Today we met at the 4WD vehicles at 7 AM for a final safety meeting and to pack them. This lasted three and a half hours. Longest morning of my life. We fiiiiiinally get on the road and drive over to the ferry, which takes us across the gap to the island. Thought it would be a long ferry ride but it only lasted about 5 minutes. The ferry hits the shore and the ramp goes down then we drive off like we're storming the beaches of Normandy. There are 8 vehicles, 8 people in each, and 2 had the guides driving. We ended up splitting into 2 groups of 4 because it's easier to manage the roads and the campsites could only accomodate 30-ish each. We drove on the beach for several KMs, then through a tiny town's paved streets, then through some rank rugged sand trails up to Lake McKenzie. We stopped here for lunch and then got to beach it and swim for a couple hours. This is a pretty tiny lake by my standards, seeing as how I could swim across this in about 10 minutes, but it was beautiful and refreshing after all that time in the truck.
We finished up there and drove over to a National park rain forest (they seem to be everywhere in Australia) and walked the boardwalk around what's known as the "invisible creek" due to it's super clear, shallow water. As we were leaving the tour guides informed us that nearly every deadly snake and spider in the country can be found around that creek. Thanks for the heads up, guys.
From here we headed to our camp site, which had some tarps strung up over a cooking area already. We set up our tents and cooked up some tasty steak and potatoes for dinner. Then came the drinking. We had stocked up heavily for the 3 days with beer and after supper we got into it in a big way, as did everyone with their respective booze. Sociables were played in a circle of about 35 (with the most confusing rules ever) and good times were had by all. The night finished with easily the most uncomfortable sleep I have ever had. Sand is in no way a soft substance when it's acting as the floor of your tent.
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