Bump! Puddle! And the stars....

What do two pessimisstic British boys, two adventurous Dutch girls, one Canadian girl who makes American girls look great to foreigners, and two well-humored American girls have in common??? Why, they all shared a 4WD vehicle on the famed Fraser Island World Heritage sight, of course! We were all so different in some really hilarious and frustrating ways (depended upon the given moment of the trip...), but we actually ended up being a pretty well-balanced group of strangers forced together into one very small car for 36 hours. Tim & Jonnie, our friends from the motherland were definitely the comic relief of the trip, adding their dry banter to every experience. Marleis, and her sister Annaleis were able to joke (& emphatically curse at all the appropriate places) about the ridiculous situations we found ourselves in throughout the trip. Tasha just made Ash and I look good. And Ash and I rounded out the trip with our level-headedness, our sense of adventure and our audacity of finding the bright side of every situation. And to eat at every available moment.

Our Fraser Island trip had already been postponed for a day, due to the fact that the day before we were supposed to leave, another LandRover from our tour company had flipped their vehicle and the owner of the company had spent the entire day sorting out that mess. There were also gail-force winds blowing on the island, as well as on the mainland and the rain hadn't stopped since it started two days prior. We all met for a briefing session at the hostel, where we watched videos on how to 4WD in the sand, how to be "dingo safe" and how to generally keep yourselves and your belongings safe on the island. We then proceeded to grocery shop for the trip, upon which the Brits just amically said "YES!" to whatever food item was suggested, the Canadian reminded us that she was vegitarian and the Dutch and Americans actually filled the cart with a decent spread of food.

Redezvousing the next morning, with the blue skies on our side, we packed up our very clean LandRover with overhead storage compartment, and set out for a fun-filled 4WD adventure. After all the rain we had, and the disappointment of spending waaaaaaaaaay too much time in a town that had absolutely nothing to do (seriously, Ash and I thought that all the people in our hostel didn't know how to find fun things to do...no. They were really right. Hervey Bay is only a gateway to Fraser Island. And is NOT accessible by walking. In the pouring down rain. And the whole town had sold out of rain ponchos.), we seriously thought we were in for a very low-key 4WD adventure....

Our first day went smoothly - I drove manual on the island, on the right side of the car and the right side of the road, through some pretty crazy turns and down some very steep, sandy inclines (all of Fraser Island is made out of sand....Rain forests have taken root there, but there is absolutely no soil anywhere...), we walked through a beautiful rainforest creek, climbed and jumped around on sand dunes, spashed through tons of puddles left over from the days of rain, and bumped our way to our beachfront camping sight. The Brits had fun "setting up home" for us, and after looking at the most incredibly "pumping surf" <--Aussie phrase, we made dinner, and settled in for a good night on the beach.

I'm going to have to sign off this post, but I'll leave you with this: Day two of the trip did NOT go as according to plan (we go to know 4 roads on the Island really well, and true to fashion, Ash and I almost had to readjust our travel plans due to being late....). But I saw the Milky Way galaxy like I've seen it in satellite photos. And I've learned how to face up to some pretty daughting situations with good humor and long-term perspective....

Love you all - I'll post more after I'm back from snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!!!