Our last camping trip to K’gari was 2014 and we have been looking forward to getting back to the world heritage listed wonderland. This time we’re hauling the Patriot Campers X3 along for a bit of mobile lux, although towing it added a bit of drama to the trip.
Getting back to Fraser Island has been on the Travelling Two trip list for a while and we thought it would be a good shake down before our desert crossing next month. Lachie and Sarah joined us for this one so we had a tour guide and recovery vehicle if the rig got stuck… this turned out to be more like a premonition than I would hope.
A three hour cruise up the Bruce Highway had us arriving at Gympie, from where we turn toward Rainbow Beach and the Shell service station to top up the fuel tanks, grab a snack and collect our tickets for the Manta Ray barge. After vehicle and camping fees this is most expensive part of the trip, barge fares are $200 return with the trailer in tow or $130 for a vehicle on its own.
From there was a short hop to Inskip Point to air down, and given how soft this infamous sand spit can be we went straight down to 18psi on the Cruiser and 15psi on the X3 tyres. The strategy worked, with no problems driving across the Inskip Point entry where most people get bogged, and we were soon at front of the line for the next barge across to the island.
We had planned timing of the trip based on tides, knowing that we would need to get around Hook Point at southern end of the island where the beach is narrow due to the eroded sand dunes that can hem you in. We also hoped that the midday low tide would enable us to skirt around some of the rock outcrops on the island rather than being forced to take the inland bypass tracks. Our plan worked pretty well, with just one section of southern beach where we had to time the driving to suit the ebb and flow of waves washing up to foot of the dunes.
The ocean beaches of Fraser Island provide 120km of spectacular views and we were doing the full length on our first day, right to the most northern tip of the island, to Sandy Cape where we planned to camp.
Each headland and stretch of beach is beautiful but similar to each other, which makes the wreck of SS Maheno stand out as an iconic site when driving up the island’s ocean side. This grand old lady was washed ashore by a cyclone in 1935 and has been the main landmark (or seamark?) ever since.
Deterioration of the wreck since our last visit was very noticeable and she was also sitting much deeper in the beach sand. Its amazing that the steel hull has endured here for 85 years of salt, sand and surf, but it seems she is nearly at the point of becoming an unrecognisable pile of steel bones in the sand.
We continued northward to grab lunch at Orchid Beach Trading Post, a store/pub/servo that provides the northernmost resupply point on the island. While there the TT rig drew attention from owner of Maxtrax who gave us some merch. We chatted for a while and he wasn’t sure about our plan to tow the X3 through the infamous Ngkala Rocks bypass track, no doubt he thought we’d be giving some of his products a workout.
The run from here to Sandy Cape is only about 30km but it is punctuated with Fraser Island’s most renowned obstacle, the Ngkala coffee rock outcrop. Tides would now be too high to get around the rocks and the route across top of them would be difficult towing the X3, so we had little choice but to attempt the powdery soft sand of the bypass track. This stretch of sand is notorious for bogging the most capable of vehicles and there are hours of YouTube video showcasing people’s attempts to get through, or be recovered trying.
Lachie went through first, doing it relatively easily in his capable light weight Nissan Patrol, throwing plumes of sand into the air while ascending the track. We lined up next, first navigating the tight cutting through the coffee rock. My plan was to accelerate out of the water pool in the rocky track so that we hit the sand carrying momentum, but the first stretch of sand was badly rutted and pot holed which limited how fast I could tow the trailer. The Landcruiser bucked and the X3 got tossed around but it was in vain, we simply didn’t gain enough speed to surf across top of the soft sand and we soon bogged down.
As predicted by our friend earlier, we soon had all eight of our Maxtrax recovery boards in use, trying to create a plastic road across top of the soft sand. Some attempts would gain us 10 or 20 metres, others would end as soon as the tyres reached end of the recovery tracks. We persevered, all puffing and sweating, until we got close enough to winch the rig to crest of the track. From there it was literally a down hill run to reach the beach. But this part of the adventure wasn’t yet over…
A friendly contractor who was crossing Ngkala heading south offered Suzzanne and her pile of Maxtrax a lift – after spending an hour digging our rig out of soft sand she took up his offer. He drove off to turn around and we walked back to our vehicles, waiting for him to bring her across. After quite a while Suzzanne hadn’t returned, and we found that her taxi ride ended with the guy’s ute also bogged, so she was up on the track digging out yet another vehicle. We went to his rescue and eventually we got him on his way and regrouped for the final push to our camp site.
By now the sun was getting very low and we arrived at Sandy Cape in time to catch a breath taking sunset that was worth lingering for. There was no sign of other campers in this remote end of the island, giving us our pick of places to set up and we chose the best camp site there was, at foot of the mighty sand drift after which Sandy Cape was named.
The next morning some dingo paw prints were evidence that we had a visitor in the night, but we wouldn’t have known, having slept well after the exertion of debogging vehicles. And the good news was we would have to go through it all again to get back through Ngkala!
This time we hatched a plan to connect the Patrol to front of the Cruiser so we had two tow vehicles to drag the X3 through. After checking nobody was coming in opposite direction we charged into the cutting, but only reached the first corner before bogging down. Our second attempt went better but still only got halfway up the incline. This didn’t make sense, but we got into recovery mode and winched the rig up the sandy track, using Lachie’s Patrol as an anchor at the top. Near top of the track Suzzanne pointed out that the trailer wheels weren’t turning… what? A rooky mistake, I had left the trailer’s handbrake on since leaving camp, no wonder we couldn’t get up the soft sandy track. With the brake released it was an easy job to drive rest of the bypass track, to relief of the group of vehicles waiting to come through once we were clear of their path.
Our two vehicles were now cutting across the island to Fraser’s western side, a great drive that takes you through a number of different natural habitats. First section is a climb up the island’s central dunes covered with eucalypt forest before dipping down into the rainforest of the centre, then the lowland banksia swamps as you approach the western beach.
We arrived at end of the Wooralie Creek track and had lunch while waiting for the tide to drop far enough to cross the creek so that we could continue to our camp site further south, at Coongul Creek. We had scored a great day for the drive to camp, with blue skies and turquoise water making for a post card view the whole way.
Coongul Creek runs parallel to the beach for just over a kilometre, creating a long sand spit that has great camp sites with water views on both sides.
A couple of nights were spent here at Coongul Creek, each one preceded by an amazing sunset over the waters of Wide Bay.
The bugs were not too bad other than a few marsh flies, thankfully the consistent breeze kept usual residents of this area, the sand flies and mosquitoes away. We had no known visits from the dingoes that usually roam up and down this stretch but plenty of birds came through including a graceful jabiru that spent a morning fishing in the creek behind camp.
On morning of our departure we had perfect weather and a low tide, making it easy to weave our way back to the track that would carry us across to the island’s eastern beaches.
Final camp for this trip was made behind the dunes of Seventy Five Mile Beach. Unfortunately people before us had left the site in a mess so before setting up our camp we had to clean the place up. We soon discovered that the marsh flies here were not only friendly but abundant, our card game was regularly disturbed by slapping and swatting the big green bugs that have a nasty bite. Each of us ended up with a pile of dead flies one the ground around around our feet, with Lachie having the highest body count score.
To escape the flies and stretch our legs Suzzanne and I filled a garbage bag with debris from along the beach. Plastic drink bottles were the most common item, some with foreign writing that suggests they came from ships at sea, maybe illegal fishing boats. Rest of it was general flotsam like rope and pieces of fishing net, and fragments of broken plastic.
That night a dingo hovered around camp, sticking to the shadows while watching us cook and eat dinner, before disappearing again when nothing was offered to him. During the evening we chatted about our next adventures – Suzzanne and I will soon head to the Simpson Desert, and in August we’ll head north with Lachie and Sarah on our Cape York expedition. A lot to look forward to as this trip ends.
We were up early next morning with a golden sunrise beautifully framed by the dunes we camped behind. We wanted to be on the move and soon had everything packed and wheeling down the beach, to race the rising tide and hopefully beat the queue back to the barge.
Fraser Island is an iconic 4WD destination that is on bucket list of most Australian adventurers. It is accessible all year and is a relatively easy off road destination, though it is best to avoid school holiday crowds if you can. We captured our trip in this couple of videos, I hope you enjoy them.
