Fraser Island

We headed out for Fraser island at 7:30.  We were picked up in a big German engineered bus and we set off.

We boarded a barge called the Mantaray and crossed the narrow channel from rainbow beach to Fraser Island.

It was about a five minute ride there, and we kept our eyes open for jellies and dolphins.

We saw lots of jellies, but no dolphins.

These are what they call blubbers.  There were also lions manes, which are the big brown ones.

We had morning tea and continued on to Eli Creek for a relaxing swim.  After the creek, we drove further down 75 mile beach to arrive at the Maheno shipwreck.  This was the fastest ship in the world at one point.  It was sold for scrap metal to the Japanese.  On the way, the towline broke and it ended up on the beach of Fraser Island.  It was used for target practice during World War 2.  Here are the remains.

We saw the Fraser Island coloured sands.  All the stops were very quick since there is so much to see in one day!

After lunch we drove inland to Lake Mackenzie.  It is one of the huge freshwater lakes on the island.  It has gorgeous white sands and is very clear and warm.  An awesome spot for a dip and some cool castles.

Next in our big rush was a rainforest walk where we saw some cool trees, heard a talk on how the island was formed, and saw some dingos lounging in the shade.

After a mad dash to the barge point on an old bouncy mining road, we were at the south beach.

We got back on the bus and headed for Rainbow Beach. 

We grabbed a nice dinner downtown and called it a night.

It was a whirlwind tour.  It really need two or three days to really appreciate the whole island.  But we got a good guided tour and saw some of the highlights of this awesome island.