Fraser Island: 1, Stephanie: 0

Sooooooo wow.
Hervey Bay was alright! We took at 28jkm bike ride along the seashore the second day we were there which was pretty awesome. We saw all these little soldier crabs. Like, hundreds of them and they move in formation which is pretty cool! But on to the cool part:

We decided to go on a three day, two night stay on the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island. It's a world heritage site and the only way to access it is using a 4 Wheel Drive becaus ethere are only dirt tracks on the island. REALLY BUMPY dirt tracks. So we assembled a group of 5 people that we met at the hostel to go over with on a self-drive tour. It was myself, Sarah, a lovely German couple, Angelika and Fabian, and a German guy, Marcel. So we took a ferry over to the island. The weather wasn't looking too good but we didn't get our spirits down....YET. The island is really nice, it's got a number of different kinds of forest ranging from tropical rainforest (think Amazon), to subtropical forest (Eucalypts and stuff?) and GORGEOUS lakes with white sand beaches and crystal clear water. There is so much I could say about the Island!! We drove around the first day and passed Moheno Shipwreck, a huge, rusted out shipwrecck on the beach. It was really eerie to be there and wonder what must have happened to it. We saw heaps of wild dingoes, which the island is famous for, and we were constantly warned by signs and brochures that they can be dangerous and we should NEVER approach or feed them. But it was really cool to see some new wildlife.
The first night was rather interesting. We were camping but it was SO SO windy and rainy. Wind and rain like i've never ever seen. I decided to sleep in the 4WD because I didn't like thel ook of the weather, and the tents that were provided to us were canvas (thus, not at all waterproof). In the middle of the night, the German couple come into the 4WD and tell me that their tent has blown away. I'm like WTF! ANd I look, and their tent is pretty much gonezo. So they slept in the truck with me. THREE of us sleeping inthe car lol.
The second day, the weather was worse. It didn't stop raining for a second. Camp that night was better since we camped illegally in a more sheltered area. I slept in the car again though because we were now down a tent lol.
The third day was alright! THe highlight of that day was seeing a HUGE, gorgeous sea turtle on the beach, making her way down to the ocean. She must have weight 150lbs and been 100 years old. She was so beautiful. Turtles are my new favourite animal.
When we got back to Hervey Bay, we were informed by the 4WD guy that that was the worst rain that the area had seen in 8 years, and the the winds were 90km/hr. And we were camping on the fucking BEACH PEOPLE! WTF!?
Needless to say, EVERYTHING I owned was drenched and smelly from being wet for 3 days.
Also, a huge pitfall of Fraser Island were the bugs. The minute you stepped out of the vehicle, you were legitimately AMBUSHED by sandflies and viscious mosquitos. It really made it a lot less enjoyable. I am so uncomfortable right now. I counted, and I got 98 mosquito bites on my arms, legs, ankles and feet in 3 days. How outrageous is that?! I even went to the chemist today to find out wtf I can do about the itch.
Anyways I"m out of time.

I hope you enjoyed living Fraser Island vicariously. At the time, I really wans't having all that much fun on account of the weather and bugs, but in retrospect, it was such an adventure and we lived through something that most Australians havn't even lived through which is cool. But I really do wish I could have seen Fraser in all it's sunny, blue-skied glory.

The End.

Love!