Playing in the Sand – Fraser Island Part 2

Part of The Chathedrals

Part of The Cathedrals

The sun rose over the dunes, but was sharing the sky with cloud patches. We found ourselves at the end of the family group queue when we wanted to wash the breakfast dishes. Two of the men were on duty for dish washing. It took them forever. But finally our dishes were done so we had another cup of coffee and then went exploring.

Part of The Chathedrals

Part of The Cathedrals

Cathedrals on Fraser, where we were staying, is named for the coloured sand formations, known as “The Cathedrals”, because of their shape. They are formed from highly coloured, solid sand material and have weathered into their shape over eons. We made several stops for photos and for a short walk where a pathway has been provided at the area known as Red Canyon.  There are many really remarkable formations in this area.

Part of The Chathedrals

Part of The Cathedrals

The path at Red Canyon leads to the foot of solid sand cliffs that reach tens of metres up the side of the sand dunes. A viewing platform and information board is supplied.

 

 

Part of The Chathedrals

Part of The Cathedrals

The Challenger at The Cathedrals

The Challenger at The Cathedrals

More of The Cathedrals

More of The Cathedrals

Indian Head

Indian Head

Our objective was Indian Head, the rocky promontory that is the northern end of the Seventy Five Mile Beach. It was named by Captain James Cook during his passage along the Australian coast in 1772. As he sailed past, he could see a number of Aborigines standing on top of the headland watching him watching them. Our arrival today was similar. The vehicles of a tag-along group were parked at the bottom of the access path and almost all of the occupants were standing along the summit. Indian Head looked like it had had a buzz cut.

Soft sand approaches to Indian Head bypass

Soft sand approaches to Indian Head bypass

There is a great deal to see beyond Indian Head, including Waddy Point, The Champagne Pools and Orchid Beach Resort, not to mention Sandy Cape and the lighthouse. But the beach stops at the headland and starts again on the other side. To get to the other side it is necessary to negotiate a bypass track that is well known for its covering of soft. loose sand. We watched as the tag-along group and several other vehicles made multiple attempts to get

The northern end of Seventy Five Mile Beach

The northern end of Seventy Five Mile Beach

through the loose sand. All of them finally disappeared around the first turn and presumably got through, but not without considerable effort and further reduced tyre pressures. We decided that being on our own this was not our day to push on. We returned the 26 km to camp for lunch.

The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles

 

After lunch we travelled back south to Eli Creek, passing the wreck of SS Maheno, with its mob of admirers, on the way. We also stopped to have a proper look at The Pinnacles. They are a similar formation to The Cathedrals but have a quite unique formation.

 

Aircraft parked near The Pinnacles

Aircraft parked near The Pinnacles

Eli Creek boardwalk

Eli Creek boardwalk

The top activity at Eli Creek is to walk along a board walk that parallels the creek for several hundred metres and then to enter the creek and wade, float or swim back to the beach. This must be fun because people, including some mature folks, repeat the performance over and over, despite quite low water temperatures. I remember swimming down the creek with the flow many years ago, but we gave it a miss this time.

Eli Creek is the largest fresh water stream on the east side of Fraser but seems to be now much smaller, with a reduced volume of water, that it was in years gone by. But the flow is reliable and much enjoyed by its admirers. Visiting family groups will often spend the day there,in the shelter of gazebos or roof rack awnings. Children love it as do parents. It provides an ever changing supply of safe clean water. But it often closes the beach to through traffic at high tide as the rising surf washes into the creek’s mouth.

RVs beside Eli Creek

RVs beside Eli Creek

Any further thought of examination of Eli Creek was quickly dismissed when the day’s promised shower descended on us without warning, so instead of going on to Happy Valley we returned to base.

The large group mentioned earlier in the story went to Lake McKenzie for the day and were having dinner at Happy Valley on the way back, before returning to camp after the 7.00 pm high tide. They came in quietly a little after 9.30 pm. But preparing the evening meal was a breeze without them there.

I guess they are typical of groups who visit Fraser Island. The four ladies all teach as the same Sunshine Coast school and their children attend there too. One couple are seasoned visitors to the Island and seemed to ast as leaders on group outings. All friendly people with well disciplined children who made lots of noise while playing but went quietly to bed. They were probably exhausted.

Five Days Playing in the Sand – Fraser Island 2 [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLvmTYgg_8[/youtube]

Playing in the Sand – Fraser Island Part 1

It was an adventure just getting there!

Our track along Fraser Island. Note the tracking line along the coast

Our track along Fraser Island. Note the tracking line along the coast

We woke before the alarm’s set time. Five am! Too early, but when the timetable depends on tides then it is smart to know who is boss. And it wasn’t us. “Time and tide wait for no man”, Geoffrey Chaucer once wrote.

But the early start allowed us to drive out of our gate by about 6.30 am. After a stop for fuel and a call at the ATM we were on the sparsely populated north bound lanes of the Bruce Highway, a little before 7.00 am. The south bound lanes were another story, but someone else’s story.

The vehicular ferry to the south end of Fraser leaves from Inskip Point, about 10 km north of Rainbow Beach. That’s about 225 km north of home. We arrived at Rainbow Beach at about 9.30 am, treated ourselves to coffee, topped up the fuel, bought a ferry ticket, went through the car wash booth for a protective spray to be applied under the car and headed for the ferry departure point for that all important deflation of tyres for sand driving.

The only just fitted us on

The only just fitted us on

I had a great plan to video the ferry before we boarded, but as we approached it appeared to be fully load. But as we were about to stop the attendant waved us forward into the last remaining space.  No sooner were we on board than the ramp was up behind us and the ferry was under way. The crossing only takes about 10 minutes ($6.00 per minute), and we were deposited onto the island. We paused to take the missed photos and by the time we were under way again all of our fellow passengers were out of sight.

Resting migratory birds near the edge of the ocean

Resting migratory birds near the edge of the ocean

If you are last off the ferry there is no one coming up behind you for a while so, all alone, we set off on the 80 kilometre drive along the beach. The beach first runs easy west but soon turns in a of north of north east direction. The beach is a series of small sandy bays but the dunes to your leafy stretch straight ahead as far as you can see. We did meet the occasional vehicle heading back towards the ferry.

There was a fair amount of cloud around, with the sun shining through most of the time and the sea that steely blue that often comes with those conditions. The sand was quite firm most of the time, except for when we were directed further up the beach at the places reserved for small passenger aircraft operation. The aircraft get the smooth flat parts and the motor

A fellow beach driver crossing a small fresh water stream

A fellow beach driver crossing a small fresh water stream

vehicle traffic is directed into the loose sand. But it was not too bad. Just a bit of slalom style driving for a few hundred metres as the tracks in the sand try to determine your direction.

Apart from aircraft and soft sand, the greatest hazard on Fraser is the frequent water courses that run across the beach into the sea. Rainfall is temporarily retained in the sand of the dunes but much of it makes its way to the edge of the beach and then through eroded sand banks to the sea. The sand embankments are most prominent and easy to see near the base of the dunes. From there they decline, depending on the height of the tides. So keeping one’s eyes open is mandatory.  Crossing where the banks are too high can be quite disastrous.

The bones of SS Maheno lie broken in the sand

The bones of SS Maheno lie broken in the sand

But there are other traps. I was driving with my window open, savoring the fresh sea air. We crossed at the seaward end of a stream. It was a bit deeper than I thought and I drove through just a tad too quickly.  The spray from the front wheel was caught by a rather brisk south easterly which blew it through the window all over me. Some of the spray even found its way onto Ruth. You may wonder if the water remains fresh right to the edge of the ocean.  It does.

Part of The Pinnacles just south of Cathedrals on Fraser

Part of The Pinnacles just south of Cathedrals on Fraser. One of the charms of this drive is the coloured sands

As we came north, we passed in order, Dilli Village, once the base of Dillingham Mining during sand mining days, now an education facility operated by the University of Southern Queensland;  Eurong, the largest settlement on the island, with its resort and residential areas; Happy Valley, probably the second largest community on the island, with a general store, bistro and residential area; Eli Creek, the largest of all the beach streams; the remains of the SS Maheno passenger liner, resident on Fraser since the mid 1930s; and finally, Cathedrals on Fraser, our home for the next four nights.

The shop and reception at Cathedrals

The shop and reception at Cathedrals

We are accommodated in a permanent tent that boasts a double bed, a towel rack and two plastic chairs as the total compliment of its furnishings. Our possessions are in bags arranged along the walls. We prepare and eat our meals in a camp kitchen that has plenty of refrigeration and freezer capacity but this is supplemented by the Waeco 12 volt fridge in the back if the car.

Our home for four nights

Our home for four nights

In our immediate area, besides us, there are four family tents which between them contain eight adults and about 10 kids, most of who are between the ages of four and ten. So until their bed time there is not much peace and quiet. Their biggest impact however, is in the camp kitchen at meal preparation time. It is hard to get a look in when half a dozen adults are preparing food for a group of almost twenty. Washing up is a similar story.

Our small canvas community

Our small canvas community

I had forgotten that, in warm weather, when sleeping in a tent, a balance has to be struck between privacy and comfort. The only method of cooling is the breeze. Fortunately, on this coast, the sea breezes are reliable, so we spent the night largely on display through the insect screens, but no one was watching. We were awoken next morning by the early light. The aspect of the camp  and our tent, was towards the east.