Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island

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After settling in we went to explore the small but very pretty town! We came across a camel tour and decided to see what that was like! We went on a camel trek along Rainbow beach which was great fun. I was on the leader camel called Galieth and Neil was behind on Gobie. The trip was very cheap as it was only the second trip for the camels on the beach (as the owner and camels had moved location) so as we were on our tour high up on the camels the owner mentioned that we were the guinea pigs!! But it was all ok as the camels behaved and it was a very funny experience!!

The next day after spending the morning on what seemed like our own private beach as there was noone arund for miles. The next day we were going to Fraser Island with 11 strangers in a four weel drive to spend 3 days two nights there so we went back to the hostel for our Fraser Island meeting. After watching a very amusing safety video saying that the sea was a no go area due to the shark breeding ground and full of jelly fish, that the Island was full of dingoes (native dangerous dogs bascially) and rules of the island etc we met our team. There were 4 girls 7 boys, Neil and I, Laoise, Angie and Damien from Ireland, Tim and Michael from Germany, Johan, Jelle and Anne from the Netherlands and Chris from Indiana. We had a great team as we all got along straight away. The first job was to get the shopping so we all decided to go to the supermarket which was a very funny event! We bought 7 loaves of bread for 3 days which i could not get my head around (but we actually got through 9 on the island!!!) We also stacked up on 24 litres of cheap wine! so we knew it was going to be interesting! We spent the evening enjoying the live music and getting to know each other.

The next morning with a very early start we packed up our 4wd and drove to Inlet point where we boarded the manta ray barge to to Fraser Island. The first spot was Eli Creek which was a fresh water stream. In the loo Hayley again saw a rather large huntsmen spider shedding its skin!! We had lunch and then went to see Maheno ship wreck and the Champagn pool at Indian head where we enjoyed a bathe!!

After spending to long in the pools we left later than scheduled leaving Hayley panicking as the tide was coming in and the beach was the road! It was all ok however and we picked a great spot on the beach to camp. We cooked mince meat and pasta dinner and opened the wine! After some drink and games including a game called chicken (Steph and Laura you no the one in newquay!!) we relaxed and starred at the beautiful star light sky! Angie suggested to pay the person that slept outside their tent 20dollars so being clever Neil, Chris, Johan, Angie and i thought it would be a good idea as we had not seen any dingoes and the sky was mesmerising! After some talking as all goes quiet Hayley notices a Dingo by Neils head!! Needless to say Angie, Johan and I reverted back to our tents!! Neil and Chris however stayed put though it was extremly amusing in the morning when we awoke to see the two scardy cats sleeping on the roof on the car!!!

The next day after breakfast we went to Lake Wabby which was a gorgeous lake with a huge sand dune that chris decided to roll down head over heels!! We drove inland to find our camp for the evening in the rainforest!! After dinner and drink we all sat around the table relaxing. We then decided to introduce George (basically a monkey teddy that i bough Neil for Valentines day and we have taken pictures of him through Oz haha) to the group which went down very well!! When we finally went to bed Chris and Neil decided to run around the pitch black rainforest with a torch that was flat!! Very sensible! The final day we headed to lake Mckenzie and took numerous photos of the group before travelling to the barge. Back on the mainland we got stuck in the sand and had to push the car which was very funny!!

Back at the hostel we went shopping for Michaels birthday cake. We also had showers for the first time in 3 days!!! We enjoyed the evening celebrating with Michael and listening to Rich playing the guitar till early hours of the morning!!

Our final day in Rainbow the gang thought it would be fun to go feed the dolphins so we all got up really early to go to Tin Can Bay and were not impressed to see half a dolphin called Mystique that had been attacked by sharks and to make it worse it was raining!

But in the afternoon we went on Matty Devitts Bush Walk to see the sand blow which was great! We were shown the native trees and plants and got to taste some. We walked up the sand blow and were taught about Australian history. We were shown why Rainbow Beach was given its name as it originated from the
varying minerals in the sand which caused the differing colours! We saw the sunset and spent the evening with the guitar man again.

Fraser Island has definately been our best experience so far!

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