Fraser Island Day 3

Steve and Erin rose early and went fishing before breakfast while Rebecca and I just layed in for a little longer this morning.  There was a nice breeze blowing through the tent so there wasn't a need to evacuate due to the sometimes oven-like conditions which develop.  How such a sheer piece of material can become so hot when the sun hits it is beyond me.  The intrepid fishermen returned about an hour later by which time Becca and I were dressed and I had given Becca some cereal even though we were going to have bacon and eggs.  Thankfully I had not forgotten the eggs because there was a nagging thought in my head that said 'you didn't pack the eggs'.  They were hidden under all the other bits and pieces in the fridge so we had the full menu for our brekky.  We tried cooking toast in the frypan.....not a good result although Steve suggested we should have buttered it before we put in the pan and not afterwards.  Again I made sandwiches because it is just easier to have lunch ready when the hungry munchkins start howling rather than trying to find a spot to pull up and make something.  While we were milling around camp getting organised to leave,  Steve walked over to our portapotty area to see a small brown snake slither away into the brush.  On closer inspection he found a moving skink's tail which meant the owner of said tail was the brown snakes' breakfast.  Amazingly enough, we hadn't seen a single snake in our travels so far and only a couple of lizards.  Hardly surprising with all the sandle-wearers around scaring everything within cooee.  Steve was starting to think the highway along the beach was scaring all the fish away.  Another interesting observation was the total lack of macropods on the island.  I would have thought kangaroos and wallabies to be plentiful especially with the variety of forests but we hadn't seen one of those either.......not even trying to commit hirri-kirri in front of our vehicle on one of the tracks.
We decided to give ourselves a break from packing up and stayed at our flukey camp spot for another day.  It meant we could stay out just that little bit longer and it would be a nice feeling knowing we wouldn't have to set up again that night.  We left and headed back towards Eulong because we were going to visit Lake MacKenzie which is supposed to be most beautiful lake for swimming on the island.  As we were driving down the beach, Steve asked if I had zipped the tent door to the top instead of the bottom.  Yes I had and after quizzing him on the reason for asking, he replied that at least a snake won't get through the zip gap if it is high up.  I was relieved to have done the right thing spontaneously but then realised that Becca had been unzipping the power cord access points on the tent and I just prayed that I had rezipped them all up again.  I'm sure our baking oven of a tent would be wonderful for a snake during the day.
I had read in the brochure we received about FI (Fraser Island) that Lake MacKenzie can get pretty busy during school holidays so it was suggested to get there before 10am and after 4pm.  Well we were going to arrive about 10.30am and so once I told Steve this, he stopped being so accomodating on the track and letting people in front of us.  When we arrived, the carpark wasn't full and we had no trouble finding a park but people were coming in fast.  We soon discovered that Lake MacKenzie is FI's answer to Bondi Beach on a summers day.  It was packed along the beautifully white sandy beach.  There were bikini bods, towels, umbrellas, beach shelters, you name it......it was there.  The entire lake is filled only by rainwater so if its wet, the lake is full and if its dry, the lake's tide goes out.  They must have had rainfall to top it up because some of the fenced revegetation areas were in the water which limited beach space.  The water was crystal clear and a devine temperature.....not to warm and not too cold.  We all had a fantastic swim and looked like prunes when we finally came out of the water about an hour later.  The shallow water only goes so far and then it evidently drops off sharply into black, deep water.  We stayed in the shallows which, by the way, was over my head out further.
We then headed out to Kingfisher Bay Resort for a stickybeak but got sidetracked on the way and visited an old jetty, MacKenzie jetty, where the timber from the mills used to be loaded onto boats for shipping back to the mainland.  Onward again to Kingfisher Bay.  The road in and out of the resort was horrendous.  We had never seen such a deteriorated road and it was a main thoroughfare for the barge which landed people and vehicles on the island.  Every effort had been made to make the track robust by putting huge strips of interlocking rubber and lengths of wooden slatting in the sand to prevent erosion.  Unfortunately because the resort was at the bottom of a sanddune on the coast, it was a long upward and downward trek to get in there.  Once in, it was very 'resorty' and hot because it seemed to have been built in a hollow.  After a quick drive around, we left without being too impressed.  On our way out we were stopped by some activity up in front of us.  A number of 4WDs had stopped and there was tooing and froing going on.  We thought someone was bogged but then all of a sudden everyone was back in their vehicles and off again.   Most probably a wee stop....quite common on 4WD tracks.   A couple of vehicles had to pull up behind us and wait as well.  Soon after we headed off again, Steve looked in the rear view mirror to see the vehicle behind us come to a standstill so we stopped.  It had become bogged in the sand and as Steve watched him get his shovel out and start digging, Steve decided to get involved.  This family was in an unfortunate position where no-one could get past them and digging was gonna take ages and create a traffic jam.  Luckily the guy had a snatch strap, an elastic strap which tows vehicles out of bogs when attached to another vehicle.  We had a snatch strap too but Steve said he would have to pull half the car apart to get to it.  We hooked ourselves to their 4WD and the camper trailer they were towing and pulled them out of the bog and up the track until it became wider and less boggy.  It was the first time all trip that everyone got out of our way as they could see what was going on.  Steve just loves rescuing people.  I have come to name these events 'king-gee moments' after the rugged workwear commercials.  Nearly every trip we have ever been on in the 4WD has involved a 'king-gee moment'.  Unfortunately this family was in a brand new 4WD with a brand new camper trailer with no real idea about what they were about to get themselves into as the whole island was sandy tracks.
From someone elses rescue to possibly our own......well not really but it felt like it at one stage.  We had decided to take a track that would loop around to north of our campsite where we would come out onto the beach and drive south to camp.  We were using the map we were given when I purchased our ferry tickets and it had been useful so far.  However, my previous observations about national parks' great signage went astray on this particular section of track and Steve being Steve, had to follow any track that we came upon to get us to our end destination.  Many of the intersections we came across had place names further afield than we wished to go and based on the map, we made what we thought were reasonable decisions.  The GPS was of some help but wasn't very accurate.  We drove for what seemed like ages and the GPS said we were going in the right general direction but the track was becoming narrower and less used than others on the island.  Then we excitedly came across two other vehicles parked on this track and beyond it was a dead end.  The people had driven out and parked their vehicles to go on a walk.  We had been following a designated walking track, one of many that crisscrossed the island. Great!  All that way and nowhere to go.  We had passed another turnoff some kilometres back and decided to backtrack and try that one.  As we drove along the other track, again narrow and less used, the GPS was telling us that we were again going in the right general direction.  It was getting late in the afternoon and we really had no idea if we were on the right track or not but were hopeful as Steve said the coastline was visible on the GPS.  We came around a corner and negotiated a fallen tree across the track and what did we see............those same 4WD's we had left about 45 minutes earlier.  Major disappointment!!! Ahhh!!!  Ok what now.
We headed back along the track....again!....and went right back to the first main track and continued on.  Steve, again, took us in another direction because the track actually had a road name - Postan road.  We weaved here and there as the afternoon became later and later.  The girls had been so good all afternoon amusing themselves in the back or snoozing but they had barely been out of the car since MacKenzie jetty so were getting fidgety.  Steve and I were making our next move in our heads when all of a sudden, we popped out of the track and onto the beach almost exactly where I had intended all along.  What a relief and normal for us when we go exploring in our 4WD.  There have been many trips away in the past where the sun is almost set or it's dark before we find our way out of somewhere.  Luckily we didn't have to set up camp tonight although cooking dinner in the dark and bathing the girls was going to be a challenge.  When I suggested earlier that we would be able to stay out a little longer, I wasn't expecting it to be quite so long.