Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to youuuuu! Happy birthday, dear mummy, happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu! That’s how the wake up song went this morning. To celebrate the birthday we had booked a one day tour on Fraser Island for today. First we thought our bus drove past us as the Fraser Island Company bus passed us standing at the bus stop. A quick call to the tour provider dissolved our worries though as there were three buses out and about. 5 minutes later we were on a bus to the harbour, hopped onto the ferry and enjoyed the 55 minute ride across to Fraser Island. The weather unfortunately didn’t want to play along. It had poured down the night before that the grey gloomy skies did not look promising.
On the island our tour guide and bus driver Peter loaded us all into a 4 wheel drive bus with 16 forward and 2 reverse gears. I am pretty sure he used all of them at some point during the day. Off we went on the biggest sand island in the world. Fraser Island was named after Captain Fraser who was eaten by aborigines on the island if you believe his wife. You need a special permit for driving and camping on the island and only 4WDs are allowed (and should be as I would not know how a normal car would cope)
Our tour started at Moon Point and took us through the Yidney Rainforest where we got off the bus for a little walk. The trees were awesome. Some were more than 70 meters high. Next stop was the Wilderness resort for lunch and then we drove along the 75 mile beach passing Eli Creek, the Maheno shipwreck to the Coloured Sands. There we stopped for pictures and made our way back stopping at the Maheno. The ship stranded sometime during the 30s once the Aussies had sold the ship to the Japanese and since then it had deteriorated rather quickly from the salt water and the Aussie army and navy using it for target shooting practice. We also stopped at Eli Creek where we took a little walk in the fresh water creek before making our way to the last stop, Lake Garawongera, a sweet water lake that is only fed by rain. Sylke and I wanted to go for a swim in the “pristine water” but decided otherwise after seeing the foamy shores and the rather brownish looking water. The water was coloured this way by the bark from the paper trees but it still looked rather mingin’. Instead we stole some silicone sand and cleaned our jewellery. We didn’t think the island would mind too much since it grows about 1 meter every year anyway.
After tea and muffins we got back on the bus to head back to the ferry. The ride was rather bumpy and mum closed her eyes for probably half the journey. Then suddenly the ride was over. We were stuck, in the sand. None of the 16 gears worked to get us out and the bus slowly dug its way deeper into the sand. Lucky enough there was another bus coming up behind us and with the help of that bus and a big rope we got pulled from our misery. The last couple of kilometres were very very shake and apparently (per mum) we got rather close to dropping off into some ditches. Nevertheless our bus driver got us back safely and in once piece. The ferry ride back was uneventful. At a cloudless day this would be a great way to see the sunset, not so today. At least it did not rain on us all day. Unfortunately we also did not see much wild life. We had hoped to see some dingos but had to be satisfied with only seeing the tracks.
Back at the camp side mum started dinner while Sylke and I went to find the closest internet café and also buy some birthday cake. Dinner consisted of steak and jacket potatoes and afterwards we surprised mum with a “real” Bavarian Chocolate Cake (from Sara Lee), candles and sparklers. A real camper’s birthday!
