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Published: February 8th 2009
21/1/09 = Arriving at Rainbow
Woke up at the usual 6am...is just not normal for a person in their 20s! Rolled around in bed for as while, but then gave in at 6:45 and went to get showered and have breakfast. The usual museli, but didn't taste that good because milk suspiciously watery...and was already skimmed to start with. Finished getting ready then and headed out to catch greyhound bus at 9. Real shame to be leaving Noosa because it looks like a lovely place and only really had a day here; wish could stay a bit longer.
Got shuttle bus into town and greyhound bus came for us at 9:20. I sat by myself so Hat didn't have to, but bus got really full, so ended up sitting next to a Geordie guy called Andy. Was supposed to be catching up on 3hrs sleep, but ended up chatting about New Zealand through all journey. Andy had just been and we just about to go, so he gave us loads of good tips (thank you Andy). Bus got into Rainbow Beach at 12:30 and were v.impressed to find hostel (Pippies) was just across road = no need to carry
Site of the take off
Did paragliding from this point...beautiful.back-breaking bags. Went to check in and just got better and better:
1) Tribal Travel shop inside Pippies = free internet
2) Free BBQ tonight for all guests = awesome
3) Only 4 beds in room so got it to ourselves
4) Plenty of plug sockets
5) And saving the best until last....AIRCON...airconditioning in our room. Wow, has been a v.v.v long time since seen aircon. Love you my sweat stopping friend!
Automatically in love with Rainbow 😊 Went to desk to ask more about town and is such a small, small place. All hostels on one road next to each other and only 1 row of shops = town. Plenty to do though, like paragliding, hang-gliding, beach horse riding and sky diving. V.excited to be here. Asked straight away about booking horse riding, but couldn't get me in, so rang for paragliding instead. Deb booked on and I decided to leave it open and think on it overnight. $150, but sounded really good....needs some ruminating! Was such a lovely day that decided to go to beach after that. Had been raining in Noosa and on most of journey here, so sunshine in Rainbow Beach = just one more
Before the paraglide
Get ready for lots of photos. good thing about the place.
V.pretty beach when went down and v.quiet. Got a good spot next to sea and was great to just lay down; feels like has been a long time since been on a beach. Relaxing listening to music when heard a kid come screaming out of sea. Did a quick check for blood = negative = no shark attack. Looked a little closer at poor boy who was screaming to his Mum and used my Hyasynth Bucket ears to nosey in on what poor boy was wailing about = jellyfish sting. Poor lad. Cried for ages, but didn't seem to be a big deal on beach and actually heard his Mum tell him to "stop crying, everyone's looking". Jellyfish so common from this point and up rest of coast that people must get stung all time. That boy crying = me not getting in water! Can't believe people still were and couldn't believe it when 20mins later, exact same thing happened again, but to a little girl. Why are people still getting in water?
Went back to hostel at 3:15 to meet Hat and do walk to Sandblow. Rang paragliding man first and he
confirmed pick up at 9am and glide from sandblow, so no need to visit tonight because definitely see it tomorrow. Went to supermarket instead. Only one supermarket in town and was small and not that good. Great that had a cheap drink vending machine outside (all had a bit of a silent carling moment while drinking), but only got a few bits for sandwiches inside. Headed back to hostel then and couldn't believe it when found Hat's friend from uni (James) in spare bed in our room; such a small world. James and Hat had a catch up while me and Deb did our catch up on internet...this blog will be death of me!
Could see crowds starting to form for BBQ at 6:50, so made a swift exit off internet and nudged into a space at table (blog = v.important....but will never come before food...don't actually think anything comes before food?) BBQ man kept us all in suspense with his cooking, so chatted for a while and had a beer until was ready, which was really nice. As soon as he stepped away from BBQ with food, ditched beer and followed him. He made announcement and we all
formed an orderly queue (v.English). Didn't push right to front...didn't want to look too greedy. Got salad, potatoes, sausages and bread and all went down brilliantly. To quote Hat "somehow tastes better because it's free". Sat and had another beer then. Deb went to bed early and I stayed up a while longer chatting to James and Hat. Had a good laugh, then left them to catch up properly at 10:30. Flaked out straight away in bed because was so tired. Loving Rainbow Beach 😊
22/1/09 = Paragliding at Rainbow
5:30am wake up...'av a word! 5:30 is way too early for any human being to be waking up. Really need to get out of this bad habit of waking up early! Read for a while and then everybody got up at 7am. Went for free breakfast of cereal and toast (another great thing about Rainbow) and had the delicacy of cornflakes and whole milk. Reminded me of when I was little and Mum used to buy whole milk on a weekend and would have whole milk and cereal as a treat for breakfast. If was really lucky, sometimes had cream. Ahhh, the good old days. Really enjoyed
it. Got showered after that and got ready for 9am pick up by paragliding man. Still not decided if going to do it yet; will see what man says.
Paragliding man (Jean) came on time and told us about glide. Also told us was really windy today and might not be able to take me out because I'm too light...wow...too light...cool...never been too light for anything before; better stay off the whole milk and 4 slices of toast! He webt to pick some people up, I did bit of quick washing, then he came back for us 20mins later and took us to Carlo Sandblow. Sandblow was brilliant and the view was beautiful. Was like the sand dunes in Noosa, but had lots of people on and didn't quite feel as isolated/unique as Noosa sand dunes. View over ocean was amazing though. Deb filled in her consent forms, someone did a test run to check wind not too strong, then off she went. Had to do an unbelievably steep sand dune walk to take photos for Deb (although v.good for bum according to Jean) but looked amazing. Watched all people gliding in air and made mind up definitely wanted
to do it...fingers crossed wind not too strong for me.
Chilled out admiring view, then 30mins later, Deb came down and shouted me over for my turn - yeh! Filled in my forms, got strapped in and off I went. AMAZING. Such a brilliant feeling. Took off over edge and felt just like flying...like a bird, but without the flapping and feathers. Not one bit scary, but every bit brilliant. Were soaring over sand and ocean and such an amazing view over everything. Felt really calm and quite peaceful. Could have stayed up there forever and 30mins seemed to fly. Started heading up beach towards where Deb and Hat were driving Jean's car to meet us (good luck in that rust bucket girls), but they weren't there yet, so headed back out again. Did some really cool tricks, like Spiral gliding. Jean took us high above ocean, then came circling/spiralling down to ground really quickly until could feel G-force. Was awesome. Had been travelling back to land at 100kms per hr. Cool.
After 50mins in air passed, could see girls in car (don't know how they made it), so we came down and landed. Landing was really easy
and all I had to do was sit down; can manage that! Got our pictures, got some money out to pay Jean and then said our thank yous and goodbyes. Walked off into town then - well, the 5 shops - and girls told me all tale about driving Jean's van, including starting it with a screwdriver and no windows/aircon...ha! Didn't spend long in shops because too sandy and more importantly, too hungry, so headed back to hostel. Made sandwiches, had 10mins to chill out, then finished washing off (it's just work, work, work these days). Hat went for a little nap then and I really fancied beach for a while. Deb went on internet and I went for a little lay down on Rainbow beach. Was clouded over and not too hot = perfect laying down and listening to music weather. Could have laid there all day, but at 4, decided to go and use interent to do yet more of blog. Spent over 2 hrs on interent, but after much assistance from a teenage boy (typical computer whizz kid), managed to open up nightmare camera, copy all photos onto CD's and do bit of blog = result. Left
shop at 6:30 (because it closed) absolutely wiped out...been a hard days work today. That's what blog has become these days...hard work. But if I can't manage 2 hours work a day while all you other poor guys are slaving away at home, then is a bit of a travesty!...so I won't moan...too much.
Plodded back to hostel in zombie like state, in need of nourishment. All came to mutual decision that supermarkets rubbish and couldn't face cooking anyway, so went for treat option = chinese takeaway...yeh! Had to walk to it (which really didn't fancy) and then had to wait 40mins for it to be cooked; bit of a crazy take away. Was absolutely beautiful when it came though and well worth the wait. Got the usual chicken in black bean sauce - which tasted nothing like home - and did the usual of being greedy, as mine came in 2 dishes (rice and chicken). Ate most of it, then did the traveller thing of saving rest for tomorrow; my, how things change! Deb had problem with camera during dinner, so she rushed home to check it out. We finished eating, then had leisurely, full-bellied walk home. Got
washing in (what an exciting life I lead), then continued treats with tea and biscuits...sometimes it's just got to be done. Debs' memory card not working = bummer; sure camera shop will fix it though. Got shower, then got a nice early night at 10pm. Please sleep after 6am!
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