Originally Posted by
TPC
Hi All, I thought I would give a little write up on my holiday to Fraser Island.
It will not be up to the standard of some of our more eloquent members on here but I thought I would give it a go, hope someone enjoys reading it.
I will add some photos after.
Fraser Island Trip 28th Sep to 13thOct.
On the trip were- Landcruiser 100 Series, Landcruiser 200Series, Hilux, Suzuki Vitara and my GU Patrol.
Day 1- Onkaparinga Hills SA to Goolgowi NSW, 780 km, stayedat Goolgowi Caravan Park.
Day 2- Goolgowi to Moree NSW, 781 Km, stayed at Moree Caravan Park and enjoyed the artesian spring fed hot pools.
Day 3- Moree to Rainbow Beach, 670 km, stayed at Rainbow Waters Holiday Park. Got eaten by Midges, how can something so small causes so much pain.
Day 4- Moree to Cathedral Beach on Fraser Island and set up camp for the next nine nights at Cathedral Caravan Park.
Day 5- First relaxing day of the trip, went down the beach and had a look at the wreck of the Maheno then spent a few hours at Eli Creek.
Day 6- Attempted to visit Sandy Cape lighthouse, got to Ngkala Rocks Bypass and it was blocked by a bogged Patrol and a F150, after some time and a lot of digging and use of Maxtracks the Patrol was extracted but the F150 remained. Things got worse when a F250 went up to assist and got bogged too. Then 2 know it all young guys in their Patrols went up to help, they probably would have seceded if they used a bit of commonsense but they tried both winching and snatching without first digging out underneath the stuck vehicles. They also ended up getting stuck. After about 3hours of this we decided to give up on going to the lighthouse.
Day 7- Went to Lake McKenzie and was quite disappointed as the lake was to full and had little beach, the water was also discoloured by tannin from the trees, very different from what it was like on our last visit 7 years ago. We then went to Central Station for lunch and a walk along the creek. The Dingos at Central Station were wandering around the carpark and would come up to you without fear. On our way back to camp we got to Eli creekand it was very high but still passable with caution, we put a tarp around the front of the Vitara and got him to travel in the wake of one of the cruisers to keep him dry and the rest of us went through no problems. On the other side I was approached by somebody from another group of cars asking if we had a mechanic in the group, told her we did and she explained they had a Diesel Hilux that would not start after going through. We all went and had a look and he did not have a snorkel and had you did not need to be a mechanic to see he had hydraulicked the engine, the airfilter was drenched and the engine would not turn over at all. We suggested they tow it above the high tide mark and call for a recovery.
Day 8- Tried a bit of beach fishing, probably spent more time drinking than fishing, caught one Pearch, was not sure what they are like to eat so let it go. As I had no fish to cook I decided to do a lamb roast in the camp oven, had to put the camp oven on the stove as there was a total fire ban. The roast turned out perfect and there was about half left that we planned to use for lunches, unfortunately a dingo had other ideas and came in to the annex of our camper, grabbed it of the kitchen and took off. I should have had it away immediately but I was just letting it cool of before putting in the fridge, after that I was more cautious. Another camper had a coolbag full of vegetables stolen; the dingo would have been disappointed when he got that open.
Day 9- Spent the day at Eli Creek swimming and lazing around drinking beer.
Day 10- Drove to the Valley of the Giants via a little used track and had some fun getting around fallen trees and under low branches. The track we had taken did not appear on the tourist map and looked like nobody had been on it for some time but there was nothing to say it was closed.
Day 11- Was going to go to Kingfisher but got to Eli Creek and it was too deep to pass so headed to Waddy Point for a day of swimming and fishing, my daughter caught a whiting and hooked a stingray that broke her line.
Day 12- Drove to Kingfisher and did the walk to the old commando training area and McKenzie Jetty. I did not know about this old training area and apparently in its day (WW2) nobody knew about it. There were some old remnants of jeeps and trucks that are slowly rusting away. When we got back to camp we found out one of our group who had stayed behind had gone for what should have been a 2 hour walk and was 5 hours overdue and he had gone with a small water bottle on a hot day. Naturally we were very concerned, especially as he is 67 years old and had been suffering from a cold, so a couple of us quickly gathered some stuff to take with us (several water bottles, hand held cb, sat phone, first aid kit gps ect) to go looking for him while my wife and another mate went to the tourist park office to call the park ranger, the ranger was not interested and told them to call the police and the police were not answering the phone. After we had been gone for a while with no success we got a call on the cb to say he had been dropped off by some other campers, he was dehydrated and was covered in cuts but was alive, big relief. After he had been cleaned up and rehydrated he explained how he had followed the walking trail to a sand blow and walked over the dune then could not find the track again so decided to try to go through the bush, after 4 or 5 hours of fighting his way through the bush he found the beach and walked to a beach camp site and they had given him a lift back.
Day 13- Unfortunately it was time to leave so packed up campand drove to Goondiwindi, 620 km.
Day 14- Goondiwindi to Bourke, 580 km. Stayed at Kidmans Camp and would recommend it to anybody, grassy large camp sites and excellent facilities.
Day 15- Bourke to Broken Hill, 620 km, we had planned to take a dirt road along the Darling River between Bourke and Wilcannia but my mates Hilux was making horrible noises someware in the front driveline so we decided to stick to the bitumen, he had already decided he was going to get rid of it and get a patrol and this latest problem just reassures his decision. He has owned 2 Patrols before and loved them but changed to a Hilux because he needed a dual cab ute, he no longer needs a ute so can’t wait to get back in a Patrol.
Day 16- Broken Hill to Onkaparinga Hills (Home), 550 km.
Total km for the trip- 5323
Fuel economy: Average-17.5 L/100km, Best- 15.6 L/100km, Worst- 20.4 L/100km
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