Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

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!!