It’s a long one, but a good one, promise!
Our orientation began at 7am, it was a 40 minute video from
the 1960’s about the dangers of the Island and how to drive in the sand.
Apparently if a dingo stalks you, you are supposed to back away and cross your
arms over your chest, seriously?? It was hilarious, 40 minutes of my life I
will never get back and Aine fell asleep during it.
We then met our team, we were Team 1 - us six, a tall Dutch
guy called Stef, a Dutch girl called Charlotte and a strange English girl from
Kent called Rachel. There was our Jeep and then 3 others, 33 people all
together on our Frazer Island adventure – some English, Dutch, German and
Swedish. Each group was given a list of food, a menu for the trip and cooler
boxes. We had to make sure everything on the list was packed. Each group had to
cook their own food at camp on Frazer. Steak and Potatoes was our first dinner,
a long way from spaghetti in a can and pot noodles, haha! We were also given
coolers and ice for our goon – they thought of everything!!!
Our guide was Luke, an English Aussie, who has lived in
Australia since he was 13, blondish dread like long hair, holes in his work
shirt (which had his name embroidered onto it) and barefoot - a proper island
beach guide. He introduced himself and gave us all a prep speech, which was
hilarious, lots of rhyming – “Turn that frown upside down” “Teamwork makes the
dream work” “Attitude of
gratitude,” etc.
We had checked in last so we got Luke as our driver, all the
other people drove and took turns to drive the Jeeps, we had the option to swap
out and drive also, once we had a license J
but to be honest, it was brilliant being in Luke’s Jeep, he told us lots of
awesome facts and let me play whatever music I wanted. We all felt a lot safer
in his care, as he has been driving on this Island for 7 years, plus sometimes
he would do crazy swerves and skids, haha! We loved it! (Check out the video below)
Luke drove out of Rainbow beach from the Hostel, down the
road and onto a thick sand beach where we waited for the ferry, which literally
just drops its ramp onto the shore, and everyone drives on. The ferry ride was
15 minutes, so we all got out and watched the hundreds of blue jellyfish float
about the surface of the water. Gross! We also were on the lookout for whales,
dolphins and great white sharks which frequent the sea around Frazer. This is why
you are not allowed to swim in the sea, GREAT WHITES, AHHHHH!!!!
Once we arrived at Frazer, we drove at high speeds down the
beach, swerving to miss sand banks and racing against incoming tides. Sometimes
Luke would stick his fist out of the window to indicate to the rest of the
cars, who were in a convoy, to switch to first gear and rev through the deep
soft sand. We even spotted our first dingo, sunbathing on the beach, minutes
after arriving. (Check out my amazing picture I got of a dingo chasing a bird - a new found talent of fluke photography! haha!)
So the deal with the dingoes is that you are not supposed to
feed them, but they are scavengers and will sometimes attack for food, rip into
tents and steal your children – it has happened. Long story short, some stupid
drunk guy walked the wrong way out of the campsite, stumbled across a dingo den
and fell asleep with his goon in one hand and salt & vinegar crisps in the
other, the dingoes ate half of his face and arm skin. Gross. Then some people
came to the Island and killed lots of the dingoes and some were the remaining
four aborigines pets, they were not happy. Moral of the story = dingoes are
bad, stay in groups, don’t wander away, especially with salt & vinegar
crisps!
Luke drove us to a picnic area where we made lunch – beef,
cheese, mayo and salad sambo’s, yum! Then we drove about 45 minutes down the
beach and through the jungle (where we listened to jungle music – Chase &
Status – which was very fitting) and we arrived at Lake McKenzie – absolute
paradise. Crystal clear blue/green fresh water, with eucalyptus elements due to
all the trees surrounding it and pure sand, which you could exfoliate yourself
with, which we did. Our skin and hair was soooo nice after it. (Another Panoramic for you of Lake McKenzie, below)
After a swim and making some new friends we headed into the
jungle with Luke for a walk and he told us lots of great history about the
Island, I’m not going to go into it as it would take to long. You can google
that shite, or take the tour yourself, wouldn’t want to spoil it for you, ha! (Here's Eimear & Myself swinging on tarzan vines in the Rainforest)
We headed for our campsite, K’Gari, which means paradise,
which it wasn’t, but it was pretty bloody cool. Tents for each adventure group
spread out and covered by tarps. A kitchen area, table area, fire pit area,
toilet and shower area and even a nightclub, well actually it was a platform
shack they called Winki’s, but after a bit of goon, it would do!
We claimed our tents and made dinner – mmmm steak, potatoes
and salad– everyone took part, either cooking or cleaning up. A dingo walked up
near our trailer where we kept our cooler boxes in and I made one of the lads
from England, Drew, put our crate of bread back up in there, fair play to him!
We lit a fire, hung out with loads of people, there was
probably about 4 different adventure groups camping there, we drank goon and
then danced the night away in Winki’s barefoot! Amazing first day and night!
The wind had picked up overnight and blew through our tents, along with a beach
full of sand, not the best nights sleep, but the goon helped! Ha! Day 2 blog post on it's waaaaaay......
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