EDIT: To really get a feel for our Fraser weekend, Id like to direct you to a band named Stick Figure and, more specifically, their song Dreamspace. We listened to them almost consistently for the entire weekend so their music holds a lot of memories for us however Dreamspace does even more so. This song is what was playing whilst we laid awkwardly in Pam, taking photos of the night sky through the window, listening to the waves crashing on the shore, enjoying the sea breeze/biscuits at the end of one of our favourite Australia Days. It was a moment of pure happiness and contentment for us both and it never fails to take me back to that moment, when I hear it. So, enjoy.. (Heartspace is equally as lush..).

Although Dave and I originally ummed and ahhed about heading over to Fraser Island due to money and timings, we eventually came to the conclusion that we couldn’t buy a 4×4 and NOT do Fraser. We had heard some wonderful things about the island and its night sky, that we decided to just go for it.
What was the best 4 days during our time in Australia wasn’t easy to sort and took almost an entire day of faffing to get us on the ferry!

We began our day in Maryborough, the home of Mary Poppins Author Pamela Travers – they have a statue of Mary Poppins on one of the street corners! It was here that we visited the information centre and where we met the most helpful and friendly staff. They assisted us with booking our:

National Park Pass – $50
Camping Fee – $6.55 per person, per night.

Brilliant! We realised we had enough time to make the 12.30 ferry from River Heads, so we made a dash for it. Only, we got there to be told by the less than smiley ticket office clerk that we couldn’t get on a ferry until 3pm – 3 and a half hours away! Word of advice too – there is not a lot to do in River Heads. Just a few shops, a cafe and an IGA. Not even a beer in sight. We were in for a long wait, in 35 degree heat, with no air con.

River Heads to Kingfisher Bay Ferry – $210 (peak season price).

We waited and waited before finally REVERSING our Pam onto the ferry and enjoyed the steady 50 minute crossing to Kingfisher Bay. We exited the ferry onto only 2 tarmac roads on the entire island, before finding ourselves at the entrance to our first experience of proper off roading in Pam. We had NO IDEA how she would fare – Pam is a 28 year old Mitsubishi Pajero that has over 350,000km on the clock and has driven around Australia more than a fair few times – but, she aced it! Pam did not get stuck once and managed all the tasks the big, brand new cars were performing. We love her a little bit more for that too!

Now, Fraser Island is made up 45 different camping zones – most are along the eastern coast with just a few on the western side of the island, with some taking hours of driving deep, soft sand tracks to get to. They are separated into zones.
We stayed in:

Night 1: One Tree Rocks (zone 2)
Night 2 and 3: Yurru – our FAVOURITE! (Zone 6)
Night 4: Wongai (zone 2)

There is one small, slightly deadly, hitch to camping on the beach: Dingoes. I had originally thought that we could sleep out under the stars, set up a campfire on the beach and eat dinner whilst enjoying a sunset. Not if you want to encounter a juvenile Dingo on the hunt for its next meal.
Fraser is home to 200 wild dingoes that hunt in packs of 30 and the summer months are when you have to be a little more cautious. It is over the summer months that the gorgeous little pups born in winter start to come into their own and learn what they need to do to hunt and feed. Unfortunately, it means that they are often quite brazen and more readily aggressive in order to assert dominance, especially over humans. For this reason, there are fenced off areas across the island that are designated for preparing/eating food. To eat or take food to any of the lakes and beaches is illegal and for good reason. In 2001, a young child was mauled to death and his younger brother seriously injured by dingoes on the island.
Australia did what it does best – instead of eradicate dingoes or humans entirely from the island, it chose to educate people. Australia worked to find a solution that allowed people and dingoes to live and enjoy Fraser in harmony and for the most part, it works. There are however, always those who are blasé about the risks involved. We witnessed one man filming a dingo sniffing around his Esky of food, whilst his children just stood there. He made no move to make the situation safer for his children whatsoever. It is for this reason that we hear of yet another child being mauled in the week after we left. Madness.

Anyway, we spent the following few days exploring the island and its sand roads including Lake Boomanjin, Lake Benaroo and Lake Mackenzie. All of them had the most crystal clear water and the whitest sand, Lake Mackenzie in particular. It was easy to see why it was the most photographed!

We visited Tobys Air Strip and enjoyed a beer at Kingfisher Bay before settling down at our favourite camping spot of the weekend, Yurru.
We were the only campers for miles! We were so secluded, we enjoyed naked showers on the beach, followed by dinner (we had scoped the surrounding area for Dingo feet – there were none!) on the roof/balcony of Pam before retiring to bed.
It was then that we saw the sky… I have spoken before about my love for Australias sky and this certainly did not disappoint. Being on a Dingo infested island meant I wasn’t keen to stand on the beach in the dark to get a good picture so, we came up with a genius idea – aim the camera out the window, with it wedged down the side of the mattress to steady it. Sounds bizarre, but I think you’ll like the photos we managed to capture:

 

The following morning we were blessed with 2 beautiful things: a magnificent sunrise, enjoyed in just our pants at 5am and the news that my beautiful little sister had given birth to our first nephew, Arthur Antony Wilkinson. Our hearts are so full.
As we were awake SO early, we were lucky enough to catch the Maheno Shipwreck, completely alone. The Maheno was an old WW1 hospital ship that, whilst being towed back to Japan to be scrapped, was cut loose during a storm before beaching on Fraser Island where it has stayed ever since.

 

We went onto enjoy more of the Lakes before a short walk through Wanggoolba Creek and back to Yurru for another night listening to the sea breeze as we slept.

The following day, we were up early to navigate the beach whilst the tide was still low and enjoyed Indian Head and the Champagne pools (where my body threw the mother of all fits because I dared to climb more than a handful of stairs!) before getting lost somewhere north on the islands sand roads and only saw 2 cars and a dingo over a whole 2 hours!

As we headed south back down the beach, we came to Eli Creek. Eli Creek is where you can often find young Aussies floating with a beer and whilst there were a few, a lot of those camped on the island had started to head back for the evening, leaving us to walk the crystal clear waters of the creek completely uninterrupted. I would totally recommend heading to Eli either early morning or late afternoon to avoid the crowds. That being said, PLEASE be careful when crossing it – Eli Creek is only passable 2 hours either side of low tide. At any other time, it is inherently dangerous and could wash you and your car away.

 

Having the BEST time, clearly!

Our time on Fraser has come to an end but had by far been the best weekend of the entire trip, getting back to nature, just the two of us, taking awesome night sky photos. Heaven.
We escaped the island early (7am!) and headed for our next destination – Wallaville Hotel, hosted by Bob and Nora and their spotty pig/dog Bobby.

Where will our adventure take us next?