This morning was the first morning I needed to be up at 6:00am! I was woken up at 3:30 but managed to get back to sleep. I was at breakfast by 6:40 which I thought was pretty good! Breakfast was orange juice, scrambled egg on toast with brown sauce, melon and a cup of tea. Then I had to be ready for a full day out around the island by 7:35. I managed it well and wasn’t the last to appear. We headed over to the 4 by 4 departure point and by 8am we were on the coach.

Oh my! Well I sat towards the back of the vehicle and I couldn’t see the road. We were thrown all over the place and it took me a while to realise that you had to just relax and go with the flow! A very bumpy ride!

Oh wow! We arrived at Lake Mackenzie (a fresh water lake) and took a short walk down to the lake for a swim – glorious.

This was followed by tea and Danish pastries which were yummy!

 Back on the 4WD again and a visit to Central station where the loggers had had a train station. We had a look at the history of the settlement and looked at some of the extremely tall, straight trees and then took a leisurely stroll down to the creek which was crystal clear and saw a couple of fish and more unusual trees. It was beautiful and quiet down there.

Back on the 4WD and the driver, Kirsty, told us the aboriginal story of how Fraser Island came to be – their name for the Island means paradise!

We had a buffet lunch of chicken, rices do salad at Eurong Resort on the other side of the island. I also managed to shop for batteries and got the camera to work!

Oh, amazing! Back into the 4WD again and we were onto the beach 75 km of flat white sand which was also a highway! Absolutely stunning!

Along the way we came upon a light aircraft on the beach and we were offered a flight across the Island for an extra $80. Of course I said yes! Absolutely amazing! We travelled over land – here is Butterfly Lake

And sea – and saw a shark and a stingray!

We were dropped at The Pinnacles – cliffs of layers of different coloured sands

 We looked at the Maheno Wreck – long story about how that got there!

Oh, bliss! Then it was Eli creek which you can swim in. So off I went.

And then it was time to drive back along the beach until we got to Eurong Resort again and then we had an hour’s bumpy journey back to the Kingfisher Bay Resort. I think we were all very relieved to get off. We then had an hour to recover – I showered and changed after all my swimming.

Bush tucker talk – which was great – had us eating all sorts of berries which were very small and an acquired taste! Then we had the meat – crocodile (very chewy!), kangaroo steak (delicious!) and emu mince with a berry sauce (interesting texture!). A very informative talk!

I shared a bottle of red with Marilyn – a very good arrangement as neither of us wanted to buy by the glass or drink a whole bottle! We had a buffet supper with steak, Kangaroo sausages, baked potato, sweet corn and butternut squash followed by chocolate and vanilla cheesecake and lemon tart. I had a full tummy after that lot!

I returned to my room at about 8 and sorted out my case as much as I could as we were off travelling again in the morning.
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