10 Days on Fraser Island, day 1-5

We have just returned from a great 10 day trip to the world-heritage listed Fraser Island, the largest sand-island in the world. The island is quite unique with lots of sand, forest, rainforest and a very diverse flora and fauna. Most notable inhabitants of the island are the Dingo's, Australia's famous wild dogs. The dingo's on Fraser Island are supposed to be the purest in Australia, because the island is big enough to prevent inbreeding and isolated enough to prevent cross-breeding. So that was at least one important thing to see, I thought beforehand. But the island was so much more.

We travelled to the island on the barge and entered ashore. There are no paved roads on the island, so you're only allowed on with a 4 wheel drive car, or a good cross-country bike. The ways to get around the island are driving the inland roads (which can be quite bumpy, bad and full of holes) and on the beach. Although it was dangerous at times, it was fun. Normal road rules apply on the beaches, but you should not be surprised if you were driving next to a plain, for the Fraser island landing strips were also on those same beaches.
After a journey of a couple of hours, and already spotting our first dingo, we arrived at our vacation house at Orchid Beach, where they have a couple of rental houses.

The first couple of days the four of us have mostly been reading, resting and catching our own meals. Everyday just before high-tide we went down to the beach with the rods to catch our dinner. We caught dart, flathead and a lot of whiting, unfortunately not enough to feed 3 of us every day.
The rest of the time I filled with reading and walking. And I came to the frightening conclusion that I have something of a birdwatcher in me.
In my defence: there are a lot of beautiful and uncommon birds in the region. The Great Sandy Strait, the region between Burrum Heads and Fraser Island, is a declared wetland of international importance with birds from as far away as Japan and Siberia arriving in summer to rest and feed. And so I learn something new every day about this region.

In the evenings Kat and I were normally sitting outside on the porch of our house to read, feed the birds, and wait for the dingo's to pass by in our yard. In these 10 days we've seen 3 different one come by, which we originally named Pingo, Ringo and Lingo.

All in all, the first 5 days were really relaxing, the weather was great and the tides were good.
I'll write more about the last 5 days when I can, and give you an update on my latest temporary hobby: birds!