(To see more of my Fraser Island photos, click
here.)
I apologize for getting so far behind on this. For whatever reason trying to explain all of the amazing things that happened during our weekend on Fraser Island has just been so daunting that I’ve literally been putting it off for the past month. Absurd, I know. But here goes. The final day of the trip. Hopefully after this I’ll be able to get you all caught up in a more timely fashion.
Day three started out with its own special treat. As we began getting ready in the darkness, our German traveler noticed an outline of a bug on the floor. Only, of course, it couldn’t be any bug, it had to be an enormous cockroach. As soon as she pointed it out and we all began screaming and jumping around, it took off running toward the beds and under our stuff. Needless to say we all got ready quite quickly, grabbed our stuff and headed back for the truck.
We drove out to a small bay where we scarfed down breakfast (the most delicious egg sandwiches and pineapple juice I’d ever tasted) before collecting our little buckets of dead fish to feed the dolphins. After waiting in line with mostly small children under the age of 5, we finally got our turn to walk into the water to hand feed the dolphins. It was the coolest sensation as they just ate the fish right from my hand. When my roommate and I walked back to return our buckets, the lady asked us if we liked it. Seeing as how we were grinning like idiots and babbling on and on about how cool it was, she offered us a second bucket to go and feed them again. She certainly didn’t have to ask us twice. So we grabbed the buckets and headed back to feed them again. It was wonderful.
We then headed into the mountains, stopping to pick up lunch in the small town of Matilda before we made our way to a huge waterfall. We had to put on real shoes for the walk to the falls because of the risk of leaches. As gross at that sounds, the walk was actually beautiful. We were again surrounded by towering green trees and all sorts of beautiful flowers and birds. We ate our lunches overlooking a beautiful tree covered valley alongside a large waterfall and swimming pond. After awhile it started raining (raining in the rainforest, I found it quite ironic) so we hiked back to the truck, checked each other for leaches and then were on our way.
Our final stop on the way home was in another quaint little town where we got snacks and window-shopped before starting the drive back to Brisbane. Everyone was totally wiped out so the drive was quite peaceful as we listened to music and soaked in the sun pouring in through the windows. We dropped the other three girls off in Brisbane and then continued on to Surfer’s Paradise. We had planned on stopping in Surfer’s Paradise to see Russell’s apartment so we’d be able to find it when we returned for the Super Bowl party, but as we were almost back the truck started shuddering and making all types of clunking noises (it was a manual transmission). So since it was clearly struggling and Russ was worried about being able to make it to Broadbeach and back after dropping us off, we instead headed in to Surfer’s Paradise and caught a bus. Ordinarily, this would’ve been a non-issue since the public transportation system is quite convenient. However, after three days of roughing it in the wilderness, we were looking far from presentable. So we hopped the first bus we could find (less we bump into someone we knew while wandering Surfer’s in our unkempt state) and eventually made our way home.
It was then that we were hit with the toughest choice we’d had to make all weekend. What to do first upon our return to civilization: shower or collapse into bed? I was so disgustingly dirty that the thought of climbing into my fresh, tidily-made bed (yep, the cleaning service had come while we were gone!) was too much to bear so I showered before lapsing into the greatest sleep/nap/coma ever.
