May 27, 2011- Day 31
Where: Rainbow Beach
Dinner: Cereal and hot dogs (not together)
Campfire friends
Arrived at Rainbow Beach this morning after about an hours drive fro the highway. It's called Rainbow Beach because it has 72 different colors of sand on the beaches and up on the sandy hills. We got our campsite passes for the next two nights then we went to a travel agent to book our Fraser Island trip for tomorrow. The agent specializes in young travels and she was really helpful. We booked a good trip for a cheaper price than normal price. She also gave us lots of info about scuba diving further up north and told us about caravan parks that Jucy van renters can stay in for $5 each. No one ever told us about these!! Will come in handy later.
After our cheeseburger lunch we walked out along the beach to where you can see all the colored sand up the steep banks. It really was incredible, I've never seen sand like this. It was the perfect example of sedimentary rocks are formed because with so many colors of sand you can see each layer. The different colors are all mixed together in layers and in many areas the sand is quite solid. Like it almost looks like rock until you scratch it and you can scratch away the sand. You can ever break chunks off, which is how you see all the many layers. We walked quite a ways down the beach and each bank we came to was so different in colors and formation. We climbed up some of the banks and then kindof glided back down them.
You can drive on most of the beaches here if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. It's so new for us to see cars on the beach! It was even more strange to see a speed limit sign on the beach. As we were walking back the tide was coming in so sometimes we had to stop and wait for the ocean to recede in order to get around rocks. A wave got me unexpectedly and my jeans got soaked. Dern. It was a great walk though.
Just before sunset we drove up to a National Park and did a quick walk up to a huge sand blow. It was incredible. I didn't realize what it was going to be so to walk through the trees into a huge expanse of sand was really amazing. A sand blow is an area where sand blows through sort of a ravine or low spot on a hill. Over time the sand builds up and overtakes any plant life that was there. I don't really know how to explain it because I don't completely understand it, but this basically looked like a a huge sand dune. It dipped down a ways and then there was a big sand hill. To our left down a ways was the ocean and to our right there was a valley down below and beyond that there was water and the setting sun. We got there in time to see the last 5 minutes of the sun before it dipped down below the horizon. We watched the sunset for a while and walked around the dunes. We got back to the van just as it got dark.
We drove out to our campsite on Inskip Point, a narrow little peninsula about 15 minutes out of town. We were told that 2WD would be fine for the campsite, but that w should probably try to stay in the middle. When we got there it was dark and the campground was quite full so we had to drive around for a while. We found a circle area that looked like it might have a spot so Pat asked if he should pull into it. At first I said no, but then I said, “ya sure.” He pulled in and realized there was no one where to park so he out it into reverse. It was at this point that we realized the sand we had driven into was deep and that we were stuck. Our van certainly isn't the type of vehicle necessary for navigating these sorts of terrain. Pat got out to try and driect me on attempting to back out. There were a lot of people camped close by so I knew it would only take a minute for someone to come over and see if we needed help. Sure eough, about 30 seconds later a guy asked if we were stuck and then he came over with another 4 guys. Wow, helpful folks. It only too a few minutes for them to push us back enough that we could get traction and reverse out. They asked us where we were from and then showed us a free spot nearby. We were nervous about the sand so we just parked for the night
Today Pat found out that he might not be able to scuba dive because of his ashtma so h was bummed out. He was being funny and dramatic about it, even though he really is sad. So he was laying in the van wit his hood over his head “sulking” and I was washing my face in the sink when one of the guys walked over to takl to us. He was really funny and asked if we were despairing over getting stuck. He joked around for a while and told us that he and his wide had traveled through England in a van when they were young and they loved when people were friendly and helpful to them. He invited us over to their campsite to cook food on their stoves or just hang out at the camp fire with them. I figured we should at least go over to say hi and be nice, but it turned out they were an awesome, hilarious groups of guys. There were middle aged and were having a mans fishing weekend away from their fams. They were all from the Noosa are and where fairly wealthy from what we could gather. They loves that we were Americans and they were just so entertaining to talk with. One of the guy's dads was tehre and he was a 66 years old British guy who had lived in Oz for many years. He looked like Ian McKellen and had a great British sense of humor. They gave us beers, rain water from their tanks at home (supposedly the best water we'll taste in OZ) and even some fresh squeezed OJ. They also made us hotdogs. We hung our until around 11 when they all went to bed.
Best people we've encountered so far. We really had a fun evening. And if we get stuck on the way out they all have 4WD vehicles at the ready.
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