9 March : Fraser Island

+Jill and I booked the other main tour offered here since we are staying for 4 nights and we only want 1 day hanging by the pool (tomorrow). Yesterday was the "Beauty Spots" tour and today we booked "Champagne Pools". It turns out that the 2nd tour has more beautiful stopping points. The pools are gorgeous and the hike led to a spectacular cliff with nice views. The beauty spots were a hike inside a dense forest with a stream on a trail that was damaged by storms and incomplete. The other stops were the pinnacles (which have NOTHING on the Western Australia ones) and a sunken, rusting ship. What's so beautiful about that anyway?

The other nice thing about the 2nd tour is only 9 people went on the bus - so we had a smaller bus (downside is feeling the bumps) that was easier to unload and load and stay on time.

A lot of time is spent crossing the island in a 4WD bus so we can get to the East beach which is easier to drive on than the soft sand throughout the entire island. Most of the West coach beaches are off limits to 4WD for ecological purposes.

We stopped at a spot to witness the winds blowing sand inland and see how the island is continually evolving and how it was formed.

Once we got to the champagne pools, we found out we were not alone. The place is popular with all of the people that stay on the island as well as the tour companies that drive people around. The place is beautiful and the ocean waves rolling over the rocks are mesmerizing. We enjoyed our time here as well as a lunch on the sand near where we parked.

We then departed so we could do a quick (10 min?) walk up some rocks to a cliff and point with views West and South to two huge beaches as well as the champagne pools in the distance. Just before we were heading back down, a quick sprinkle formed to expedite all the people back down to their vehicles.

We cruised south on the beach for a while and intentionally passed the turning point inland because we had time. This paid off in a dingo sighting on the beach. The wild dog was watching some fishermen and hoping for something out of it. We got some photos at a distance before the trek back across the island.

After cleaning up and some down time, we went over to the main restaurant for the "Seafood Sensations" buffet we had signed up for. Do not worry about me, they said at booking time that there were non-seafood options. When we arrived and looked at the menu, Jill was sad to find out that all the cold options were seafood (nothing warm) and all the warm options were not. It was a let down on a menu billed as "Sensations". We cancelled that and opted for the other restaurant. Sadly, my meal was over salted on both the starter and main. We had a heavy handed chef. Oh well.