Fraser Island here we come!

 We caught a late bus to Hervey Bay, and the hostel we wer staying at left us out our keys, maps and also instructions for the following days including what we needed to take to Fraser Island. There was no way that our big backpacks were all going to fit in the 4 x 4 so we had to pack a smaller bag. For some reason this took us hours, and I have no idea how, which meant it was gone 2am by the time we crashed and we had to be up at 6am…. We weren’t thinking straight!

Dragging ourselves out of bed at the ridiculous time we picked up our newly packed bags and stumbled wearily to the free breakfast. Freshly renewed after a cup of tea, we perched on the numerous benches dotted around the dining area and waited for our guide to join us. He wandered through the doors and immediately got everyone organised into groups.

 We were split into 2 teams, and in our group there was us there was also an English guy called Tony and 2 german lads called Nic and Tim. The other group was chokers full of girls except for one guy called Howie so we were pretty pleased to be in our group.

 Kate and I nominated ourselves to be the food shoppers so we collected $20 off everyone and we were dropped off at the local shop to do the shopping for 7 people for 3 days, well we spent it all, and bought heaps! Lots of Black and Gold products! It is the value brand of Australia. Well to be quite honest we overspent a tad, we completely forgot the meat on the original shop, but keep that on the down low!!

 So shopping all completed we made our way back to the hostel where the rest of our group was beginning to load up the 4×4, which is massive! It’s a great big truck, with room for 8 and has a caged area to stuff all of your food and bags. Once we had managed to ram the cage full, which extraordinary amounts of food, we were ready to set off.

 1^st issue – getting to the ferry!

Our driver for the entire trip was going to be Tony, as he was the only one in our group who was over 21, Clients wishing to drive on Fraser Island must be 21 years or older and hold a current and full drivers license, and he and Nic settled into the front. Nic was supposed to be our navigator, but it was soon apparent that he couldn’t read a map to save his life. Navigational skills = minimal. So quickly the map was taken out of his hands and passed to the ladies in the back, where we deduced the correct way. Although, the other group who we were originally following and going the correct way suddenly decided to complete a U-Turn in the middle of the road and scoot off in an opposite direction. Bad move!

 We carried on and arrived at the ferry with plenty of time to spare. It was a beautiful setting, the sun was shining and we were all perched on a massive 4×4 ready to explore Fraser Island!

 However…

 The other group hadn’t arrived. We began lining up to join the ferry and they still hadn’t arrived, they were cutting it pretty fine, until suddenly screeching round the corner came a big white brute of a truck. They made it.