“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there”
Yogi Berra
Its impossible to get lost on a beach where the only choice of route is to drive up or down. However, the choices of which specific part of the beach to drive upon were crucial to the survival of Furd Exploder. The most treacherous terrain were the pools of water with a layer of pumice pebbles floating on the surface, which gave an illusion of solid ground. Cursing my own perversive need to take photo's for a travel blog, I slipped and slid over the black volcanic rocks to take a handsome shot of Furd at his most adventurous. However, I wasn't the only one snarling.
“That they may have a little peace, even the best dogs are compelled to snarl occasionally.”
William Feather
A large notice proclaimed that "An Aggressive Dingo frequents this area". Gulp! Earlier in the day we had watched a four legged aggressor harassing and nipping at the heels of a couple walking on the beach. They had waved umbrellas in the dingo's direction but it didn't achieve much, as they kept walking, it kept stalking. Luckily an observant ranger zoomed over and parked a one tonne Toyota truck between man and beast. This pretty much put an end to the shinanigans and the dingo, in a hang dog type of way, shrugged off the loss of lunch and trotted off down the beach. The ever dutiful ranger followed and ran interference between groups fishing and walking for the next couple of miles until the hunter and the hunted were lost in the haze of the sea mist. I made a note to self that I would delay my resolution to get up early and take a long run in paradise until we were back on the mainland.
“There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.”
Bette Davis
I just didn't see it? Where was the champagne? This was a mystery I needed to solve, so down we climbed, gathering splinters from the wooden walk way along the way. The sun blazed down glinted off the clear azure pools, the iridescent ripples of sunlight forced me to squint. But I still wasn't making the champagne connection.
Blinking and peering we negotiated the barnacles to take a refreshing dip in the captured clear waters of the Coral Sea. Suddenly the calm waters of the pools were overcome with a set of huge foaming waves, the bubbles cascaded over the rock ledges. Finally nature's champagne as promised. 
When life throws you champagne the only decent thing to do is dive right in. The water along this coastline has to be the clearest I have ever seen. The visibility is incredible and being offset by the golden sands makes it even more amazing.
We seemed to spend so much of our time looking along the beach staring or out to sea. Luckily I still have a good eye for spotting whales and we marveled at several humpbacks leaping and breaching far out on the horizon. I strained my eyes to see if Migaloo was amongst this group of aquatic acrobats. Migaloo is an aboriginal word meaning "white fella" and in 1991 an all-white albino humpback was first sighted on the east coast. Sadly scientists suspect that Migaloo has skin cancer but in 2006 a white calf was spotted near Byron. So the "white fella" legacy will live on.
The beauty of this island is inspirational and the pristine environment had animated Greg. We had hundreds of images of this wonderful place. Time to go take a few more at Eli Creek.
Every day over 1000 people visit Eli Creek, which is the largest creek of the many watersheds on Fraser. It was easy to see why it was so popular. A wooden walkway takes you a few hundred meters up river then down the river bank into the fast flowing clear water. Every year four million litres of water flow down the creek which makes it the perfect natural 'lazy river'.
The kids were in heaven floating along with ferns on either banks until they popped out onto the beach. They soon dispensed with climbing out and using the boardwalk, although walking up the creek against the current was exhausting. As the sun slide towards the late afternoon we headed home with happy hearts.
“A river seems a magic thing.
A magic,
moving, living part of the very earth itself.”
Laura Gilpin
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