Day 194

9 August 2013

Last night on Fraser. Today we had decided to do another inland track to the Western beaches as we hadn't been able to drive much on the western side as a lot of the beach has been closed off.

This inland road was pretty hard going, windy and lots of ruts. We have been making regular stops to allow Dean to get out his snacks from his pie warmer that he recently installed in his ute! Chicken nuggets, chicken balls, pizzas, doughnuts, pies....Joel is in love with this thing! So all I have heard since we have been travelling with Dean is "how cool is the pie warmer?!" Thanks Dean!!

Anyway made it to the western side...you can also camp here in the designated camp area (no facilities but quiet).

Our plan was to drive down to Moon Point and then cut back into an inland track and get back down to Hook Point for the barge this afternoon. So we head off down the beach and 5 mins later we run into our first problem for the day. A big ass salt water creek! Joel and Dean spent 15 mins wading through the creek to try and find the shallowest point to cross but at this stage of the tide it was way too high and risky to cross. Here we were faced with a choice, turn around and go back to the eastern side the way we came or wait 30mins and let the tide go down a bit and take some water with it. After much deliberation the boys decided to wait it out, the tide was receding quickly and really they didn't want to be defeated!

30mins later....snatch straps are set up as a precautionary measure and maxx traxx are set up on the opposite side of the creek on a steep embankment that would be our exit point.

Dean first... and while the steep embankment was in fairly deep water, his car pulled out fairly easily. Us next and the opposite side of the creek was a little too deep for my liking but with the help of the maxx traxx we also made it across. Creek crossing done we thought we were home easy! So continued down the beach searching for the moon point inland track. I did see a sign saying welcome to Fraser Island but didnt think much of it so we kept driving. Eventually came to a fairly boggy section where dean drove 1m and sank quicker then you could say "Dean you are sinking!" Haha

Quick snatch and we had pulled him out, I then decided to mention that I had seen a sign and maybe we should go back because we couldn't drive through this slushy sand. Headed back and found a very overgrown inland track which actually used to be where the Moon Point barge turned up but doesn't anymore. As we drive along this track we get some new pin striping and realise that this is just a high tide track and we are following this track along the same beach we had just driven (not getting us any closer to the east side!)

Come to another intersection.... Left, is back onto the beach where we would need to cross the creek we crossed earlier and go back exactly the same way we had come much earlier this morning OR to the right, a road closed sign... Hmmm which way to go....well this is where the opinion split....the girls said give it up we are going to have to go back along the beach, and the boys say...lets go down the road that has a big sign that we have to move that says ROAD CLOSED!

So down the closed road we go....in short we went for about 15 mins and came to police tape blocking off the road again! At this point we decided it was getting a bit serious and turned around. Girls - 1, boys - 0!

So by this time it was last afternoon and we had to go back the same track we had travelled that morning. So we hightailed it back inland to the east beach and raced down the beach. I decided to just check what time the barge goes till and turns out only runs till 5.30 and it was 5.00 and we were still a half hour drive away! Rounded the the beach at hook point and the barge was just pulling up! Just made it or so we thought! Once on the barge the captain was not real impressed as last barge is meant to be at 5pm and he was already half way to inskip when he saw another car pull up at hook point and decided to be nice and come and pick that car up! If that car wasn't waiting we would have missed the barge and there would have been a few people that would have been in trouble!

Another night in mums unit finished off our very eventful day!

Carly & Joel

 

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