Tweet
28th November 2007
Up at 3:45am and away from rocky at 4:45 am after putting the final items in the car and having to stop by work to put some coffee in the thermos as Jodie had packed all the coffee we had. We had a good trip from Rockhampton to Hervey Bay, until we realised that we forgot the doona and our pillows. We also needed some sort of shade device to facilite our 12 days of lazing around the beaches and lakes of Fraser Island.
We got into Hervey Bay around 9am, and visited Target to get a new doona and pillows. We also went to BCF and bought a shade tent. We got to River Heads at 1030, picked up the barge ticket and our vehicle permit. Half way thru the barge crossing we realised that we hadnt filled up the 75 Litres we used driving from Rockhampton to River Heads. Fuel on the island was going to be pricey, and we wanted to make sure we had the whole 180 capacity filled before reaching the island.. D'OH!
We got into Kingfisher Bay Resort and filled the Prado with the 75L at $1.80 / L. Then we made our treck across the Island to the house we had booked on the eastern side. 3 km into the 15km crossing we came across our first group of tourists. No idea on how to drive in the sand, a pretty european girl looked very suprised when i asked if she had let any air out of the tyres. "Why would i do that?" she asked. I got the other people in her vehicle to get a stick, and get on a tyre and let air out for 40 seconds. At this point we had every man and his dog wanting to give their input on how to get the stricken 80's era Pajero free, including one southerner ( a very nice man and his family i chatted to on the barge, that was only there for the day) saying, ive got a winch, ill get around here and get it happening. I told him to not worry and get to enjoying the island, as he had limited time. Another european gent said "ill get sticks and put them behind the wheels!!". Meanwhile we had gotten all the tires down from the roadgoing 38PSI to a more appropriate 18PSI and i told everyone to get on the front and push. Sure enough the Pajero leapt out of the hole it had dug itself and was mobile again.
Not having been on Cornwalls Break road in quite a while, i started to doubt myself when i thought we where heading the long way round. So I turned around and headed the 3Ks back to the last intersection, sure enough, i was on the right road, and now was behind 4 rental cars that we were sure were told to not exceed 20kph on inland tracks.
We eventualy got to the surf side, picked up the keys to the house. "The Oaks" is located 1km south of Yidney rocks, and is a shack, built in the 60s with a beautiful view and great deck with BBQ.
We unpacked and went for a short drive to Happy Valley to aquire a cold well earned beer, as all ours werent cold yet. We headed up to the maheno as well.
It was Wednesday night, Taco night, so we sat on the deck ate our tacos whilst watching NCIS on the laptop.
After the sun went down the stars came out. We forgot how amazing the stars are on Fraser.
29th November 2007
Up at 3am, bed was very uncomfortable. We decided to use this to our advantage and go and take some shots of the Maheno and the Pinacles at sunrise. There was some cloud cover but still a very nice sunrise.
We decided our next adventure would be to walk from the house to Eli creek where we could have a swim and then walk back again. We knew that it was going to be a long walk however, after 1 hour of walking and upon reaching a sign that indicated we had at least another 2 kms to go we decided to start back. In the end we walked a total of 8kms and were glad to reach the house feeling energised.
By now it was mid morning, and we further settled into the house and decided we needed to do something about the bed. We got some mattresses from the other beds and propped up the double bed. We got another couple of mattresses and put them infront of the TV and had a nice relax while watching "The Day After Tomorrow". By then it was lunch time. Mmmm toased ham and pineapple sandwiches. After lunch, Matt wanted to wash the car but was missing a hose fitting, so we went for a drive back to pyungan rocks to see the caretakers for The Oaks, Chris and Phil. We had a tour of the other houses that were available for rent, and also grabbed the bits we needed to wash the car.
Got back, washed off the car, and then it was Beer O'clock. After a nice six pack on the deck listening to tunes, we had a BBQ dinner up on the picinic table and then had a game of cards. We were very tired after our long day, but wanted to try to stay up late. We watched what tv we could before we couldnt stay awake any longer and went to bed.
30th November 2007
After a better nights sleep we got up around 630am. After a coffee and tea, we had some bacon and eggs for breaky. We wanted to get some fishing done today, so we spooled up some fishing rods and left Indian head. We didnt make it that far as we thought we noticed that the weed in the surf was gone. We set up our new shade tent (that took a while, we just coulndt work it out) and put some tackle on one of the rods to try it out. After one cast it was evident that there was still plenty of weed out in the surf, and Jodie reeled in what line she could until there was too much weed on the line. We went back up to the car and cut the line and the tackle off the rod. By now it was only 1 hour off high tide so we decided to head back to the house. We got back and watched a bit of TV while we had ham and pineapple open grills. We had a nice nap and got up and had a few beers with the chilly philly and crackers.o Continued drinking and set up a fire. Had some snags and salad for a late dinner then watched a bit of tv before retiring to bed.
1st December
Got up about 530am keen for a big fishing day. We had some cereal and left for the western side as there was still a weed in the surf on the eastern side. Usually i have gone to Woralie Creek on the western side, but i thought we would try somewhere more south. On the way in, we saw a turn off to Urang Creek, so thats where we were heading. After 3 hours of inland tracks getting thinner and thinner until every 100 metres we were hanging out the side of the car snapping branches so they wouldnt scratch the car up. We decided to turn back, and went to Kingfisher bay for some lunch. We picked up a better map as well, as the one we had lead us to believe we could get some beach access at Urang creek.
We had some lunch and walked up the beach and threw in a line. We got a few nibbles and a few little flathead tried to steal our bait. By now it was late afternoon, and we headed back to the house, fishless
2nd December
What a morning. We were sitting on the deck enjoying a coffee and tea and Jodie suddenly freaked out. There was a highly venus Eastern Brown snake slithering its way onto the deck with us. Jodie jumped on top of the table, it was up to me to move it along, so i jumped up and down, and made a racket with the closest chair. The snake took off under the house. Jodie took off down to the car and was standing ontop of the rear mounted spare in a flash. I coaxed her back onto the back deck, but she then wouldnt get off the table. I must admit, i was looking twice before i walked around after that.
That sort of stuffed up our whole morning, and we didnt end up getting away until 10am. Our destination was the western side, at Woralie creek. On the way we had to dodge a few planes.
The Woralie track was in much better condition then the Cornwalls break track and the crossing didnt take long at all. The track went thru some pretty spectacular rainforest and was quite enjoyable to drive, with some heavily rutted out section lifting wheels and also some soft sections.
We got to the western side and drove a few KM's up the beach. I had forgotten how beautiful the western beaches were, as my only memories of them was that we used to call the western beach "sand fly city". We found a nice deep spot to throw in a line.
After we both were on the second or third cast, the wind suddenly got much stronger. It must have been a solid 20-30 knots with gusts to 40. Way too windy for fishing. We were both very disappointed. We packed up and headed back along the Woralie track to see lake Allom and Knifeblade sandblow.The turtles are always friendly at lake Allom and eager to pose for the camera. It was here that we also saw our second snake of the day; Jodie took this sighting much better.
By the time we got back on the surf side it was around 4pm. We decided to head the 20 odd km's north to Indian Head to see if the weed streched up the beach that far and into the sheltered bay between Indian Head and Middle Rock. It was tough going as it was only 1.5 hours off high, and i could watch the fuel gauge go down, as my scanguage was telling me i was averaging about 44L/100kms slogging it out in the soft stuff (at around 60km/h tho and the V6 still had plenty more left)
We were delighted to see that the weed was gone on both sides of Indian head, but being so late, we just decided to take a few photos, and have a couple of beers and wait for the tide to go down a bit.
We got back around 630pm and decided to go out for dinner at Happy Valley. Very enjoyable and tasty meals, and a few drinks, and we went back and got some sleep.
3rd December
Up at sparrow's fart we were keen to get in some fishing. We had breaky and left for Indian head. It was only 1.5 hours off low tide so it was much easier going. The sky was blue and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day.
We found a nice gutter in the bay between Indian Head and Middle rock and set up for the morning. We threw in a line and got a few nibbles and you could see the smaller fish in the gutter, surfing in the waves. We had a break for a while and relaxed under the shade cloth, watching all the poor backpackers walk from Indian Head up to Champagne pools at Middle Rock. The rental companies must not let them past Indian Head for some reason.
Some dark clouds blew in and we packed up our gear before heading out for one last fish. We were nearly out of bait, and I told Jodie to put the last two pippies on for a final cast. Success! Jodie was on and she reeled in a nice whiting.
Happy with finally getting a fish, we headed back before the rain began to fall. We got back to the house around lunch time after putting some fuel in at Happy Valley.
We had a lazy afternoon around the house and a quiet dinner on the front deck.
4th December
Woke up and saw a blue cloudless sky. Because it was such a great day, we decided to head into Lake Mckenzie and Central Station. We headed down the beach and in thru Eurong. The drive into Central Station was quite enjoyable passing in thru nice rain forest.
We did the Wangoolba creek walk while in at Central Station.
Mckenzie was spectacular. We had a long relaxing swim and took some photos. It was good to see the lake without too many people around. There was no tour buses there and only a dozen or so cars at the car park. Mostly it was back packers and a couple of families. This was a nice change from the usual you can get at lake mckenzie, as it can get like surfers paridise in the middle of summer.
We headed back to the house and had a quiet arvo with a few beers while sitting in the creek in front of the house. With a fire at sunset and then an early night.
Up at 3:45am and away from rocky at 4:45 am after putting the final items in the car and having to stop by work to put some coffee in the thermos as Jodie had packed all the coffee we had. We had a good trip from Rockhampton to Hervey Bay, until we realised that we forgot the doona and our pillows. We also needed some sort of shade device to facilite our 12 days of lazing around the beaches and lakes of Fraser Island.
We got into Hervey Bay around 9am, and visited Target to get a new doona and pillows. We also went to BCF and bought a shade tent. We got to River Heads at 1030, picked up the barge ticket and our vehicle permit. Half way thru the barge crossing we realised that we hadnt filled up the 75 Litres we used driving from Rockhampton to River Heads. Fuel on the island was going to be pricey, and we wanted to make sure we had the whole 180 capacity filled before reaching the island.. D'OH!
We got into Kingfisher Bay Resort and filled the Prado with the 75L at $1.80 / L. Then we made our treck across the Island to the house we had booked on the eastern side. 3 km into the 15km crossing we came across our first group of tourists. No idea on how to drive in the sand, a pretty european girl looked very suprised when i asked if she had let any air out of the tyres. "Why would i do that?" she asked. I got the other people in her vehicle to get a stick, and get on a tyre and let air out for 40 seconds. At this point we had every man and his dog wanting to give their input on how to get the stricken 80's era Pajero free, including one southerner ( a very nice man and his family i chatted to on the barge, that was only there for the day) saying, ive got a winch, ill get around here and get it happening. I told him to not worry and get to enjoying the island, as he had limited time. Another european gent said "ill get sticks and put them behind the wheels!!". Meanwhile we had gotten all the tires down from the roadgoing 38PSI to a more appropriate 18PSI and i told everyone to get on the front and push. Sure enough the Pajero leapt out of the hole it had dug itself and was mobile again.
Not having been on Cornwalls Break road in quite a while, i started to doubt myself when i thought we where heading the long way round. So I turned around and headed the 3Ks back to the last intersection, sure enough, i was on the right road, and now was behind 4 rental cars that we were sure were told to not exceed 20kph on inland tracks.
We eventualy got to the surf side, picked up the keys to the house. "The Oaks" is located 1km south of Yidney rocks, and is a shack, built in the 60s with a beautiful view and great deck with BBQ.
We unpacked and went for a short drive to Happy Valley to aquire a cold well earned beer, as all ours werent cold yet. We headed up to the maheno as well.
It was Wednesday night, Taco night, so we sat on the deck ate our tacos whilst watching NCIS on the laptop.
After the sun went down the stars came out. We forgot how amazing the stars are on Fraser.
29th November 2007
Up at 3am, bed was very uncomfortable. We decided to use this to our advantage and go and take some shots of the Maheno and the Pinacles at sunrise. There was some cloud cover but still a very nice sunrise.
We decided our next adventure would be to walk from the house to Eli creek where we could have a swim and then walk back again. We knew that it was going to be a long walk however, after 1 hour of walking and upon reaching a sign that indicated we had at least another 2 kms to go we decided to start back. In the end we walked a total of 8kms and were glad to reach the house feeling energised.
By now it was mid morning, and we further settled into the house and decided we needed to do something about the bed. We got some mattresses from the other beds and propped up the double bed. We got another couple of mattresses and put them infront of the TV and had a nice relax while watching "The Day After Tomorrow". By then it was lunch time. Mmmm toased ham and pineapple sandwiches. After lunch, Matt wanted to wash the car but was missing a hose fitting, so we went for a drive back to pyungan rocks to see the caretakers for The Oaks, Chris and Phil. We had a tour of the other houses that were available for rent, and also grabbed the bits we needed to wash the car.
Got back, washed off the car, and then it was Beer O'clock. After a nice six pack on the deck listening to tunes, we had a BBQ dinner up on the picinic table and then had a game of cards. We were very tired after our long day, but wanted to try to stay up late. We watched what tv we could before we couldnt stay awake any longer and went to bed.
30th November 2007
After a better nights sleep we got up around 630am. After a coffee and tea, we had some bacon and eggs for breaky. We wanted to get some fishing done today, so we spooled up some fishing rods and left Indian head. We didnt make it that far as we thought we noticed that the weed in the surf was gone. We set up our new shade tent (that took a while, we just coulndt work it out) and put some tackle on one of the rods to try it out. After one cast it was evident that there was still plenty of weed out in the surf, and Jodie reeled in what line she could until there was too much weed on the line. We went back up to the car and cut the line and the tackle off the rod. By now it was only 1 hour off high tide so we decided to head back to the house. We got back and watched a bit of TV while we had ham and pineapple open grills. We had a nice nap and got up and had a few beers with the chilly philly and crackers.o Continued drinking and set up a fire. Had some snags and salad for a late dinner then watched a bit of tv before retiring to bed.
1st December
Got up about 530am keen for a big fishing day. We had some cereal and left for the western side as there was still a weed in the surf on the eastern side. Usually i have gone to Woralie Creek on the western side, but i thought we would try somewhere more south. On the way in, we saw a turn off to Urang Creek, so thats where we were heading. After 3 hours of inland tracks getting thinner and thinner until every 100 metres we were hanging out the side of the car snapping branches so they wouldnt scratch the car up. We decided to turn back, and went to Kingfisher bay for some lunch. We picked up a better map as well, as the one we had lead us to believe we could get some beach access at Urang creek.
We had some lunch and walked up the beach and threw in a line. We got a few nibbles and a few little flathead tried to steal our bait. By now it was late afternoon, and we headed back to the house, fishless
2nd December
What a morning. We were sitting on the deck enjoying a coffee and tea and Jodie suddenly freaked out. There was a highly venus Eastern Brown snake slithering its way onto the deck with us. Jodie jumped on top of the table, it was up to me to move it along, so i jumped up and down, and made a racket with the closest chair. The snake took off under the house. Jodie took off down to the car and was standing ontop of the rear mounted spare in a flash. I coaxed her back onto the back deck, but she then wouldnt get off the table. I must admit, i was looking twice before i walked around after that.
That sort of stuffed up our whole morning, and we didnt end up getting away until 10am. Our destination was the western side, at Woralie creek. On the way we had to dodge a few planes.
The Woralie track was in much better condition then the Cornwalls break track and the crossing didnt take long at all. The track went thru some pretty spectacular rainforest and was quite enjoyable to drive, with some heavily rutted out section lifting wheels and also some soft sections.
We got to the western side and drove a few KM's up the beach. I had forgotten how beautiful the western beaches were, as my only memories of them was that we used to call the western beach "sand fly city". We found a nice deep spot to throw in a line.
After we both were on the second or third cast, the wind suddenly got much stronger. It must have been a solid 20-30 knots with gusts to 40. Way too windy for fishing. We were both very disappointed. We packed up and headed back along the Woralie track to see lake Allom and Knifeblade sandblow.The turtles are always friendly at lake Allom and eager to pose for the camera. It was here that we also saw our second snake of the day; Jodie took this sighting much better.
By the time we got back on the surf side it was around 4pm. We decided to head the 20 odd km's north to Indian Head to see if the weed streched up the beach that far and into the sheltered bay between Indian Head and Middle Rock. It was tough going as it was only 1.5 hours off high, and i could watch the fuel gauge go down, as my scanguage was telling me i was averaging about 44L/100kms slogging it out in the soft stuff (at around 60km/h tho and the V6 still had plenty more left)
We were delighted to see that the weed was gone on both sides of Indian head, but being so late, we just decided to take a few photos, and have a couple of beers and wait for the tide to go down a bit.
We got back around 630pm and decided to go out for dinner at Happy Valley. Very enjoyable and tasty meals, and a few drinks, and we went back and got some sleep.
3rd December
Up at sparrow's fart we were keen to get in some fishing. We had breaky and left for Indian head. It was only 1.5 hours off low tide so it was much easier going. The sky was blue and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day.
We found a nice gutter in the bay between Indian Head and Middle rock and set up for the morning. We threw in a line and got a few nibbles and you could see the smaller fish in the gutter, surfing in the waves. We had a break for a while and relaxed under the shade cloth, watching all the poor backpackers walk from Indian Head up to Champagne pools at Middle Rock. The rental companies must not let them past Indian Head for some reason.
Some dark clouds blew in and we packed up our gear before heading out for one last fish. We were nearly out of bait, and I told Jodie to put the last two pippies on for a final cast. Success! Jodie was on and she reeled in a nice whiting.
Happy with finally getting a fish, we headed back before the rain began to fall. We got back to the house around lunch time after putting some fuel in at Happy Valley.
We had a lazy afternoon around the house and a quiet dinner on the front deck.
4th December
Woke up and saw a blue cloudless sky. Because it was such a great day, we decided to head into Lake Mckenzie and Central Station. We headed down the beach and in thru Eurong. The drive into Central Station was quite enjoyable passing in thru nice rain forest.
We did the Wangoolba creek walk while in at Central Station.
Mckenzie was spectacular. We had a long relaxing swim and took some photos. It was good to see the lake without too many people around. There was no tour buses there and only a dozen or so cars at the car park. Mostly it was back packers and a couple of families. This was a nice change from the usual you can get at lake mckenzie, as it can get like surfers paridise in the middle of summer.
We headed back to the house and had a quiet arvo with a few beers while sitting in the creek in front of the house. With a fire at sunset and then an early night.
Comment