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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Rainbow Beach.....
...at night so admittedly not very rainbowy but the the coloured sands look like the one's on Fraser Island during the day! After the Reef we headed back down south a bit to Rainbow Beach where we'd booked on a two day, one night tour to Fraser Island since none of us can drive a 4WD (I can't even drive a normal car!) & any "roads" on Fraser Island are all sand so don't think the rental car would survive!
Rainbow Beach is a really small but nice place although pretty much everyone there is only there to go to Fraser Island so there were a ton of 4WD's flying round the place. There's also a Wall of Shame in one of the hotels near the beach with photo's on it showing all the cars that have been destroyed or sunk in to the sand, either by the waves or the tide coming in when they tried to drive along the beach at any time other than low tide - didn't get a chance to see the board though as we weren't in Rainbow Beach for very long, also didn't see anyone getting stuck!
The "tour bus" to Fraser Isalnd was no ordinary tour bus it was a 4WD beast of a bus from the outside but was just like any
Cockatoo in the hostel garden in Rainbow Beach
He kept posing & showing off in front of my camera...a little Zoolander in the making I think! old coach on the inside, it was a bit weird but pretty comfy considering we were getting bumped around all over the place once we were on Fraser Island.
We got the ferry over to Fraser & then started the drive up 75 Mile Beach & after about 5mins driving along the beach we saw our first Dingo, only a young one but pretty cute, I can completely understand why people want to feed them as they do look just like domestic dogs & I'm a complete sucker for dogs as you all know (actually I'm a sucker for pretty much all cute furry animals!)
First stop for the day was a walk across a massive Sand Blow (about a mile or so over huge sand dunes), in the roasting sun wearing flip flops, not the most enjoyable stroll on the beach I've had but it was well worth it as at the end of it was the gorgeous Lake Wabby.....very green, clear inviting water (might have just looked that good because of the struggle to get there though!) that we got to swim in for about half an hour....it was definitely needed!
In the afternoon we
went into the Rainforest covered part of the Island for a walk through it alongside the Invisible River - the water is so clear that it actually does look as if there's no water there at all just the sandy riverbed. I've still not seen any snakes yet though, I'm a bit disappointed, I can't come all the way to Australia without seeing something that can kill me! (just don't want to see it too closely!)
The last stop for the day was at another lake, Lake McKenzie, but this time I only had to walk about 50m's to get to it so it was much easier, still just as beautiful when you get there though. I had another swim this time in the amazing clear blue water & gave my skin a mini spa treatment with the sand as when it's wet it acts as a great exfoliant & apparently makes your skin look younger so I looked about 12 years old when I got back to the bus!
We stayed that night on Fraser Island at the Eurong resort which was nothing fancy but had good food & a bar so I was happy. We had
Lake Wabby
Worth the trek over the sand blow, gorgeous emerald water to get up ridiculously early the next day though to get breakfast before we set off again (nobody in Australia seems to know the meaning of the words lie in...don't know what's wrong with them!)
I'm glad I did manage to get out of bed as first thing I got a chance to get on a tiny plane that only seats 7 people to take a 15min flight over the Island & it only cost about 24 pounds, couldn't say no. It was worth every penny, by far the best view you can get of Fraser, especially 75 Mile Beach as you can almost see every mile of it from the air. I even saw sharks in the shallows of the ocean when we were coming back in to land on the beach & one of them was at least a couple of metres long....definitely wasn't going anywhere near the sea after that as I was told they were probably Tiger Sharks which are officially classed as maneaters!
After my flight in the tiniest plane I've ever seen I got back on the tour beast, sorry bus, and we drove up the beach again going past the coloured
sands (which you also get along the shore at Rainbow Beach) & a shipwreck thats been there for decades, up to Indian Head which we climbed up to get a great view of the beaches (probably the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen) & all the sharks, turtles & rays in the water below. We even saw a couple of shark feeding frenzies...once again I'm definitely not going in the sea for a quick swim!
Our driver (kind of like the Crocodile Dundee of 4WD buses, probably in his 40's with a pierced nipple & long hair!) then decided that he was going to get us over the back of the beach in the 4WD beast bus & take us to the Champagne Rocks, the only safe place to go in the sea on Fraser Island as they are large rockpools that sharks have never (yet!) been seen near. We went for a swim & lounged around there for about an hour, there were lots of tiny fish swimming round in them too & the water was so clear you could see them pretty clearly, would have been good to snorkel in.
The last stop on the trip
was to Eli Creek where we walked inland from the beach for about 10minutes where we got in the Creek & walked back to the beach in the creek! The water was warm & crystal clear, but a bit deeper than I thought in places though so 'cos I'm too short my skirt got a bit wet! Also saw my first big spider since I got here, not as big as the one Martin showed us all the photo of but big enough for me & I'm very glad it was outside & nowhere near where I would be sleeping that night.
After our last dip on the Island in Eli Creek we headed back to Rainbow Beach on the beast bus again!
Next stop is back towards Brisbane & then southwards to Sydney hopefully in time for Australia Day & the fireworks over the harbour!
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