This had been on Beni’s hit list for many years. I had been when I was a backpacker and had fond memories of the adventures we had in a location like no other.
But each time we attempted to go to Fraser something would happen to turn us away, bad weather, sickness. Now was our last chance.
Kath kept inviting us to stay on at noosaville longer and this was playing on our minds as we drove away from her beautiful house with 2 tents in the truck for our accommodation that night.
Meg has been completely against going to Fraser since we started trying to go 3 weeks ago, she was scared of the boat over, in hindsight we shouldn’t have talked about the shipwreck at Fraser. Her fear makes sense now.
In true Meggie style she did a 180 and as we approached the ferry we had to hold her back she was so excited, leaning over the edge of the boat it was now beni and my turn to be fearful, we had just read about this waterway being filled with crocodiles and sharks. She is so funny, without fail every time we pack up to go to a new place she does NOT WANT TO GO, every time we get there she does NOT WANT TO LEAVE. It has now become an ongoing joke.
Because there had been a lot in the media lately about dingo attacks we decided to camp at central campsite which is protected from dingos by a dingo proof fence. The campsite was beautiful, very peaceful and private spots. The site is only 35km from the ferry drop off, but the sand was so soft and rutted that it had taken us an hour and a half to get there, much longer than we had allowed for and the sun was setting as we set up camp. The mossies here were some of the worst on the trip and I was covered in bites before we were set up. Poor Edie has inherited some of my mossie magnet blood too and her forehead got attacked. I decided to lock me and the girls away in the tent as soon as we had set up to prevent anymore bites, so we were asleep by 730, not the start we were hoping for.
I was suprised the girls weren’t scared in the tents, Edie actually had her best nights sleep of the trip. I woke up at 3am to something scratching around the tent and whatever it was got my heart racing. At this point I was very grateful beni had booked the animal proof campsite.
The next morning we woke up optimistic for the day only to find we had a flat tyre. Beni pumped it up and we waited for an hour to see if it went down. We were still unsure whether to change it or not but with lake McKenzie only 7km away we thought we would push through and see if we could make it. We could always change the tyre there if it went down again. What we didn’t expect was the Road to be the worst conditioned road of the trip taking us the best part of an hour to complete, and resulting in whiplash for me and mild concussion for the girls after several occasions of collided heads. The lake was stunning when we got there, we enjoyed a swim and rubbed the exfoliating sands into our skin but there was a really cold wind blowing across the wind and after 15 minutes we were too cold to stay there any longer.
Slightly disappointed that we had spent 3 times longer in the car than at the attraction we decided to loop round to lake wabby, only 15kms on it couldn’t take too long – 1.5 hrs late we pull up to the lookout.
I had been here 15 years before and remember having so much fun running down the sandunes into deep emerald green waters. Some might say I have rose tinted glasses, this may be the reason I did not remember the 3km walk to get there from the car park. Somewhat deflated now we both knew the girls would not make this walk and we turned around and got back in the truck. We had driven 2.5 hrs for a 15 minute swim and a look at a green lake from a distance. To make it worse it dawned on us that we had to go 2.5hrs to get back to camp. We should be back in time for the mossies to be out to eat us.
That evening beni was struck down by man flu so me and he girls quarantined ourselves away in one tent, whilst beni took the other. Our 3am call this night was to change the sheets of a wet bed. When the sun came up and tire had gone down again, we decided it best to head back to the mainland.
What an adventure, Fraser will never be forgotten.
degobigtrip 