Well, long time no see. But much to tell. Last time I sat down for a blog post, everything seemed fine. Well, we managed to change that. We got ourselves a new timing chain, tested it, drove up further up north the east coast of Oz.
Some nice bloke even gave us a bodyboard for a bargain because his plane was going the same evening.
Interesting how people just leave their wreckages on the streetside…
We arrived at Rainbow Beach, quickly hatching the plan to go and try to conquer the little wilderness that is left on Fraser Island. Water? Oil? Diesel? Food? Half a day later, we sat on the ferry and were a little afraid if this all was a bit too spontaneous.
By the way, insect repellant is a must around here. Or light up some horseshit. Just do something against the mozzies, otherwise you will be eaten alive.
Fraser Ferries at the mainland shore, casually washing the sand off their ramp.
Driving on a beach for the first time is a thrill. Especially when everyone around you is driving a proper SUV or Pickup and you’re sporting an overweight Van.
But our Deli did a fine job and swiftly brought us to our first campsite, directly at the waterfront.
A wild Dingo trying to dig up the waste of our neighbors who had just left. This one seemed suspiciously unfazed by our presence.
One of the few townships.
At the Maheno wreckage. Not much is left of the old hospital ship, but stumbling upon it on a nearly deserted beach had a very special feeling to it. Minutes later, buses filled with casual tourists flooded the area and swept away any feeling of adventure.
Island diesel price. On the mainland, its down to 1.55$.
Luckily, we brought enough for the whole trip.
Second camping area. Initially, we had only planned for one night, so…
I had to use a local payphone to extend our permit since there was no mobile reception. The connection was horrible, and everytime i had to spell something out, the phone would interrupt the connection and demand more coins.
Planes parked on the beach.
Aaand here we go again, this dent in our underride guard doesn’t bode well at all.
Nut kissed filter. It wasn’t losing much oil at this point, so we figured we could relaxedly drive back to the mainland and get a new filter. But, well. That would’ve been way too easy. Back on the mainland, just off the ferry next gas station, a smell snuck up our noses. The smelly smell of burning oil and rubber. Popped the hood, thick white smoke from somewhere unseen. Thankfully, it died down after a minute or so, otherwise this might have been the end of our car. My best guess is that the oil pan bolts tore, but I still don’t see the reason why anything down there would start to burn. Now we’re immobile, in dire need of replacement parts and are not allowed to sleep in our car. Wohoo. I wanted adventure, now we’ve got lots of it.
Adding on after writing the next blog post, I’ve added more pics from fraser as they fit in here best.
Deep rutted inland paths
whiteout
storm on the horizon while limping back to the ferry
Beaten, but not defeated.