I went on the tour organised by Dingo's and I also stayed at their hostel which had a really sociable atmosphere as it was full of backpackers either going or coming back from the island. The night I arrived we had a safety briefing where we were also split into our groups, with one group to a car. It was a tag along tour so rather than everyone be taken round in a tour bus, this meant we'd actually get the opportunity to drive the 4x4 cars along the beach and around the island (provided you were over 21 with a driving licence). My group was a real mix - 2 Essex girls, 1 German, 3 Dutch girls, 1 Swede and me.
Once the cars were packed up with all our food and drink for the next 3 days we drove to the ferry and crossed over to the island, dolphin-watching on the way over! We then took it in turns to drive along the sand and inland on some very bumpy, windy tracks with an upbeat playlist on full blast. Even though I'm a pretty nervous driver I still had a lot of fun and at times it was probably easier than driving around London in a little fiesta. We visited some beautiful lakes where we went swimming and had lunch (always wraps with salad, cheese and a questionable meat) then eventually headed to camp where our tents were already set up and we made a campfire. One group had been in the guide's car that day so had started drinking very early on so the rest of us got out our goon sacks and joined in. For those of you who don't know, goon is a very popular alcoholic drink among backpackers in Australia (as well as Australian chavs and teenagers), mainly due to its cost - $10 (around £5/6) for 4 litres. It is similar to boxed wine, however usually sweeter and generally more disgusting in taste, as it's made from the leftover/bad grapes used as well as all sorts of other odd ingredients rumoured to be in it such as fish eggs - probably better off not knowing.
We had a very large group on our tour, as there were another 4 cars of people also in our group with a different guide. Evidently, no one had really thought through dinner plans until the other half of the group arrived and we had a very entertaining/stressful evening trying to cook chicken stir fry for 24 people while another 32 people were navigating the outdoor cookers and half the group was intoxicated. Somehow, everyone managed to be fed in the end!
The following day we did some more sightseeing around the island, visiting the Champagne Pools (although the waves weren't very strong so they were more like goon pools when we saw them) and an 86-year-old shipwreck. Our dinner preparations were a little more organised that night - the three Dutch girls in my car turned out to be pro campers and quite happily went about preparing our group's dinner of steak, salad and potatoes that ended up being restaurant quality and gained a few envious looks from the other cars. We washed it down with goon and had a camp party, toasting marshmallows round the fire and playing drinking games.
Final day on Fraser was spent with a visit to Lake Mackenzie, another stunning freshwater lake. We even saw a dingo on the drive there which was very exciting. Later we had lunch - yes, wraps again - and in case we weren't sick of wraps already we had double the amount to eat as somehow the other group's food box ended up in our trailer. I got to do the final drive along the beach to the ferry, fun but also terrifying when you hit soft sand!
Finally made it back to camp and the f rest stop was the laundrette followed by the showers. A couple of my friends from Noosa had arrived at the hostel so it was fun to see them again and I spent the following day with them at the beach before my bus to Airlie Beach. I even had time for a beach barbecue Aussie-style (sausage in a piece of bread cooked on the public BBQs).
No comments:
Post a Comment