K'Gari Epic Women's Hike

K'Gari ( which means "paradise") is the largest sand island in the world measuring 150km by 15km and the only known place where rainforest grows on sand. And here's a bit more from my Lonely Planet travel guide: "Sculpted from wind, sand and surf, the striking blue freshwater lakes, crystalline creeks, giant dunes and lush rainforests of this gigantic sandbar form an enigmatic island paradise unlike anywhere else." Indeed!

Based on what I had read about the island as well as speaking to people who had been to the island, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to go and not just to drive around on which a lot of people do but to get up close and personal with the island by hiking through it. About a year ago, I contacted Jane at K'Gari Walking Tours expressing interest in booking two of their 3-day hikes. Each hike departure was limited to 6 walkers and for safety reasons, they could only book me onto a walk once there were other hikers booked (meaning you cannot take on these hikes as a solo hiker which I understand). We kept in touch over several months and when I followed up with her a couple of months ago, she let me know about an upcoming Women's Walk to celebrate international Women's Day and invited me to join the group which I immediately said "yes!" to...

Six hikers were booked but one dropped out just before the hike so there were five of us and Jane...I got to hike with Subecha, Michelle, Sarah, and Margie and what an adventure we had! In addition to the mind-blowing natural beauty of the island, we navigated leaches, snakes, about a zillion biting insects, crossing water over the walking track that came up to our bums, meeting dingos, pouring rain, swimming in crystalline Lake McKenzie - wow!

Here was the itinerary for the 2 nights and 3 full days experience:

My 3-day adventure started with a 7am pickup from the caravan park I was staying in in Urangan and is also where I wound up leaving Vinnie for the 2 nights I was away on K'Gari. Once the group of us was fully assembled, Jane gave us an overview of how the 3 days would flow and before we knew it we were packed into a 4WD and headed to the barge that would take us to K'Gari!

K'Gari is 100% 4WD and it wasn't long until we were gliding down the narrow roads of soft sand...I reckon we were also lucky as it has been very wet on the East Coast of Australia during my first 3 months here...The sun was out and shining on our departure and there was rain over our 3 days of hiking but during the day the rain usually wouldn't last more than 10-15 minutes. The real downpour for several hours thankfully came overnight while I was tucked up inside my tent!

It took about 45 minutes to reach the dropoff point for where we would begin our first day of hiking. Our hike began at M10 along the K'Gari Great Walk Track where we walked along a blackbutt-forested ridge before descending into a series of corridors between the high dunes which are blanketed in rainforest. This area is known as the Valley of the Giants and contains some of the largest living trees on K'Gari.

We camped at the Valley of the Giants walkers campground the first night. When we arrived at camp, all of the tents were set-up for us and there were snacks to munch on (cheese, crackers, fruit) and a beer to wash away the dust from the day! And we all took turns cooking and cleaning the evening meals which were already prepared and just needed to be cooked.

My tent for the night was the single person tent pictured above with very fine mesh screening to keep out the bugs although I did have to evict a wasp the first night and a large cockroach that kept tickling the back of my neck with it's antennas the second night...Nature! Our total distance hiked the first day was 14-15km.

Day 2 - Our day started with breakfast and spotting a resident dingo who didn't threaten us and stayed about 20-30m away from the campsite but hung around checking us out. We learned that there are two types of dingos on the island: the "wild" ones and the "brazen" ones. The wild ones generally keep their distance and are wary of humans. The "brazen" ones have been fed by humans over a number of years and have become habituated to approaching humans expecting to be given food. The one we met this morning seemed to be one of the wild ones.

Today's hike was from the Valley of the Giants to Lake Garawongera and was 15+km. From the Valley of the Giants we passed through stands of brushbox and satinay trees and rainforest as well as open forest and heathland. Jane wasn't with us on Day 2 (she was on Day 1 and 3) and she did tell us to watch for some overgrown brush early in the day as well as "some water over the walking track" but to not leave the track. After about 1km we came to the overgrown brush that was actually difficult to pass through in several areas and kept grabbing and catching my hiking poles making it difficult to move through...This area lasted for 2-3km and I was very glad to get through this section!

I had been noticing a stinging pain type sensation inside my right shoe for some time by this point and once we cleared the overgrown brush, I decided it was time to have a closer look and discovered that I had a leach feasting on my foot through my sock. We got the leach off however my foot bled for about 2 hours following this and we finally had to elevate my leg and wrap it in band-aids and gauze to get it to stop bleeding. Fortunately, one of the women on the hike is a physician so I was in good hands! I did not know that leaches inject some type of anti-coagulant into their victims to keep the blood flowing!

Not long after my leach discovery we came upon the "water over the track." I was the only one to remove my shoes and socks to wade through this area and it was about 300m (900 feet) of water to wade through and it got as high as my bum so we were a little surprised and quite happy that we were together as a group instead of a single person freaking out.

Within minutes of emerging from the water section, Michelle stepped on a snake and we all came rushing up to investigate. Fortunately, the snake was just as scared as Michelle was and took off without inflicting any injuries but the whole group was a bit rattled the rest of the hike.

We camped at the Lake Garawongera walkers camp on the 2nd night and enjoyed a swim before dinner. FYI, the lake water has a tinge to it from the tea trees that grow on it's banks. We also took a number of incredible pictures with the full moon that evening before several hours of rain settled in...

Day 3 - Our last day hiking was lighter in distance than the first two days clocking in at around 8km. Today was comprised of a number of shorter hikes with 4WD transfers between each short hike. We hiked out of Lake Garawongera for about 3km along a rainforest ridge before being transferred to our next walk via 75 mile beach. From here we passed through Eurong (a very small village) and then on to Central Station where we walked the boardwalk along Wanggoolba Creek and then continued on through Pile Valley past an impressive stand of satinay trees where our trusty driver Bob then transferred us to a short walking track to a secret beach at Lake McKenzie with it's impressive silica sand and gorgeous, crystal clear water. After about 45 minutes of playing in the water, we then headed towards the ferry terminal and the Sunset Bar for a refreshing beverage before we caught the 5pm barge back to River Heads.

I learned a lot about Australian trees over the three days and am getting better at identifying the following: Satinay, Blackbutt, Scribbly Gums (my new favorite!), Piccabeen Palm, and Brush Box...What an amazing three days jam-packed with natural beauty, a variety of wildlife encounters (especially Day 2!!!), and a group of epic adventuring women to share it all with! Loved it!

If you're thinking of visiting K'Gari and looking for a pack free hike, get in touch with Jane at K'Gari Walking Tours and she'll get you sorted!