Team Dingo Does Fraser

After a brief, somewhat lack luster day in Brisbane, that included approximately 8 hours of walking, I went out with some people I met in the hostel. One of them, Christian from Chile, as it turned out, booked my exact same trip on the exact same dates, so I had a travelling buddy! He was a real sweet heart, helping me with my bags and sharing food with me. We were both really charged up about going on our Fraser Island tour, 3 days of camping together sounded great. He told me that he had been to Fraser before, but only for one day. That's because on the one of the first stops, he dove into the shallow end of a lake and broke his neck. After a terrifying rescue that took hours to complete, 6 months of rehab, the doctors didn't think he would be able to walk again. But he was lucky, fit and determined, and proved to be a miracle case. Knowing this, it felt so special to walk with him to the lake were he had his accident, and feel a part of that strength and courage and he swam in the place that nearly killed him. I can harly say enough how much I admire him, I am really lucky to have met someone so amazing. Fraser Island itself is completely amazing. It is one of the most stunning places in the world, comprised only of sand, it is amazing the diversity of life that it supports. Beyond beautiful rainforest and mangrove stands, tons of wildlife, including some very fearless dingoes that our group encountered many times. We dubbed ourselves Team Dingo, and about half of our photos are doing the dingo protective stance we learned from the Island safety video, arms folded over your chest like a sleeping vampire. We put our own little twist on it and added spirit fingers. It was a fun group, me Christian, a Korean girl and 5 English lads, and even digging out our Land Rover from deep sand traps and running it into posts couldn't break our spirits. Though the vicious sandfly attacks and lack of sleep nearly did. After 3 glorious days, we headed back to our hostel, glowing about our upcoming cruise of the Whitsundays we we all booked to do together. Then news came that we were not sailing because a tropical cyclone was nailing the coast. We canceled our bus, and drowned our sorrows. Our sorrows then became really funny. Soon, as Team Dingo was rocking out on a dance floor, sorrow wasn't even a word to me anymore. We took a taxi home. It was a good night. The next morning, hungover, and suddenly very aware of the fact that now we had no travel plans, everyone was a little bit depressed. Team Dingo had to break up, go our separate ways. So tomorrow, instead of sailing, I'll be learning how to dive! I've been able to work it out so that I will get to do the whitsundays after I learn how to dive, so actually, I'm not missing anything. Except Team Dingo, but that was inevitable.