The Jo Guest Posse – Fraser Island & Hervey Bay

The next main town we reached was Hervey Bay, this is another tourist town that have very little itself but tourists flock there to visit Fraser Island.

When we arrived at the bus station there were loads of reps all telling us their hostel was the best so we compared them all and decided on Hervey Bay Backpackers as they had a pool and claimed that they were quite a lively place to stay.

We had heard that the backpacker hostels all arranged trips to see Fraser Island but that there were companies that would do the same trips at much better prices so the first thing we did was go to see one of these companies before we went to the Fraser island presentation at the hostel.  It was true, we could save quite a bit by hiring our own 4 wheel drive vehicle and camping equipment.  The vehicles held about 8, there were 4 of us so we needed a few more to come along.  As we got back to the Hostel we saw Richard, he was one of the guys we’d met on the boat in the Whitsunday islands so had got to know him quite well and he was a good laugh.  We mentioned the trip to him and he was up for it so we just needed a few more.  We went to the briefing and it looked really good and there were a few people who were interested in going but not signing up straight away, Kev got chatting to a few people and pretty soon we actually had 9 people for the trip.  It would be a little tighter in the vehicle but we didn’t mind, particularly as the new recruits were 4 girls from Denmark and Sweden.

We made a phone call to confirm the booking and the arrangement was made, the hire company we were using were concerned about treading on the hostels toes so arranged to meet us outside the back gate the following morning so an early night was called for.

What is it that they say about the best laid plans?  As soon as we’d decided that tonight was to be an early one the hostel announced a BBQ with party games, we decided that we would take it easy and just bought a couple of beers for the evening but the games turned out to be Drinking Games.  It all looked like it was going to get very messy from here.

First up was the “Half Century Club”.  For this we were all given a small camera film canister, this was to be used as a shot glass.  A bowl of wine was put in the middle of the table, the idea is to take one canister full of wine and drink it. To reach the half century club you do this 50 times in 50 minutes.  Trust me, this is much harder than it sounds. 

The first 20 minutes is quite easy as you are just drinking and chatting but after a while taking a drink of the wine becomes a chore and you start feeling drunk and full.  I think I quit at about the 35 minutes marker and lots of people had already given up.

After a break it was onto the boat races, teams of 4 people drinking half a pint of beer in turn, first team to finish wins.  I lasted about 2 rounds but we realised that there was a natural in the group who could just empty the glass in seconds and was to become our secret weapon at a later date.  Surprisingly this was Barb!  Ian managed to get to the final but I have no idea if his team won as the wine and beer had started to kick in by then

The rest of the evening quickly descended into chaos, people were being pushed into the swimming pool fully clothed, Chairs were broken and the hostel staff just seemed totally unable to cope with what was happening.  They had plied us all with alcohol but somehow seemed surprised that they now had a hostel full of drunken Backpackers.

The following morning we really got to see the devastation that had been caused, there were about 6 people sleeping in our room, the sink was full of vomit and there were signs of damage that nobody knew anything about but I am certain that there was a water fight at some point between us and the Scandinavians.  We tidied up as best we could then checked out ready to begin our trip to the Island.

Fraser Island itself is amazing, it is the largest sand island in the world and the only vehicles on it are 4 Wheel Drive.

The island mainly has little sand tracks as roads but the highway is “Seventy Five Mile beach” Just as it sounds, a beach that is 75 miles long.  We all took turns at driving to make it fair on us all as the back of the land rover wasn’t the most comfortable, it had been converted but the rear seating was just 2 wooden benches that had been fixed to the floor.

I think we managed to see most if the Island in the 3 days we were there.

Indian Heads was really something spectacular, this is a headland that you can climb up and see pretty much the whole of the island but my favourite of all the spots was Lake Wabby.  There was not really much to see, you park the vehicle up and there are signs pointing to the lake, at first all you can see are sand dunes but as you start to walk down then get steeper and steeper, the lake then appears in front of you and it is an incredible green colour, most of the group started to run when they saw the lake and didn’t stop until they were in the water.

Lake Wabby is actually under treat and could completely disappear in a very short space of time due to the sheer volume of sand that is drifting towards it.

Just off 75 Mile beach is another place called Rainbow Beach, this is where you find the shipwreck, the SS Maheno is nothing more than a rusty shell of an old boat that was damaged off shore several years ago and serves as little more that a tourist attraction.

The 3 days went by so quickly and it was soon time to get the boat and go back to Hervey Bay, there was plenty of time to wind Barb up.  I jumped into the driving seat when we got off the boat but Kev told Barb that I’d didn’t have a licence.  I kept playing along saying I had a Fork Lift licence and it should be the same principle, she kept telling me I should not be driving but I kept asking her how I was doing.  Just then we came to a traffic island.  I stopped and looked behind me and said…OK, What do I do now?  The look on her face was a picture.  I laughed and admitted that I had really got a licence and drove back to the depot.

We decided to stay in a different back packer’s hostel for our last night in Hervey Bay before we moved on.  To be honest, I don’t think we’d have got back into the same one anyway.