On Friday morning we were picked up on cue and were greeted by Mick, a genial Englishman who emigrated to Aus about 5 years ago. He married an Aussie and they now have a kid together. Mick was to be our guide, and his first words to us were 'They did tell you it was school holidays...?' Well no they didn't actually. The pertinance of that question was obvious in seconds as we were greeted by 11 adults...and 5 kids. Now 12 y.o. Bridget was really well behaved, as were Harrison, Caleb, and Harmen (not anagrams folks these are there real names) but Abby...oh my God... If you think of the archaetypal 'I'll scweam and scweam and scweam' kid you're not far off. If you throw in a mother who gave into her every demand (and I mean DEMAND), little habits like crying (for an hour and a half) to get attention when in bed, and repeating words and phrases around 10 times each time anyone said anything (at FULL volume)...then there's your girl. She is, without doubt, the spawn of Satan.

However it wasn't all bad, the other kids were really well behaved, and the adults attempted to make polite conversation despite us having little in common. There were other backpackers - Emma and Paul, doing a smililar trip to us. They are both librarians (shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) and despite us having opposite opinions on just about everything (monarchy - I want to keep and think they're OK in the main, they hate, want to dissolve and would prefer a republic; music - they like RADIOHEAD and PJ Harvey ('nuff said)) we seemed to get on OK. There was also Rebecca, from Georgia (USA) who was really level headed and had some great stories about how messed up the US is. For example in her state you can only have sex in one position (missionary presumably - didn't probe her on that one...), can't drink until you're 21 and can be arrested for either offence, but you can own a gun (in fact you have the right to bear arms as per the constitution) and can drive a car at the age of 16. She also told us a fantastic story about her room-mate called Prea who called herself 'Princess' and made all her friends do the same. I could go into more detail but suffice to say it just confirms even more of my opinions of our 'friends' from across the pond. She also had many more serious and worrying stories about the recent war and people and things being branded 'Un-American'. For example The Dixie Chicks having a go at Bush in an interview and subsequently having an amendment passed that banned them in certain States; and the 'French Fries' Vs 'Freedom Fries' name change. I guess you could say eclectic would be a far description of the group...

We arrived on the World's biggest sand island (Fraser Island!) early on Friday morning and our first stop was Lake Allom where we saw some incredibly cute little turtles who swam around for a bit and breathed. No juggling, magic tricks or anything - inconsiderate sods. We then went for a swim in Eli Creek, a fantastic slow running little clearwater creek. Jen fell in incredibly specatcularly but didn't hurt herself, as Vic Reeves might say...'Ooooh I'm in pain Bob, it's me pride, me pride really hurts...' After this we travelled up the island to Knifeblade Sandblow - a kind of huge solid dune that has taken thousands of years to form, it looked a bit like you imagine the Sahara to look... without the sand blowing across it ironically...Next up on day 1 was a trip to the Maheno shipwreck - a luxury liner that ran aground during a cyclone in 1935 whilst being towed to Japan. Much of the structure now lies below the sand but it was still a spectacular sight, you can only wonder at how much more so it would have been some 70 years ago. When it washed up 68 years ago this week it had all it's contents still on board and people came from miles around to buy souvenirs. The Aussie taxmen, not missing a trick, set up a couple of tax officers on board and charged everyone VAT...nice to know nothing changes over 70 years...

Our campsite at the Cathedral Beach resort (so named beacuse of the Cathedral Rocks - formed by weathering of sandstone on the beach -which we viewed last on day 1) was an excellend place to stay - we were all in tents, but ones with beds in, housed in a covered shed. Excellent. We were soon tucking into Mick's fine Thai beef curry and Abby was preparing her lungs for the screaming fits (9.30pm, 2am, 6.30am - all times approximate - I was too bleary eyed to check my bloody watch...) to follow.

The glorious weather of Friday had disapated somewhat by Saturday morning and, thus, the view of the ocean at Indian Head was not as we'd hoped. Usually you get to see sharks, whales, dolphins...we saw a couple of stingrays in the bay. However we did get to see a Brumbie in the afternoon - this is what Yanks would call a Mustang - a wild horse. There are now less that 20 on the island as they culled about 2,000 a few years back as they were basically eating everything. In the afternoon I had a quick go at fishing and kept my proud 28-year record in tact of never having caught anyhting on a fishing trip, although I did 'catch' a big log that tore the hook, weights and some line off. It was too damn cold by the time we reached the Champagne Pools - a set of rocks where the sea bubbles gently over the top giving off the effect of champagne bubbles. We watched from afar as a couple of the hardy Aussies ventured in - our reward was the first 'whale spot' of our trip, albeit from about 1km away...We had a really early night (I was asleep by 8.30) and Abby didn't wake us this time (lucky for her that one trust me...) until about 6ish. So, to our last day (today) where we (in no real order) did about 9kms of walking, though rainforest and to and from Lake Wabby, saw a dingo (that then looked as though he was about to attck a fisherman), and had a great lunch at the 'Happy Valley' restaurant, where we had (not Chinese) but a smorgasboard (Mick's word not mine) dinner. We arrived back at the hostel a couple of hours ago and have had a decent shower for the first time in a couple of days.

Fraser Island is a wonderful place and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We are glad we did it guided and not as part of the hideously cramped 'backpacker' 11-seater landrovers. Yes, our group was not as we expected (it was a bit like going away with your Mum, Dad, irritating cousins, and a couple of socialist workers (only joking Emma and Paul)), but we still had a great time and crammed so much in. The company we went with were 'The Fraser Island Company' (no ambiguity with the name then...) - click here for their website. I'm glad we've booked a recovery day in Hervey Bay (that rhymes) tomorrow before heading South to Noosa on Tuesday.

My hard drive seems to be playing up a bit but I should be able to add some pictures to the site tomorrow.