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Its been six months since I've been 4WDriving so it was time at the recent school holidays for me & our 4 boys to hit the tracks again. We don't often go away in the winter break as much of the high country is closed off as is most of the snowy's closer to us. So it wasn't too hard to work out we needed to go north to a slightly warmer climate for our trip.
Vehicle Specs
Prado 2001 GXL Auto Diesel
Tyres - BFG 265/75R16s MT2's
Mods - Snorkel, air compressor, Engine Temperature Display & alarm
GPS - Mio 300 with IGo & OziCe
Trip plan
Trip Goals
See as much of Fraser as possible in the time allowed, especially the northern end (Sandy Cape & Lighthouse) which I hadn't been to before. After plenty of preparation for the trip organising the layover accomodation, car & camping permits, listing what I wanted to take & then cutting that list down to a quarter so it would all fit, organising what food we would take & what we would buy, Friday had come & it was time to convert the shopping trolley from a eight seater into a 5 seater with camping gear.
Trip Details
Of course rain had started around 2pm that afternoon, so by 6 it was totally set in & the backyard clay near the shed was slowly turning to mud. After several attempts to convice the rear seats to disembark, they eventually agreeded to be put in the shed. Removing those seats can be a real pain if you have very little light & you haven't done it for 6 months. Filling the rear section with the gear is an art in itself & requires quite a number of trips to get right...theres still always something on the bottom that still needs to come out though!
This trip I did a little better. In the front of the car, we had one of those material shopping bags with everthing we needed to take into our cabin or motel room for breakfast. Plates, spoons, UHT milk, coffee mug etc. It worked very well, saving the digging for stuff in the main food & utensils boxes which once on fraser would be out in the tent & easily accessable.
Regardless, in the morning the car was topped up with the pillows & clothes bags for the 5 of us & we headed off. First stop was Temora to fill the fuel tanks. I wanted to do a fuel economy test on the Prado since 4WDrive trips are the only time I usually get to drive it for any length of time.
We had done a few in the past with resonable results - 10.4L/100km on a 400km trip on some secondary roads basically empty & 11.4L/100km from a trip from Wagga to Windsor & return on the freeway sitting on 115km/h. The first trip was on the Cooper ST's that the car came with when we bought it & the Windsor trip we had the BFG MT's before we got the MT2's we have now. From experience on the Windsor trip I had the pressures up to 50psi since I knew that virtually the whole trip was going to be on the freeway.
On our Fraser trip however, I decided to only put 45 in the rear & 40 in the fronts. As it turned out this was a good compromise since the road from Temora to West Wyalong & the 110km/h section of road from Goondawindi thru to Dalby are incredably undulating & rough. It was to the point that it was best to drive with the right hand wheels right down the centre line, thus putting the left pair in between the ruts in the bitumen created by the relentless heavy vehicles.
A month or so before this trip I had purchased an engine temperature display. I have the sensor itself attached to the water top inlet pipe to the engine under the engine diagnostic connector bracket. We had done some driving out of town already but during the colder months it seemed as though 85 degrees was as hot as you could get it, so I set the alarm at 90 degrees for the moment as I could change it if need later on.
Cruising, the temperature early in the morning was only sitting on 70 degrees & because the country is relatively flat, 85 was the maximum that I saw on the way up or back. On Fraser however we saw some higher temperatures during some soft sand driving.
650km a day (with 4 kids & 5:30 sunsets) was about right as it allowed us to stop for lunch & let the kids run around a bit & we would get into town around 3:30 - 4. Still enough daylight to see some of the town anyway. We would book ourselves in & then head out to find some tea from a fast food outlet, fish & chip shop or cafe.
Monday
Monday we had a 80km drive from Gympie to Rainbow Beach, where we went to the Queensland Parks & Forests Service office to pickup the required camping kit & then it was off to the Shell service station for a barge ticket, fill up with fuel & get some ice for the esky. Fuel here was $1.38 & on the island it was around $1.90. Luckily we didn't need to fill on the island even though we did over 600km of travelling there.
Our own 'private' ferry!
The drive up the beach was very interesting. The faster (regulars) all headed off from the ferry at the speed limit (80km/h) or more?. It took me a little longer to work out the best way to transverse the beach, even though it was low tide I didn't have a trailer. After slowly catching a few cars with trailers, I could see that they stayed down low towards the water most of the time. This not only avoided the soft sand, but also the ridges which form that can have very aggressive angles & heights not appropriate to transverse at 80km/h. In addition, the fresh water creeks can create some reasonably deep chasms up to a foot or more deep. Again something you don't want to come across at speed.
After familiarising ourselves with what was available at Eurong, we headed onto Central Station to choose & setup our camp site.
We had camp setup by lunchtime, so we had time to run back down to Eurong, south down the beach & back up passed the southern inland lakes to central.
Tuesday
I had been watching the weather for a week or more before our trip. The best day was going to be today so that is the day we chose to see the lighthouse at Sandy Cape which is the most northern point on Fraser Island. Low tide today was at 9:17am & high was at 4:28pm. It meant that by the time we got to the beach the tide would be incoming for the rest of the day. Something you need to be aware of as the beach is a lot easier to drive on on a dropping tide rather than a rising since with a dropping tide, the sand near the waters edge is mostly still wet & as such very hard & flat & very easy to drive on.
Our first stop was at the Maheno wreck. We took the oportunity to have a look & take some photos as we were the only ones there. I had heard it can be like pitt street sometimes with tourists!
A closeup of the rusted Maheno
From Eurong it took us 2hrs to reach the cape. We had no trouble with the bypasses on the way, some we didn't even need as the water was still low enough to drive around the rocks themselves. Around the cape & westerly the space between the high tide sand bar & the water became considerably less. Initially it was only a few car widths which had me concerned since I knew the tide was rising all the time. As it was it opened up quite quickly after that & we proceeded down the beach to the point where you need to walk up to the lighthouse.
The lighthouse walk is as you would expect a decent climb. 1.2km in length on the road made from wooden posts to aid traction. Initially there is a steep climb & then it flattens out a bit.....then it rises again until you reach the base of the lighthouse itself. The views from up here are well worth the effort however.
The view at the top of the access road.
The lighthouse.
Back near the beach there is another track that can take you to the WWII radar station. The track here is relatively flat and only 600m long. From what is left of the bunker it's difficult to see what this place would have been like when operational. Also I wonder if the trees because of their heights actually hindered the operation of the radar at all.
The RAAF No 25 Radar Bunker - as it is now.
Now it was time to return, the narrow stretch of beach earlier mentioned was now even less so. It was wet now so at times waves had been covering it. We timed our run so that we avoided driving though any water, but still I would guess in another hour or two, you would have to drive through the water to get through. Because of the rising tide, we only made it down to K'Gari camping area in 2hrs of moderately difficult driving. This is where we had water temperatures up to 98 degrees. Interestingly, the Prado's standard gauge hadn't moved a single bit from its normal position so I wonder how much hotter it has to get before it does move. K'Gari is the first inland track that can take you back to central without having to use the beach.
By this time it was 3pm, we only had perhaps 2 or 3 at most hours of daylight left. We ended up travelling down the Northern Road & back to central, just making it back perhaps 20 minutes after dusk, a little exhausted as I had now been driving for 5 hours on some pretty poor beach conditions & also some pretty poor tracks.
The worst thing about the inland tracks are the tree roots that run across the tracks. These roots are not soft like the sand itself is but as hard as rocks. They can also form small cliffs that you either drop off or you need to climb. All in all, best handled in daylight & at a leisurly pace.
Wednesday
Again after breakfast we headed down to Eurong. We picked up our usual order of two loaves of bread and a large capachino to go from the bakery. The bread was excellent, freshly made that morning & it also had a very tough crust which I really like. Even the kids noted the freshness & loved thier penut butter sandwiches we made up for lunch. The capachino at $4.90 was worth every drop!
Today we headed north again to see the things we had driven past yesterday to get to the cape. Today for some reason we came across our first beach Dingo after breifly seeing one on the track the previous night.
Beach Dingo
Our next stop was Eli Creek. The parking bay was very packed, with vehicles all parked at the high tide mark & the tourist buses parked on the softer sand closer to the creek itself. I eased the prado onto the soft sand for a closer look, trying to find a spot where we wouldn't be run over by a bus or truck. In the end we were able to get to the edge of the creek & if there hadn't been so many people, we could have crossed the creek onto the sand bar right at the entrance to Eli.
As it was we had to cross the creek by foot & then walk up to the wooden walkways they have built in the area. The water here is crystal & the plants gave a real sense of the rain forrest.
The view back towards the sea at Eli Creek
Turning south again, we took the Happy Valley turn off & had a bit of a look around here. We then continued on the Lake Garawongera scenic drive stopping for lunch at the lake.
A tree at the edge of the lake.
Continuing on, we returned to the beach & headed north again to have a look at the Rainbow Gorge indicated on the map. Unfortunately there is no signpost to the gorge, but there is an indicated walking track. The other issue was this track was a few hundred meters north of the gorge indicated on the GPS, so I still wasn't sure we where at the right place. On the map it indicates a definate loop in the track so that was what I was looking for too.
There also was no indication of distance and the trees are quite thick here so you couldn't see far ahead to determine if you where getting anywhere either. For all I knew we could be on a walking track to the other side of the island!
Eventually we came to clearing which opened up containing a large area of hard sand & off in the distance you could see some sand blows. The walking track signage (& the multitude of footprints) all indicated to go in a particular direction which we did. After a short while we started to climb again. It seems that all these walks contained greater lengths of uphill treking than downhill or level, but I could be just be 'overly sensitive' about that.
We came across a family with a couple of kids. They indicated we should continue up & we would find a spring with running water & a large sand blow that thier kids had climbed to the top. They suggested we do the same & I replied with 'I think I watch my kids from the bottom!'
So after futher climbing the hill topped out. Just over the rise I could see some trees & a small gully & sign saying 'The Spring'. There was some running water that basically came out of the sand & further down it disappeared again.
From this vantage point around to our right we could see where the other kids had climb the sanddunes. It must have been perhaps 50 meters high at an incredible angle. I told the kids to go & have fun & they did. 3 out of 4 made it too the top & planted 3 sticks to indicate there accomplishments.
'Moonscape'
Meantime, I was walking around looking to take some photos when I noticed what looked like some more footprints in the sand, a quick look thru the camera on high zoom also seemed to indicate footprints. Now these footprints headed back toward the beach, but not the way we had come up. It was then that it dawned on me that this was in fact the loop track depicted on the map. Calling the kids to follow me it was indeed the track. Where it met up with our original track there was a tree down so it wasn't obvious that the track had forked there.
Back in the car we now headed south again. In several places the water was still sitting on the sand & covering large areas of the beach sometimes right up to the high tide mark.
Photo of the car on the 'wet' beach.
Further south we headed inland again onto the Cornwells Brake Road. Following this for 4km brought us to the car park for the Lake Wabby viewing platform. A short wlak from the car park brought us to the platform & the view was magnificent to say the least!
Lake Wabby from the viewing platform.
From the platform you can take the 1.2km (downhill!) path to the lakes edge if you so desired - I had been down there on a previous trip so I didn't desire this on this trip. We continued on the scenic loop back to Central for a well earned rest before tea & bed.
Thursday
After having a look at the map of Fraser we had covered all the spots I wanted to see so today I thought we would rise slowly & then head on down to Eurong for coffee & bread & see what comes along.
I picked up a few Fraser souvenirs from the shop & we then just headed out onto the beach for a leasurly drive with no set goals which I must say was a much more plensant way to experience the beach rather than treating it as a section of a trip that must be completed before the goal is reached.
The weather had turned today, it was overcast with rain squalls so it was nearly ideal for a drive. For lunch we stopped at the airport! A section of beach marked out with signs indicating that aircraft land here. As we watched a tour bus stopped near the plane & six people got out & into the plane. After a very short northerly run, the pilot turned the plane to the south & took off.
Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or29xngpkhA
A little further down the beach we came across some dingoes fishing in the surf. They seemed quite apt at it too. They were catching fish in less than a foot of water after the wave set had come thru.
Dingoes Fishing.
Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3CmikiEQtE
We then had the opportunity to have a look at the coloured sands & also another look at Moheno with a cloudy sky.
The Coloured Sands
The 'Maheno'
Thursday
It had rained all night but had stopped very early morning. Today it was time to packup & with everything wet I wasn't keen on the idea...
We were done by 9am, & you guessed it, down to Eurong for a cofee! Onto the beach & we caught up with a few other cars & trailers heading south for the Barge. Today the tide was perfect for exploring the island, low tide was at 11:45am so the trip to hook point was relativly easy.
Once back on the mainland, we assisted a 120 series Prado owner get his car & caravan out of the soft sand at inskip point & back onto the hard stuff. Two other cars with vans where also stuck but all were out in 15 or so minutes.
I was so impressed with the BFG's & the Prado in the soft sand, the only time I used low range in anger was with the snatch strap on towing the 120.
A short drive up the road we went thru the car wash & returned the tyres to road pressures. Then we headed around to fill up with fuel as I wanted to know what mileage I got whilst on Fraser. The extra fuel capacity of the Prado meant we didn't have to fuel up on the island & we didn't need to carry any extra fuel containers.
Trip Summary
Fuel Consumption (inc 3% correction for oversize tyres)
Temora to Narabri 593km 62.27L 10.5l/100km
Narabri to Rainbow Beach 772km 92.23L 11.9l/100km
Rainbow Beach back to Rainbow Beach 645km 110.83L 17.1l/100km
Rainbow Beach to Dubbo 1030km 120L 11.6l/100km
Total Distance 3000km
Cheers
Vehicle Specs
Prado 2001 GXL Auto Diesel
Tyres - BFG 265/75R16s MT2's
Mods - Snorkel, air compressor, Engine Temperature Display & alarm
GPS - Mio 300 with IGo & OziCe
Trip plan
- Sat - Wagga to Narrabri (680km)[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Sun - Narrabri to Gympie (683km) [/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Mon - Gympie to Central Station (120km)[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Tue,Wed,Thur - Explore Fraser[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Fri - Central Station to Dalby (350km)[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Sat - Dalby to Coonabarabran (556km)[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
- Sun - Coonabarabran to Wagga (540km)[/*:m:2fjq4ed5]
Trip Goals
See as much of Fraser as possible in the time allowed, especially the northern end (Sandy Cape & Lighthouse) which I hadn't been to before. After plenty of preparation for the trip organising the layover accomodation, car & camping permits, listing what I wanted to take & then cutting that list down to a quarter so it would all fit, organising what food we would take & what we would buy, Friday had come & it was time to convert the shopping trolley from a eight seater into a 5 seater with camping gear.
Trip Details
Of course rain had started around 2pm that afternoon, so by 6 it was totally set in & the backyard clay near the shed was slowly turning to mud. After several attempts to convice the rear seats to disembark, they eventually agreeded to be put in the shed. Removing those seats can be a real pain if you have very little light & you haven't done it for 6 months. Filling the rear section with the gear is an art in itself & requires quite a number of trips to get right...theres still always something on the bottom that still needs to come out though!
This trip I did a little better. In the front of the car, we had one of those material shopping bags with everthing we needed to take into our cabin or motel room for breakfast. Plates, spoons, UHT milk, coffee mug etc. It worked very well, saving the digging for stuff in the main food & utensils boxes which once on fraser would be out in the tent & easily accessable.
Regardless, in the morning the car was topped up with the pillows & clothes bags for the 5 of us & we headed off. First stop was Temora to fill the fuel tanks. I wanted to do a fuel economy test on the Prado since 4WDrive trips are the only time I usually get to drive it for any length of time.
We had done a few in the past with resonable results - 10.4L/100km on a 400km trip on some secondary roads basically empty & 11.4L/100km from a trip from Wagga to Windsor & return on the freeway sitting on 115km/h. The first trip was on the Cooper ST's that the car came with when we bought it & the Windsor trip we had the BFG MT's before we got the MT2's we have now. From experience on the Windsor trip I had the pressures up to 50psi since I knew that virtually the whole trip was going to be on the freeway.
On our Fraser trip however, I decided to only put 45 in the rear & 40 in the fronts. As it turned out this was a good compromise since the road from Temora to West Wyalong & the 110km/h section of road from Goondawindi thru to Dalby are incredably undulating & rough. It was to the point that it was best to drive with the right hand wheels right down the centre line, thus putting the left pair in between the ruts in the bitumen created by the relentless heavy vehicles.
A month or so before this trip I had purchased an engine temperature display. I have the sensor itself attached to the water top inlet pipe to the engine under the engine diagnostic connector bracket. We had done some driving out of town already but during the colder months it seemed as though 85 degrees was as hot as you could get it, so I set the alarm at 90 degrees for the moment as I could change it if need later on.
Cruising, the temperature early in the morning was only sitting on 70 degrees & because the country is relatively flat, 85 was the maximum that I saw on the way up or back. On Fraser however we saw some higher temperatures during some soft sand driving.
650km a day (with 4 kids & 5:30 sunsets) was about right as it allowed us to stop for lunch & let the kids run around a bit & we would get into town around 3:30 - 4. Still enough daylight to see some of the town anyway. We would book ourselves in & then head out to find some tea from a fast food outlet, fish & chip shop or cafe.
Monday
Monday we had a 80km drive from Gympie to Rainbow Beach, where we went to the Queensland Parks & Forests Service office to pickup the required camping kit & then it was off to the Shell service station for a barge ticket, fill up with fuel & get some ice for the esky. Fuel here was $1.38 & on the island it was around $1.90. Luckily we didn't need to fill on the island even though we did over 600km of travelling there.
Our own 'private' ferry!
The drive up the beach was very interesting. The faster (regulars) all headed off from the ferry at the speed limit (80km/h) or more?. It took me a little longer to work out the best way to transverse the beach, even though it was low tide I didn't have a trailer. After slowly catching a few cars with trailers, I could see that they stayed down low towards the water most of the time. This not only avoided the soft sand, but also the ridges which form that can have very aggressive angles & heights not appropriate to transverse at 80km/h. In addition, the fresh water creeks can create some reasonably deep chasms up to a foot or more deep. Again something you don't want to come across at speed.
After familiarising ourselves with what was available at Eurong, we headed onto Central Station to choose & setup our camp site.
We had camp setup by lunchtime, so we had time to run back down to Eurong, south down the beach & back up passed the southern inland lakes to central.
Tuesday
I had been watching the weather for a week or more before our trip. The best day was going to be today so that is the day we chose to see the lighthouse at Sandy Cape which is the most northern point on Fraser Island. Low tide today was at 9:17am & high was at 4:28pm. It meant that by the time we got to the beach the tide would be incoming for the rest of the day. Something you need to be aware of as the beach is a lot easier to drive on on a dropping tide rather than a rising since with a dropping tide, the sand near the waters edge is mostly still wet & as such very hard & flat & very easy to drive on.
Our first stop was at the Maheno wreck. We took the oportunity to have a look & take some photos as we were the only ones there. I had heard it can be like pitt street sometimes with tourists!
A closeup of the rusted Maheno
From Eurong it took us 2hrs to reach the cape. We had no trouble with the bypasses on the way, some we didn't even need as the water was still low enough to drive around the rocks themselves. Around the cape & westerly the space between the high tide sand bar & the water became considerably less. Initially it was only a few car widths which had me concerned since I knew the tide was rising all the time. As it was it opened up quite quickly after that & we proceeded down the beach to the point where you need to walk up to the lighthouse.
The lighthouse walk is as you would expect a decent climb. 1.2km in length on the road made from wooden posts to aid traction. Initially there is a steep climb & then it flattens out a bit.....then it rises again until you reach the base of the lighthouse itself. The views from up here are well worth the effort however.
The view at the top of the access road.
The lighthouse.
Back near the beach there is another track that can take you to the WWII radar station. The track here is relatively flat and only 600m long. From what is left of the bunker it's difficult to see what this place would have been like when operational. Also I wonder if the trees because of their heights actually hindered the operation of the radar at all.
The RAAF No 25 Radar Bunker - as it is now.
Now it was time to return, the narrow stretch of beach earlier mentioned was now even less so. It was wet now so at times waves had been covering it. We timed our run so that we avoided driving though any water, but still I would guess in another hour or two, you would have to drive through the water to get through. Because of the rising tide, we only made it down to K'Gari camping area in 2hrs of moderately difficult driving. This is where we had water temperatures up to 98 degrees. Interestingly, the Prado's standard gauge hadn't moved a single bit from its normal position so I wonder how much hotter it has to get before it does move. K'Gari is the first inland track that can take you back to central without having to use the beach.
By this time it was 3pm, we only had perhaps 2 or 3 at most hours of daylight left. We ended up travelling down the Northern Road & back to central, just making it back perhaps 20 minutes after dusk, a little exhausted as I had now been driving for 5 hours on some pretty poor beach conditions & also some pretty poor tracks.
The worst thing about the inland tracks are the tree roots that run across the tracks. These roots are not soft like the sand itself is but as hard as rocks. They can also form small cliffs that you either drop off or you need to climb. All in all, best handled in daylight & at a leisurly pace.
Wednesday
Again after breakfast we headed down to Eurong. We picked up our usual order of two loaves of bread and a large capachino to go from the bakery. The bread was excellent, freshly made that morning & it also had a very tough crust which I really like. Even the kids noted the freshness & loved thier penut butter sandwiches we made up for lunch. The capachino at $4.90 was worth every drop!
Today we headed north again to see the things we had driven past yesterday to get to the cape. Today for some reason we came across our first beach Dingo after breifly seeing one on the track the previous night.
Beach Dingo
Our next stop was Eli Creek. The parking bay was very packed, with vehicles all parked at the high tide mark & the tourist buses parked on the softer sand closer to the creek itself. I eased the prado onto the soft sand for a closer look, trying to find a spot where we wouldn't be run over by a bus or truck. In the end we were able to get to the edge of the creek & if there hadn't been so many people, we could have crossed the creek onto the sand bar right at the entrance to Eli.
As it was we had to cross the creek by foot & then walk up to the wooden walkways they have built in the area. The water here is crystal & the plants gave a real sense of the rain forrest.
The view back towards the sea at Eli Creek
Turning south again, we took the Happy Valley turn off & had a bit of a look around here. We then continued on the Lake Garawongera scenic drive stopping for lunch at the lake.
A tree at the edge of the lake.
Continuing on, we returned to the beach & headed north again to have a look at the Rainbow Gorge indicated on the map. Unfortunately there is no signpost to the gorge, but there is an indicated walking track. The other issue was this track was a few hundred meters north of the gorge indicated on the GPS, so I still wasn't sure we where at the right place. On the map it indicates a definate loop in the track so that was what I was looking for too.
There also was no indication of distance and the trees are quite thick here so you couldn't see far ahead to determine if you where getting anywhere either. For all I knew we could be on a walking track to the other side of the island!
Eventually we came to clearing which opened up containing a large area of hard sand & off in the distance you could see some sand blows. The walking track signage (& the multitude of footprints) all indicated to go in a particular direction which we did. After a short while we started to climb again. It seems that all these walks contained greater lengths of uphill treking than downhill or level, but I could be just be 'overly sensitive' about that.
We came across a family with a couple of kids. They indicated we should continue up & we would find a spring with running water & a large sand blow that thier kids had climbed to the top. They suggested we do the same & I replied with 'I think I watch my kids from the bottom!'
So after futher climbing the hill topped out. Just over the rise I could see some trees & a small gully & sign saying 'The Spring'. There was some running water that basically came out of the sand & further down it disappeared again.
From this vantage point around to our right we could see where the other kids had climb the sanddunes. It must have been perhaps 50 meters high at an incredible angle. I told the kids to go & have fun & they did. 3 out of 4 made it too the top & planted 3 sticks to indicate there accomplishments.
'Moonscape'
Meantime, I was walking around looking to take some photos when I noticed what looked like some more footprints in the sand, a quick look thru the camera on high zoom also seemed to indicate footprints. Now these footprints headed back toward the beach, but not the way we had come up. It was then that it dawned on me that this was in fact the loop track depicted on the map. Calling the kids to follow me it was indeed the track. Where it met up with our original track there was a tree down so it wasn't obvious that the track had forked there.
Back in the car we now headed south again. In several places the water was still sitting on the sand & covering large areas of the beach sometimes right up to the high tide mark.
Photo of the car on the 'wet' beach.
Further south we headed inland again onto the Cornwells Brake Road. Following this for 4km brought us to the car park for the Lake Wabby viewing platform. A short wlak from the car park brought us to the platform & the view was magnificent to say the least!
Lake Wabby from the viewing platform.
From the platform you can take the 1.2km (downhill!) path to the lakes edge if you so desired - I had been down there on a previous trip so I didn't desire this on this trip. We continued on the scenic loop back to Central for a well earned rest before tea & bed.
Thursday
After having a look at the map of Fraser we had covered all the spots I wanted to see so today I thought we would rise slowly & then head on down to Eurong for coffee & bread & see what comes along.
I picked up a few Fraser souvenirs from the shop & we then just headed out onto the beach for a leasurly drive with no set goals which I must say was a much more plensant way to experience the beach rather than treating it as a section of a trip that must be completed before the goal is reached.
The weather had turned today, it was overcast with rain squalls so it was nearly ideal for a drive. For lunch we stopped at the airport! A section of beach marked out with signs indicating that aircraft land here. As we watched a tour bus stopped near the plane & six people got out & into the plane. After a very short northerly run, the pilot turned the plane to the south & took off.
Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or29xngpkhA
A little further down the beach we came across some dingoes fishing in the surf. They seemed quite apt at it too. They were catching fish in less than a foot of water after the wave set had come thru.
Dingoes Fishing.
Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3CmikiEQtE
We then had the opportunity to have a look at the coloured sands & also another look at Moheno with a cloudy sky.
The Coloured Sands
The 'Maheno'
Thursday
It had rained all night but had stopped very early morning. Today it was time to packup & with everything wet I wasn't keen on the idea...
We were done by 9am, & you guessed it, down to Eurong for a cofee! Onto the beach & we caught up with a few other cars & trailers heading south for the Barge. Today the tide was perfect for exploring the island, low tide was at 11:45am so the trip to hook point was relativly easy.
Once back on the mainland, we assisted a 120 series Prado owner get his car & caravan out of the soft sand at inskip point & back onto the hard stuff. Two other cars with vans where also stuck but all were out in 15 or so minutes.
I was so impressed with the BFG's & the Prado in the soft sand, the only time I used low range in anger was with the snatch strap on towing the 120.
A short drive up the road we went thru the car wash & returned the tyres to road pressures. Then we headed around to fill up with fuel as I wanted to know what mileage I got whilst on Fraser. The extra fuel capacity of the Prado meant we didn't have to fuel up on the island & we didn't need to carry any extra fuel containers.
Trip Summary
Fuel Consumption (inc 3% correction for oversize tyres)
Temora to Narabri 593km 62.27L 10.5l/100km
Narabri to Rainbow Beach 772km 92.23L 11.9l/100km
Rainbow Beach back to Rainbow Beach 645km 110.83L 17.1l/100km
Rainbow Beach to Dubbo 1030km 120L 11.6l/100km
Total Distance 3000km
Cheers
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