Fraser Island trip, short but sweet

Since ANZAC Day was a mid week holiday and we had to work the rest of the week.  We decided that we would nip up to Fraser Island at the butt crack of dawn on the Saturday morning from Ipswich, got up to Rainbow Beach at 8am and had a casual breakfast at a lovely cafe.  Stunning morning, so we were on one of the first ferries of the day and timed it well for mid tide so we could drive along the beach.

We stopped about half way up and went for a wander through the bush/sand dunes on a 3hr-ish walk.  Just past the toilets, onto the track I had my head down scanning for snakes and the likes, look up and on the edge of the bank about 10m in front of me is a Dingo.  I jump out of my skin, yelling "eeeaaaahhhhggg" and gave the Dingo a  good scare (unintentionally, of course!)

Up the beach there is the SS Maheno shipwreck.  Built in 1905, she started her life as a pretty flash passenger liner and was operational as a hospital ship during World War 1.  It was quite fitting to see the beautiful shipwreck that held fellow ANZAC soldiers merely two days after ANZAC Day. In 1935, while under tow heading to Japan for scrapping, there was a cyclone and the Maheno beached in the site that it lies today.  No-one wanted to deal with it so they cut their losses and left it to nature.

Aeroplanes casually on the beach.

There really are some muppets out there.  This dude towed a frigging heavy boat through soft sand and bent his chassis.

Champagne pools at the North Eastern part of Fraser.  Very warm sea pools, disappointingly  there wasn't any sea creatures for us to examine.

Has anyone noticed the common theme in our camping pictures...?? I am always the one setting up while Eaky remains elusive and "takes pictures". Classic.

Before we left Fraser, we headed to Lake Mackenzie, which was a pretty intense sand dune track into the middle of the island that has a fresh water lake.  It was only a 40km track but it took a while to get there due the intense roads.

Trying to escape the rising tide

Eak's expert driving over the rocks in which we could not get around due to a higher than usual tide.  We spent about two hours waiting for it to come down but it was a great to have a chat with some other travellers.

The barge that moves the vehicles the short distance from Fraser to the mainland, about 20minutes driving pretty slowly.

After a lovely weekend camping and enjoying the being near the sea.  We headed back home.  We spent the next few weeks preparing for our impending travels, buying sleeping bags and packs... getting excited!!!!

Next posts will be about Africa baby.  Wooooh! 

Exploring Expedition National Park

For our long weekend during Easter, we decided to head out on a mission for a weekend of camping.  We headed to Expedition National Park, it is 2hrs North from Chinchilla and 2hrs West from Taroom on a 90km 4WD track.

DAY ONE

We were a bit late getting our shit together, nothing unusual there, so we did not think we could make it to the campsite we were initially wanting to get to before dark, so we set up at Lake Murphy for the night.

Lake Murphy in all its' marshy glory

Enough stuff? Seriously there was no room at all for anything else.  I did say to Michael, "How do parents do this? New found respect for our olds!"



The wagon loaded up.




Cool looking insect



The hunter gather with his new camp oven, making beef strog - so civilised!



Cooking dinner, and making a fire.



Washing the dinner dishes and packing up for the night (NB: it was a bit after 7pm and mosquito central!!)

DAY TWO

After a lovely night sleeping in the tent, a bit hot if anything to complain about, but just lovely.  We had a nice breakfast, packed up out gears, syringed Eak's ear again because his ear generates enough earwax for ten people and causes him hearing loss and pain.  We headed off for the remaining 90kms in towards the National Park, we were wanting to camp at Robinson Gorge.

We ran into a farmer that owns the 80,000 acres backing onto the Gorge, these are his cattle that he only sees twice a year.  Crazy!

Run with the wild horses?

Cattle Dip pool - she is a long way down you need ropes to get there for a swim, from up here.

Cooking sausages, and the date loaf.

DAY THREE

We met with some of the other campers, they all seemed to be packing up so we were concerned that the had heard of bad weather so were leaving, the 4wd track in becomes impassable with heavy rains so if it did rain we could have become stranded!  While it was early and not hot, we went for a walk down to Robinson Gorge (about 2hr round trip) .

Robinson Gorge.



 

Bag-shelter Moth, Processionary Catterpillars (Ochrogaster lunifer)

Snake skin........ but no snake

The floor of Robinson Gorge. 

END DAY THREE

The weather forecast was average with rain and thunderstorms, the problem was that the access track becomes impassable once wet and if we stayed the night we could have been stuck for 24 hours or more. We had a lovely dinner, all tucked up in bed reading our books and I was yabbering away to Eak, he then says to me "shhhhhuuuussshhhh"

Shahn - "what is it? what's wrong?"

Eak - "Do you hear that?"

Shahn - listening intently for a bit "Nup"

*HOWLING*

Shahn - quiet tones "what is that?"

Eak - "sounds like a pack of Dingoes"

*continued HOWLING, more replies from other dingoes now*

I look at Eak, he looks at me.  I feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest.

Eak - "what do you want to do?"

Shahn - "holy shit, lets get out of here! I won't be able to sleep anyway, we can get back to Chinchilla by midnight.  Keen?"

Lets just say we packed up the whole campsite in less than 15 minutes and we were OUT OF THERE!! I know that dingoes seem limited to being interested in children but New Zealand doesn't have anything (except people) that can kill you, I sure as hell wasn't going to take any chances.  We were also the only ones camping there that night and about an hour away from the nearest house and two hours away from the main highway.

As it was, we saw this little bugger on the road. One of the culprits!



Long story short, cool weekend!

xxxx Shahn & Eak

Sailing at Moreton Bay

We went sailing up at Moreton Bay, off Scarborough Yacht Club.  Michael has been out sailing with these guys a couple of times.  John (JVP) has a sweet Catalina? 34 not sure what year, heaps of fun, bit slow will not point that high but perfect to have a few beers. 

Our first GoPro video!

The other competitors of the day behind us.

The owner of the boat on the left (JVP) and the crew having a few casual beers along one of the legs.

Eak got a GoPro for his birthday from his fantastic girlfriend, so I strapped it to my chest and attempted to capture some of the sailing of the day.  It is quite tricky to see what you are doing but it was its' first test run!

Checking the tell tails to get her moving.

Looking back through the fleet, with Morton Island in the distance