Bundaberg

We decided to stop for the night at Bundaberg.  The only reason being so Mark could check out the rum distillery.  I stayed in the van with the kids and did a days school work while Mark went and sampled the liquids.  He says the tour was great and the rum was tasty!

We left the distillery with me driving the car and van, as Mark had sampled a few too many liquid refreshments!.  I was pretty nervous driving through town.  Did not help that five minutes down the road we blew a tyre on our van.  Luckily we could pull over to the side of the road and Mark changed the tyre.  Not before an old guy from across the road ambled over to see if we needed a hand.  Am thinking he'd had a few himself as he wouldn't stop talking.  He even had to show me how he staggers of the cheap bus home from the pub!!!  Oh the characters you meet....
Next stop Seventeen Seventy, to relax by the beach.

Hervey Bay

We stopped at Hervey Bay for two nights and stayed in a caravan park right on the water.  A nice enough park, but we were complete squashed in, almost couldn't open our van windows!  We were only here to see the whales anyway, so it didn't really matter.  We booked our tour and headed off early in the morning.  We were all pretty excited.

Jake having his morning coffee

We saw a few whales off in the distance but not up close to begin with.  What we did see was this pod of gorgeous dolphins.  They swam right up to the boat and just seemed to hang around and check us out.  When the boat took off, they even raced it, they are pretty fast.  We were impressed!

We had gone whale watching  early in the season in Port Macquaire but didn't get to see the whales up close.  We were a bit worried it would happen again, but it definitely didn't.  We saw so many whales, we couldn't believe it.  They came in so close, we saw them breach, roll over and do tail slaps.  One of the high lights would have to have been when Charlotte screamed in joy when she saw the first big whale up close.  She was just so happy and amazed.  We also got to see a mother and its baby that swam in front of the boat, but we didn't hit them, she just kept parading her baby around for us to check out!

Poor Jake wasn't as excited about the whales.  He had a look, saw a few then was bored.  He spent more time playing under the bench and inside with some toy blocks.  SO glad were paid for a ticket for him (not!).  Whale watching was definitely something we will never forget.  A definite must if you ever get to Hervey Bay.

We went for a walk along the beach in front of the caravan park at sunset.  A pretty place, there were even dolphins swimming right in front of this jetty. 

That's about all we saw of Hervey Bay.  Just a quick couple of nights to see the whales then on to Bundaberg.

Inskip Point

When we left Fraser we had decided to spend a night or two at Inskip Point.  This is a spot our friends Vicky and Craig had recommended, we loved the look of it when we drove past on the way to Fraser.  Our friends the Ellis family also were in the area so they met us off the barge.  Was great to have people waving and cheering for us, felt like we were returning from a long journey but we'd actually only seen them a few days prior!  We set up right next to the Ellis family under some pretty trees, at Inskip Point.
 Inskip is set at the point near Rainbow Beach.  One side is ocean(surf) and the other is a calmer beach side.  It's a great place to stay, cheap too.  You have to bring in your own water, but that was ok as there was a filling station in town.  We spent many an hour chatting by the camp fire, and of course toasting marsh mellows.

The kids found this awesome tree to climb and it became their hideout for the next few days.

Mark and Kaz preparing for fishing.

Dan bought Kaz a surf rod, so of course I had to have one too.  We all set of for the beach and had a lovely afternoon trying to catch fish.  Was very amusing watching us learn to cast with the big rods.  We all caught a fish, nothing overly fabulous except Kaz's tailor that she caught, was very tasty!

 

Note Marks 'fishing outfit' and his huge fish!

The kids were more interested in swimming than fishing.

The kids all had a wonderful time hanging out together.  They even wanted to camp in our tent together.  We reluctantly gave in and put it up in the dark, we were a bit late.  They had so much fun though and looked adorable when they all fell asleep!

Charlotte has this plan of what she wants to do when she grows up.  She and her friends are going to have a pedal powered vehicle/boat/plane that can travel around the world  saving wild life.  She has spent hours discussing the team and how it will all work.  So of course she is very keen to see as much wild life as possible.  Mark had read about how you can feed wild dolphins as Tin Can Bay, so we had to go and see them.  It was lovely to watch them swimming in the water.  You even got to feed them for a whole $5, very cheap, I think its $100 at sea world!  Charlotte was so besotted, she loved it.  Jake, not so much, he was cold and wanted to go back to the car, dear boy!

We ended up spending three very relaxing enjoyable days at Inskip, just hanging out, sitting on the beach and chatting with friends.  What a life!  Next stop Hervey Bay.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island here we came, and boy we had a fabulous time.  It was one of our highlights of our trip so far.  We were pretty nervous about driving on Fraser and working out the tides, but we needn't have been, it all went really well.
We headed to Inskip Point near Rainbow Beach to catch the barge to Fraser, only problem was that so had heaps of other people.  Apparently it hadn't been this busy in a long time, but the other barge was broken!  Ended up having a two hour wait but it wasn't too unpleasant sitting in the sun chatting to others. 
I think the ride over in the barge was only a few minutes, felt really weird sitting in your car as it went across water, our GPS kept saying to return to the nearest road!!!
One thing we realised about going to Fraser is that they have a popular saying "betta have a beer".  On the way to the barge, waiting for the barge, on the barge and of course when you get to Fraser!  Everyone was lovely and friendly.  There where a lot of men, seems to be the place for a boys trip.
When we arrived on Fraser we were driving down the beach when we saw our first dingo.  I was on the phone to my sis, we kinda got excited and I screamed in her ear.  Apparently we sounded very Aussie!

The long queue

"Betta have a beer"

Nearly our turn.

We headed along 75 Mile beach, wow what an experience, Mark didn't stop smiling.  I said to him, "you sure you don't want to be back at work?"  got a very definite no!  We went in through Eurong to Central Station, in the middle of the island.  It is this incredible lush old forest, a very quiet and interesting place to stay.
We set up camp and within minutes the kids had found a goannna and a kookaburra.  They were so excited.  We sat down for lunch and these really sweet looking birds came to join us.  I told the kids not to shoo them away, they looked too innocent to be any trouble, oops I was wrong!  This sneaky aggressive little freak of a bird swooped in and stole Charlotte's sandwich and nearly took out Mark's face.  Not pleasant, we learnt our lesson there!

Central Station is the original base for logging business on the island. Years ago it even had a school, now its a visitor area with information displays and some lovely walk. Of course that has stopped since 1991 and Fraser is now heritage listed.  Funnily enough they don't a limit on the number of people on the island at one time.  Probably would be a good idea, heaps of backpackers!  We took the kids for a walk through the bush, one thing I notice so much now that we are further north is how much the trees we are seeing differ from down south.  On this walk we saw so many Piccabeen palms, they are so tall with glossy green foliage on the top. The trees are so tall, it gets dark really early.

Charlotte with her dingo wacker, we were advised to carry sticks, smaller ones than this though.

A typical road through central Fraser, a bit soft in some areas, but pretty fun!

From where we were staying to the northern tip of Fraser is actually a decent distance.  You have to time it right with the tides, as some areas are a bit tricky at high tide.  We decided to head off early and try to see as many of the sights up 75 mile beach as possible.

The first place we stopped was Eli Creek.  A beautiful fresh water creek that runs into the ocean.  They have set up a board walk and then you can walk back through the creek.  Kids had a ball, just had to put heir wetsuits on and have a swim. 

Basically right in the middle of 75 mile beach is the Maheno ship wreck.  It was originally a passenger steamer that ran a ground in 1935.  Its really pretty and rusty now.  Looks amazing coming up the beach and seeing it in the distance.

Apparently you have to have a photo with the 4by in it!

Very picturesque

A naturally occurring rock formation occurs in the further most right side of Fraser Island.  It is called the champagne pools for the gorgeous crystal clear water  and the little bubbles that form from the rocks.  When we went the pools weren't huge, apparently they used to be a lot bigger but are gradually being filled with sand.  There is a board walk along the head lands and you can view the pools from the top before hoping in for a swim.  We were so lucky to be there at that time, as a mother whale and calf swam right in close.  We were up on the headlands and could see them so clearly.  The little whale was pale and kept jumping out of the water, very cute!

Fraser Island is well known to have a large mass of fresh water, one of the main lakes is Lake McKenzie.  In the centre of the island near central station.  We took the kids for a look and had a swim in the beautiful fresh and clear water, was glorious. 

We kept driving further along Fraser until we got to just past Orchid beach, then I had a panic attack about not getting back before high tide, so we drove back.  We'd seen heaps this day and had a wonderful time.  Was amusing watching other people get bogged.  We even saw this guy towing a boat up this sand road, up hill that got massively blocked.  The local cop was there directing the cars, apparently this is a pretty common occurrence.   Luckily Mark is an awesome driver and we didn't get bogged at all, thank goodness!

Made from the crystal clear waters of Tasmania, drank in the crystal clear waters of Fraser Island!

I think 90% of people on Fraser were there for the fishing, we were there during the tail end of the Tailor season.  Unfortunately we didn't catch anything but Mark had a great time practising with his new surf rod.  When you drove along the beach, it was spotted with fisherman, looked pretty cool.

Charlotte and Jake 'fishing'

Playing on the beach with their dingo sticks.

We decided to move camp after two nights to be closer to the beach.  We headed to Dundabarru camp on the Eastern side.  It was a pretty camp, well set up and popular.  Mark spent ages chewing the fat with the fishermen, trying to find out the tricks of fishing!

These pictures are of Wungul Sandblow, its about a kilometre walk inland from where we were camped.  You walk through the bush then suddenly come across this great expanse of sand, blown in from the beach, hence the name sand blow.  We had a wonderful time playing in the sand.  The kids tried going down the dunes on their boogie boards and Mark even tried a somersault down one too, was very amusing!  A very beautiful spot.

One of the big things we notice is the difference in the wild life compared to Tassie.  One of the biggest shock is that so far we haven't been annoyed by any possums.  As anyone who camps in Tassie knows, the possums are really painful,  but not so far for us on the big island.  We saw four dingo's on Fraser Island, all from the safety of our car and were never bothered by them.  I had expected to see more of them and worried about the kids near them, but all good for us.  The goanna's are glorious creatures,  they have this amazing crinkly skin with yellow spots.  They are about a metre long some of them and they just amble around the camp site.

Fraser island was such a relaxing and fun holiday for us.  Definitely a highlight so far for us.  We just adored it, would definitely like to go back, but for longer next time.  You could easily spend a couple of weeks on Fraser just relaxing, seeing the sights and fishing.  We went to Fraser worried about 4wd  driving on the beach and left feeling much more satisfied and accomplished. I'm not sure I've ever seen Mark so happy!