Agnes Water - Rainbow Beach - Noosa
Trip Start
Jan 2003
1
108
200
Trip End
Dec 2003
Rainbow Beach,
Australia
Sunday, July 13, 2003
We departed one of the most secluded parts of the East Coast headed initially for somewhere we thought would be teeming with backpackers, Hervey Bay. Upon arrival we found a closer resmblance to God's waiting room and after several renditions of the Golden Girls theme tune we were soon heading south again. If nothing else, Rainbow Beach has provided us with a unique form of accommodation - we're staying in one of the cabins used for the Olympic Village in Sydney, now transported to overlook the ocean.
Unfortunately, while Rainbow Beach looks like being a pretty enough seaside town, it seems, like the majority of places on the East Coast, to lack anything particularly exciting and probably won't make up for the disappointment of Hervey Bay
Mystic - the battered dolphin!
. Perhaps our expectations were too high but I can't help feeling that while Australia has provided a couple of real highlights of the year (Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef) in the main it has been at best ordinary.Day 161 - 162 - Rainbow Beach - Noosa
First impressions of Rainbow Beach proved accurate and barring another pleasant beach, it really didn't have anything else to offer. In fact the height of entertainment )albeit sick entertainment) was the local information board. For a place with a population of less than 1000 Rainbow Beach (the name allegedly derives from the multi-coloured sands - read marginally different shades of brown rather than red through to violet) has had more than its fair share of tragic accidents. On the noticeboard were around ten pictures and eulogies of inhabitants who had all recnetly seemingly killed themselves in different tragic drink driving disasters.
On a slightly more cheerful note, after leaving we briefly visited nearby Tin Can Bay to see a 'wild' dolphin which comes into the marina to be fed every morning. While dolphins are undisputably beautiful creatures, this one, Mystic has definitely seen better days. Apparently it's been hit so many times by boats that it's now incapable of catching fish itself, hence the daily visits. Another distraction from the enjoyment, in addition to the feelings of sorrow for Mystic, was the narration of events by a highly annoying Scotsman. Offering such insights as, "He's swimming away now, if you smile he'll come back" - of course he'll come back otherwise he'll starve - and "Get off the boat ramp unless you're a boat, there's a reason it's called a boat ramp" - we will if a boat comes but there aren't any because this is a two bit town where everyone, you especially, is trying to make as much money as possible out of this poor dolphin - he never ceased and I'm sure I was not the only one infuriated by his monologue.
Following a brief detour to Eumundi for a large market (much like any other market in that it was full of crap) we've finally discovered a place that doesn't fit the East Coast stereotype. Noosa is the most affluent part of Asutralia we've seen and as such boasts more interesting architecture, flashier restaurants and cafes and opportunities for people-watching - something we've been unable to do properly since Fremantle.
