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Day 68 - Tin Can Bay / Rainbow Beach
So, it was agreed, we would get up at 6.30 to go and feed the dolphins in the bay. Why was it then that we were both wide awake at 4.30?! And then, just as we were dropping back off to sleep the dawn chorus struck up and that was the end of that!
Morning!!
We jumped on the bikes and headed in the direction of the Yacht Club to catch the morning dolphin feeding which a group of volunteers have been doing for years and years and years! We’re not quite the first ones there, the dolphins, a volunteer and a couple of other people have beaten us to it! Mystique and Harmony are today’s father and son dolphins! They think Mystique is about 17 years old and Harmony about 18 months. I get in the water with the dolphins as they swim around in front of us and then back out into the bay, this goes on continuously. They are wild dolphins so although they are fed daily by the volunteer team they discourage patting and advise that Mystique can be a bit stroppy if you approach
him so best to let him approach you! We get plenty of dolphin kisses blown up at us which is lovely and with all that going on in front of you it’s easy to forget the water is pretty bloody cold at that time of the morning!! Darryl has been photographing the Pelicans aswell as the dolphins and there’s quite a lot of activity in the bay now with the Dolphin Cruise vessel arriving and lots and lots of tourists all stood behind me and the others that were brave enough to get in the water from the start! At 8am they start the feeding which means getting out of the water and going to get a pot of fish! By the time I get up the banking the queue is enormous but I patiently wait for my bucket and get back down to Mysti who by now I’ve got quite palsy with! I’d been stood next to Steve, a volunteer feeder who has been coming each morning since October. Both of the dolphins know his voice and come to him quite often, which means they come near me! Yippee! There’s a lot of silt in the water this morning
so it’s not very clear and the dolphins don’t much like it. We give it a good go at moving it along and you can just tell that they appreciated it with the lovely look they give you and the little nudge every now and then! A wonderful experience and one we’re hoping to repeat tomorrow!
We cycled off along the walkways towards the opposite end of Tin Can Bay. It was still really early so the birds were singing away in the trees and there were only the dedicated walkers and fishermen out and about! We chatted to a couple of characters fishing at Crab Creek, they were a hoot! One had caught a Pike but was looking for a larger ‘friend’ or he was going to throw it back in! We cycled on further and by the time we’d come back past he was gone so we figured it never found that friend and the pike lived to swim another day!
Back at camp we loaded up the sandwiches for lunch and sped off to Rainbow Beach again for a bit more sand driving! This time we left the bikes at the caravan and we let
the tyres down to about 18 psi to give PIE the best possible chance of coping! Driving on sand is pretty hairy, not least because a lot of other beach drivers are bloody mad! It’s not just the sand that you need to contend with but the partially submerged rocks, the driftwood strewn around the beach, the pedestrians, dogs and then there’s the sea! It’s all very unpredictable! Darryl settles at a good speed and we’re soon in a convoy heading towards the coloured sands. We pull up for a couple of photo opportunities and meet up with a group from Noosa Safaris. The penny drops, you can drive from Noosa up to Rainbow Beach via, you guessed it, the beach! We wondered where everyone had been heading yesterday! Where we’ve pulled up it looks like the sand cliffs have given way and a cave has formed and where the coloured sand has met some water it’s turned to a yellow, orange paint! Fantastic! We continued on our way and at times had to dip into the ocean because of the driftwood on the beach! Yikes! We were looking out for the 4WD track just before Double Island Point, you
can’t drive around so instead you must cross to the other side via the Leisha ORV Boarded Ramp. We missed it first time round so drove a little further on but the sand tracks were really deep so we pulled up to ask advise from a couple parked at the side of the beach. They confirmed the only way around was via the track and laughed themselves silly when we joked that Tom Tom wasn’t sure where the entrance to the track was!! We turned around and parked by the entrance then wandered back to a family fishing in the ocean. June and Colin were a delight and very friendly. Darryl chatted to Colin about general driving on the sand and also about driving inland within our tour to get a sight of the real Oz. Everyone is talking about the increased fuel costs and how hard it will hit people. June told me about a book she has been writing and will publish in the next 6 months called “East, West and through the Centre”. It’s her 4 month travel blog she’s now brought to life in a book! What a fantastic idea! We’ll certainly look out for that
as I’m sure it will make very interesting reading for travellers and Australians alike. June also tells us about an area called Lawn Hill and the Gregory River, it’s one of her favourite ever places and she recommends it for a visit - we must remember that when we’re around the Mount Isa area. We bid the family happy travelling and trot back to the car to make the next journey round to Double Island Point where there’s a Lighthouse we can visit. The Leisha track is a very deep sand track but we navigate our way through it and out the other side. We turn left and park up by the rocks at the bottom of the hill where presumably there’s a lighthouse! You can’t see it from either side of the island at all! It’s a 2.2km walk, on sand and up hill but it’s pretty easy going to be fair and we’ve grabbed our lunch so we can have a chill out at the top! Halfway up we see what was probably another Brahminy Kite and there’s a thud and rustle in the bushes, probably a wallaby! There are loads of birds singing away, the Whipbirds are
back teasing us again - we still can’t get a sight of them! We pass the lighthouse keepers cottages, who my we say have a much better life these days and some fabulous surroundings to work in when the weather is this blissful! I’m not sure what we’d make of it in Cyclone season! The view from the top is awesome and you can look back over Rainbow Beach from where we’ve driven and across to the Carlo Sandblow which we will climb later this afternoon! Down below in the ocean we spot a couple of dolphins and a turtle! What a glorious lunch spot we’d chosen.
Back down at beach level we finish our visit playing in the rock pools and then decide to go find the wreck of the Cherry Venture, a cargo vessel which was beached in a cyclone back in ’73. Well I didn’t see it Hun, did you?! How the heck can we miss a shipwreck?! No idea, but we did, twice! We drove as far as the Freshwater track that we’d been down yesterday and then thought it would be nice to drive back along the beach the way we’d come. We made
it through the Leisha track with no problem but then what’s that we see when we get to the other end of it, no, it couldn’t possibly be …. WATER!! What!! It’s nowhere near high tide time, what’s going on! It’s only 2pm and we know that high tide isn’t until 5pm! Well this is outrageous! Who on earth gave their permission for the tide to come in so early, does the coastguard know?! There was nothing left for us to do but turn around and head either for Noosa (which I jokingly suggested) or the Freshwater ORV track we’d tackled yesterday! We checked out the Rainbow Beach side of things on foot, just to be sure that the water was too high and we definitely wouldn’t make it round - theory confirmed! We turned around and sped off to Freshwater, still not managing to spot the ship wreck for a 3rd time!
We made it through the sand tracks with no problem at all and stopped to put some air in the tyres at the picnic area before we got back to the tarmac road. We wanted to go back to Rainbow Beach to check out Carlo’s Sandblow,
we’d seen it from across the way but thought it would be good to climb it and it was still early in the day so we figured we had time! We’ve pretty much decided to do the Fraser Island trip as part of a tour now but stopped at the local 4WD hire place to check out the prices to see how they compare and find that ironically it seems we can go on a tour and it should work out cheaper and we’d still get to see everything we wanted to.
We struggle to work out exactly what is Carlo’s Sandblow and wrongly head, on foot, along Rainbow Beach to a large sand dune that kids are trying to run up and roll down! It’s pretty huge and very impressive but I’m sure it’s not what we’ve been looking for! We head back to the car and then spot a sign for Carlo’s Circle - surely that must be close! Out we hop and the walk begins! We stick to the walking track until it starts going up and down huge mounds for no reason so we get back on to the road! We shortly arrive at the
carpark to Carlo’s Sandblow, named by Captain James Cook after one of his crew! The walk was more than worth it when we’ve finally puffed and panted our way up there. It’s an amazing sight, the sand blown inshore over time has built in volume and crept over the landscape to smother everything in its path. It’s beautiful up here and we can see the sun begin to set over Tin Can Bay.
What a great day we’ve had and it’s rounded off by a good dinner back at camp and the confirmation that we’ve got a spot on the Big 4 site at Hervey Bay for 2 days from Sunday. There’s little free camping around that area and it’s school holidays so we’ll try to get across to Fraser Island on Tuesday and then we’ll get the heck away from the tourist spots for the rest of the week! Tomorrow night we’ll be free camping in Petrie Park just outside Maryborough, where Mary Poppins was ‘born’!
Night everyone, we’re off to bed!
Dar and Sar
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anonymous
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what a fantastic experience being next to dolphins whilst they feed. hope your good we are getting more people hooked on racing!!