NOOSA - HERVEY BAY - FRASER ISLAND

NOOSA

After just 3 days in Brisbane, we headed off to Noosa, just a couple of hours outside Brisbane. Noosa Heads is a posh place and very popular for Aussies to spend their holidays there. Noosa’s National Park has amazing beaches and offers activities such as bush walks and if you are lucky, you can even see Koalas in the trees. John and I were lucky indeed when we spotted two Koalas just at the beginning of the National Park. Later on we came across a big Iguana whose Head was inside a termite mouth, searching for food. We made some noise to get the Iguana’s attention and after several knocks on the tree the animal had a good look around and a delighted John took plenty of photographs of it.




Just off the shore of Noosa beach, we spotted dolphins performing and showing off. What an amazing experience. You will be able to see a lot of wild life in Noosa if you spend some time in the nature.

Noosa has several beaches and one of them, the Alexandria Beach was a very special one. It was further away from the main beach and only accessible by a one hour walk through the National Park. John nearly had a heart attack when he realized that most of the people there were actually naked. 


This particular beach was inofficially called 'Noosa’s nudist beach' what we did not know at that time.

We stayed at the Koala’s Backpackers as (again) this was the only place that had availability for accommodation. Poor us – we ended up staying in a double room which was inside a 6 bed dorm, full of 20 year old surfers who kept us awake, once again, almost all night long, after coming back to their dorms from a party (drunk and cheery). Earplugs are very useful in most situations but sometimes even they don’t do the job :-). Sorry but this backpackers would not get my thumb's up :-)


My recommendation: 
Yes, do visit Noosa - it is almost a must when travelling the east coast of Australia. Just book your hotel in advance to avoid disappointment.

--> Photos of Noosa

HERVEY BAY

Luckily, we left this backpacker after 3 nights and took our favourite Greyhound bus to Hervey Bay. This is the most popular place from where the tours leave for Fraser Island. My husband and I booked a 3 day tour to Fraser Island with a group of 11 people. The tour organizer put together five groups of 10 to 11 people to fill the five 4WD mini vans. We ended up in a group full of English and Irish blokes.


FRASER ISLAND

On January 8th we headed off to Fraser Island where we spent 3 days and 2 nights camping just a few metres off the beach. The weather was quite good and we had an interesting and exciting time. 

Info about Fraser Island
Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It is World Heritage listed and has become an Eco tourism venue now that its timber and sand mining industries have been abandoned. Fraser Island attained its World Heritage Listing in December 1992 in recognition of the island's exceptional sand dune systems, its rain forests on sand, and its beautiful freshwater lakes.
Fraser Island is situated just off the south Queensland coast opposite Hervey Bay. The island is about 120 kilometres long and between 5 and 25 kilometres wide. Dozens of lakes, rain forests and huge sand blows cover vast parts of the island. People who visit Fraser Island for the first time often struggle to find the words to describe the beauty of this magical island. But also animal life, especially the 230 species of birds, Australia's purest dingo's and many other species contribute to the unique island environment.
Aboriginals of the Butchalla tribe have been living on Fraser Island for the last 5000 years. And because the abundance of food supplied by the sea, the lakes and the forest the number of inhabitants was quite high. 160 years ago about 2000 aboriginals were living on the island. That changed dramatically when the island became an immigration- and quarantine post for ships that brought people and equipment for the gold fields in the area. Forty years later there were only 150 tribe members left. These were taken off the island to reserves on the mainland.

As soon as we touched ground on Fraser Island, we drove through the forest with a maximum of 30km per hour. Our first stop was at Lake Boomanjin where we freshened up a bit before we continued driving to our camp spot on the beach. We did not stay on camp grounds as wild camping on the beach was permitted in designated areas. All our vans were equipped with tents, pots and pans, cutlery, gas cooker and all other things you need for camping. Luckily, we had a cook ‘on board’ and he volunteered to look after our dinner. 


The rest of us chilled out and enjoyed the beauty of Fraser Island. Later in the evening, a Dingo was sneaking around our tents, trying to steal some of our delicious food. I managed to take a nice picture of it.

The following few days we went to places such as Indian Head, where we spotted reef sharks, sting rays, dolphins and an eagle. You can spend hours watching wild life, doing long walks or just enjoying a stroll along the beach. It can get very hot though and, unfortunately, there is only one place you are allowed into the sea. It was a sheltered little pool called the 'Champaign pools'. The reason for not being able to swim anywhere else is because there are hundreds of sharks lurking around just off the coast and it would simply be too risky to swim in open waters.

On our last day we went to Lake Wabby, a very special lake, next to large sand dunes, green water and trees on the other side of the lake. Happy to be able to cool down, everybody jumped into the lovely water. Soon after, we drove to Lake McKenzie for another quick swim before heading to the ferry terminal to return to Hervey Bay.

I would absolutely recommend a trip to Fraser Island. If you are travelling alone, you can book a 3 day trip with other people, just like we did but if you travel with company, I would recommend to rent a 4 wheel drive by yourselfs as this gives you more freedom to do what you want.
Please note that Fraser Island is a small island with no roads - you will be driving on sand only and therefore a 4WD is a must.


For those who have been to Fraser Island - what was your experience? Would you like to share your thoughts and comments with the readers of my blog?
Thanks a lot for your contribution!

--> Photos of Fraser Island