Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

Struck out for Hervey Bay...and what do you know a big Ned Kelly in Maryborough - nowhere near the Ned Kelly action! Not sure what the connection is.

Anyway, found a rare spot at a beach side caravan park (which also happened to be roadside, but can’t be too fussy!). Watched a fab sunset over the big and virtually empty beach.

Set off in the morning for the Fraser Island ferry – which we watched pull away from the dock on time.  Fortunately another one went half an hour later.  Fraser was amazing, we absolutely loved it.  The forests, beaches and unlikley freshwater lakes were beautiful and we got to enjoy many of the tracks without other vehicles.

 

Lake MacKenzie



The signs about Dingos were a bit alarming.  They warn you to keep children within arms length with a special mention that this includes small teenagers.  We wondered whether a Dingo can tell the difference between a small teenager and a short adult!  We were lucky enough to see several Dingos Apparently it is mating season so the boys are out on the prowl.

 



The kids loved Eli Creek, floating down on the current on their body boards.

And this is where the adventure really started...Heading towards the return ferry on the sand tracks, cutting it fine but we think we will be on time for the 5:30pm ferry.  Rich tempts fate by saying aloud  “we will s#@t this in” just as we round a corner and run straight into a traffic jam.  A bus is stuck – but not in the normal way that vehicles get stuck on 4WD drive sand tracks.  This truck has thrown its wheel.

The time for ferry departure comes and goes as daylight ebbs away.  The bus driver decides to abandon the bus and that we should all reverse out to take the long way around to the wharf.  The ferry operators have been informed.  Being last in line, we set off, backwards, looking for the turn off to the lake.  By now it is dark and we bounce our way back around to the wharf arriving about 1hr after the scheduled departure.  It was pitch black and completely deserted.  After some fairly panicked phone calls we discover that the boat left without us.  Everyone else got there about 20 minutes before us.  Only on the return journey (in the dark) did we discover that they had decided to go the wrong way down a one-way track.  So much for crime doesn’t pay.  Anyways, then we had to make our way over to the other ferry terminal, about 45minutes of night time off road driving away.  Our perseverance was rewarded with an excellent pizza and a spot on the 8:30pm ferry.  We saw more of Fraser Island than we ever expected!

Spent the next day recovering.  Parted with money to visit this fellow's museum.  Has some interesting theories on sharks.  Not a fan of government and conservationists and counts asylum seeker tragedies amongst his tally of shark incidents...

Can I at least count it as a big thing???