August 1 Sabbath Happy Birthday Richard, Becky, and Scott! Happy Independence day Switzerland! We all got up, broke down the tents, repacked the car, and had a quick breakfast. Then it was back on the road to make the last leg to get to Fraser Island. We left the campground ahead of two other vehicles with French people also heading south. It took just over two hours to reach Hervey Bay. Christina picked up her pass to take the 4WD on the ferry and we drove down to the ferry staging area south of town. Then while waiting things between Julie and Christina blew up. When that was over they had come to an agreement where Julie would be gone as soon as we got off the island and over to Rainbow Beach. Wow, I have rarely seen such diametrical opposite personalities and it was an explosion waiting to happen. I did not think it would be this quick although it did not come as much of a surprise given the past few days. Well, on the 45 minute ferry ride Julie talked to a woman traveling with two small children and arranged to ride with her. It was a good solution for Julie, since the woman needed to be in Sydney for a flight on August 12, just like Julie. She gave me her email addresses and will give me some info on places she went while in India and that could be helpful for Gabe and I. When we arrived at Kingfisher Bay, Christina and Julie got into it again trying to work out how much Julie owed for the expenses to that point.

Not a very restful Sabbath all in all.

August 2 Sunday We checked out and got on 'the road' at 9 and the day looked good. It had rained some in the night and for that I could feel fortunate we stayed in the hostel, without fighting out way to the Dundubara campsite last night. High tide had been at 6 am so we were running up the beach at a great time. From Happy Valley we made our first stop at Eli Creek, walked the boardwalk up the canyon and walked back down in the creek itself. I had too many things in my pockets, otherwise it would have made for a nice swim in several spots. Instead, I kept close to the shallower sides and only got wet up to my knees. Still a lot of fun. Next was the Maheno wreck, a large cruise ship that ran aground and has become a feature of the island. It is heavily decayed and you are supposed to stay clear of it, but at the tide level when we reached it, we could walk right up to it and I got a lot of pictures. Christina and I were taking turns driving up the beach. Our third stop was 'The Pinnacles', a small stretch of beach front and a side canyon that is slightly reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah. Another thing that really stands out is how many people are on the island simply to fish in the ocean. Camp after camp is setup with groups of fisherman, although those we talked to said the fishing was not good (which they attributed to the wind). We continued up the beach, passing the Dundubara campsite and going up to Red Canyon, another section of beach facing cliff of a rich red material. We returned to the Dundubara campsite to see where we would have been staying had things gone smoother the day before. It is actually a very nice campground and I would have liked to have stayed there. I spotted a goanna in the bushes, but only got a picture of his back end. It was a little over three feet long, very dark with orange speckling. Crikey.We did go out on the walking path to the Wungul Sandblow, an immense sand dune almost a mile in from the beach. I hiked up to where I could get a good view and take pictures (the dune continued up, I do not know how far) and then ran back down. I got high enough that I no longer saw any other human footprints, but there were dingo tracks and various birds, lizards, and snakes tracks. Coming back down the beach we headed inland just past the Pinnacles at K'gari to take in the Northern Forests scenic drive. A short drive brought us to a viewing walkway for the Knifeblade Sandblow. This was similar to the Wungul one, but we could not get directly on it like we could at Wungul. Still a beautiful view. Another 9 km of bumpy four wheeling and we took a short break to see Lake Allom. Not a whole lot to see at this acidic lake, so we did not do the walk around the lake, but from a small dock we witnessed the hordes of turtles that inhabit the lake. There were at least fifty that came right away when they saw us and by the time we left we could still see more swimming our direction. The signs all say not to feed them, but obviously people are feeding them because SO many were coming to greet us. Our next planned stop was going to be the two Boomerang Lakes, but we had car trouble instead. The engine simply died while we were driving. It started right away again, but died a minute later. First we thought it was the fuel and put in the gas from both gerry cans, but that did not solve the problem for long. We made it a couple km before it died again. There were no leaks under the vehicle, the oil was plenty full, water was full, air filter was clean, battery terminals clean and well connected, so it was a mystery. After the fifth time it died, I set out walking towards Happy Valley the short way (17 km) hoping to run into another vehicle, something that had not happened the entire time we were on the Northern Forest scenic route. Christina continued to experiment with the Nissan. I walked for two hours and twenty minutes when Christina came driving up and we slowly made it the rest of the way back to Happy Valley. In the mean time I had walked almost 9km in sand (mostly barefoot), had a blister on my left big toe, found a screwdriver and an antennae (which came in useful), gotten rained on, passed the Boomerang lakes (which looked very nice from my obscured view on the road), and encountered three dingos. I startled them as much as they startled me; one took off right away, one trotted about 40 meters up the road and off to the left and the third moved about 15 ft off the road to the right and laid down. I got a picture of that one, said a quick prayer, then carefully continued walked along the road, with the antennae and a stick in hand. .As far as I could tell they did not attempt to follow me. I did not realize there were so many types of Eucalyptus. The one I like best is the Bloodwood that appears to be bleeding. Some of them are incredibly beautiful. I also came upon a Strangler Fig that had completely outlived its host tree and was now an intricate web with a hollowed out center. There are also some trees that have bark much like a Redwood. I do not know what they are yet.