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A Fraser Island hiking trip

Lake McKenzie (Boorangoora)

In the middle of the day the lake is busy with tourists from 4wd's and tour buses but it is still one of the most beautiful places on earth to me. The water is so clear and refreshing. The sand is white and soft.
We had a quick look at the lake then found the bushwalkers camp which is just off the track from the car park and toilets to the lake. It is close to facilities (toilets and water) but far enough that tourists don't notice it's there or bother to come and have a look. The Lake McKenzie walkers camp has a fence around a large area of light blackbutt forest to keep the dingoes out and about 15 - 20 campsites each semi-seperated from the others by some trees. They have a wooden platform for gear or sitting on and a food locker which you must keep all food and rubbish in. There is a cleared area for a tent as well.

Three things to note:

• There are no rubbish bins on the Great Walk, you are expected to take out everything you bring in.
• Although it is easy to assume the tent sites will be soft sand it isn't that soft that you should leave out your sleeping mat! Lesson learnt the hard way!
• Water at Lake McKenzie and most other hikers camps needs to be treated before drinking. We use Aquatabs but there are many water purifying options available, including boiling, Steripens etc

After we set up our tent and stowed the food we went down to the lake for a swim. It was refreshingly cold and nice and sunny but still a lot of people around. *Videos and pics. Later in the day we also walked for while around the edge of the lake which peaceful.
The vegetation around this perched lake consists of tall blackbutt forests and wet sclerophyll. We saw a lot of birdlife, a goanna and something that may have been a bush rat or somekind of marsupial mouse / rat.
By late afternoon there were two other groups of hikers in the camp. I would have thought there would be more due to it being school holidays.
Around five we put some water on for a hot drink and to soak our home made dehydrated meal of chili con carne. * see here for food ideas. We use a Trangia stove which takes longer than a gas one but we like it for the ease of finding the fuel. One of the other groups in camp had spent their whole spare day at Hervey Bay chasing down the gas canister for their stove. Our dinner was delicious! But we discovered one reason our packs were so heavy.. there was enough to feed four people. So we kept in the billy, in the food locker and assumed it would stay edible for breakfast. (which it did).
Later that night we went for a walk to the lake hoping to spot some nightlife. We found yet another problem with our gear. We had bought a wind up torch / mobile phone charger mostly for the charger but when we were cutting weight we left only that and a led headlamp. So our walk involved me having the windup torch, which was supposed to hold charge for 30 minutes of light but actually needed almost constant winding. So much for sneaking up on wildlife. Despite this the lake was lovely at night and I can't remember when I last saw so many stars.
We were a bit surprised at how little space our new '2 man' Blackwolf tent had when we turned in for the night but looking at others hiking tents that seems normal and I am happy with the weight. What I wasn't happy about was leaving my sleeping mat at home! I had very little sleep that night and Tiz will never again proclaim that sleeping mats do nothing to make the ground feel better.
I was out of the tent as soon as it was light but Tiz had to be coaxed out at 7. We were the last ones to leave the camp that morning and I think in future I will try for mostly cold breakfasts due to it taking too long to get going every morning we were there.

Other interesting sites: Free Stock Photos, Australian Heritage Places, Fraser Island