Fraser Island

We had to be at breakfast at 7am to get our ration of 2 small pancakes. They were pretty yummy though. After breakfast we checked out, had a drivers briefing and then headed out to the cars. Here we were joined by the final 2 members of our group, Daisy and Ellie. Daisy has made the team slightly more cultural as she is from Wales. Before we headed out we picked up our food supplies for the next few days and put the goon on ice.

Our lead driver Brendo will be looking after us on Fraser Island. He is an Aussie with a very dry sense of humour so it's going to be an entertaining few days. Brendo took the lead in car one and then the rest of us followed. We were in car 4 so were last in the convoy. Each car has a radio so we can all talk / heckle each other. Simon took the first driving shift over the ferry and across the island to our first stop for lunch. There was some tough driving in deep sand so fair play for going first, I wasn't brave enough for that. Frazer and Sam were hungover or maybe even still drunk so there was no way they were driving anytime soon. For lunch we had ham salad wraps which we made together as a car. They don't cook for you on this trip and instead just give you the ingredients and then you cook together as a car (not that a lot of cooking goes into ham salad wraps).

After lunch we headed up to Lake McKenzie. This was around a 45 minute drive inland where Jess took the wheel. Lake McKenzie is a stunning fresh water lake with a white sandy beach not too dissimilar to Whitehaven. Supposedly you can even drink the water although I didn't really fancy that. We had a good hour and a half here to swim and chill before we headed out.

Back in the cars it was my turn to take the wheel. I was pretty nervous and everyone had done a really good job so far so I didn't want to be the first one to make a mistake. Once I got the hang of it though and figured out where the wheels were it was fine and really fun. With a quick toilet break and driver swap we headed to the campsite for the evening where we will be staying for the next 2 nights. The camp is quite large with lots of 2 man tents, kitchen, showers and toilets. It's also got a fence around the outside of it with an electrified grate to stop the dingoes from getting in. Fraser Island is home to the purest dingoes in Australia at around 98% as unlike everywhere else they haven't cross bred with domestic dogs. We did spot our first dingo on our drive today chilling on the beach. They are really cute and look a bit like a cross between a dog and a fox. When leaving the campground we have to take a dingo buddy and a stick with us just in case we run into them.

On the menu this evening we have Asian chicken stir fry with rice noodles. We even had fresh vegetables with peppers, courgette, onion, mushrooms (we picked those out) and carrot. Sam took on the role of head chef and served us up a treat. They give you loads of food so there is no chance of us going hungry.

After dinner we wandered down to the beach and hung out there with some music. The stars are meant to be amazing from here but it was a bit of a cloudy night so not the best for stargazing. There was however a gorgeous burnt orange moon.Read more