No snow?

That’s no problem when you are surrounded with beautiful sands.  Just grab a sled or board.

I went sand sledding on the Carlo Sandblow.  Sandblows are giant, slow-moving dunes.  Inshore winds carry sands across the landscape, where they gradually take over everything in its path.  The created dunes can be very tall; in this case, the Carlo Sandblow is 120 meters above sea level.  It is also an excellent spot to view the sunset.

The Carlo Sandblow is located near Rainbow Beach, a nice little town named after the multicolored sands on its cliffs.  Rainbow Beach is a gateway point to Fraser Island, where I took a day tour.  Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and the only place where rainforest grows on sand.  I was actually surprised by the vegetation; knowing it was a sand island, I pictured all beaches and dunes.  You absolutely need to have 4WD to get around on Fraser.  Better yet, know how to use it.  Driving along the 75 Mile Beach (below) doesn’t seem so bad, but the sandy inland tracks are tricky.  Our bus was stuck behind some guy who bogged himself in the sand.  Our tour guide bailed him out – twice.  When we came across the same guy bogged again later, our guide left him to the next friendly driver and passed him by.

We whipped around to the major sites you can squeeze in during one day.  We had a swim break at Lake McKenzie, one of the beautiful perched lakes on the island.  Decayed plant matter created a nearly waterproof lining on the lake floor, preventing the rainwater trapped in the lake from entering the groundwater.  The water is acidic with a pH level between 4 and 5 and appears very clear.  The surrounding sands are quite fine and felt really nice.  We also stopped at the Maheno wreck.  As it was being towed to a scrapyard in Japan in 1935, it was blown ashore by a cyclone. 

We also took a longer stop at Eli Creek.  Fraser Island has over 120 small creeks that reach the coast.  They run with rainwater that fell over 60 years ago as the reserved ground water leaks out.  Eli is the largest creek on the east coast of the island, dumping 80 million liters of freshwater into the ocean every day.  Lazy rivers at water amusement parks must have been modeled after Eli Creek; the water is shallow, quiet, and clear as it winds around scenic curves with a steady flow.

Sadly, I did not see any dingoes on Fraser Island as we were running from site to site.  The island hosts a large population of wild dingoes, and there are warning signs everywhere regarding what to do around them.  Not too surprising that we did not see any... I might have had better luck if I camped there overnight.

To continue my fun in the sand, I headed to the Sunshine Coast to visit my friend Geoff.  Geoff was a fellow volunteer on the turtle monitoring project at the Cobourg Peninsula.  He very kindly showed me around and even gave me my first surfing lessons.  One of the things on my must-do list for Australia was to try surfing.  Somehow, I never went during my 6 years in San Diego, so I told myself that I could not leave Australia until I had given it a shot.  I do have photographic evidence of me standing up, but I think this photo is more fitting.  Thanks Geoff!  Of course, now I want to hit the water again...