Overview:
K'gari Great Walk.
It's outstanding!
It's mighty!
Good fun really.
The official walk rambles around the interior of K'gari, -aka Fraser Island- the largest sand island on the planet.
Far, far away from the hoards of chuckle fuck dumbass bogans in jacked up diesel 4WD's hooning along white sandy beaches and endless tour groups of bikini clad Euro backpackers clumped together 'seeing the sights', this walk took us through serene forests and wild fresh water environs.
Walking the interior is the one way to get away from the maddening crowds and enjoy what K'gari has to give.
This track blows past a surprisingly diverse array of ecological environments including freshwater lakes, towering rainforest trees, banksia heathlands and swamps chock full of noisy native critters.
It's sandy, wet, brimming with birds and dingoes and we only saw one other hiker in the 4 days we wandered around.
The official K'gari Great Walk is around 90 kilometres in length between Dilli Village in the south and Happy Valley in the north.
Parks website link here.
You can also go mad and choose your own adventure.
We (Shiny and Safari) walked a modified route of about 150 kilometres starting at the ferry barge drop off at Hook Point in the south of the island up to Dilli Village along the Jabiru Swamp fire trail to Dilli on the official path to the Valley of the Giants campsite.
Instead of continuing onto Happy Valley we hung a right onto a feeder track just north of the Valley of the Giants campsite to the eastern shore and walked down the beach to the shops and hotels at Eurong and onto Dilli and Hook Point again to pick up the barge back to Inskip and Rainbow Beach.
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| Map sourced from Wikipedia.org |
Getting to the trail:
Currently public transportation on the island is the missing link of the K'gari Great Walk. You have to get creative.
The traditional mode of operation is to travel to Rainbow Beach, hop the Manta Ray barge from Inskip Point ($10 cash per pedestrian passenger) to Hook Point on the island and be shuttled to Dilli Village (Dilli is a University of the Sunshine Coast research centre where you can rent cabins or tent sites, no shop or other facilities) via the island taxi service.
At the time of writing this blog post the taxi service on K'gari is non existent.
The typical plan on finishing the walk after trudging 90 kilometres to Happy Valley in the north is to get the same mythical, elusive taxi to propel you down the beach back to Hook Point and onto the barge.
So as this isn't happening no one else was walking the track.
Also, hence why we chose to just push up the 25 kilometres from Hook Point to Dilli on the Jabiru Swamp feeder trail and get on with it.
The 90 kilometres of signposted track is still there and there are plenty of other feeder trails connecting to the K'gari Great Walk route.
We left our vehicle at the car parking area next to the last large round-about at the end of Inskip Point Road, a few hundred metres from where the barge calls in at Inskip for the duration of our time on the island.
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Shiny's GPS tracking of our lollipop walking route heading from Hook Point in the south to the inland lakes and returning along the eastern coastline.
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| Shiny at the 'official' southern terminus near Dilli. |
Camping and navigation:
The campsites we stayed at as follows;
*First night- pouring rain had us booking a cabin at Dilli Village. Basic and clean. $160
*Second night- Lake Wabby walkers camp. Unfenced. Dingo proof boxes, loads of March flies, flat tent site, table bench. Toilets and water at the drive in carpark nearby.
*Third night- Valley of the Giants walkers camp. Unfenced. Dingo proof boxes, table bench, stupendous surroundings, unreal nocturnal wildlife sounds. Water via tap and rustic toileting facilities.
*Fourth night- Jabiru Swamp walkers camp. Unfenced. Dingo proof boxes, table bench, incredible star gazing. Water from a tricky collection point just under a kilometre north of campsite on the track.
No toileting facilities.
All campsites require a booking and payment, info
here.
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| Walking along Lake Benaroon. |
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| Sea eagle sighted on the beach walk. |
Water and resupply:
*Water can be sourced at the campsites and Dilli Village. I filtered all my water from the campsites and day use areas but you do you.
*We grabbed nosh and goodies during a lunch stop at Eurong. Good bakery, well stocked general store that will get you through, just don't look at the sticker prices too long or you may curl up and cringe.
It's a remote destination, prices reflect this.
*There is an IGA and Food works at Rainbow Beach.
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| Shiny dodging March flies and smashing it down the eastern shoreline. |
The good bits:
- Definitely do the side trips around the Valley of the Giants. The whopping great Tallow wood and Satinay trees are next level and worth the effort. The animal life after sunset in the area is astonishing. We had the campground to ourselves, kinda. Birds, gliders, lizards, bouncy things and a reminder that life is rich and lush in the wilderness.
- Piss easy navigation. Blindingly obvious. Signposted trails and we utilised All trails and the topo map provided on the Parks website.
- Gentle undulation, no steep crazy climbs, just chill and push on.
- Birdlife is varied and prevalent. Constant birdsong and beaked critters sneaking a peek.
- Constantly varied biomes that you walk through. Strangler figs and piccabeen palms one moment then dry sclerophyll forest and onto banksia heathland. Around the lakes there was a plethora of sundews and carnivorous plants. Fantastic. Brush box and Kauri feature heavily and loam over the wee walker below. Big buggers.
- The variety of fungi and the colours they displayed had me squatting down and having a look see constantly. Best not to touch or eat.
- No one else about. It's rare to be rocking along a trail on the Queensland coast and sight no poo tickets or rubbish or anyone in the camps.
Things to know:
*The dingoes we sighted were around the lakes and along the eastern coast. Where there are people and people keen to feed the dingoes they will lurk.
Otherwise we were left quite alone and undisturbed.
*Walking down the eastern coastline wasn't too bad. Loads of 2 tonne utes flying past but no one charged us or threw abuse our way. A fuck ton of plastic refuse on the beach.
*All Trails mapping app has the entire K'gari Great Walk available to download for offline use but does not feature the Jabiru Swamp Track or the alternate down to Pile Valley or any of the other feeder tracks on the island.
We cross referenced with the Topographical map provided on the Parks website
here.
*There is a smidgen of Telstra mobile reception on the high points and around Eurong.
*The official rule is that the walk is supposed to be done with at least 2 people due to well publicised dingo activity of late.
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| The fungi was next level on K'gari. |
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| Crested terns. |
Thoughts:
I had a blast!
K'gari is far more varied and rich in flora and landscapes than I thought possible.
It's a very popular recreational space for residents of South East Queensland and international visitors and I fully understand why.
While the majority of the punters sit behind the wheel of a diesel spewing ute (I have a diesel spewing ute too by the way so not having a hypocritical rag on 4WD drivers) and drive, drive, drive the roads of the island, those that choose to quietly step out and leave the crowds and wander the sandy trails may just get a peek of what else this alluring green chunk of coastal goodness has to offer.
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| There was a bit of water along the Jabiru swamp track. |
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| Jabiru swamp. |
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| Hook point barge drop off site. |
*All photos by Shiny & Safari.
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