Fraser Island is kind of a magical place when you talk to Queenslanders, everyone has been there and everyone loves it for their own reasons. It has more of a reputation than the other islands (Bribie, Stradbroke and Moreton) because it has more history, and because it is a bit farther away from the city. About 4 hours drive north, it is in the heart of Hervey Bay, which is the main whale migration path. It is also supposed to have the worlds purest breed of Dingoes, as the rest have been cross bred with domestic dogs. The island was absolutely gorgeous, with the clearest water you have ever seen in a lake, and a 5 star resort which was almost hidden in the jungle.
I had been planning my dirtbike trip to Fraser with a group of guys from DBW for almost 5 months and I couldn't wait! We finally arrived and met the other 16 riders over a cold beer and dinner. The next morning we woke up to the rain absolutely pouring down in the cold and I was bummed. But, by the time I had got out of bed and geared up the rain had stopped and the sun was shining! Only in Queensland...
We set out on the sandy trails around the island, riding the beaches, the lakes, even riding right upstream the middle of a flowing creek or two. We played in the waves, rode donuts on the beach, and some of the guys did wheelies for more than 5 kilometres at a time! When we were inland, we were averaging about 60km's an hour through sandy twisting tracks and dodging deadly tree roots - so much fun! On the first day we put down almost 280 kilometres around the island, and only scratched the surface of what there was to see. We had to stop in 4 different townships to re-fuel, as the dirtbikes only get about 80km's to a tank. At each township we would share stories and laugh, and the dingoes would come in hoping to get a free feed.
The second day we set off towards the other end of the island, only getting in about 150km's because we all had to catch the barge back to the mainland around 1pm. It was a fantastic trip, and though there were lots of crashes nobody got hurt and no bikes were busted. I can't wait to do it again! One of the guys on the trip was wearing a professional helmet camera, and got 5 hours of DVD quality video from the first day! It is fantastic to watch, and you guys can check out some clips from it here, though these aren't quite DVD quality:
Fraser Clip 1
Fraser Clip 2
Fraser Clip 3 (Wheelie King!)
Of course, click here to check out the full Fraser Island gallery!
My mate Nick owns and restores Studebakers, and his favorite thing in the world is drag racing! With almost the same group of guys who went to the Indy races last year, we loaded up the esky full of beer and headed out to Willowbank Raceway for the biggest drag racing event in Queensland, the Winter Nationals. It was a great time, we got to see a few cars explode and they raced some seriously fast motorcycles too. We even got to see two of the fastest V8 supercars (Whincup and Lowndes) go down the quarter mile twice, running an astounding 10.84 seconds at 134mph!
Click here to check out the full gallery!
1 comment:
No way!!! Someone actually got you to go to a drag race!?!? That cracks me up... I can almost hear the commentary in my head! LOL. Hope everything is going well for you guys!
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