4WD fun!

The new alarm app was tested a couple of times during the evening. Worked fine. However, I still had a slight unease about it. In fact, I didn't sleep at all, but checked the time regularly. I lay waiting for it to go off at 5.30am. And IT DIDN'T! So just as well I stayed awake!

The tour to Fraser Island (the largest sand dune in the world) was fantastic! It was a beautiful day, blue skies, not windy, as it has been recently. We were in a huge purpose built 'truck' which we were told cost $260,000! It was very comfortable, with tinted windows, but air conditioning to rival a plane- ie freezing! And as we spent most of our time in it, I did get rather cold.

The trip was amazing though. We whizzed up the golden sand beaches at a great rate of knots, looking out to sea for any whales, and inland for any dingos. We saw neither.

I can see why everyone has a 4WD here- they were all up the beach, fishing and camping and enjoying the outdoor life.

We had 'smoko' (morning tea) half way up the long drive along the beach. Nice muffins & lamingtons on a beautiful beach that stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. 120 kms of it, actually!

Our driver, Mark was terrific. He had such a knowledge of the area, the flora and fauna,the history and the legends. And he cooked us a BBQ lunch. No roo burgers this time, but a choice of steak or fish. I was impressed to see that the BBQ area was inside a big dingo-proof fence! In fact, one wee settlement we went through had a dingo-proof fence right around it, with cattle grids at the roads in. Actually, just watching the news this evening I see that a tourist has been air lifted to a hospital on the mainland after being mauled by a dingo on Fraser Island!

While Mark was cooking our lunch we had time to sit by, paddle in or swim in Lake Mackenzie. It was white sanded, clear water (rainwater), paddle-ably warm, and some folk did have a swim. I imagine on a hot day in summer it would be just what you needed.

After lunch, we had a rainforest walk. This was magical, as Mark was able tell us about lots of interesting facts.

Then back down the beach on the journey home. But the tide was edging in to make it impossible to pass. It was very exciting to be whizzing along weaving in and out of the bigger waves coming up the beach, and trying to keep out of the soft sand at the top of the beach. When you hit the soft sand it's like you're driving on ice! But we had to divert on to the road half way down.

What a road! Potholed, extremely bumpy, and Mark didn't slow down at all, so if we hadn't had seat belts on, we would have been regularly hitting the roof! Actually, at one point I was blowing my nose and we shot over a big pothole, and my camera went about a foot in the air! We were sitting on the back seat, so it was great fun. It was constant, with the odd sideways swoosh when we hit soft sand. A bit like riding a bucking bronco (I imagine) but with a seat belt on.

I chose this blip, as it shows the huge trucks. We had stopped at Rainbow Beach, so called because of the different coloured minerals in the sand in this area. Spectacular!

Back just in time to see the end of the delayed Olympic Opening Ceremony. Had we not been off on a trip, I would have watched it this morning. It looked spectacular. And did I really see the Queen jumping out of a plane with a parachute? What a stroke of genius!