Living with shackle draggers: Fraser

The thing about Fraser is that it’s sandy.

Now given that the island is (I believe) the largest sand island in the world, you’d sort of expect that. What you don’t expect is how pervasive the sand is. It seems to get everywhere. It’s a photographers nightmare…at least it is for photographers that take any care of their equipment.

The foot-wells of the Ute looked like miniature sand pits in no time at all. Despite this however, neither Molly or I had really given it a lot of thought until we pulled up at Central Station, a place that surprisingly, is more or less in the centre of the island, and is where they used to log from when they did that kind of thing here. Whilst we were eating our cobbled up lunch of white pappy bread and peanut butter/marmite, a German family walked up the hill from the eating and ‘exhibition’ area to their vehicle (a Land Cruiser) which was parked in the next bay to where we were. They nodded a greeting, said ‘heylo’ and proceeded to get into their car. It was bizarre! They got in one at a time with the driver going round and brushing the sand out of the treads in their shoes and boots with a dustpan brush…and I don’t mean a cursory brushing… I’m talking about every single grain! When it came to his turn to get into the car…he pulled out an airline and blew the sand out of his shoes! The inside of their car was spotless! Molly reminded me not to stare, and then proceeded to do exactly that.

I should just interrupt myself here to mention about the German that I heard earlier in the year that didn’t say ‘heylo’ but instead said ‘Goot daye mayte’ – and I can attest to the former being much less amusing.

Molly was a little freaked out by this Dingo - which ran at her. She ran off and it ate her dinner!

This one was walking along the beach on another day...

You're not supposed to run away, but stand your ground. It's a little worrying... but OK.

This is a Huntsman. It can give you a nip...but isn't poisonous.

On Thursday, we stayed put and went for a stroll along the beach in bare feet. We found these examples within about 50ft of each other. There were lots of them to stand on for the unwary.

Dingo tracks...

The fuel was 25% up on the normal rate.

Molly practising driving...

These Pellies were waiting for the fish gutting to stop so that they could get to them. The fishermen were dropping them into a shallow hole in the sand.

Kookaburra...

The island is accessible only by four wheel drive. To get through many of these tracks you have to have your tyres down to 20psi and drive like a mad man! The tracks shown here weren't so bad, but the dry and deep sand in some of them swallows the wheels. We had to pull two trucks out! Luckily we didn't get stuck seriously.

Fraser is indeed a paradise. The trouble is with paradise is that everyone wants to go there, and places at the lower end are quite accessible, even for those not equipped with four wheel drive vehicles, as they can take a four wheel drive bus! Just as we arrived at Lake Mackenzie, pictured below, a bus load arrived. Some of them were heylo say-ers, and some were eye avoiders. One or two were even NOT German.

A famous feature of the lake is that since it is so tranquil and still, it reflects and enriches the colour of the sky. Normally therefore, its a deep blue to reflect the colour of the standard Australian sky…but the day we got there it was overcast. Imagine if you would, the same thing, but with rich blue where there’s grey in our pictures.

The following day we moved further up the island and decided that we’d go (early) and pitch our tent at a camping area just beyond the Maheno wreck. I’d read that the wreck’s rust colours are enhanced by the evening light, and wanted to take pictures of it, but we didn’t want to pitch the tent in the fading light. When we got there we found that it was quite windy….we drove along to Cathedral beach where there’s a shop up a track from the beach. We discovered that they also have a camp site that has showers and all the other facilities that you’d expect. We decided to stay to avoid the wind on the beach and make our way back later on for the photo’s.

I’d noticed that the cliffs near the wreck were quite high, and since the wreck is on the East coast, realised that the evening light they referred to in the book would not be a setting sun. With that in mind Molly and I broke out the art gear to do some painting of each other. We got quite into it, and as a result, left a little too long to make our move back to the beach. When we got there the wreck was in shadow. Bugger!

The next day we took our time getting going, and Molly had a long shower to take advantage of the lack of water restrictions. (Brisbane still has water restriction that limit you to a four minute shower. I know, I know, four minutes is LOADS for a shower….but not for Molly OK!) After we’d got going, Molly had her driving lesson, and then we set off for Indian Head, and immediately after that (on the next headland), ‘The Champagne Pools’. The Champagne pools are called that because the surf breaks onto rocks and then floods into the pools. Only the smallest ripples make it over the rocks and as a result, you see the fine bubbles that surf leaves, persisting across the pools. It’s considered to be the ONLY safe place to swim on the island, since the 70 mile beach is populated by bloody big sharks!

We went up a bit further to a beach campsite called Mariloo. It was the best site we’d stayed in and we ended up there for two nights.

She gets her gorgeousness from me you know!

On the last day, we stayed in a hotel on the other side of the island (Kingfisher bay) The hotel is award winning for 'fitting in' to the spirit of Fraser. It's not too bad for the room price wise, but they certainly sting you for the food.

The reason we stayed there was because we'd booked to go on a whale watching trip. These pics below only hint at how awesome it is to meet one of these creatures. We were blown away by the majesty of this 'small' whale. (About 18 months old only)