I remember when I first landed in Melbourne and was shocked by the amount of people and the heat. Turns out it was an abnormally hot day. But still, I encountered people and heat in varying degrees (no pun) on my journey down under.
The cities were big and spread out and had distinct subsections of culture.
I learned what it was like to live either barefoot or in thongs (flip flops). I learned the capital wasn’t Sydney. I learned that there were many breathtaking sunrises and sunsets to be seen.
Initially, I had concerns about all of the dangerous wildlife. Thankfully, I was never stung, bitten or clawed by any of those animals. I never even saw a snake in the wild. Did I? I don’t think so. I did see a few spiders and jellyfish, but nothing that threatened immediate harm.
At first, I had a hard time finding my rhythm. It’s difficult to pinpoint why. It’s not like I had to make a major adjustment or anything. Regardless, I don’t think I really settled in until I was almost a month into my time in Australia. That’s when I understood what was on offer. Traveling up the east coast was mainly about enjoying the beaches and water.
Indian Head Views
I was adopted into a large friend group of ex-pats in Sydney. They were welcoming and generous and gave me a sense of community. It was a kind of security blanket to fall back on if I ever needed it.
Speaking of people, my two marquee experiences were on tour groups. Actually, the main difference between having an awesome time in Australia vs. New Zealand came down to people. In NZ, I had plenty of fun just walking in nature. In Oz, fast friendships made the biggest impact. An interpersonal connection can easily add more value to an adventure. Since I consider myself a low-key extrovert, bonding with a few different groups of people really elevated whatever I was doing. I was fortunate enough to enjoy this on a few occasions.
There will always be something drawing me back to Australia. Part of it will be to visit the central and western areas of the country. The other part…I’m not exactly sure. To sky dive? Maybe. Either that, the crystal blue water or the gorgeous women.
It’s certainly not Vegemite.
“Awe, yeah?” “Yeah, right.”
By the Numbers
Days in Australia: 56 Days at Workaways: 16 Nights in Hostels: 31 Multi-day Tours: 2 Hours in Transit (Bus or Train): ~60 AUD Spent: ~$4,342.18 USD Spent: ~$3,192.78 (Avg conversion rate of roughly 1.36)
For those interested in visiting one day, here’s a list of where I went and how I ranked stuff: (click the top left button of the map to expand the list view)
Favorite Places: 1. Fraser Island 2. Melbourne 3. Whitsundays 4. Byron Bay 5. Brisbane
I had to hustle off the bus and into a safety briefing for the Fraser Island excursion because I was already late. I think the entire group was waiting on me.
There was a group of 26 people that got split into 3 cars.
Car #3 Aida (England) Kirsty (Scotland) Marvin (Germany) Max (Germany) Nathan (USA) Sabine (Netherlands) Sonja (Germany).
A good mix. We worked through a few rounds of paperwork and a horrendously old 12 minute long informational video. Then most people went their separate ways to sort out the alcohol and snacks they were going to bring.
Aido
MegaPrime 4×4
Down & Up the Dunes
All 26 of us reconvened around 6am the next morning to grab a quick breakfast and pack up our vehicles. That’s when we also met our guide, Aido, who endearingly referred to us as “critters” the entire trip.
Our SUVs were equipped with very necessary 4wd, an AUX cable so everybody could DJ, and a CB radio to communicate with the convoy.
Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and stretches over 120km. There’s very little infrastructure, so it’s mostly camping. To get around, you’re either driving on the beach or some incredibly sandy and bumpy paths.
Aida volunteered to take the first driving shift which seemed to be a fun one. She got to load us onto the ferry and do a bit of inland driving right off the bat because it was high tide. Ended up being a pretty good chunk of time which the group used to start getting to know each other.
Our first destination was Lake McKenzie. It was a beautiful, crystal clear natural lake. For my money, I think this was the best stop. We all took a dip in the water which was the perfect temperature. The sad part was that we didn’t get to spend much time there. But, on the bright side, this is where we settled on the name of our vehicle: MegaPrime. It was a mixture of Megatron and Optimus Prime (the best parts of the good and the bad) and also the new Amazon delivery option we invented. When you choose MegaPrime shipping, your item is delivered to you immediately upon payment. Let us know how much you’re willing to buy that Service Mark for, Besos.
Lake McKenzie
Everybody was hungry and the next stop was lunch, so at least we were getting to satisfy that urge. On this leg of the drive, Car 2 started to develop a reputation of being the black sheep of the group. “You’re too far to the left Car 2!” It was a common refrain, followed by an abyss of silence on the CB and no adjustment of course.
In the deep sand, it was important to follow the existing tracks and avoid oversteering the car. There are plenty of people that have gotten bogged or flipped from fighting what the car naturally wanted to do. It was sort of comically tense for a minute but thankfully it all worked out.
We arrived at Central Station, the old logging hub, and set up a wrap buffet. Wraps. We got to know them very well as that was our lunch for all 3 days. I think everybody wrote that down on the feedback form.
In any case, the entire group got a chance to mingle and then go on a walk through the forest. There was a creek that was practically invisible because of how clear it was. The short loop track brought us back to the pavilion and then we headed out.
We made it to basecamp in the early afternoon where Aido gave us the lay of the land and a brief talk about snakes, spiders, and other animals we might encounter. Everybody claimed a tent, unpacked some gear, and gathered back up to crack the first beer.
The majority of us went for a stroll up a large sand dune to watch the sunset. There was initially some worry about clouds, but it ended up being a solid one.
Once we got back to camp, we fired up the BBQ and had community dinner. There were card games, lots of chatting and all the good stuff associated with group bonding. Several hours into the night, a small group went for a quick walk to the beach to look at the stars. The sky was brilliant without any light pollution and you could clearly make out the Milky Way. It ended up being a relatively tame evening by the time we were all zipped into our tents and ready for bed.
Personally, I got a pretty shit night of sleep. First off, it was smotheringly hot. There wasn’t really a way to ventilate the tent because you had to keep out the bugs. And that was the second reason I was partially on edge the whole evening. The spider talk was in the back of my mind and I found a weird cricket trying to share rent just before I turned off my headlamp for the night.
I was half conscious when our 7am wake up reggaeton started playing. It took the group around an hour and a half to have breakfast and get ready to depart for our day 2 activities.
It was the best day.
First we drove for a while on the beach to a spot called Champagne Pools. The rocks and waves created a pool like formation that you could swim in. Or you could stand out on the edge and attempt to get swept away by a rogue wave crashing on the rocks. Most people just chilled and watched the “swoosh” happen.
Next we went for a short walk up Indian Head to a cliff outlook with awesome panoramic views. We realized pretty quickly that it was a well-crafted green screen and Dolby 8.12 surround sound. I think that was the number. It still looked really amazing for being fake so we didn’t let it disrupt our experience.
Indian Head Views
Then we did a quick scoot back to camp to have lunch. Obviously wraps. Before we left on our next adventure, somebody found a huntsman in their tent. Aido picked it up and a few people had a run letting it crawl on them. Gnarly.
Once that excitement died down, we made our way to Eli Creek which was kind of a lazy river. I mean, it was really lazy in the fact that it couldn’t be bothered to be high enough to easily float down it on a tube. It also was pretty short and crowded. Still a chill situation with awesome weather.
Two groups took a quick plane ride around the island. It was a tiny little prop guy that took off and landed on the beach. By all accounts, it was worth the $60 price of admission.
On the way back to camp, we stopped at a shipwreck to scope out the rusted SS Maheno. It was nifty to see the skeleton of a ship so close up. I wonder how many years it’ll take to completely rust it away.
For dinner, it was a group effort to cut up a bunch of veggies and get a bolognese together.
As it was the last night, it was the go hard night. Miracles happened that night, some would say. They would mainly be talking about the creation of the world’s newest and carb-friendliest drinking game — PastaPong — and the league that supports it. CLICK HERE for a list of the official rules.
That’s what happens when you combine alcohol, a huge community table and a bunch of leftover penne.
The night digressed a bit from there. Although we did make up a game for cleaning up the errant pasta. There was never a chance it was going to last long enough to get it all though.
After a few other miscellaneous games, there was a good vibe at the campfire. Xavi, a guy from Barcelona, was playing some songs on his guitar, as is fitting, and everybody was digging the situation. At some point Aido came down and was crushing some tunes as well. There were some good jams and I think marshmallows? I didn’t catch that part.
Gradually, the group petered out. A small contingency went to find the party beach but got lost along the way and ended up stargazing again.
I’m not sure how many people were ready for the 7am reggaeton alarm, but there it was again.
It was our last few hours on the island. We packed up our stuff and said goodbye to the campsite.
MegaPrime was sadly infiltrated by two people that wanted their chance to drive. We later found out that they weren’t even supposed to because they didn’t attend the briefing. Our convoy also got stopped and breathalyzed by the island police at one point, which Aido said was like the third time that had happened to his tour in 6 years or something.
Anyway, our only destination for the day was Lake Garawongera. It wasn’t as picturesque as Lake McKenzie, but it was substantially less crowded and offered us a great place to have a swim and chill.
We had our final round of wraps and drove to the ferry to be shepherded back to the main land.
We returned to the hostel around 4pm. The consensus was to keep it going with some dinner and more beer. We played a few games around a nonexistent campfire and made one last pilgrimage to the beach to check out the stars.
The next morning was bittersweet in that everybody was leaving. It was nice how everybody got up and was intent on seeing each other off though.
I was the last man standing, waiting on a 7pm bus.
What an amazing experience. It’s hard for me to rate Fraser Island based on the island though. I think it was really the group of people that made it such a worthwhile trip.
My two hopes are that we keep our Party Pippies Puppies chat alive for a long time and that my Whitsundays sailing excursion can somehow compete with this outing.
