Fraser Island

After Uncle Brian's Tour, I packed myself up and left Cairns the next morning on the 7 am bus, which I almost missed because my idiot cab driver told me to wait in the wrong place. That incident set the tone for much of the following 24 hour ride; Greyhound bus drivers think their passengers are the most idiotic people on Earth. I really don't enjoy being treated like a 5 year old, least of all by a public bus driver. I can read the signs; I know that seat belts are required and no eating and drinking are permitted on the bus. I suppose telling us not to put our feet on the seats or across the aisles makes them feel good, as does threatening to thrown anyone off the bus who dares venture into the back area. But is it really necessary to repeat this information every half hour? This barrage continued with the second bus driver. The overnight bus driver was my favorite; he just shut up and drove the damn bus.

I arrived, bright and chipper, in Hervey Bay the next morning at 6:20 am, ready for the ferry to Fraser Island. This Island is the largest sand island in the world (it contains more sand than the Sahara) and was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1992. The island is criss-crossed by single lane tracks in the sand, only accessible via 4x4. Many backpackers see Fraser island on a self-guided tour, but I was not about to entrust my livelihood to some random person with little to no 4x4 experience, especially on sand. So I took a tour.

Somehow I was expecting miles and miles of uninterrupted sand, but the center of Fraser is filled with trees and other vegetation. In fact, the roads we drove on were old logging roads created in the 1890's with the start of the timber industry on Fraser. There are many different types of eucalypts, ferns, vines, shrubs, etc. There is even a plant whose fruit contains 3x the lethal dose of cyanide in each of its segments. The Aborigines apparently solved this by leaching the fruit in water (to dissolve the cyanide and convert it to HCN), and then cooking it, to convert the HCN into gas which would then dissipate. Apparently this process is only partially successful, which accounts for high levels of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's like symptoms in people who've eaten the fruit for years.

These are the types of stories our guide Dave revelled in telling us. The first day he got off onto so many pharmacological tangents I wanted to kill him. Well, and because he also laughs at his own jokes. I mean, while it's very interesting that dangerous criminals contain much lower levels than normal of Monoamine oxidase, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, it's not really appropriate information for a tour of Fraser Island!! We discovered on the second day that it is possible to keep Dave on track by asking him very specific questions. Thank goodness.

The highlights of Fraser Island are its many freshwater lakes, created when depressions occur in sand that is totally saturated with water. A type of rock called coffee rock forms the floor of the lakes and prevents the water from seeping back out if the water table in the sand were to fall. The high water table has also created numerous freshwater creeks, the largest of which, Eli Creek, can be ridden down in an inner tube. Unfortunately, it was very wet for 2 of the three days we were there, which made swimming an afterthought. I got so drenched walking to Lake Mirabee, though, that I decided I might as well just go for a swim. I was just in time for the antics of about 6 American frat boys, who decided that it would be really fun to get naked and roll down the sand slope into the lake below. Did I mention how proud I am of my country?

Actually, I had lots of fun. The sand, ocean, and freshwater lakes are just gorgeous, and it certainly was an adventure driving across bumpy sand tracks in a large bus built on a truck base. I met a very nice Belgian girl named Masha with whom I hung out for most of the trip, and none of my trip mates were drunken goons. And we saw a Dingo (wild Australian dog). All and all, not a bad trip.