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Rainbow Beach (24th - 25th May)
Arrived at Hervey Bay coach station at about 6.45am and had to wait until 8 for our connection to Rainbow Beach. Both places are good for connecting to Fraser Island but apparently Rainbow Beach is less built up and a nice quiet place with unsurprisingly a beautiful beach so chose it over what the Rough Guide described as "God's waiting room"!! We both felt rough thanks to having had very very little sleep but managed to find an ATM and Mc Donalds for hash brown sustenance! :o) The next bus took about an hour and a half and dropped us outside Pippies, our base for the next couple of nights. Really nice place, recommended by Dan's friend Tapping and although it was really busy when we arrived as lots of people were waiting to go on the 4x4 camping trip to Fraser Island that had been cancelled that day as a result of the mental weather, normally it probably only had about 30 people or so staying. Our 4 bed dorm was spacious and big windows so a big improvement on Magnetic Island although worryingly smelt like cheese/yeast! Went for an explore to the beach, seriously rough sea but the waves were amazing, absolutely huge and quite scary! Stopped at the supermarket on the way back for a few supplies including bacon for bacon sarnies and the most expensive cold n flu tablets ever (22 dollars, about 11 quid!!) as I was starting to suffer from all the air con, disturbed sleep and tough lifestyle we are havign to endure at the moment ;o) HAHA! Cooked up a treat back at the hostel before I crashed out all afternoon and Dan entertained himself! Booked a trip to Fraser Island for the following day, only a day tour thanks to lack of time and money but see most of the big sights and free lunch, transfers etc. Headed up to Carlo Sandblow about 4ish with Marie, a French girl we met on the Greyhound and an American girl called Jamie who knew the way hence we befriended her! It was well worth the trek, the views were awesome. It was like a mini desert, rolling sand dunes in all directions but with trees growing out of the sand and a view to the sea one way and a beautiful sunset over the river in the other direction. Sat there for quite a while before we started to get cold and walked back for dinner. Rainbow Beach is wicked but there is NOTHING to do in the evenings other than drink goon which isn't really that appealing so succombed to the free movie being shown in the lounge, an awful Vin Diesel film called The Pacifier (really really don't recommend it!!) and having a fairly early night.
Got picked up for Fraser Island around half 8 by a crazy 4x4 bus thing! Had a 10km drive to the barge crossing at Inskip Point and the crossing took under 10mins, before being let loose on Fraser Island. Fraser is the world's largest sand island and a world heritage listed/UNESCO site. Amazing how much nature, rainforest, types of animals are all on this island which is about 120km from North to South and about 20km East to West (and of course sand!) Started off with morning tea at the one resort there before going to Central Station (neither Central nor a Station so unsure where the name comes from!) which was the main settlement there for many years and has an amazing patch of rainforest and clear water creeks. Next we drove down to the bumpiest tracks to Lake Mackenzie which was spectacular. It is a massive lake, formed in a very strange way (as you would normally expect water to seep through sand to the water table) with the clearest turquoise water and completely freshwater so if you were thirsty you could happily drink it! Spent about an hour there, I braved the water for a swim but was freeeezing so settled for sunbathing :o) Went back to the resort for a huge buffet lunch and next up was the eastern coast road where there were a number of highlights in fairly close proximity - the Maheno shipwreck, a huge skeleton of a ship that is marooned on the beach, Coloured Sands, a very pretty cliff face of sand that is pretty much what it says it is and Eli Creek, another freshwater creek through the rainforest that you could swim along and end up back at the beach (though you wouldnt want to swim in the sea thanks to sharks and ridiculously strong currents and undertows). We were also lucky enough to see 3 wild dingos. Apparently the dingos on Fraser Island are the purest in Australia as they haven't bred with domesticated dogs, so we just look at them and don't encourage or bait them - otherwise you can get a very hefty fine! By this time we had to commence the long trip back up to the barge crossing (although the distance wasn't much, sand is not a great surface to drive on and had to crawl along at very slow speeds in parts) but it was pretty cool driving along the beach with the waves crashing down next to us! Arrived back at Pippies around half 5. Snacked, read and played Solitaire for a while and took advantage of the fact the hostel was much quieter this evening. Couldn't be bothered to cook so went to the only cafe open in Rainbow Beach for dinner! Had gourmet burgers for 6 quid and were so full we couldn't move! Came back to the hostel and were wondering what the hell we were going to do as it was only quarter to 8.... the place was dead, ended up meeting our new room mates though and chatting to them for ages. Really nice girls from Essex who were telling us all about LA and other travelling stories, recommending places to stay and things to do. Crashed out about midnight in the end and getting the bus to Noosa in the morning! :o)
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