gilligans isle

heheh.. so we made it, here and back again to Fraser Island. In the van... :) It was a bit of an effort... hehe... Don't think Mateus really expected it to be as 'off road' as it is over there... ;)
I was pretty worried about the van making it over there, handling the roads etc. I remembered it was pretty tracky over there... so wasn't sure about the van handling it. But she did, quite well too... apart from one slight problem, its too low!
This time of the year is pretty bad actually, cause there has been no heavy rain to smooth the roads out, which means that all the roads are really tracklike. Just two rather deep tyre tracks... and that was alright... but it was the middle of the track that was the problem. The sand bank in the middle... Poor Kickin' Super Tripper ended up dragging her underbelly through these sand banks all the way through!
At the start Mateus was pushing the van quite hard, cause he was worried that it wouldn't make it through... and we got to about halfway across the island, just before Lake MacKenzie, before we stopped at a little steep hill down, where we peered down, and thought that if we went down there, we would probably not make it back up. Was so potholed and rough... The van was rather overheated at this stage, so we thought it would be good to just rest before we decided if we should carry on or not. After a while we considered our options, and decided the best thing would be to turn back, we didn't want to have to get stuck there...and then try and get a lift to Lake MacKenzie, camp there for the night and hitch it back on Sunday.. hahaha... but Mateus was worried about the drive back, we had pushed the van hard, and it was rather full of sand that we thought it would be a good idea to have a lifeline there to pull us out. So we called up the tow truck service, and asked him to come and lead us out. We weren't stuck, and we didn't need towing, but it was more of a confidence thing. Having someone there to pull us out if we needed it made it a lot easier for Mateus who was feeling a lot of pressure... But we really shouldn't have worried, the van made it back fine.. and up an even steeper and more potholed road than the one we stopped at! There were a couple of times where we were stunned the van actually made it through there the first time.
Anyway, we made it, back to Kingfisher, parked little van there to rest and recover, and then caught a lift back with the tow truck guy.. we just grabbed the tent and a blanket, our clothes, some food and that was it... so basic camping haha.. now, the way to Lake MacKenzie, was shockingly bad... the road there was so bad at one stage that we wondered if this 4WD would make it through, and then glad we didn't bring the van down there.... heheh
Lake MacKenzie was empty by the time we got there... which was perfect. We set up camp in this hikers camping area they have there, (all fenced off from dingos)... and then went for a swim in the Lake which is just so clear... was gorgeous. (photos will come up on flickr soon).
Was fun camping there.. really minimal, no blankets, no light, not much food.. hehehe.. back to basics! There was another couple that were walking across Fraser that were set up in the camping site, and we borrowed their little gas cooker and made noodles... had biscuits.. hehehe... rations!
The next morning we woke up early, to a rainy day... Went walking along the lake... came back, packed up camp... then we had to decide what to do next. We had our ferry booked for 4pm, and needed to get a lift back to Kingfisher from there... We were contemplating asking the people that were coming to the lake to visit... but I was not looking forward to having to go up and ask people... would have looked so dodgy.
Anyway.. then i had a look at the map i had, and it had some numbers on the back, the tow truck service and lo and behold: Fraser Island has a taxi service! hahaha.. who would think it?! So problem solved... we caught a taxi later that day... went back to the Lake first, the sun came out and we went exploring all the way around the lake, had a bit of rationed food.. and then went back to Kingfisher.
Then we had to worry about the van not starting or having issues with its steering, at one time coming back to Kingfisher, Mateus started feeling something wrong with its steering.. the wheels weren't turning... but she was fine! She's a goer that one... :)
Was definitely an adventurous weekend.. didn't go entirely as planned.. and we ended up spending way more money than we had expected.. tow truck and taxi service etc... plus we think I lost some money over there... a couple of hundred that Mateus had in his wallet was gone... and we believe it fell out of his wallet when i paid the tow truck... :( eep!! So apart from that horrible bit, it was fun. We know now, that we will have to get the van raised if we want to take her back. We will go back if we do.. depends how difficult it will be to raise the van.
You should of seen the amount of sand in the engine.. unbelievable.... and she is rather squeaky now... must get her cleaned up as soon as possible...
So, we will return to Fraser to conquer the wild once more... :)
(The van's tires have Wild Conqureror written on them... hehehe.. and i joked that we would see if she really was a Wild Conqureror on the barge over... hahaha.. not completely defeated, but not entirely conqurered either!)