We arrived in Hervey Bay after 11 hours on a bus. This was a nice place, but more importantly, where you get to Fraser Island from. Fraser Island is a huge place, some of it reserved, only a part of it is open to the public. It has beaches, forests, and freshwater lakes. What everyone does here is go on a camping trip, where a group get a 4 wheel drive, a map, a few tents, cooking equipment, your own food & beer... and off ye go.

 

The hostel we stayed in organized the 3 day camping, so the first night in Hervey bay, we met a few people & formed our group. We went off & got our supplies for the 3 days & the next morning got the jeep onto the ferry over. Emmet did most of the driving for the few days.

We were lucky in that the group we had was dead sound. There was us 3 Irish lads, 2 Brits, 2 Germans, 1 Canadian & 1 Swede all in the mix.

 

This was great craic, the perfect mix of relaxation, adventure & independence. The section of island open to us was about 45 km of beach by 20 km across, quite a lot. During the day, we'd drive to the highlights of the island. The best of these were the freshwater lakes. The water was crystal clear here & a pleasure to swim in. For the first 20ft, you could see the sand below, then it dropped of at an alarming rate, like a cliff. You can see the sudden change in the photos below. 

 

There was a peninsula stretching out into the ocean called 'Indian Head'. We hiked out here to the furthest point, which stops at a cliff, and spent a while spotting sharks in the water below. The sea here is shark infested, so swimming was obviously a no-no. Didnt get any pictures of the sharks, as they'd just surface for a half second or so.

 

The driving was great craic, it varied from tearing up the beach at high speed, to crawling through the mudtracks thought the forests. We had to get out & push a few times when we got stuck.

When it got dark, we'd head back to the campsite & cook up a barbeque, then light a fire on the beach & have a few bottles. If going anywhere at night, you were supposed to bring someone with you as there's lot of dingos around. They didnt cause any trouble, though.

I'd recommend this camping trip to everyone (assuming you dont mind not sleeping in a bed), I really enjoyed it.

 

After the camping, we left Hervey Bay & got a bus to Byron Bay (9 hours, wasnt too bad).

Byron Bay is class, if you're travelling the East coast, you should stop here. Its probably the busiest of spots, with lots of tourists & pubs & clubs, but it has its beaches & adventure activities too.

 

We stayed in a hostel called 'The Arts Factory', which was a really cool place. Full of hippies, there was all kinds of funky stuff going on here.... drum lessons, didgeriedoo making (dont know how spell that), Tai-Chi, yoga etc. On our second day, there we playing The Doors in the Pool/lounge area. We were surprised it took them so long. There was also a pub, restaurant & cinema here. This was the coolest cinema, all lounge sofas & you could put your feet up. Me & Emmet saw 'Labyrinth' with David Bowie there 1 night. Hadnt seen this in about 17 years, it was class. 

 

Me & Emmet went on a day tour from here. The first stop was the town of Nimbin. F*ck me, what a junkie town. It's basically 1 street, full of hippy shops & people trying to sell you drugs. I've been to Amsterdam, but this town was really f*cked up. If you're into that kinda scene, this might sound good, but I reckon a few days here would just send you on a downward slope. It was funny to walk around for a few hours though.

After that, we went swimming in a creek, had a barbeque & saw some waterfalls. A grand day, but you'd need to be a stoner to appreciate it, me & Emmet found it a bit boring. Made us feel normal though.