There were three places I wanted to check out but we would
definitely do those on our return. Next
stop was Indian Head. Here again had to
leave the beach because of the sea around the rocks and drive up the sand
dunes. Here parking was at a premium as
the area was quite small and from here there is a walk to Champagne Pools. 
On the way down the board walk we eyed a rock wallaby – the
first we had seen. The view from the
board walk looking back towards Indian Head was beautiful and we doubted it was
ever possible to drive around the point but we were uncertain. Soon after we had parked two or three of the
4wd tour buses had arrived so there was a constant trek of people heading down
the board walk towards the Champagne Pools.
Because there is the possibility of crocodiles in the water around
Fraser Island (I have no idea of how often but there are sign posts warning of
the possibility) Champagne Pools are said to be the only “safe” place on Fraser
Island to be able to swim in the sea. The
pools are natural bubbling rock pools – we didn’t go swimming but others did.
We decided that we would follow the track heading north and
make out way to Orchid Beach for lunch.
This would be the furthest north we would go (the access along the beach
does continue on to Ocean Lake but no further) and from Orchid Beach there is
also a road across to the west side of the island and although there is no
beach driving there is beachside camping and walking access to Sandy Cape
Lighthouse near the top of the island.
Time did not allow us to venture further, and the thought of walking to
the lighthouse didn’t do it either!
We followed the track down on to the beach – it was great to
leave the tour buses behind. In the distance
we could see some people fishing and a couple of vehicles did pass us as they
drive either up or down the beach. From
our lunch spot on the beach we had Waddy Point to our left and Orchid Beach on
our right.
There is quite a settlement at Orchid Beach with holiday
homes, general store etc and is obviously a popular holiday spot. However after a short stop we started heading
back down the track, past the Champagne Pools and Indian Head on to the
beach. You soon realise that it is time
to start on the trip back as the buses have left and there weren’t too many
other cars around. Remember the
recommendation is two hours either side of low tide and we still had nearly 80
kilometres to drive back down the beach.
We didn’t waste any time as we wanted to stop off at two or
three places on our way back down the beach. The first was Red Canyon which could have had
us thinking that we were back in Western Australia. The diversity of this island is amazing. Unfortunately the photos did not do these
cliffs justice – the various colours were just amazing and these cliffs were
beside the beach.
Our next stop was at Dundubara which is one of the National
Park camping areas on the island. Our
first intention had been to stay here one night and then move to Central
Station camping area on the second night of our stay. I was keen to just check out the camping area
as we passed. There is a track leading
up from the beach. Both National Park
camping areas (and certainly the resort where we are staying) have dingo fences
around the boundaries and there is a special cattle grate to cross. These grates have the usual metal bars but in
addition they have electric wires running across the metal bars. Certainly would keep any animal on the
outside! I didn’t take any photos of the
actual camping area (my mistake now) but we were impressed with the large
grassy sites and the facilities on offer.
Well worth booking, especially if rain is not forecast. There were a few campers set up and the
cleaner was there busily cleaning the facilities. We would have been happy to have camped
there.
Next stop was Cathedral Beach. This is a privately run camping ground. There is a general store which was really
well stocked and we asked if we could walk through which the attendant said was
fine. We had met a couple on the barge
crossing over and they were staying in one of the safari tents – this is a tent
that is set up and has a queen-size bed with linen available for hire, chairs
etc. Pretty impressive really. In addition there were camping sites and
cabins. The worse feature was that this
camping ground, being privately owned, did not have dingo fencing and the lady
said that at night it was necessary to walk with a stick to protect from wandering
dingo. I wouldn’t be too happy making
the trek to the toilets in the dark if I had to carry a stick for
protection. However, dingo fencing was
about to be built so this problem will soon be rectified.
Our last stop for the day was at The Pinnacles – again the
diversity of this island is amazing.
These cliffs are just so beautiful and you will have to excuse all the
photos but they are worth seeing and I wasn’t sure which ones to leave out. This area is just so different to everything
else on the island and yet is just up the beach from where the Maheno was
wrecked and close to the two camp sites.
The colours were great.
With time now racing on it was really necessary to finish
the drive down the beach and get off the sand.
It had commenced to rain lightly and the sea water was getting really
high up the beach. There are a number of
4wd vehicles swamped with water every year and we were determined that we were
not going to be one of them.
It was great to see the Eurong signage and pull off the
beach. As it was raining quite
consistently we returned to our room – we were so pleased that we had taken the
option of staying at Eurong rather than tenting. Fortunately the rain had held off most of the
day and we had been able to visit many of the scenic spots along the eastern
side of the island.
No comments:
Post a Comment