Fraser Island
Fraser Island, off Australia’s eastern Queensland coast, is the world’s largest sand island, stretching over 120km. It is also the only place on the planet where rainforest grows on sand! The best way to experience Fraser Island, is with a guided tour or 4×4 rental package, and you can do so from a number of nearby locations. The handiest for us was from Rainbow Beach as we were travelling up the east coast and we booked ours on the Dingos Website as this is where we had chosen to stay.
The website itself is actually really confusing. They have a number of tour options available but only one of them actually goes with the Dingos Backpackers group – a mistake we made – but we were delighted we did in the end!
The Dingos tour involved two nights stay in a campsite, where you cook your own food and sleep in a tent. This tour attracts young backpackers ranging in age from 18-35 but more on the younger end of the scale. On this tour, people are split up and responsible for driving their own 4×4 trucks on the beach. Instead, we accidentally opted for a one night stay on Fraser sleeping in quite a nice resort with our meals cooked for us! The tour we did can be found here, and was with a company called Fraser Explorer. I could not recommend them enough. This tour still had plenty of young people on board and we had such a good trip!
Over the course of two days we explored the island from inside out, stopping off at all of the major attractions that the island has to offer.
Day 1
We were picked up from Dingos Backpackers at 7.45 on the morning of our tour. We hopped on a bus with a number of others and headed to Eurong Village Resort, where we would spend the night for some tea and muffins to kick-start us for the day ahead.
The first stop was Lake McKenzie and oh my god, it was so beautiful. The water is so crystal clear and you can see all the way to the bottom, up to depths of about ten meters. It was amazing! We spent about an hour here before we left for stop number two.
Our next stop of the day was a hike through the forest. Here we got to see one of the many fresh water creeks on Fraser Island, while exploring the rainforest. We finished the hike at one of the oldest trees in the forest – it was huge!!
After that it was back to Eurong for a buffet lunch where we stuffed our faces! It was really good food and there was plenty. It was easy to spot all of the Backpackers who hadn’t seen that much food in a long time – us included! We got chatting to some other Irish people on our trip, and then it was back on the bus to head to our final stop of the day – Boorangoora Creek.
This creek was really refreshing but a little murky so I wasn’t a big fan! It was surrounded by massive sand dunes and really felt like we had been dropped in the middle of the desert. We chilled here on the sand dunes for about an hour and then headed back to the resort to shower, indulge in our buffet dinner and have a few drinks!
Day 2
Our second day started bright and early with breakfast served at 6.30am.We were straight on the road, crusing along the seventyfive mile beach to reach our first destination – Indian head. Here we climbed to the view point where we caught a glimpse of turtles, mantarays, dolphins and even whales! It was an incredible experience! I was so in awe!
From here, it was on to the champagne pools by the sea. We had a quick tea break before heading down. These were so beautiful. I could have stayed all day. The water was absolutely freezing but it was so nice after being in the sun for so long!
We then headed to a nearby campsite for lunch, which was prepared for us. Sandwiches orange juice and fruit – it felt so like a school trip or something! The guys at Fraser Explorer Tours were really good at preparing special requests, making sure everyone had enough to eat.
After that it was back on the seventy-five mile beach, where we made a quick stop at a large shipwreck. This was left behind after a Japanese company attempted to tow it along with another ship they had acquired. It has been washed ashore ever since.
From there it was on to Eli Creek. This was our final stop of the tour before heading back on our bus to Rainbow Beach. This freshwater pool has a slight current and gently pushes you along. We just floated along on our backs and then spent some time sunbathing on the beach. Disclaimer – don’t expect water park quality current! It is very very slow!
All in all, this tour was amazing. I absolutely fell in love with the island and was so thankful that we happened to stumble across this tour. We met some amazing people and had the time of our lives! Massive thanks to John at Fraser Explorers for an amazing tour!
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