It has been a month since I have moved to Melbourne. It is beautiful cosmopolitan city with an unpredictable weather. It is the melting pot of world cuisines. The city has multiple hidden lanes where numerous restaurants offering different variety of gourmet romance to my insatiable palate. One can choose to soak up sun at the St. Kilda beach on an weekend, haunt the shopping outlets and mall in the CBD during the weekdays, have delicious brunches or dinner in the hardware lane or enjoy a sunset the South Wharf or splurge at the DFO outlet or walk along the Yarra trail. The Yarra river flows through the CBD (Central Business District). This city reminds me of London. I am still exploring Melbourne and the scenic spots in the state of Victoria. I will soon be writing a ‘Must Explore’ blog post on Melbourne. This post is about my long weekend trip to Frazer Island located in the Queensland, ‘The Sunshine State’.
Frazer Island is a unique destination in Australia. the largest sand island in the world and the only place on the planet where rainforest grows on sand! The island stretches over 120 km. It also has perched lakes – lakes formed when depressions in dunes fill permanently with rainwater.
The state highway (only 4×4 drive), the airplane runway is the beach. Yes, you have read it correct, “The Beach”. If you do not believe me, please check out the YouTube video links below:
Flight Path: https://youtu.be/1OBusppKD-I
4-wheel drive Path: https://youtu.be/GkyiTDNQ7w0
How to get there?
One can choose to get to the island via Rainbow Beach or Hervey Bay. The island can be accessed by 4-wheel drive (4WD) only. To access via rainbow beach, an international traveller need to arrive in Brisbane, like we did. However, one can also choose to travel by charter flights to the island. But where is the fun in that? Locals prefer self-drive. But for international travellers I would recommend taking the guided tour. There are one day, 2 days or 3 days trip options. We took the 2-day trip option from the Sun Rover Tours and I am extremely satisfied with their service. Thanks to our tour Guide Mr. Jai Black, we had amazing fun. He was knowledgeable, humorous and a 4WD enthusiast.
We flew to Brisbane from Melbourne on Friday Morning, let’s call it day 1. In Australia, domestic flights are reasonable. There are 2 economic airlines – Tiger and Jetstart. We took Tiger Airways for both trips and we are their happy customers. Punctual and spacious seats (my height: 179 cm).
Day 1:
We stayed at Hotel Jen. Considering their economical pricing, they offer a lot of luxury amenities. Both my travel/life partner and I love exploring any destination by foot. So, we both deposited our back packs at the hotel and ventured out to walk by the Brisbane River Loop Path. I am actually amazed when we crossed an artificially created beach in the middle of the city. We also happened to be in the city on a day before the Police Remembrance day, so we could see Fighter Jet flying low over the river. But we missed the fireworks.
Must do in Brisbane in a day:
Watching sunset from Mount Coot-Tha view point
2. Walk/ cycle along the River Loop path and
3. A quiet walk by the Story Bridge in the night
Day 2:
We left for Frazer Island at 0700 hrs in our landcruiser without group. There is a refreshment stop in every hour on our way to Inskip point in Rainbow beach. From Inskip point we took the barge cross the sea to reach Frazer Island.
Inskip point at Rainbow beach
4-wheel Drive on the beach
The Barge
Our Abode in Dilli Village
We were staying at the Dilli Village. Once reaching there, we dropped off our luggage and left for central station and lake McKenzie. Post our return, we had dinner and then headed out for a late-night beach walk.
Central Station: We got to see the rare King Fern, only found in this island.
Central Station
King Fern
Scribbly Gum
These zigzag tracks are tunnels made by the larvae of the Scribbly Gum Moth on the bark and tell a story of the insect’s life cycle.
Lake McKenzie: Pure white sands meets clear blue freshwater.
Lake McKenzie
Day 3:
Before checking out from our camp, we watched the sunrise…
Lake Wabby: It is 45 min hike from the beach. So, it is highly recommended that you do it in the first hour of the day to avoid exertion from the heat. (Carry 1 litre water bottle). I liked Lake Wabby more.
Lake Wabby
Panaromic View of Lake Wabby
On our way to the lake, I saw impressions of wild life on two tree trunks resembling a lion and a baby deer. Let me know if you can see too.
Impression of a Lion
Impression of a baby deer
The hike path through the rain forest:
Eli Creek: This is a fun creek where you can walk the knee depth cold and clean creek
Eli Creek
Eli Creek
Eli Creek
Eli Creek
SS Maheno Shipwreck: Its history was not very fascinating to me.
P.S. we saw dolphin and dingo along the beach of Frazer island hop-off point.
Dolphin Sighting
A chilling Dingo
Thanks for an awesome group, we have super fun!
Posing with our 4 wheel drive!
2-day camping adventure in Frazer Island It has been a month since I have moved to Melbourne. It is beautiful cosmopolitan city with an unpredictable weather.