K'Gari

I was in contact with Peter Pans travel agency from week one in Sydney, so every time we had something travel-related in mind I called or texted them first, before booking to go somewhere with someone else. When we decided to go to Fraser Island together, our hostel-manager from Budds managed to offer us a good deal, but when I called Peter Pans to tell them about it, they offered me a better deal. Peter Pans works with a best price guarantee, so they asked me to hold until they've put a package together that was more worth my money. Because of the untimely departure of one of our travel-buddies, we had to fill his spot in our tour (and thank God we could), so there we went, with the five of us.

We slept at the Dingo hostel close to Rainbow Beach, from where we would take the 4WD to Fraser the following morning. We had a group of 7 people: of course you had Samir, Anneke, Chris and I, then there was the Dutch girl called Lisa who had filled the empty spot, another Dutch girl called Emma and finally a German guy who didn't really talk and seemed mildly intimidated by our Dutchness. We had an amazing time. Unfortunately I was the only one who wanted to drive but actually wasn't allowed to, because I didn't have my drivers license for a year yet.

Not even a minute into driving on the beach at Fraser, we slowed our car to look at this incredibly beautiful Dingo. Up close they look so sweet, but we were told to please treat them like the wild and dangerous animals they are (or can be anyways). They scavenge for food and know that there is some wherever the humans are, which is why they tend to come closer than is safe; the week before we arrived an almost two year old kid had been attacked because the people didn't take the warnings seriously enough. We drove past the dingo but slowed down, for we were in the lead vehicle and the rest had to have the time to check out the beast as well. That first day we drove to some sort of estate where we had our lunch and afterwards we drove to lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is a really pure lake with sand almost as white as snow and the water clear and bluer than the sky. It's because the water from the ocean can't get there, so the water is literally made up of raindrops, filtered by the silica sand that's used for many resources. Hence why it's discouraged to pee in the water and fined when you take sand.

Paradise. That's what K'Gari is.

Beiral, the great God in the sky, made all the people.  But after he made the people, Beiral realised that the people had no lands! So Beiral sent a messenger, Yendingie, to solve the problem and create lands for the people. Yendingie came down from the sky with a helper – the beautiful white spirit called Princess K’Gari. She was so awed by the beauty of this place that she begged Yendingie if she could stay here, but he was reluctant. Finally Yendingie agreed. “You may stay here, but you cannot stay in spirit form. I will need to change you.” So he changed her into a beautiful island. So she wouldn’t be lonely, he then made some beautiful trees and flowers, and some lakes that were specially mirrored so that she could see into the sky. He made creeks and laughing waters that would become her voice, and birds and animals and people to keep her company.

The campsite we slept at is borrowed to the Dingo's tour-organisation by the aboriginals, and we were told to respect their wishes and rules, so we did. There were tents and a kitchen at the campsite, even a campfire and showers and toilets, so we were all set. We slept on the ground, made our own food, and when we went outside of the fence we took a stick to keep the dingoes away. Our next stop was the SS Maheno.

When we arrived there, our tour guide blasted 'my heart will go on' through his speakers, when the laughing died down he started talking: The SS Maheno was a passenger ship between New Zealand and Australia (and sometimes between Australia and Canada) from 1905 to 1935. In the meantime it was used as a hospital ship by the military forced during WWI. When the ship was towed from Sydney in 1935, the rope between the two ships broke in a cyclone, and the SS Maheno and its skeleton crew washed ashore on Fraser Island... There's not much left of the ship now, but standing next to it, taking in all this information and how it could hold 240 people in first class alone, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Titanic and thinking that it must've looked pretty neat back when it was still an actual ship.

After lunch that day we went to see and swim in a couple champagne pools and a stream they called a lazy river. We all got rubber bands to drift off in and we saw some more dingoes. They were walking among us, but we didn't have any food on us, so they left soon after. That night we watched the sunset from the beach with a small group of friends, some more Germans, and we talked about the stars and noticed how different the sky looked from this side of the world compared to home.

The last day we swam in a tea tree lake with turtles and fish and we couldn't even see our hands under water, that's how dark it was. Refreshing and energising too. Time to say goodbye to K'Gari already. We made such good memories there and even though the weather wasn't great, we got to swim in some beautiful places. In the end we took a group photo at the beach (we're the colourful people in the photo) and we drove back to the hostel at Rainbow beach.