You can join a group and share a big Landrover, or get a guided tour in a rover or a bus, but if you're going to be jolted around the bumpiest 'roads' I've ever seen, you're going to want to be the driver as much as possible because that's the fun bit, so Lilly and I hired a little 2-seater Suzuki Jimny for 3 days (you can get a package with everything thrown in including ferry, accommodation or camping gear, which saves you from having to work out lots of details). Then it's onto the ferry and off you go.
This is probably the best stretch of road on the island. Still, you can always drive on the beach
At c125km long, Fraser is the world's largest sand island. It has lots of forests, a whole bunch of freshwater lakes, an east coach that is almost nothing but beach, and every so often you see a big chunk of island that is still just a sand dune.
The lakes are fantastic. We got our first view of Lake Wabby from a lookout on day 1, and went back to it for a swim on day 2. It's a lake that's being encroached on by a huge, steep sanddune (see picture above).
On the beach is the shipwreck of the Mahena - it was being hauled to Japan to be scrapped when it was caught in a storm and ran aground here. It was later used for live bombing practice in 1944. Now's it a picturesque rusty feature, half covered by sand and slapped around by the tide every day.
A bit of ship, with Lilly and Jimny in the background
At the north end of the beach are Champagne Pools, large tidal pools of seawater that are shark-free and so the only safe saltwater swimming - the water is wonderfully clear and there are lots of colourful fish swimming around the rocks. The pools aren't big enough to swim for exercise but drifting around spotting fish in surprisingly warm water is good fun.
Just south of this is Indian Heads, a big outcrop that marks the northern end of the main beach, an easy climb with good views of the island and the sea. Allegedly you can often see all kinds of marine life in the water below because it's so clear. I think we saw a stingray.
Further down the beach is Eli Creek - you can walk up a boardwalk, get into the creek which is slightly chilly and a foot or two deep, and float down to the beach letting the current carry you. At the bottom of the creek lots of little stones mark the edge of the water and closer inspection reveals that they have washed up here because they float. Floating rocks. This place is crazy.
Getting around the beach isn't easy because of a lack of signs - you navigate by zeroing distance travelled when you reach the beach and using a map with distances marked. At the third attempt we found the walk to Rainbow Gorge - they've changes its name, confusingly, to Sandblow something. This takes you to a sand valley with many different colours of sand, though hardly a full rainbow.
On the third day we made it to Lake McKenzie, apparently the most beautiful on the island (it's going to be closed soon for some kind of works, so we were just in time). The whitest sand and clearest water you could ask for, framed by forest - it is lovely, and warm even in the morning. Not far away is Lake Birrabeen, which is 95% as lovely and much quieter.
Finally we headed up to Central Station, which has a few old buildings and information about the history of the island, and a range of walks - we just had time to walk along Wangoolba Creek Walk.
You could probably spend your whole time here wildlife watching if you don't fancy bouncing around.
We saw several dingos (not great news since FI is the one place in Australia where they have overcome their fear of humans and occasionally get aggressive - so to see a couple near our tent was not ideal, but we didn't have any trouble); a wide range of birds, from a flock of 80 or so green and red parrots doing a flyover of our tent on the second evening to birds of prey; and lizards ranging from tidgers a couple of inches long to three goannas (big black lizards with white markings, the last of which was at least 3 feet long - fortunately we'd seen a video of Steve Irwin chasing one up a tree and telling us how bee-a-youtiful and amazing it was, so we knew we didn't have anything to worry about). A couple of times we were driving inland and just spotted a goanna on the road, heading for a tree, where it would generously hang around long enough to be photographed.
Even camping was quite fun. You can stay in resorts, or big campsites, or just camp along various designated stretched of beach. We opted for the latter. Driving is strongly discouraged after dark, so it's nice and peaceful just back from the beach itself. Of course it rained as we were putting our tent up the first night, but the next day's weather was beautiful, until we left our tent to get dinner - it started to drizzle and we saw the most perfect rainbow imaginable over the sea. Just one of dozens of reasons we knew we'd come to a special place.
Actually a double rainbow if you look carefully
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