Greetings Everybody!!!! Well I need to catch up on my adventures..... 1 week ago got back from a super, super trip to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a small, 125km long island with about 500 inhabitants. ............

There are no real paved roads except for the one after the ferry crossing. On this island you MUST know how to drive a 4wd in sugar sand. What makes this island special is its fresh water pools and powder white sand . Its the only island I've ever been on that you're not allowed to go swimming in the ocean because of the abnormally large population of tiger sharks. The tiger sharks are attracted to this island because of the over abundance of sea turtles. There is so much true, almost untouched nature here. Its the only place on earth where there is a tropical rainforest grown out of sand

. What makes me laugh more than anything else is all the signs you see about "Dingos"
For all those who don't know, Dingos are descendants of the wolf family. Before leaving for Fraser, we had to watch a special video on how to drive on the island, and how to be "DINGO SMART". After all this, I was actually excited to see one of these "beasts from hell".
Anyway, I'll get back to the Dingos in a minute. My adventure began when I arrived by bus in a small place called "Harvey Bay". Harvey Bay is just a home-base for people going camping on Fraser island. I spent the night in a place called " Palace Backpackers". This place was hardly a Palace! I spent one night in a room with 2 other guys, without air-conditioning. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that that night is went down to 30 degrees (+/-92 for you Americans) The next day at 6:30am we met for our intro to Fraser Island. We were also paired up in groups of 8 to one Range Rover . They gave us all the camping gear we needed, and instruction on how to dig out Range Rover out when we got stuck. This kind of instruction I didn't need after just being stuck in Florida with Robbie Sifrit's truck on a hunting trip. While with Robbie I received "REAL" instruction by a "REAL" redneck named "BUZZY" on how to get your 4wd out of the mud. His tip: Just don't forget a good jack!!!! Luckily, We didn't get stuck once while on Fraser, thanks to self-proclaimed 4wd expert "Kevin Van Nostrand"
!! So anyway, our truck was loaded with food and we were off to catch the ferry to the island. After the hour ferry ride to the Island, we were off on our adventure. We dove our 4wd almost 90 kms the first day to the top of the island. We stopped a few places along the way before finding our camping spot. We stopped off at this one place called, "The Champaign Pool"
This had to be my second favorite spot on the island. As seen in this picture, you go swimming in the pools, and then the surf comes pounding against the rocks and sends fresh new water into the pools. It was super refreshing to just swim around in there for a half hour or so. We then drove north and picked out a nice campsite on the beach. My group
consisted of myself, one other American from California, 3 girls and one guy from England, a 62 year old mom from the north of england living out here dream of traveling (glad I didn't wait till I was that old to do this trip) and one girl from Australia. It was a nice, organized group. There was just this little 19 year old girl with us who was the biggest "B@#$H". I had ever met. Nothing was good enough for her, or she didn't like the fact that there was bugs out, or it was too hot for her......it was always something. She also "knew it all" that caused a problem, because I like to be the one who knows it all (thats a joke!!) The girl had never even been camping in her life, yet she thought she was qualified to lead our little group. Her leadership was short lived. The first night was a blast. We camped out next to this other group. Their group was way cooler than mine. 3 girls from this group end up becoming my travel buddies for the next two weeks, but you'll hear more those stories in the future......One of the girls celebrated her 26th birthday that night on the beach. We partied out on the beach until 2:30am, my group had long gone to bed so I found myself with the other 2 groups. They party was a blast until the ranger came along. We all thought that we might be in trouble for something, until he got of his truck with a bottle of vodka and some POT for the some of the other people in the group. It was a fun night. The stars here in Australia are totally different than by you guys in the USA or NL.
The next day, we went to my favorite place on the island, Lake Mackenzie
. This lake is knowen for its crystal clear water and powder white sand.
We pack up camp and left at 11:00. We had to wait for 11:00 because of low tide. With high tide, the beach is washed out in some parts. The next two days, were fantastic. I had met a bunch of new friends, and had seen a ton of new animals

, just no dreaded dingos yet. The second night ended about the same as the first. It wasn't till the last day when I ran into my first dingo. When I saw this beast, I was less than impressed. It was a little taller than my dog Smokey, and 10 lbs lighter. It was a pathetic little skinny thing. I know that my friend Steven Lidsky would have tried to pet it. After seeing this thing I wondered why they make such a big deal out of these dogs. I found the truth out from the ranger. He told me that there has been 2 deaths from dingos. One was 25 yrs ago when a 9 month old was carried off, and the other was 5 yrs ago when a 9 yr old was attacked and killed. So remember, if you go to Australia in the future and you see those Dingo signs everywhere, just laugh because there's a higher probability of being attacked by your local pit bull then these "DOGS OF THE DEVIL"................
We finally made it back to the Hostel, and I
decided not to spend another night in that heat. So I caught a night bus for Airlie Beach. This is where I would be getting on a sail boat for 3 days,sailing and diving the Whit Sundays Islands. It was a 15 hour bus trip, but I wasn't worried because my 3 new traveling partners, Melissa (Canada) Jackie (Ireland) and Samantha (Ireland) decided to join me. And before rumors begin to fly, these girls
are just my travel partners, nothing more!!!!! I still miss Diana.........