Fraser Island

And we're off again! To Fraser Island this past weekend. Notable for being the world's largest sand island, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was something I really needed to see for myself. So I dragged FFM and Travis along and off we went. It's about 4 hours north of Brisbane plus a short ferry ride. There are no paved roads on Fraser, so you are required to have a 4x4 for any travel around the island. Boy did we learn why! On Saturday Travis was tickled pink to rent a 4x4 pickup and bump all around the island. And it was bumpy!

'Camping' and hiking last weekend, off roading this weekend, we are truly feeling like we're getting back to our roots. It was good for us to get out of the city and into our element - especially during our long discussions about upcoming job choices for T.

Some of the sights of Fraser...it really is a big island, we only covered a tiny bit of it! The entire thing is sand, now covered by trees and vegetation, but no rock or coral anywhere. Just one giant sandbar.

Lake McKenzie, one of the larger lakes on the island, is a "perched lake". One of the really interesting things about Fraser Island is that there's freshwater on it. How does the water now just slip through the sand you ask? Well, some plant material clogged up the sand and made it less permeable so the water stays in the lake. Being a freshwater lake you get the best of all worlds: no salt + nice beach. Travis showed FFM how best to touch the water, explaining that you can't just look at a body of water, you really need to touch it if at all possible. The water was wet, but not very cold.

Our next lake, Lake Wabby, was pretty cool, too. It's the only lake on the island to have any fish in it and it's a window lake. Window lakes start when a depression in the earth is lower than the water table, causing the water to pool. To top it off it's also a barrage lake, which is a lake formed by a sand blow blocking in a depression. All these funky lakes are another of the reasons Fraser Island is a World Heritage Site. Here's the sad part about Lake Wabby, the sand blow/dune is moving in on the lake at a rate of about a meter a year, so in a few decades the lake will be gone. What's going to happen to all those fish? Bummer this is the ONE lake they ended up in. (Side note, all this fresh water flows to the sea in some nifty sand filled creeks that you can wade or tube down if you go on a hot day. It was nice the day we were there, probably about 65F, but a little chilly for splashing around if you ask me.)

Family self-portrait at Lake Wabby. Dontcha just want to pinch those cheeks?

Wreck of the Maheno on Seventy -five Mile Beach (which I hear is really only 65 miles/100km but either way it's a LOOOONNNGGGG beach). In the early 1900s it was a luxury liner, then a hospital ship in WWI. After the war it was sold to Japan for scrap, but during a cyclone (a clockwise hurricane for you northern hemisphere folks) the tow rope broke and the ship grounded on the beach. After a number of attempts to dislodge it, they gave up and just left it. It was used for air force target practice in WWII. There are perhaps 5 decks below the sand and less than two above.

This is our off-road limo, a Toyota Hilux running on distillate (diesel). Note the snorkel above the hood (looks like a seal looking at Travis), which takes air into the engine above blowing-sand level. We strapped FFM's car seat in the back and took off. He loved it and took several naps on severely bumpy roads. This is on Seventy-five Mile beach again. It is a sort of freeway/runway with 4x4s driving up and down and planes landing and taking off. Speed limit is 80km/h, you must follow all normal road rules (including using your indicator/turn signal), and cars have to yield to planes. Seriously.

Sand formation called The Pinnacles. This is baby sandstone in the making and has over 75 distinct shades of sand in the pile. We did not stop to count them but you'll just have to trust the 4x4 guy who told us we should check it out.