Rugged Fraser Island

Clothes and picnic packed and we were set for our weekend on Fraser Island. The lady who Richard had spoken to over the phone when he booked the barge had told us it would be a TWO-hour trip from the barge to Kingfisher Bay Resort, where we had booked in for the weekend.
We arrived at Inskip Point to catch the barge across to Fraser around 10ish...

On the barge, heading to Fraser Island

The trip was over fairly quickly and we arrived on a pristine beach with directions from the barge operator to head right and follow the beach before turning inland.
I looked at the map and thought it odd that a mere 30 or so kilometres would take us 2 hours, but didn't give it a lot more thought when we saw our first dingo on the beach....

Hello nice doggy!!

The drive along the beach was picture perfect, the skies were as blue as can be and the beach so white...

Eastern beaches

With the mainland behind them

We had to pinch ourselves a few times to remind ourselves how beautiful it was.
We understood very quickly though, how vehicles could became caught in high tide and get swept away, so the conditions were not to be taken for granted or underestimated.

We finally arrived at a point where we could head inland at Eulong Beach. We continued on a fairly rugged sand track until finally reaching Lake McKenzie, a perched lake, which means it contains only rainwater, no groundwater and does to flow into the ocean. It covers more than 150 hectares and is over 5 metres in depth... it was beautiful and the white silica sands around it were amazing.....

Lake Mackenzie

It was at Lake McKenzie where we spotted our second dingo and was sure to read the many signs that clearly stated to not leave children alone at any time. We ate our picnic lunch within a fenced enclosure and watched on as a dingo circled the enclosure. It made it easy to see how tourists could mistake these animals as domestic dogs.

Our second dingo

We then continued on our way along rugged sand tracks until we reached Kingfisher Bay Resort... it was amazing,  our house set amongst the forest.
Before too long, the kids were in the hotel pool while Richard and I enjoyed a Gin & Tonic.

The lagoon pool at Kingfisher Bay Resort

We had a beautiful seafood smorgasbord, with everyone gorging themselves... before we headed back to our house for a reasonably early night.
This morning, Sunday the 12th of August, we were up and picnic packed - ready to explore the Island.
First we were heading to Lake Wabby, the deepest lake on the Island, before heading to the north-east side to check out the Champagne Pools, a popular swimming hole with the ocean crashing over the rocks into shallow sandy pools. I was keen to get to the pools, simply for their namesake haha!!!
Anyway - it wasn't to be....
Within about 2 kilometres of leaving the resort we were bogged in the deep sand.... someone above was looking after us because we had followed a bus out and thankfully Mr Cooldingo Tours helped us out of the first and second bogs, along with all the tourists on his bus....

Bogged!!!

Bogged again!!!

By the time we bogged for a third time... Cooldingo wasn't so cool and left us to continue his tour, which was fair. We thanked him for his efforts.

It was then that the traffic jam behind us kicked in to help us... there were men coming from all directions to lend a hand. Before we left for Fraser Island, Richard had lamented over whether to spend a fortune on  some tracks for the car, in case we got bogged. We ended up buying them and they were well and truly earning their keep.
After a very boggy third time we then continued on... to be bogged within metres up the road AGAIN!!!

And again!!!

Take #4

I was beginning to feel sorry for the poor Sunday drivers stuck behind us... but AGAIN, they all got out of their cars to help.
Finally the man behind us, Frank, towed us backwards until we could find some harder ground off to the side so everyone could pass.
Phew... TWO hours later and only 5 kilometres from the resort... we were finally good.
That was until a car drove passed us and bogged... in the theory of "paying it back," we had no choice but to help, so help we did.

Phew, someone else is bogged!!

Lending a hand

It wasn't long before he was stuck AGAIN!!! We were to find out later that it was a general theme for the day, which gave us little comfort.

Another half an hour later we were again gunning it back to the resort hoping not to meet anyone in the opposite direction for fear of sinking into the sand.
Bless our car... all said and done it did its best and held up to extreme conditions, even if it was sinking in the sand. If we were second guessing its capabilities - we are no longer doing so.
It's fair to say we were all relieved to get back to the bitumen roads of the resort... we were disappointed though, not to see Lake Wabby or the Champagne Pools but we ended up parking at a nearby jetty so the boys could have a fish while Nina and I had a swim in the ocean and played in the sand.

The jetty on the western side of the Island

This afternoon, we fished through the back of the car to see what damage had been done during our bush bashing experience. The cover of the motor for the tinny was damaged and so was our generator.
We knew the roads here would be rugged but we didn't expect the conditions to be so extreme... Leon and Dad, you would have loved it!!!! Growing up in the country I figured I'd encountered some fairly rugged roads - well - now I  have seen it all.
Tomorrow, we head back on the barge to Hervey Bay, we've decided to take the easy way back to avoid any risk of heading back in the same direction and having a repeat performance of today.