our first encounter with the island's most famous residents: Canis lupus dingo.

The domesticated-turned-feral dogs are a beautiful burnt orange color. It was a thrill to see them trotting down on the beach. They seemed to be quite used to the human presence. There is a major effort on the island to prevent humans feeding the dingos and to keep children safe. There are many warning signs and posters around. One horrifying poster in particular showed two toddlers playing in the sand with no parents around and two vicious dingos creeping out of the forest clearly full of malcontent.

It was getting later and the tide was coming in so we drove over the dunes to our first campsite at One Tree Rocks.

That night I wasn't feeling very good because of my cold and passed out in the tent while Lindsay made up a mean batch of Mac and Cheese. We both went to bed early. At some point in the night it started to sprinkle so Lindsay had to get out of the tent by herself and put on the rain fly. Supposedly (I have to take Lindsay's word on this) about a half hour after she put the rain fly on, Lindsay was still up reading and heard some rustling in the nearby grass. Then the rustling turned into sniffing right at the edge of the tent. Lindsay peered through the open part of the rain fly to see two dingos exploring our campsite. After a few minutes they apparently took off.

The next day we got up at 5:45am to beat high tide, packed up and headed north. It was a fun ride along the beach. A couple of times we had to head inland to avoid some large boulders and surf on the beach. We made our first stop at Eli Creek, a cold and beautiful spring-fed stream with nice tree canopy. It was getting very very hot and the tides were too high to drive elsewhere, so we tied up the rainfly on the car and some nearby branches to use as as a shelter. After taking a dip in the cold creek we enjoyed a nap in the shade at 9 am.

After our nap the tide had gone down enough so we continued north. We passed a cool shipwreck on the beach, and then made a quick pitstop at a little inland store for some gas and ice for the cooler.

We then ended up at Indian Head, a large rock outcrop from which you can often see sealife in the waters below. We looked down and saw a large ray hanging out in the surf.

From Indian Head we ventured to the farthest point on the island we would visit: Champagne Pools. Being the only safe place on the island for ocean swimming (sharks and riptides prevent ocean swimming elsewhere), it was quite busy. Here we found natural rock pools filled with ocean water. As they were situated right on the pounding surf, when waves hit they shower the swimmers with frothy, bubbly sea foam...champagne!

When we had our fill of lounging in the pools, we drove south to Dundabarra campsite, a nice fenced-in campsite for keeping the dingos out. It even had coin-operated showers, which we happily used. We made burgers on the BBQ and boiled corn, read our books and went to bed.