Rainbow beach- Fraser Island

[Archer63]

Hi All,

Wife and just got back from a fantastic few days up at Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island....you know those short trips away that make you feel like you've had a week or more when you have only been away for 3-4 days....this was one of them.

Left home on Thursday morning at 7.30 and headed up to Rainbow with our little swan outback....was hot as buggery at Gympie where we stopped for a cuppa. Dash temp said it was 33 at 9.30 ish but got up to 35 on the way to Rainbow at one stage. We had booked our beach front facing site a few weeks ago and it was just magic with a very nice view. Headed off to Fraser Island on a tour bus which was expensive but we thought it was well worth it....had a fantastic day. Couldn't see the point in taking the Paj over for just one day....and to be honest I don't think it has the ground clearance required...at least not for some of those inland tracks. First off we headed to Eurong for morning tea then onto the Maheno and then the Pinacles. After that we went back down to Eli Creek. Eli creek seemed to be a fair bit shallower than the last time we were there back in 2002...but had a dip anyway. Had lunch back at Eurong and then went onto Lake McKenzie for a swim which was exactly the same as we remembered it....then off to Central Station and Wangoolba Creek where I was lucky enough to catch on camera an azure kingfisher.

Trip back along the beach was in a bit of a hurry to try and beat the high tide, but we were a little late and had to take the inland track back to the barge. This was not without drama though as the sand was soooo soft it took our bus, as well as the other bus travelling with us, about half a dozen or more attempts to get off the beach and onto the inland track !!

Saturday morning we decided to go and have a look at Tin Can Bay as we had never been there before. No wonder why so many retirees live there...very quiet and the area looks very fishy !!
Went and had a look at the dolphin feeding...but gee they don't miss you...5 bucks to just get into the dolphin feeding area...5 bucks if you want to feed them. Minders everywhere saying do this...don't do that...etc ect. Even got ticked off for getting a pic of the local friendly Pelican !!
The rest of saturday we spent just chilling out and enjoying happy hour sitting in front of the van watching the ocean and thinking how lucky we were.

Thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Rainbow Beach Caravan Park with a great beach front site overlooking the ocean. Thought it a bit strange that when booking, we were asked what sort of hitch we have as they will need to site your van. Had me scratching my head for a while until a fellow travellor revealed that originally there was no fence in the front facing the road and that is why the site slabs were set facing which means they pull your van in with a small tractor instead of reverse you in like normal. Just as well as I hadn't yet bought a McHitch as we would have had to settle for another site. Facilities are nice and clean with spacious shower cubicles etc. Has a nice pool to swim in which also has a sort of ramp for those who maybe a little wonky on their feet. Park managers were nice and friendly. Lots of backpacker around but we never had any problems. Next time we are up that way we'll head further up to Harvey Bay, but that will be for a slightly longer stay.

Cheers
Rob

[Archer63]

Couple more

[Archer63]

Last two

[jock]

Fantastic Post Rob.....great photos..well done!!!

Would be great to see more of this type of post on the Forum.

Jock

[TramcarTrev]

Yes great post, superb photos well done that man.

[Archer63]

Thanks boys !!

You can probably tell that the wife and I are really enjoying getting out and about since we bought our little pop top, and we love reading about other peoples travels. I do also admit to having thoughts about upgrading to something bigger ( self contained !! ) but at the moment and until we retire...we just don't have the room for anything larger.

I took two cameras, a canon 500D SLR and my samsung S5 phone with me as an experiment to see what the difference was with picture quality between the two. I took several pics of exactly the same scene and when viewing each pic side by side there appeared to be more detail in the SLR pics over the phone pics and if you zoom in you can start to see more differences....which is a no brainer really...but for most people the differences were not hugely noticable.

Obviously the biggest issue with the SLR is it's physical size and carrying it around your neck can be a pain, but I wouldn't have been able to capture that little kingfisher without the zoom lens.

Cheers
Rob

[bigal42]

tin can bay.jpg

Hi Rob, nice photos. How things change,we were there in 1994 and you could watch them feeding the dolphins for free.

[Archer63]

Would have been a great experience back then....much more natural without all the hoo ha.

Getting back to another nice surprise on our trip up to Rainbow....I forgot all about mentioning this.

For the first time I was interested in getting some sort of an idea of the mileage I was getting when towing from my auto 2003 3.8 Petrol Pajero. Completely filled up just before leaving and filled up again upon arriving at Rainbow.
Distance travelled 262 klms .....fuel used 35 litres....which I work out to be 13.36 ltrs per 100km.
I was amazed at this as I expected at least around 15 or so.
I do drive with a light foot but nearly always sit on whatever the speed limit is whether it is 100 or 110 on the open road.

Pretty chuffed with that....not bad for the old girl.

Cheers
Rob

[dieseltojo]

Great report Rob, and wonderful pics....

[ALAN1963]

Hi Rob,

Enjoyed the pics, report and agree with previous posters comments, thanks for going to the trouble.

Cheers AL