Today once again we had a super early start, we were picked up by a cool 4WD bus. Behind the wheel was crazy Dan. His father started the first ever tours of Fraser Island and now retired Dan is at the wheel. Dan warned us that he drove like a manic and he was absolutely right. He even encouraged us to bring Sam’s car seat along so he wasn’t catapulted out of his seat. The barge was great he encouraged us to get out and take in the surroundings while we crossed to the other side. We saw a couple of dolphins.
The tide was high so we took a very bumpy ride inland for about 5 km and then hit the beach. It was spectacular. The water looked treacherous definitely no swimming. He said that in the shallow waters are all types of sharks, bull, hammerheads, tiger just to name a few. Much safer on the land with dingo’s I think. We spotted our first dingo which was cool. Dan said that there is only about 65 dingos left on the island which is so sad. He said that since the government band the feeding of them they are starving there’s not enough food. They are also being killed a lot more regularly then we are aware of. Dan hand feed them when his was a kid with his sister. He was a wealth of knowledge and taught us so much about his sandy island. Penni

We stopped at Eurong beach resort for
morning tea we had some muffines orange juice and for mum and dad a coffee.
Then we went in land to lake McKenzie for a swim on the way Dan showed us some different cool rain forest trees and most of them were logged in 1870 so the trees aren’t as big as they were ( but the rainforest is still thick and green).
In 1770 Captain James Cook sailed passed Fraser Island and saw all the sand and called it the Great Sandy Peninsula unaware that it had a huge amount of timber inland that in years to come was all logged.
We arrived at Lake McKenzie and it was beautiful, it was fresh water and if you didn’t want to swim you could drink the water. Like White haven it was 98% silica sand. It was cold at first then warmed up, we all went in. It remind us of white haven beach.
Then we walked along the banks of Wanggoolba Creek which flows through lush tropical rainforest. He pointed out to us funnel web and tube spider holes creepy !! The water was so clear that it looked like white sand and no water. It also made no sound so that’s why the aboriginals called it the Whispering Creek.
Then we went back to the resort for lunch it was a beautiful buffet. Yum yum
Then we went up the beach to the shipwreck Maheno it was once a world war hospital boat. It looked cool. It is now wrecked to pieces.
Then we went to the Pinnacles up 75 mile beach to see the colored sands. There were 76 colors.
On the way back to the barge we went to Eli Creek. We saw a red bellied black snake on the boardwalk it is very small but deadly. Me dad and Sam swam down the creek it was so clear and refreshing to be in.
We saw another 4 dingos on our way back to the barge and one of them was sitting at the edge of the barge. We went through heaps of water and over bumps.
Today was a great day we learnt so much and we loved Lake McKenzie the most. Because the tide was out we drove all the way along the beach back to Rainbow beach.
Holly