TUESDAY 12 MAY     CATHEDRAL BEACH TO TORQUAY

An early start – we have lots to do today before we go back to the mainland. Why, oh why, did we not plan for a longer stay? I guess it was hard to know beforehand how much there was to do here, and we may have been a bit misled by the existence of day tours. Now we are here, we know we could easily have filled in the best part of two weeks –  instead of five days.

Packed everything up and sallied forth onto the eastern beach again, and northwards.

We went past more coloured cliff formations, the Cathedrals, where we walked and took photos. These were somewhat similar to Rainbow Valley, yesterday.

On to Indian Head, which is a rocky headland about two thirds of the way up the island. It is one of only three rocky outcrops on this sand island. We parked Truck on the beach below it and walked up to the top of Indian Head. From there, we saw good views  – to the north was Middle Rocks and Waddy Point; to the south we looked along the stretch of the 75 Mile Beach and across a big sand blow too.

Back down to Truck. John put it in low range and we managed the very soft, partly corded, bypass track off the beach to the back of Indian Head, past three bogged vehicles. Truck battled, but made it. John then had some difficulty with the gears and getting out of low range – there is something called transmission wind up mentioned in the manual but we are not sure what that is. Eventually, there was a loud clunking noise and all seemed ok. It was a bit unnerving, though.

We drove as far north as Middle Rocks and walked to the Champagne Pools – rock pools filled by the sea at high tide, then went on to Waddy Point.

We did not have time to explore further in this part of the island. Turned south again – it was easier going back down the Indian Head bypass! Found a fishing spot by a likely gutter not far from the Pinnacles. We both fished. I kept losing bait and caught two very small dart that were returned from whence they came.

We fished until nearly 2pm, which was as late as we were game to leave it, before our trip back across the island to the barge at Moon Point. This meant we were taking one of the lesser used tracks, the Bullock Track. It was very sandy for the first few kms, and very bendy. We met three oncoming vehicles – tricky! The track improved further inland, but was still slow going. It took us about an hour and a half to cross the island – this was its widest point, too. Parts of the track were through swampy heathland – a bit like the Grampians. John really enjoyed this drive.

The Moon Point end was not signposted – in fact, the whole track was poorly signed. The track just entered the beach, with little warning. We wondered if we were lost. The sand on this beach seemed deep, with few vehicle tracks on it. We asked some people who emerged onto the beach from a little further along  and they confirmed it was the barge landing point. Then, when we looked closely, could see the ridge of sand pushed up by the barge front on the morning run. A little further along from where we’d emerged onto the beach, there was another access point, and that had a sign.

Then, could even see the barge, coming in the far distance.

The sandflies here were ferocious – there are a lot of mangroves around this area. It was amusing to watch the antics of a busload of tourists who arrived after us and danced around applying repellent. At first, they probably wondered why we were – by then – in long trousers and long sleeved tops, which we had changed into quickly, after the first assault.

There were two dolphins playing offshore and a big turtle sticking its head up out of the water, periodically.

The barge came in and ran its driving ramp up the beach – and we loaded. Three cars only and the people from the bus. The bus itself was parked up in the bushes to await tomorrow morning’s arrivals. Again, had to back onto the barge. Then, we just waited, wondering why. Another bus load arrived and loaded. The bus tour companies are in radio contact with the barges.

It was a beautiful trip back, as the sun was setting. It took an hour this time, as Moon Point is further away. We landed at Hervey Bay Marina, so only had to drive 4 kms back to the caravan park.

Van was still there, and all was well. We offloaded only the essentials – it was quite dark by now. Moved what we needed to, for access to the van, back to Truck, then John went off and got fish and chips for our tea.

After a very long and full-on day, an early night was definitely in order. I really appreciated the very comfortable van mattress, after the lilo!

We are so pleased that we waited out the weather, school holiday crowds,  and made the effort to visit Fraser Island. It will take some very special experiences to out-do this one. It is why we are travelling as we are.

Today, we drove 107kms on Fraser Island – very much our greatest day’s travel there.