2/23/02 Hervey Bay (Fraser Island), OZ (Kelly)
Today started off a little rough. I slept like absolute shit last night...it was soooo hot and the air in the camper van was extremely stagnet. I even had to change pillows in the middle of the night because it was soaked with sweat. I had my watch alarm set for 7:00am but wound up getting up ten minutes till. Everything was fine until our transport to the island showed up a couple minutes early. I fely so rushed that I forgot my camera (dumbass!) The lady who owns the camper van park even yelled at us. I think every one just needed to chill out. Regardless, I forgot my camera so we weren't able to take any pictures...I was quite bummed.
After a 30 minute ferry ride we arrived to the sandy island which was, to my surprise, covered by rainforest. Some how over thousands of years the plants have been able to adapt to growing in tsand and not soil. Because sand is not nitrogen producing, which is essential for plant growth, the plants obtain it through mass amounts of electrical storms and nitrogen producing plants. Fraser Island asts as a weather barrier to the main island (Ausi) however, it does get more electrical storms than normal. The plants also need minerals/nutrients from soil that is not provided by sand...problem solved! A certain kind of fungus grows underneath the sand that provides all of the nutrients needed...wahla--we have a rainforest. After driving through the forest we headed down the beach. We came upon a very historical poijnt called the "Colored Sands." This is what the Aboriginal people named it. Basically it is a mountain formation of compacted sand which over thousand of years has hardened. Now it consists of clay particles. They looked like a striped candy cane alternationg a light and dark beige...very cool looking.
Before lunch we went and saw a ship wreck that was washed up on the beach. Maheno, the boat's name, wrecked in 1935. It was used in WW1 as an actual vessel and then as a bombing target and a comando in WWII. Of course, the ship had already wrecked and washed up duning WWII. Only the top deck could be seen; the rest was completely covered by sand. It was rusty and completely falling apart but the skelton of the ship was still a cool site. Once this was finished we ate lunch and just toured around in the forest before we headed back. Phill and I decided to stay another night in Hervey Bay because we are both way too tired to drive...EXHAUSTION is a better word!!
Posted by Admin at February 27, 2002 12:12 AM