Rainbow Beach to Gympie (and home comforts)...
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
1
9
26
Trip End
Feb 11, 2007
Gympie,
Australia
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Ok so after Fraser Island and Hervey Bay we headed to Rainbow Beach, planning on spending just the one night there before moving onto Jen's mum's cousin's house for a few days. Rainbow Beach is nothing to write home about it my opinion. It's a really tiny little place, only really developed due to it being another gateway to Fraser Island. The little town consists of one small street with a few shops and some nice cafes and then there's the beach and that's about it. It's kind of a similar size to Tully really, maybe even smaller, but slightly more modern and less old timer!
We basically just spent the day looking round the few shops and we stopped in a cafe for a sandwich, before I chilled out with my book in a big gazebo with sofas and loafed around for the afternoon. The other attraction of Rainbow beach that people come to see is the coloured sand cliffs, kind of like Fraser Island's Pinnacles, just off a sandblow outside of the town centre. This sandblow is called the Carlo Sandblow and our hostel ran free trips up there in their minibus, where they dropped us off at the entrance to the walkway and then we had to make our own way back. We decided to go on this little trip and take in yet another view - all my pics seem to be of varying views down the east coast lol - so we got dropped off and hiked through the forest following the track. We came to the massive dune or sandblow which had rather impressive views both inland and out to sea. We wandered over to the cliff edge and took a few pics of the colourful cliffs and the view over the dune. It was very peaceful up there bar a few more tourists and I stood staring out to sea. Makes me feel very calm and chilled out, think I'm destined to live by the sea at some point in my life. The sand and cliffs weren't that impressive, not the variety of colours I had hoped for i.e. blue, pink, purple lol (wishful thinking me thinks), but they were a multitude of browns, blacks, beiges and white with orange and red thrown in too. It was weird to dig your feet into the sand and uncover marbled sand.
Walking back became an issue when we all fell out about which way to go. The girls said the hostel worker who had dropped us off said something about another track over the dune and I thought she'd said come back the way you came. So in true smithy stubborn fashion I wandered off my way and they went over the dune. I just followed the track through the woods and then onto the road that led through a housing estate and back into town. This was the way we had been brought on the minibus and I made my way back easily. I got back and sat in our room and after about 10 minutes the others walked in. Who had been right - yep that would be me lol! They walked in a little sheepish mumbling about me being right and that their dune way hadn't looked too promising! So argument over - I win! hehehe! Most important thing is we all got back safe and sound. After all this excitement (lol) we went off for our five dollar tea of spag bol that the hostel offered. This was ok, not great, but it was cheap. Then we headed back to our room for a ridiculously early night - I was asleep by half 9, all this fresh air wipes me out - as we had to get up for our free pancakes at 7am. Which were also ok but not amazing but free all the same.
We got the greyhound bus to Gympie and arrived to a bit of rain and grey skies plus a popped carton of milk that smelled suspiciously sour and ming and had leaked onto mine and jolly's bag, bugger. We wiped it off best we could and dumped our stuff at the bus stop where catherine and mel stayed as me and jen went off to collect the hire car for the few days. We got a new corrolla, very nice and automatic which meant jen had a bit of trouble with the braking as she kept jumping on it like a clutch lol! We kangaroo'd all the way back to pick up mel and jolly and set off to find Jane's house, jen's relative.
Following a map in Oz is easier said than done as they don't always seem to put signposts on their roads or they change them halfway down the road just to confuse you. After a few false starts and turnarounds, we finally made it to Jane's and met her along with Karen, Chris and Emma, a family that live with her. Emma is Chris and Karen's daughter. We all made our introductions and sat around doing that awkward polite conversation you always do when you have just met people lol. We had a sandwich for lunch and then Chris offered to show us around the farm that Jane owns and he runs for her, which is about half an hours drive from Gympie in a place called Kandanga. He took us in his land rover and to be quite honest we had an amazing time. He took us around the whole area before heading to the farm, showing us different places of interest and telling us all about the flooding that happens a lot in the area. He also told us about the plans to flood the whole place with massive dam which would totally wipe out the whole area and take out their farm plus alot of people's homes and farms and lots of the forestry around too. Chris is very passionate about stopping this from happening so he was able to tell us alot about it and he took us to the 'stop the dam' info centre in Kandanga where all the info is collected and the main base for the opposition against the dam is housed. The community spirit from that place was amazing, everyone pulling together and fighting the cause. We signed the petition against the dam being built - thought it seemed a worthy cause - and I hope they win.
After all this political stuff we went up to the farm and chris pointed out the horses - they've got 4 - and the cattle - 700 in total! He took us up to overlook the farm on top of this massive hill. This place is very hilly. The view over the land was amazing. I can't believe one person owns all that land, it's crazy. We also a cow and a calf that had quite clearly just been born earlier that day as it still had it's cord and was very wobbly on it's legs. As we went back down, chris treated us to some donuts in the land rover as a way of herding his cattle back up the hill! It was hilarious and I was clinging on for dear life. After this we went and parked up so we could feed the horses some bread. One's called Jinx and he's a golden palomino, very beautiful, and he was very pleased to see us if you know what I mean. Still very gorgeous thoght.
We then headed back down to the house emma had been brought up and there was much scariness as we all needed the loo and a massive huntsman spider was perched on the wall above the loo. It was the size of my hand and I was petrified of it. Chris said it was ok though cos if a huntsman's around you don't get any poisonous spiders like redbacks. One of the best bits of the day was having aride in chris' old 1940's land rover that looked like it was straight out of the army. It was great and mel and jen had a go at driving it. Chris promised me and jolly a go when we came back to the farm on a different day. After all this excitement, we took a massive detour back to the house through the Amamour Country park where a massive country music festival called a Muster is held over a week every year in august. We looked round the site then drove away and saw pineapples, mangos and passion fruits growing on trees. Then FINALLY we saw something we had all been dying to see. Wild kangaroos hopping along in the field next to the road. We stopped to take pics and tried to get as close as possible but then after a while they got bored of staring at us and hopped off. It was great to see them. Talked to mum and nic on the phone, first time since I left and the longest I have ever gone without speaking to them. Was great to have a little chat about their trip to Perth and what I was up to. Finally rounded off the day with a few glasses of wine and a relatively early night as we planned to drive to Noosa the next day in our hire car.
The next day (sunday) we got up and set off early for Noosa. We got there and headed up the hill for the national park and took the shortest walk possible around it and saw lots of trees and bush turkeys lol. Not much else really but we can say we did it. Then we headed into the town centre and the shops. Noosa, we have decided, is really expensive for backpackers and we were quite glad we had decided to just do day trip and not stay the night or two we had planned. To be honest we were only there a few hours so not much to report, it would be a lovely place for a proper holiday - lots of grown ups there hehe - but it was a bit too posh for me. On the way home we picked up some wine and flowers for Chris, Karen and Jane for having us and got back to the house and crashed in front of Toy Story 2, children's films are a great pick me up. Then it was tea time and we watched a film before bed.
Yesterday we got up as we planned to go to the farm for the day, but first we headed for the supermarket as we were cooking as another thankyou for having us. I spoke to Jack on the phone before this and it was great to hear his voice as I'm missin him loads. We then went and got sidetracked in the shopping centre by the shops and I bought a dress wooop. Need new flip flops now though. We went and got our ingredients and by the time we got back and dropped them off it was time to get our stuff and take the car back. Emma was taking us up to the farm for a BBQ. When we got up there we found Chris's dad and Jane were coming too and we met Mel, a girl who works on the farm with chris. We all chilled out with some nice cold lemonade in the shade of the trees whilst the BBQ got fired up and we sat and had sausages and steak and salad. Sadly no shrimps were thrown on in a stereotypical manner but I was very pleased to be having our first proper aussie BBQ. After we had cleared away and everyone had left except us, Chris took us on a koala hunt round the rest of the farm we hadn't seen in the old 1940's land rover. Me and mel sat in the back and were nearlu thrown out on many occasions as we went up and down somw massively steep hills and bumpy tracks. It was lots of fun but unfortunately we didn't see any koalas. He then took us back and the girls had a go on the old motorbike he had in the shed lock up. I didn't fancy that I just wanted a go at driving the old jeep. So after they had all mastered driving a motorbike on their own for a few minutes at a time, I got my turn in the jeep. Chris came in with me to show me how it works. O god it was so hard and yet so cool to drive!! No power steering or brakes, just an old car that is completely reliable still. He told me to drive it up some huuuuuuuggggggge hills and I was sreaming according to the girls! They said they couldn't hear the landy only me shouting hehehe!! Chris said I did an amazing job though snd should be proud at how quickly I'd got the hang of the old thing. :o)
After all this we headed back as it was nearly 7pm and we were on cooking duty. On the way back we saw a couple more kangaroos, this time smaller ones called pretty faces and they sat and looked at us as we pulled up next to them and took photos. They're so cute especially when they hop off. Can't believe I'm actually seeing them for real and not on the TV. We got back and made a massive chilli for tea and had a few glasses of red. Chris, Jane and Karen said it was yummy and then we all chatted in front of the TV and finally went to bed as all the fresh air had done us in again.
Now today it's off to Brisbane for a whole week which should be fun. We want to go to the zoo and check out as much as we can whilst we're there. It'll be nice to be able to unpack a little bit lol as I hate living out of a bag so much.
Off now to get dressed and pack!
Lots of love Smiffy xxxxxxxxx
