no doot aboot it eh!

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DAY 5

Week 1

HERVEY BAY (Queensland, AUS) to PACIFIC PARADISE (Queensland, AUS)
via FRASER ISLAND (Queensland, AUS)

Friday September 17th, 2010

TODAYS MILEAGE – 276 miles or 444 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 1052 miles or 1693 kilometres

The day started out with us being picked up by Fraser Island Explorer at the Hervey Bay Boat Club Marina at 7:30AM and then bussing it over to River Heads for the 45 minute, 10 kilometre ferry ride to Wanggoolba Creek landing on Fraser Island.

The island measures 120 kilometres (75 miles) and is approximately 24 kilometres (15 miles) at its widest. Fraser Island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km². It is also Queensland's largest island, Australia's sixth largest island and the largest island on the East Coast of Australia. The island was recognized as a World Heritage site in 1992.

Explorer James Cook sailed by the island in May of 1770. Matthew Flinders landed near the most northern point of the island in 1802. For a short period the island was known as Great Sandy Island. The island became known as Fraser due to the stories of a shipwreck survivor named Eliza Fraser, which is kind of ironic as a couple of my best mates live on a street named Eliza Fraser Drive, a couple of hours down the coast.

The first stop for the day, after driving across the island and then 35 kilometres north along the beach was the Cathederal Coloured Sands sites. We then back tracked down to the wreck of the Mahino before stopping for a quick dip at the Eli Creek natural springs. This fresh water spring disgorges 3+ million litres of water every hour, which is enough to fill an Olympic size pool every 35 minutes.

Lunch was served at the Eurong Beach Resort (pretty ordinary if you ask me) before we headed to the old logging camp of Central Station. One final stop at Lake Birrabeen and we were on the ferry at 5:30PM, heading back to River Heads on the mainland.

We left Hervey Bay, drove an easy 200 k's to Frankie's place in Pacific Paradise and was tucking into a brilliant bbq dinner by 9PM.