Fri, 10th Nov, 2023 Central Station Campground, Fraser Island National Park, Qld

16 degrees min, good sleeping weather though I am still waking early with the birds!

After breakfast we headed off to do the loop walk to Pile Valley. Started off walking up a hill!

Eventually we headed down to the valley. Such tall straight trees.

Found some interesting Satinay trees.

Came to the carpark then along the track to the info board beside two single trunk Satinays.

Continued on the track - part of the 90km hiking trail so we can say we have done some of it!! Found a huge tree.

Came to the top of a ravine full of palms which is where Wanggoolba Creek originates. Must be from a spring as there is no catchment area here.

Down into the valley and found the creek.

Continued along and onto the boardwalk over the creek.

Lovely walk along the edge of the hill with the creek beside us.

I think this is a Lily-pily.

Found some thick Lawyer vine too.

Continued on till we met the boardwalk then headed back up to the picnic area.

Back to camp - only one other site taken at the moment. Had a cuppa then headed off with our lunch for more exploring. Turned left from the camp turn off and along a bit we turned down the road that heads south east, passing a few lakes and ends up at Dilli Village on the east coast (Southern Lakes scenic drive).

Straight tall trees with lots of thinner ones recently chopped on the ground - thinning out?

Down a narrow section. More boards to protect the track.

Lots of roots to climb over in this section. A Kombi was coming up behind us so Steve pulled over to let him through.

Through a natural scrub section.

Up a rise then we get a glimpse of a lake for a moment. Track going down for authorised tour operators only. I think it is Lake Jennings.

We climbed up and down the mat protected track and eventually arrived at Lake Birrabeen.

Parked near the Kombi which has seen better days. Only one other car so not a popular spot.

Followed the sign to the lookout which had a limited view of the lake but it did have good information, map and aerial photo.

Found another track down through the banksia and reached the water. Clear water but the wind was making it quite chilly so no swim for us. I did get my feet wet. Walked along the edge to the end of the ‘beach’ then headed back.

Continued on with views over the lake as we travel around the edge of it.

Up and down the hills. We found out this road is two way when we pulled off for someone coming towards us. Glad we didn’t meet on the last narrow section.

Lots of roots to crawl over too. Up on a ridge around the bottom of Lake Benaroon. View through the trees again over the lake. There is a camp area there for the hikers.

Through lots of banksia trees. Over two ‘bridges’ through lower swamp ground. Back into thicker scrub trees as we head down. Back to banksia scrub again and more undergrowth as we near Lake Boomanjin.

Another ‘dingo’ enclosure for us to have our lunch in. The temperature dropped here as the strong wind is blowing straight over the water at us. It is the largest perch lake - fed by the sky only.

Checked out the info boards. Nice photo of Lake Benaroon that you have to walk into.

Takes a long time to drive short distances over here.

Short walk down to the water. Not so pretty with the tannin staining but the water is actually clear.

As we walked back I noticed a tree trunk wrapped in a tarp but nothing to say why.

Found the hikers camp. They have boxes to put their food in and they are fenced in too.

Continued on till we reached an intersection - right goes back up to Ungowa on the west coast so we went left. Fluffy ferns are bright green by the track.

Still a narrow track.

Coastal scrub. Slower driving as we head down.

Made Steve stop to get a photo of this ‘flower’.

Another intersection - 2km west is an air strip. Continued on towards Eastern Beach which is actually the whole coast which on other maps is called 75 Mile Beach.

Past low marsh land with lots of banskia, paperbark and gums. Climbing up again then down a bit and through marsh again. Crossed a bridge over flowing water. I wonder why the trees don’t grow in the marsh area - as there is lots of water there. Running along the edge of a creek full of reeds.

Pandanus near the start of the 90km hikers track but it was closed off!

Turned into the track to Dilli Village which is a private camping area of the University of the Sunshine Coast but allows other people to come and camp for a fee. Looks nice and is 800m from the beach.

Down the track and onto the beach. The water is not clear here - a bit murky on the edge.

Pulled up for a selfie. Looking back down the beach then northward. South takes you down to Hook Point where you catch the barge back to Inskip Point. Dave & Wendy are coming that way in a few days in their Suzuki Jimny.

Huge march fly had his final bite!

Headed north. The 4WD that just zoomed past us looked strange as we approached. Think they wanted to try and climb the edge and it backfired. Not cool guys. They decided to back out of it after spinning their wheels.

We headed north passing the various National Park camping areas up these tracks behind the dunes.

Lots of streams flowing out of the sand hills. Steve stopped at one of the streams so I could check if it was fresh water - it was. Low tide was at midday and it is now 1.45pm so we should be good.

We just puttered along but others were in a rush.

There is a private entrance to homes before we reach Eurong.

Passed Eurong’s entrance.

Lots of little birds were not fazed as the cars zoomed past them.

We continued along the beach a bit to the Police Station and National Parks Office. There is a water tap as you come off the beach and a nice walk through the trees to a big open grassy area with lots of buildings. We went to the National Parks office but no one was there and only a few bits of information. Back to the truck which Steve parked out of the way of the zooming vehicles.

Continued along the beach. 

Passed an area marked for planes to land. Stopped where there were lots of vehicles and found it was the entrance to hike in to Lake Wabby. It is quite hot now so we decided to skip that one.

A plane came overhead and landed down the beach.

Back into the truck and the plane took off again and zoomed over us. Sandblow in the background. More ‘freshwater’ creeks to cross as we continued up the beach. The hills are closer to the beach here. Not sure if I would have wanted to bring our caravan here but I suppose once you know the area it’s all good.

Continued on towards Poyungan Rocks.

Passed ‘Haven’ a private shack which would be great to have.

Pulled up at Poyungan Rocks for a wander. Steve wondered if the island is a sand island where did the rocks come from. You can drive around the rocks at low tide and there is a bypass too.

I thought the water was from the high tide but it was fresh - flowing down out of the hill.

On the other side of the bypass the water was flowing really well. All the white bits are pieces of pumice stone.

A few cars came down then a few went up - busy place.

We turned around and headed back. Will do the rest of the beach with Dave & Wendy.

Checked out a couple of camping areas on our way back. Some are nice grassy spots but it is all first in best dressed. They have a great spot.

Stopped to have a cuppa at Cornwells. Someone has left a heap of dingo scaring conduits behind. The march flies were hungry too. Luckily our red-capped Bushmans keeps them away. We stood on the dune watching the 4WDs zoom up and down the beach while we had our cuppas.

There is a fenced area for camping here too though we haven’t seen a dingo yet. On the news you would think they are all over the beach.

Headed back towards Eurong as the tide is coming in. Lots of frothy bits along the edge. The water is still dark along the edge.

At Eurong we rang Dave & Wendy to arrange meeting them on Sunday.

Headed back to camp. Got to the turn off where we went up to Lake McKenzie, this time we take another track straight back to camp so another track to mark on my map.

More campers have moved in. A big group in the first camping area are having a great time. Lots of loud voices and music and it sounds like they are playing a game or something as there are cheers on and off.

Unfortunately they didn’t see the quiet after 9pm as they partied on into the night but it didn’t worry us as they were having fun.