We stayed two nights at Hervey Bay (The Beach Motel – reminded me of Butlins 😬) which is located on the Fraser Coast. We used it as a gateway onto the World Heritage listed Fraser Island. There is not really a great deal to say about Hervey Bay other than it has a quiet costal community which boasts long sandy beaches and a calm blue ocean (we sound spoilt but comparing it to Noosa, our previous stop we thought this had far more going for it!)
Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island (created over hundreds of thousands of years from sand drifting off the East Coast of mainland Australia) and is the only place where rainforest grows on sand. After our visit we finally believed the locals when they say it is paradise! We stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort which was similar to Centre Parcs, but surrounded by beaches and forests all in one.
The best part of our stay on the island was by far the Beauty Spot 4WD trip. We travelled deep into the heart of the island on what can only be described as a roller coaster ride – there are no roads as such so the 4WD was challenged with soft sand making it a very bumpy journey to say the least!
We enjoyed floating down Eli Creek (a real life lazy river), exploring the giant sand dunes (measuring over 200m high), walking through the lush rainforest, driving on 75 Mile Beach – it’s a real sand highway (policed in the peak season), stopping for a dip in Lake McKenzie – a strikingly blue fresh water lake and last but not least a scenic flight in a little plane over the island. The flight was really cool as it gave us a perspective of the island as a whole. (Check out our little video via this link. You will have copy and paste the link into your browser. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s5obnkGKPwg )
As you can imagine tHere is lots of wildlife on the island (we actually saw a wild dolphin), but most importantly are the Dingoes (wild dogs). Dean was desperate to see one as everywhere you went on the island were warnings about them but unfortunately we were not that lucky!
Next stop is an overnight coach journey to Airlie Beach.
The Snow Adventures 