Day 6 - Fraser Island and on to Yeppoon
(Still no wireless so I will have to keep writing off line until I find a place where I can upload the notes onto the blog. Chances are that there are five notes in a row and then again nothing for a while… (Three hoorays for Mackay airport and its wireless network))
Today started really early because high tide sets in around noon and if we wanted to do some beach 4WD driving. We went around Fraser Island in a small Suzuki 4WD for half a day, saw a plane taking off the beach right in front of us (good that we had plenty of warning). Driving through small sandy roads is fun but quite exhausting.
Back in Hervey beach around 3 pm, however we greatly underestimated the time needed to get to Yeppoon (which is the southern end of the Great Barrier reef). So we crossed the tropic of capricorn quite unspectacularly around 8 pm (and it was raining. This is tropical weather for you) and fell asleep as soon as we hit the B&B.
Kristin did some driving today and agrees that driving on the left side needs time to get used to it. Much more important, her ear infection got much better (even though I did not trust the cuban doctor).
Unfortunately, everyone along the coast tells us that “a cyclone is coming, you will not make it to Cairns because of the floods”. So we will have to sit tight and see how far we can get. Plan B is changing flights to go from Townsville to the Ayers Rock. And Plan C is to fly directly from Mackay to Cairns and not driving there. This is what we actually just booked… 
Day 5 - Coolum to Fraser island
Breakfast, packing up and off onto the road. Our landlady at the Coolum Dreams Inn insisted on charging us 20 Aussie-Dollars for two times 15 minutes Internet usage, so the diary is coming slow at the moment. Australia is really a developing country when it comes to Wireless access.Driving on the left side is still weird. I was a bit concerned about roundabouts but they are actually easier than just turning at an intersection. Once we were on the Bruce Highway up north, driving is fun. You hit CC at about 100 kph and just glide along. Everyone is moving at roughly the same speed and overtaking options are plenty.
We hit Hervey Beach before noon and hopped onto the catamaran to Fraser Island. The place were we stayed is called the Kingfisher Resort and it is a nice (and not too crowded) complex right at the beach.
australia coolum fraser island travel