Proper introductions are probably in order. We have 'Disco' (or 'Digeridoo', or even 'Tesco') Stu, 'Famous' Pete ("from Noah's, it's the biggest backpackers in Bondi, the most famous beach in Australia"), John 'Boy' and Annika who are al travelling up the coast together (some more than others) in Stu's combi wagon. In adition to me (Papa Smurf - don't ask, or 'Dancing' Dan - Pete had to ask...) we we privilaged to also have the company of the loverly TomandElla we were hemetically sealed to each other for so much of the time that really they can - for the purposes of this diary at least - be treated as a single unit!

The seven of us piled into a Toyota 4WD and set off into the unknown, where only maybe 20 000 a year or so people have gone before. The ferry across was fairly uneventful, if a little strange as you have to reverse down onto it. The first few kilometres of track was also a little disapointing - Emma and I had been on more rutted roads on the Great Road Trip. Five minutes later however, and we were all wooping like a group of kids with brand new toy as the road metamorphosed into a giant sand pit with a coupkle of trenches running down the middle for our tyres to run down. A quick stop off at Central Staion for fire wood and water and we were tearing allong the tracks again before being spat out onto the beach at Eurong.

The difference between driving inland and on the beach at Fraser Island is incredible. Inland you're struggling to do an average of more than 10km/hour (unless Stu or I were driving, in which case it was substantially more) whilest on the beach you can go just as fast as your right foot, and the screaming passengers behind you will allow. The only problem with the beach are the fresh water run-offs that periodically, but unpredictably cut across the sand. These run-offs can be anything from a couple of milimetres deep to almost a metre down to the bottom, and they're hard to spot. There are several horror stories of guys that have hit a particularly deep one, dropped the nose of the car into it and then spent the next couple of hunred metres sumersalting the car end over end down the beach. For this reason, it's a good idea to keep your speed down to something fairly manageable on the when driving on the beach.

After stopping off at Eurong for lunch, we blasted up the coast all the way up to Indian Head up in the north of the island. There is a backpacker oriented camping area just round the corner from Indian Head where you can make as much noise as you like. We stopped off at the wreck of the XX ship on the way up where John sliced his foot open - Lesson: When the sign says, "don't climb the wreck", there's a good reason! The excellent steaks cooked by Stu (and veggie burgers cooked by Dan), and the pads of beer and casks of wine helped to numb John's pain.

Today's sunset was hightened by a couple of things. The first was the enourmous sand dune that we watched the sunset from. The other thing that fitted alongside and nicely completed the pair was Stu's didge playing.

To tomorrow