Big country, small world

As you know, Australia is a pretty big country. So it came as a bit of a surprise today when we took a tour of Fraser Island and who should we meet? Two of the ten other people who climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge with us. Many tourists to Australia do the traditional tourist circuit up and down the east coast, but still, it's pretty rare to run into two people randomly thousands of kilometers away from where you last saw them. It was great to have two new people to chat to during the day.

We both had a great time on Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, featuring a beach (that doubles as the island's main highway) that goes on, in a fairly straight manner, for over 70 miles. We checked out the temperate rainforest on the island, featuring some very impressive trees that are well over 30 meters tall. We then took the "expressway" down the beach to visit a shipwreck and some nicely colored rocks. After lunch we went to Lake Mackenzie which is a brilliant freshwater lake in the dunes that is only fed by rainwater. And then, just as our friend was saying she was disappointed that she hadn't seen any dingoes on the island, who should pay a visit to our beach and start rummaging through some of the bags than a female dingo. Fortunately this one was pretty friendly because they can get fierce at times.

We're almost done with our drive down the Queensland coast. We highly recommend Queensland as a vacation destination, as there's tons to see and do here, from the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands, and Fraser Island. And, of course, if you're only going to skydive once in your life, why not do it where it's not absolutely freezing at 14,000 feet in the air, where you get a spectacular view of clear blue waters, impressive reefs, rolling hills full of tropical rainforest and also get to land softly on a powdery beach with not a soul in sight. Brilliant.