Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu: October 2012

22 October

Fraser Island

Well it's been a relaxing week here in Fraser Island. We have worked very hard in doing nothing at all. Just lazy about and relax most of the time. On the Friday evening we went for a bush tucker sampling session at the resort restaurant. This is where an Aboriginal ranger and the restaurant chef present and talk about 16 different native plants and how they were used by the Aboriginals. The chef told us where in his recipes he uses them. We also got to sample all of them as well. The chef cooked some kangaroo meat, crock meat and prawns to provide as a based to sample with some of them. A pretty interesting and tasteful event!

On the Saturday evening we went to the restaurant and had dinner. We both tried some of the recipes where the chef used the native plants to complement and/or spice the food. It was very nice and a bit different to the usual restaurant food.

On the Sunday I dropped the tire pressure all the way down to 15 psi, because all the tracks around the island are sand tracks. You need high clearance 4WD, low gears and low tire pressures. The maximum speed limit is 30km, so it takes a while to travel between places. All the tracks are single lane, so it can be tricky to pass oncoming vehicles, especially the big tourist buses!
Anyway, early in the morning we picked up our gourmet basket from the resort kitchen (Just too lazy to prepare anything ourselves!) Then we headed out of the resort and across to Lake McKenzie, which is the key tourist attraction of the Island. When we arrived early in the morning we had it all to ourselves, but just for a few minutes. Then more people arrived, plus bus loads of other tourists! It is a magical paradise. This is a fresh water lake with pristine white sandy beaches. Pretty awesome. Of course I went for a swim, while Sibba found a shadow under a tree. As it got more crowded we left for the east coast towards Dilli village. We drove to Pile Valley to see to huge trees that grow there, up to 40 meters in height. Along the sandy track I spotted a Python on the track. As it simply ignored us, I had to stop as I didn't want to drive over it. It wasn't going anywhere, so in the end I had to go out and throw some sand on it. Only then did it look at me with it's evil eyes and then slowly headed back out of the track!
We also stopped at Lake Boomanjin. This is a different type lake, but doesn't have the same sandy beeches as the other one. Then we went over to the east coast and onto the eastern beach, which is called 75 mile beach. There you can drive on the beach for long stretches, up or down the east coast of the island. We arrived around lunch time and decided to break open our gourmet lunch basket and have a picnic. The high tide was around 12:46 and I didn't want to drive up the beach before the tide turned. Firstly to know how high the tide goes up and secondly if you do get stuck it gives you some more time until the next high tide.
We dragged the gourmet basket and laid out our picnic blanket under some shade. When we opened our gourmet lunch basked we initially were speechless! I asked Sibba if she had ordered for 20 people, not two! We had over twenty plastic tubs with all kinds of stuff. There was no way we could finish this off. In fact, we are still nibbling away at it two days later!
After lunch we drove up the coast on the beach about 17km to another track that took us back to the resort on the other side. Thus we did a big circle around the lower part of the Island. We will leave the rest for another time! On the way back along the tracks we encountered a stuck ute. He was in a group of other vehicles but had become stuck only a few kilometers from the Kingfisher resort. I was missing everything that is recommended to drive these tracks; no high clearance, bald bitumen tires and he hadn't put the air pressure down either! We managed to get around him as his friends were pulling him loose. Back at the resort I got a token for the high pressure washing bay and washed the underside of the car. I also pumped up the tire pressure again at the resort petrol station.
Monday morning we went on a whale watching trip. We left around 8 am in the morning. The boat cruised along the island out to the bay. It's only then one gets the sense for how big the island is. Kingfisher Bay Resort is about located about 1/3 from the bottom of the island. After having cruised on the boat for around an hour, we only just passed the half way mark!
Once we got into the open bay, the captain spotted a whale with a calf. As this is the end of the season, the mothers are just about to go to the Antarctic with their calf's. We saw a few mothers and calf's having a good time. One of the calf's was curios and took a peek at the boat in order to see the tourists! It was a good trip, although there was a bit of wind and the ocean a bit choppy. On the way back to the Island we had some tea and biscuits and chatted with some travelling Swedes.
Back at the resort we are preparing for our departure tomorrow morning and will head pretty much straight home. From here it's around 1,300km to go, so we expect to stay a couple of nights no the way.

The "Victims" ready for the sampling of bush tucker.

The restaurant chef and aboriginal ranger ready to inflict the samples on us!

Me relaxing in Lake McKenzie.

Lake McKenzie is a magical place!

Lake McKenzie.

Sibba at Lake McKenzie.

The Python blocking the way!

The Python simply ignored me, until I threw sand at it!

The trees are very tall in Pile Valley.

Pile Valley.

This is what all the tracks on the island look like!

At Lake Boomanjin. It's a bit hard seeing the lake as the trees block the view.

Lake Boomanjin.

The east coast of Fraser Island is one continuous white beach!

Some were happy to drive in the surf with the tide coming in!

We parked away from the surf to have our picnic and wait for the high tide.

The huge Gourmet Picnic Basket!

On the way back to the resort.

Some of the steep hills have rubber mats to make it easier to get up!

The Sandy tracks can be rough at times.

On the way to see the whales.

Fraser Island western coast.

A calf having fun!

The calf's mother came to check on him!

Everyone on the boat was pretty impressed!

The calf just had to take a look at us as well!

The mother also wanted to see these tourists!

Then the calf waved goodbye to us!

Then the calf and his mother headed away.

The calf couldn't resist one more showing off!

18^th of October

Fraser Island.

What is so interesting about Fraser Island? The Island is around 122km long and around 5-25km wide. It’s size is around 1,840 km². For comparison, the largest Island off the Icelandic coast is Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Island),which are only 13.4 km².

Fraser Island also has a few things going for it; It’s the largest Island on Australia’s East Coast, It is the world’s largest sand Island, It’s World Heritage listed, has numerous camp sites and long sandy beaches, which 4wd enthusiast love to drive on! It has crystal clear fresh water lakes, rain forests and giant trees, plus lots and lots of sand in various configurations! It’s one of the unique places nature has created!. There are only a handful of resorts here, so you either stay in one of those or camp!

As we are on holiday from camping, we booked ourselves a self-contained Villa house in the Kingfisher Bay Resort. We are staying here six nights and plan to relax most of the time. We are going to spend a day driving around the island, just to see some of the main attractions. We also plan to go whale watching (Without the Harpoon!) on Monday.

We got here yesterday afternoon, after having spent a night in a very nice Motel, at Shelly Beach in Hervey Bay. We then drove out to Rainbow Head to where the barge terminal is located. We arrived around lunch time and lined up, just behind three pink Landcruisers that were full of backpackers on a Fraser Island adventure tour. Once the barge arrived, everyone had to drive their vehicle on-board, in reverse! Once on-board we went to the top deck to enjoy the 50 minute trip to Kingfisher bay on Fraser Island. Once we were on land, we drove up to the resort and got our key.

The Villa we are in is just fantastic. It’s a two bedroom house on two levels. It’s built on a sloping hill with a view over the canopy and into the surrounding forest. The entry hall, bedrooms, bathroom and laundry are on the upper level. The open kitchen, dining and living room are on the lower level. We also have a large balcony. All in all a pretty fantastic upgrade from the Oztent!

We emptied our 55l car fridge into the fridge/freezer in the kitchen, so we have plenty of food. There are also a couple of restaurant’s at the resort, plus they have a small grocery shop as well.

For the first two days we have simply been doing nothing and relaxing. The heat is just under 30 degrees and it’s been sunny. Today we went for a walk to explore the resort and went down to the beach. There we came across these little crabs that are rolling up the sand into small balls and then lining them up into all kinds of patterns. I even found an S and a V among the patterns. I’m pretty sure if you give them enough time, the crabs will write a pretty good novel or an adventure. I’m saw the beginning with the O (Once upon a time…) Pity the tide will clear it out!

In our trip we have also mentioned and shown pictures of fossilized sand called ripple rock. This is a typical pattern you find on any beach, so I took a photo on the beach here just to show you what it may have looked like millions of years ago!

Sibba is heading for an hour massage tomorrow and then later we are going to one of the restaurants to learn about cooking bush tucker and get to taste it as well. It appears that most of the adjoining villas are empty, so once again we are pretty much here alone! No noise, except the birds. As we were sitting on the balcony in the evening a Kookaburra landed on the balcony deck and had a chat! It was less than half a meter away and chatted for awhile. No idea what it was saying though!!