What makes Wathumba the most magical place on K’gari

There once was a convoy of fourbies that arrived on K’gari (Fraser Island). These six vehicles had NSW number plates and stubborn attitudes. The convoy set rubber to the sands of Fraser on the 27th, but with a forecast of strong winds and monsoonal conditions for the week, three of the six vehicles called it quits and left on the 28th, dwindling ten people down to four.

But, the trip must go on. Our remaining friends decided to brave the weather out on K’gari. Two camping with us, while two others stayed in the comfort of the Kingfisher Bay resort.

We made a wise decision to move our camp spot from Eli Creek on the east coast, to a magical place called Wathumba Lake. Wathumba is situated on the western side of the island. With the strong winds forecasted to damage the south east coast of K’gari, we intelligently decided to shelter ourselves from the winds.

On the way to Wathumba

 

Inland tracks

 

Welcome to Wathumba.

Just as we suspected, when we made it to Wathumba there was no wind, just a gentle breeze passing through the trees and over the water.

   

Hanging about at Wathumba campsite.

 

After a delightful night’s sleep in Wathumba’s sheltered campsite, we woke to the lake bed almost completely exposed by low tide.

First, we went hand fishing for toadies, then we made some breakfast and decided to leave the swags set up at Wathumba for our day trip to Sandy Cape, the most northern point of the Island.

Sandy Cape

Top of Fraser Island.

 

Unsure if you are allowed to ride bikes here…

High tide struck at 11am, right when we got to Sandy Cape, so weaving in and out of cars on the tight tracks to and from the cape became difficult. We managed to safely get back down the coast to Waddy Point.

Waddy Point

Upon leaving Waddy point, we overheard others using the UHF chatting about a shark fisherman in the middle of the beach.

Shark bait.

On the way back from Waddy Point our tummies rumbled as we zipped in and out of the sandy tracks. We returned to our swags sitting right where we left them, ripped out the camp chairs and sat around as our dinner cooked.

In the morning we awoke to a few dingoes hanging about Wathumba Lake.

Good morning fellas

It was New Years Eve, and Bec unfortunately woke up with hundreds of red bumps. Bec was scratching away with no relief for the itchy bumps, and the two of them decided it would be wise to leave the island.

And then there were two.

Mark and I headed back to Kingfisher Bay Resort to see our friends for New Years drinks.

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Luckily we were blessed with a ripper of a sunset to end 2015.

We woke on the first morning of 2016 in our swag rolled out on the gravel of the Kingfisher Bay parking lot.

Read about what happened next here.

December 31, 2015

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