May 3, 2023
Day Three of backpacking the East Coast of Queensland
Fraser Island
The best day trip I’ve ever done!
Background
My name is Annabelle, I’m 20 years old, and I’ve chosen to move to Australia alone to embrace a new adventure.
After a week of living on the Gold Coast, I met two Irish girls (Aisling and Altan) in my hostel, who soon became good friends of mine. The girls invited me to join them on a road trip up the East Coast of Queensland.
Traveling was never my intention when moving to Australia; however, I felt an urge to join them. Spontaneously, I agreed to join them and we set off a week later. The best experiences are those unplanned, with no time to worry or set expectations.
This is my third diary entry from my East Coast of Queensland series where I take on Fraser Island. For more background and understanding, I recommend reading my previous two diary entries from Byron Bay and Noosa Heads before arriving in Fraser Island.
In this diary entry, I take a solo day trip to Fraser Island, drive across beaches by bus, discover Australia’s wildlife and swim the magical waters. Fraser Island exceeded my expectations with its rich history and untouched beauty. Let me persuade you to visit!
Noosa by Morning
If an early morning isn’t punishing enough, try it in a hostel…
You wake up to your phone alarm and so does everyone else in the room. It’s dark, but turning on the light isn’t an option. So, out comes the phone torch.
There’s no way to ‘quietly’ unzip your bag. Carefully, you rummage through your things, only to find the one item of clothing you need is, of course, buried at the very bottom of the bag.
After tipping all your clothes onto the floor, you’ve got what you need and are left to repack your bag.
Time to shower. Just as you step in, it hits you. You’ve left your towel on your bed. You have two options here: 1. put your clothes on while you’re wet, or 2. dry yourself with toilet paper.
Somehow, that 20-minute routine stretches into 45.
Day trip to Fraser Island
I’m pressed for time! A Toyota Landcruiser pulls up in front of me; two tour guides are in the front seat, and a girl my age is in the backseat next to me. Her name is Kate; she’s lovely but quiet, from England, and also solo-traveling. Anyway, we’re leaving for a day trip to Fraser Island.
We meet a larger group in the center of Noosa before boarding a bus made for off-roading, complete with huge tires. Kate and I are chosen to sit in the front with the best views!
I haven’t seen Aisling and Altan this morning, they’ve set off on a different Fraser Island trip where they’ll be camping over two nights and driving their own four wheel drives which they’d booked prior to me joining the trip.
Rainbow Beach
Our first stop was at the beautiful Rainbow Beach lookout point. Not far from here, we drove onto a ferry, taking the bus over to Fraser Island.
The tour guide was so knowledgeable and kind. He was very passionate about Fraser Islands history and its ties to aboriginal culture.
We drove down the beach for miles on the bus, which of course had huge offroading tires.
Lake Mackenzie
We stopped at Lake Mackenzie for a couple of hours to swim and relax.
The water is truly magical. Strangely, it’s a freshwater lake filled by rainfall, sitting above the sand.
They say people travel from all over the world to swim here, believing that the water has rejuvenating properties that leave them looking and feeling 10 years younger. I don’t know how true that is, but I definitely felt fresh after my swim.
I lay on the sand and fell asleep in the sun, exhausted from my early wakeup. Later discovering that I’d developed the worst sunburn in my life. It was so painful. My fault for not wearing sunscreen!
The rest of the day was bliss, we were given lunch and drink, swam in the sea/rivers, witnessed a ship wreck, encountered dingoes, some weird looking lizards and were given snacks.
I had a 10/10 experience, incomparable to anything I’d ever done before. I could’nt recommend Fraser Island Nature Tours enough, they truly thought of everything, going above and beyond.
By the end of the day I was sunburnt and knackered, so I slept most of the way back to Noosa. Regardless, I had the most amazing day, and I’m so happy that I did this. Thank you Aisling and Altan for organising this trip for me.