Toques and Tan Lines: Don't Sleep on the Road!

My next adventure took me to K'gari (Fraser Island) and I never thought anything would top the Whitsundsays, but Drop Bear Adventures blew my sailing trip out of the water! I had the most amazing jam packed and fun three days, we were all sad when it was over.

The ferry over from Hervey Bay was quite uneventful, but as we were docking a dingo came out of the trees and wandered around the car park for a bit. A nice little welcoming party from the island. K'gari is made entirely of sand, so the drive over to Eurong was another interesting welcome to the island. The driving here reminded me of dirt road driving back home, but you had to stick to the tracks like winter driving. Luckily for us the roads were in pretty good shape and we didn't have any trouble the entire trip. We arrived at our base camp where Mark and Hanna, owners and founders of Drop Bear, gave us a welcome and told us a little about the history of the company. Once we got a bit settled, Dave, our tour guide, took us out to Lake Wabby for our first excursion as a group, taking the island highway, the beach! Lake Wabby is a sacred place for the Butchulla men, the Butchulla woman do not go anywhere near it, and is the place where boys become men. Our group spent a couple hours here getting to know eachother and taking turns throwing a boomerang! After supper that night, we had a campfire, did some star gazing on the beach, and tried our hands at a didgeridoo. All this and it was only day one!

The next morning we had an early wake-up call by didgeridoo to go and watch the sunrise over the ocean. Little did I know that morning that I would see and do so many awesome things that day! Our day started at the Kirrar sandblow. Here we saw all sorts of tracks and were able to see our first whales of the day out past the break. After we were done climbing around the dunes we went to Eli Creek. Since the entire island is sand all fresh water here is extremely clean. As a group we 'crocodiled' down the creek and ended up back at the ocean. Next we went to the wreck of the Maheno and somewhere during our drives we saw 2 or 3 humpback whales slapping the water with their pectoral fins past the break! We had a quick stop at the Pinnacles, one of the Butchulla women's sacred sights and then we collected shellfish that Dave cooked for us as an appetizer at dinner. This all before lunch! Post lunch we drove up to the Champane pools, natural salt water pools, had a quick swim and played some volleyball. A quick drive and hike later we were at Indian Head. Here there were stunning views of the ocean and the entire island, we saw a couple more whales and even a turtle! This place is also the most sacred site for the Butchulla people and Dave shared the history of the island and the Butchulla peoples story for the creation of K'gari. On our way home we stopped to feel the heartbeat of the island, crocodiled once more down Eli Creek, and came across some more dingos on the beach. But wait there's more! We had another fire that night, but Dave invited some of his friends to join us! One was an awesome guitar player, he could play pretty much anything you asked, and the other two were Butchulla men. You could hear the passion they had for their traditions and the island while they were telling us their stories. When they found out I was from Canada they were so interested in our First Nations culture, I wish I had known more so I could have shared it with them. Hard to believe we did all this in just one day!

The last morning of the trip started much like the first, a didgeridoo wake-up call (it was actually quite a nice way to wake up) and then off to Lake McKenzie for a couple hours at the beach. Here we were extremely fortunate, our Butchulla friends had told us about a second beach that no other tour group goes to. A short walk and we had a huge stretch of beach to ourselves all morning. The sand here is pure silica, which is a great exfoliant. I scrubbed my body from head to toe (hair and teeth included, we did a monkey circle to get eachothers backs!) and then rinsed off. The Butchulla people believe that the wind from the lake whispers to you here. Taking advice from the night before, I took a walk to see what K'gari had to say to me. It was such a beautiful and tranquil place, unchanged by time, I definitely believe she talked to me there. Our last stop on the trip was Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek. The creek is the second sacred place for the Butchulla women, the place where they came to give birth. Again the water here was so clear you could see every ripple of sand and it made absolutely no sound. As an example of how dedicated the Butchulla people still are to their culture, a couple years ago a huge storm moved through the island and downed some trees. They sat there for months as the park rangers are Butchulla men and wouldn't enter the area to clear it up out of respect for their traditions. Central Station itself was the place where the European logging companies made camp when the industry was still active on the island. K'gari is the only place in the world where rainforest grows entirely on sand and has some of the biggest trees I've ever seen.

Even though this was a sight-seeing tour, it felt like so much more. Our group as a whole got very close and were always smiling and laughing. I learned so much about the Butchulla people and the history of the island, it was so eye-opening. Being from a western culture it's so hard to understand how precious these sites are to the aboriginal culture, but I think learning and trying to appreciate the significance of the site is a solid start. I've tried to put into words how truly spectacular my time on K'gari was. It wasn't just one part but the entire trip, I feel very lucky and blessed to have had such an amazing experience!