Australian castaways

Our next stop was Great Keppel Island, just off the coast from Rockhampton, and it turned out to be a bit of a trek to get to. We’d heard that the island was essentially an affordable paradise, and after a choppy half hour on the ferry to get there, we discovered that this was totally right. The whole island was ringed by white sand beaches complete with palm trees. As if that wasn’t cool enough, the huge resort on the island had shut the week before for renovations, so the place was near enough deserted! Our home for the few days was a big canvas tent in a nice family run complex. There were goannas, kookaburras and big fruit bats everywhere! As the island only had one phone and no Internet we decided to embrace our castaway status and explore. We wandered around the deserted resort and down what we thought was an abandoned runway (a plane landing soon after gave us a bit of a shock!), emerging into a spider-filled forest and onto a windswept beach. We didn’t see another person that whole day – fantastic!

Exploring the deserted island was so rewarding we spent the whole of the next day doing it too. We ended up getting right to the other side of the island, and at one point got a bit lost and ended up having to swim across a creek with our bags on our heads! Found a wonderful secluded beach, where we had great fun making a big sand castle, complete with turrets, a moat, mountains and some trees – what a pair of kids! We also went for a beach swim, albeit rather nervously, it is meant to be stinger free on the island but with no one around it was hard to tell! On our return from the island we spent a night in Rockhampton in a great little budget hotel, and treated ourselves to steak, for which Rockhampton is famous. Combined with a bottle of red wine and some live music it turned out to be a great evening with the locals.


Next up was Agnes Water, and we hadn’t booked any accommodation but lucked out on arriving with a superb ensuite cabin at Southern Cross. We weren’t so lucky with the weather however, and the high winds meant that all trips out to Lady Musgrave Island on the Great Barrier Reef were cancelled for the week. Poor Rach was a bit gutted as this meant she had travelled through Australia without diving the reef – doh! We filled the time however with something pretty wacky… we spent 3 hours on mini Harley Davidson style choppers. 30 of us set off in a big road convoy, sometimes reaching 80kph (!), stopping to see kangaroos on the way and eventually motoring through a huge rainstorm towards a bright orange sunset on the coast, quite memorable! The second day in Agnes Water the winds were still too high for the dive boats, so we ended up surfing instead.

March is prime time to see loggerhead turtles hatching on the East Coast, so we spent a wonderful evening at Mon Repos Beach near Bundaberg watching the cute little creatures emerge from the sand. We were told that some evenings you have to wait ages before a nest hatches, but we were hurried off to see one as soon as we arrived. We all gathered around in the dark on the beach, and watched as the sand became alive with little baby turtles clawing their way out, and then heading down to the sea in the moonlight with a couple of torches to help guide them. Amazing! We were fortunate enough to see a second clutch hatch too, which was much better as half the crowd had left then and we got within arms length of the nest as the hundred or so little babies emerged. Only one turtle in every 1000 survive, so it was a little sad seeing them all scurry off to the dangers of the sea!



So, it was time to visit the jewel in the crown of the east coast, according to pretty much everyone, Fraser Island. We were both very excited on turning up in Rainbow Beach the night before, and decided on a three day, two night self drive tour in a 4x4. We met up with Darren and Michelle, a couple we’d met on the Alexander Stewart earlier in the trip, and we agreed to do the trip as a four to save a bit of cash and to share the experience a bit more. After a bit of shopping around the rental places we found a great company who rented us a brand new Toyota Hilux with camping gear and ferry ticket all thrown in. That evening we all had time to go and explore Rainbow Beach and were awed with the massive Carlos sandblow which made us feel like we were in the Sahara Desert!

We loaded up the back of the truck on Thursday morning, then did a quick test drive over some sandy tracks, and we were off! After the ferry crossing Gaz drove the half hour on the inland roads and then emerged onto the beach – cue lots of whooping and fishtailing in the soft sand as we sped down the 80km towards Indian Head. The sea was crashing on our left and sandstone pinnacles reared up on our right. On the way we saw a tourist plane land on the sand after zooming about 20metres above our car, which got the nerves jangling! We also stopped at the Maheno shipwreck, which was very spooky. Rach almost got washed away when she stood on the deck to have her picture taken and didn’t pay attention to the waves behind! Indian Head was very picturesque, with sweeping views of the coast – all very cool despite the groups of Irish tourists lazing around, all totally drunk and sunburned half to death! We motored back down the beach to Eli Creek and spent a great couple of hours slowly drifting down the crystal clear stream with a cool green forest canopy overhead. Rach monkeyed about in the trees as Gaz and Darren went eel hunting – all very enjoyable! We then drove to our campsite, a spot on the coast behind a sand dune, with not a soul in sight. Lots of wind meant our tent almost blew away and it took crafty use of ropes and a hammer to secure it! We had a big pasta meal and watched the sun set. Very relaxing, apart from keeping a lookout for wild dingoes roaming the area!

The next day we awoke after a super windy night, but still in an intact tent – hooray! Gaz went running on the beach, which turned into a bluebottle jellyfish dodging session, before a big breakfast and then back in the 4x4. First up was the very challenging inland scenic route. Not what we expected at all – it was full of deep sand ruts, big tree root drop offs and switchback corners. We all had a go at driving and all managed it fine, thanks mostly to the awesome truck we were in. We managed to hit a tree branch at one point which smacked into the side of the Hilux and for a second our hearts stopped at the thought of losing our $5000 bond! We drove to Lake Allom and took a great 40 minute walk, seeing freshwater turtles, tree snakes, goannas and some pretty huge spiders (which had Rach freaking out). We thought we had plenty of time so we headed to Lake Birrabeen, but the technical drive ended up taking ages, luckily though the result was worth it. We swam in a paradisical inland lake, with white sand and blue waters, fringed by rainforest trees. It was a bit chilly at sunset though so soon enough we headed to Central Station to camp. We drank plenty of wine and VB and cooked a huge barbeque in the shadow of the huge trees. Fell asleep listening to the cicadas chirruping all around the tents.

Early start for our final day to beat the crowds to the famous Lake MacKinsey. We arrived to perfect conditions, with little wind and lots of sunshine. All being super childish we spent an hour doing lots of somersaults and handstands in the blue waters, before the masses arrived and we made a beeline for the carpark – spot on! We then drove to our final lake of the trip, Lake Wabby. After a soup lunch we hiked the half an hour track down through the forest and up across an enormous sand duen in the oppressive heat. We got to the lake, at the bottom of a big sand hill, seriously in need of a swim, so we all splashed in. Gaz did his best impression of being eaten by a shark in the deep water, which made Rach laugh and Darren saying something about ‘crying wolf’. Soon enough the backpacker hoards arrived again and made a LOT of noise, so we packed up and trekked back across the desert-like landscape back to the forest and then on to the 4x4. We headed back to the ferry along another bumpy track, lined with cool trees such as the Scribbly Gum, and back along the beach. On the way we finally managed to spot a dingo on the beach, which was a great end to the trip. We got the Hilux back with 5 minutes to spare, then headed for our hostel to flop down on the bed and sleep!