Fraser Island, Australia
I unexpectedly had wifi in a campsite so I'm scheduling this post quickly before my time limit runs out :)
Today (or last week by time this goes live) we had a day out on Fraser Island. We arrived in Hervey Bay late the night before and managed to find ourselves a campsite (thank you to the lady who reopened reception for us at such a late hour) called Fraser Coast Top Tourist Park. From here we got picked up in the morning onto a small mini bus that took us to the ferry terminal in River Heads. We booked through Queensland Bookings but didn't realise we could've done it through the campsite. Once on board the ferry it's a short 30min crossing to Fraser Island. When you we got off we were greeted by our tour guide for the day.
Fraser Island is completely made out of sand meaning you can't drive on to the island yourself unless you have a 4x4 4wd vehicle. So the best way to see the island (it's 75 miles long!) is to book onto a tour or hire a vehicle.
The tour we went on picked us up at 7.20am and dropped us back at our campsite at 6pm so you get a lovely long day. You don't get to explore the whole island in just one day but if you had the time you could book onto 2 or 3 day tours to see more.
Our first stop was Central Station where you take a walk through the rainforest on the island. We then stopped at Lake McKenzie, which was by far our favourite spot, for a dip in the crystal clear waters. As it's a lake the water doesn't contain salt and was reasonably shallow with no waves so it was really lovely to swim in. The beaches surrounding it are gorgeous white sands too. The sand here is super soft, it contains silica.
From here we stopped off for an all you can eat buffet lunch that was included in the tour before heading out onto the 75 mile beach that stretches the length of the island. We visited Maheno shipwreck and Eli creek where you can gently swim or walk down the creek back to the beach. Again the creek is made from spring water, it's very shallow and reminded us of a lazy river with kids letting the current take them down in rubber rings.
Our day wasn't the best weather wise, it was very overcast. But it was still almost 30 degrees so I can't imagine how hot and uncomfortable it would've been if it was sunny. Of course the sun would've made our photos look even prettier but I'm just so glad it didn't rain. The forecast had been horrendous!