Accommodation: Rainbows
Driver: Wings
24/07/10-27/07/10
Toppie changed direction and headed up the coast so our driver for our next leg of the journey to Rainbow Beach was Wings, a great guy with a brilliant sense of humour, a wide variety of hats and an unusual (but good) taste in music. We stayed with the same group which was great, as no one spent an extra night at the Cattle Ranch. It was a long journey, broken up with a stop at a café which sold scrummy burgers, this however prolonged our journey time and we were extremely late in picking up two passengers who were en route to Rainbow Beach. Wings thought up a story which he was to tell them (and we were to go along with it) as to why we were so late in picking them up.. we had two French passengers who were sat at the back of the bus and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, when told to move to the front of the bus their antics continued and they were even more full on. Wings had to throw them off the bus, but the guy kicked up such a fuss.. so this is why we were so late.. Believable.. Hmm I don’t think they believed it, but it was really funny when Wings was explaining the scenario.
We arrived at Rainbows to be told that there was a mix up with the Fraser Island booking and that we were put on the trip for the next day. We were absolutely exhausted, the Cattle Ranch and the long bus journey really knocked it out of us, but I always believe things happen for a reason.. and they certainly were about to..
We checked into our room, I shared with Matt, Chris, Heidi and Dawn and what an evening. We barely got any sleep due to laughter. I was on the bunk below Matt (which didn’t last very long), he dangled his towel over the bed frame and I have never smelt anything like it, he had obviously taken a shower at the Cattle Ranch and packed it in his bag wet (I don’t think it had been washed for a while either) - think of a wet dog and times the smell by a hundred. I had to move bunks, but the towel was thrown around the room and span around on the ceiling fan. It was such a funny evening and the things which were said made me cry with laughter. Anyway, after a few hours sleep it was an early rise ready for our three day adventure exploring Fraser Island in a 4x4.
Prior to arriving, the Fraser Island leader had put us into groups, the usual trio of Matt, Chris and myself, along with another Harriet (which got a little confusing and the only Harriet I have met so far), Keira, Mirel, Timo and lastly (I hope he doesn’t ever read this) a gorgeous guy named Bram, towering above 6 foot, blonde hair, blue eyes.. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Lol. Anyway, back on course.. We packed our jeep to the max with our bags, camping equipment, a cool box which contained our daily meals for the next three days and lastly not forgetting.. boxes and boxes of Goon.
The guys took it in turns to drive the jeep across the muddy and bumpy terrain and then onto the sand. Everyone had a go apart from Harriet and I. Harriet, although she has a driving license was under the age bracket in which was regulated and I, well, unfortunately/embarrassingly failed my driving test just before coming to Australia (I have to point out it was my first, but it went horribly horribly wrong). We stopped for lunch, a quick game of football and a toilet stop, it would be a long while until we would see proper toilets again, yes, on our campsite the toilet was in the form of a hole which we would have to dig in the ground… arrgh!!! When we arrived we pitched our tents and tied a canopy above the jeeps as the weather didn’t look very promising. It had to be tied onto a tree branch as there was nothing else to support it, I was nominated to climb onto Bram’s shoulders to tie it (no complaints there). After, cooking began, Harriet was our little master chef, coming up trumps with every meal, each of us helped with the vegetable peeling and the washing-up, but the meals themselves were mainly produced by Harriet, especially after (I’m not sure who it was) turned the rice into a glupey starchy sticky mess to accompany chicken.. Lol.
The evening unfolded with drinking games to get to know our fellow campers, followed by drunken play fights on the beach. I drank quite a lot, mainly to give me courage going into the wilderness in the pitch black to the toilet. I was bitten by something in the tall grass (the drinking intensified the bite) and I asked Jake (our camp leader) what it could be - he looked at the bite (which was tiny) and told me it could be a funnel web spider (great), he laughed when I asked how long I had to live and told me about half an hour but the helicopter would take about an hour to arrive (fantastic) I think it turned out to be a mosquito or an ant bite, as half an hour had passed and I was running crazily around the beach play fighting with the others. Dawn and I were on the floor more times then we were on our feet as neither of us could run in a straight line and when we tried we just fell over. We then resided to our lovely tents for the evening, it had started to rain and I was sharing with Harriet and Keira. I had rolled over and was lay pushing against the side of the tent which meant the rain water was coming through, so I got a little wet. Sleeping on solid ground just in a sleeping bag wasn’t that comfortable either and it showed by how we were walking when we got up.
The following day we were taken to a ship wreck, where Matt and Chris rein acted Titanic, I’m not sure who was Jack and who was Rose but it was absolutely beautiful.. Haha! Jess and myself went off on our own little walk later in the day as we lost the others and we took a mixture of photos, and also dodged the huge jelly fish which had been washed up on the sand.
This serves me right for leaving it so late to write the blog (only three months later) but I can’t remember the names of the points we stopped off at. En route though we did see a brown snake washed up on the beach, we weren’t sure whether it was dead or alive, but we were told it was deadly and would kill you in minutes - I stood well back and took photos from afar (I mean I was already bitten by a funnel web, I didn’t want to risk my chances again). On a final note, Fraser Island is an amazing place and my jeep was filled with fantastic people. it’s a must to do on the coast, a whole lot of fun, just be prepared for the lack of toilet facilities and the Dingo’s rummaging for food - but its all worth it. Again like Airlie Beach, just go for the Fraser trip and don’t get stuck in Rainbow as there’s not a whole lot to do there.
