Tuesday, January 17th. Today we did King Fisher Bay’s “Beauty Spots Tour”. And, no it did not involve going to a spa and getting a facial. Instead, we boarded a four-wheel drive tour bus, driving along old sand roads that used to be used for the forestry industry and along the world’s longest sand highway at 80 Km/hr. We visited some of the most stunning sights on the world’s largest sand island. Our driver/tour guide Craig has been leading tours on the island for over seven years and was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the island.

En route to our first stop, Lake Mackenzie, Craig told us about the history of the island’s wildlife, trees, and roads. The road we took was Mackenzie Road, which had been the route of a railway for loggers to go from the coast to Lake Mackenzie. Once at Lake Mackenzie we had an hour to swim and enjoy the views. The lake was absolutely stunning. The water is crystal clear and the sand is coated in silicon and mineral depleted, making it incredibly white. I guess we did get a spa day after all since we used the sand to exfoliate! Slightly further into the lake the bottom turned almost black. This is due to the coffee rock that forms the relatively impermeable bottom of the lake. Mackenzie is a perched lake, meaning that the lake is able to exist in sand because the mixture of foliage and sand became compressed enough to form coffee rock on its bottom. Rainwater then filled in this area and is the only source of water for the lake. There are over 40 perched lakes on Fraser!

Next we headed to Central Station, which is now one of the main hubs for tourists, information about the history of the island, and hiking. During the drive, Craig told us more about the logging industry that was on the island until 1960’s, and how trees had been cut down from nearly every portion of the island and certain areas had been burned to plant tree plantations. Only some of these plantations were successful in growing trees and can still be found throughout the island. Along our hike at Central Station we walked along a sand creek that is feed by rain water and saw Satany trees, the largest trees on the island and one of which is over 700 years old. We also saw Hoop Trees, strangler figs, an orchid, and other foliage. Amongst the animals that we saw were an eel, a carpet python, and a goanna. The hike was gorgeous and over way too quickly for me!

Next, we stopped at the Maheno ship that beached on the sand during a large storm in 1935 while being towed to Japan for scrap metal. The ship was originally registered in New Zealand and used during the First World War to carry over 16,000 wounded men to England, including 1,141 men during its first crossing. The sight was amazing – and popular, as we shared a visit with almost 50 others tourists on the beach. We made it a quick stop, bit still had plenty of time to take in the sheer size of the wreckage. Our next stop was The Pinnacles, where many colors of sands can be found. Aboriginal girls went there to dig holes and make a dye for their faces as a coming of age ritual. We also learned the aboriginal story of how these sands became so colorful. The story included a girl that was captured by a man and fell in love with a rainbow and the rainbow with her, in the end the man tried to kill the girl with a boomerang as she ran away, but the rainbow came down and shielded the girl. The boomerang shattered a part of the rainbow coloring the sands, but the rainbow survived and it and the girl lived happily ever after together.

Our last major stop was at Eli Creek, a beautiful rain fed creek that runs into the ocean. Many people floated down the creek. Upstream from the final bridge the water is safe to drink from, and of course several of us more curious people gave it a try. It tasted delicious! Although it was not the most beautiful of beauty spots, it was a wonderful way to cool off after a long day of adventuring. As a quick side detour on our way back to the resort we stopped at a sand blow. This is where areas of looser sand continuously change the landscape by overtaking trees and foliage, creating large barren spaces. These can also create barrage lakes, which are formed when streams are blocked off by sand and form a large pool or lake.

Once back to our lodges, most of us went down to the jetty to take in the sunset. We got some phenomenal photos. Afterwards, six of us ran down to catch the ranger’s night walk, one of the coolest things that I experienced on the island! We were able to see a golden ob spider in the trees, and a couple of highly venomous funnel web spiders. We also learned how every animal, including spiders have an eyeshine and how to see that eyeshine. The ranger could spot a small spider from over 30 feet away! We also encountered cane toads, microbats, flying foxes, and several dingoes on the beach. Lastly, in the water along the jetty we were able to see several flat head fish and squid, we even saw a squid and a stingray get into a skirmish ending with the squid zooming away. The things we experienced and saw during our one full day at Fraser Island could not have gotten much better!

– Jaimie