Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

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.