The Education Department generously treated the Canadian Graduate Diploma in Education students to a trip to Fraser Island on the weekend. There are 79 Canadian students in my program, and I think 35 of us took advantage of this opportunity, along with 5 of the Education Department staff. We were picked up at the University at 5:45am and took the four-wheel-drive Fraser Island Adventure Tour buses all the way to Rainbow Beach, where we ferried across to the island (and saw a dolphin swimming not too far away!). The approximately two and a half hour drive went by very quickly.
Fraser is the largest sand island in the world, and is fairly uninterrupted by civilization. There is a small resort, and some stores for basic supplies but they are clustered together and take up a small portion of the island. There are no paved roads and the beach itself is a marked freeway (80km/h) and there are paths throughout the bush just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. We took a short (but very bumpy) trip deeper into the island, where a tour guide who looked like Rod Stewart took us on a hike through the rain forest (there is a sub-tropical rain forest on the island). It was a great walk, though not always an easy one, and we saw some amazing trees and vegetation, but no animals.
One of the many ginormous trees in the rain forest.
After about 45 minutes we met up with the buses again and they took us to one of the many fresh water lakes on the Island: Lake Mackenzie. It’s one of those very picturesque places with the clearest water I’ve ever seen and 98% pure silica sand. It was rainy and grey, but beautiful nonetheless. We all went swimming, and a friend's underwater camera made for a fun hour before we had to get back for lunch.
The tour company spoiled us with steaks, fish, chicken, and tons of fresh salads, fruit and vegetables. Another bumpy ride through the bush and we were at Dilli Village: our home for the night. My University actually owns Dilli Village and uses it as an “Environmental Education Facility” but it basically looks like a summer camp: a bunch of cabins with just enough room for two single beds and a giant mess hall for group activities. The rest of the day was dedicated to introducing us (as International students) to Australian culture and schools. We played some games, did some activities, and got to know each other better as well. Another great meal, some cultural trivia (both Australian and Canadian) and it was off to bed around midnight.
Sunday after an early breakfast, we were lucky enough to have decent weather (still cloudy, but not raining) so we went down to the beach for some beach safety lessons and a game of cricket. We had to swim across a creek to get there, which was interesting. We learned about different waves, rips, tides, and how to handle them (things all Australians are ingrained with from birth), as well as checking out some of the critters. We dug for pippies (clams, essentially) and then had a race to see whose pippies would burrow back into the sand the fastest. Some people ate their pippies (not totally uncommon here), which they said tasted kind of like raw asparagus. We also saw crabs and tons of blue bottle jellyfish. I don’t have pictures of these because I didn’t want to risk swimming the creek with my camera. After the nature lesson we played cricket. It was funny to see everyone trying to understand it in baseball terms, but it’s really very different. We eventually got the hang of it though, and had quite an exciting game. We were playing on the ocean beach, which as I said, is also a freeway so we had to occasionally pause the game to let the traffic pass (kind of like road hockey, except the passing cars were going nearly 100km/h).
From on top of the canyon looking at the ocean.
A dingo eating a turtle on the beach.
A monitor lizard soaking up some heat on a roof at Dilli Village.
