Fraser Island

How good is this place? We couldn’t pick the tide or the weather but the island delivered to us in spades with its beauty and variety.

High tide forced us inland along a necklace of sandy tracks which threaded numerous beads of blue and orange lakes. Lake McKenzie with its corona of powdery white sand and ice blue iris was busy with brown backpackers.

Lake Allom’s orange waters are home to numerous long necked tortoises and on our approach, they glided towards us crocodile like, with their heads barely above the surface while small fish nibbled at our toes.

 

 

A strangler fig had squeezed the life from a forest giant which succumbed to time and returned to the earth leaving the fig to circle a void like a roll of fencing mesh.

 

 

 

The island surprises. Nutrient poor sand grows forest giants and purple water lilies exist in freshwater streams on the beach washed by salty king tides.

The 80 year old Maheno wreck is now a rusty hulk yet some decking timbers remain. Lashed by years of tides, storms and cyclones like the one that left the ship stranded, these remaining teak boards are testimony to their durability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove around Indian Head where backpackers dipped in the deep holes of the Champagne Pools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch with the giants of Pile Valley then onto the barge at Kingfisher Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we’ll be back.