Tuesday 15th March 2016 - Fraser Island

An early start this morning in preparations for our trip to Fraser Island.  We had all stayed the night at friends Peter and Maz at Dundowran Beach and were up early to catch the Kingfisher Bay Ferry from River Heads at 9am.  By all, I mean travelling companions Margaret and Arthur and Jill and I.  Our trip was also to include some French visitors but unfortunately a broken ankle meant a change of plans for them at the last minute.

River Heads is about 20 minutes south of Hervey Bay and is quite a little settlement on its own.  They were doing some roadworks so we had to detour through the village itself.  While waiting to board the ferry we reduced the air pressure in our tyres ready for the sand driving on Fraser.  We took them down to 18psi.

After backing the Prado and camper onto the ferry we all headed upstairs for the 45 minute trip to Kingfisher Bay, the resort on the western side of the island.  Apparently they don't like you to stay downstairs with your vehicles.  Guess it would have been pretty boring.

Kingfisher Bay Ferry

There is no problem with tides and driving on soft beach sand at Kingfisher as you drive off the ferry onto a wharf and then into the island itself.  We did contemplate stopping at the resort for a coffee but thought better of it as we needed to get to camp at least an hour before high tide at 1:25pm.

While the road through the island was quite sandy (of course) it was in pretty good condition and we had no trouble on the run across the island arriving on the eastern beach just south of Poyungan Rocks.  The only issue we had was finding spots to pass oncoming traffic but we had Arthur and Margaret in the lead so we had plenty of warning.

Across the Island and up the beach

Once on the beach, it was an easy run north to Camping Zone 3 (between Poyungan Rocks and Happy Valley).  These days you have to tell National Parks which one of the 9 camping zones you are going to camp in.  We had been told that Zone 3 had some good camps in it and it also meant we were off the beach before high tide.  The bypass around the rocks helped make it an even easier run.

We checked out the campsites almost to Happy Valley but eventually came back to one of the earlier sites we had sussed out.  We set up the camper while Margaret and Arthur put up their tent.  The forecast was for some rain each day so we decided to put up the annex extension to give us a bit more protection.

Camp on Fraser

After setting up it was a restful afternoon watching the passing parade driving up and down the beach.  We had chosen a spot with a low dune so we had a great view out to sea.    Later in the afternoon we went for a walk up the beach so that Arthur (our keen fisherman) could get some inside information on the fishing situation.  Apparently they were not catching much.  There were plenty of bluebottles so just as well we were not going swimming.  You are encouraged not to swim in the ocean on the Fraser Coast.

Dinner tonight was spaghetti bolognese that we had frozen and brought with us.  Shared with a beer and a little wine it was a pleasant evening with only an occasional shower keeping us under cover.