Friday 18 July 2014

Rainbow Beach - Sunday

Sunday, July 13, 2014


Saturday night must have been one of the coldest night in history, and if not, then it was pretty close.  We had to (well, we wanted to) get up early to watch the final of the World Cup Soccer, so we sat there, shivering till the heater would kick in, warming our cold hands on a hot cup of coffee.  However, it was worth it, it was a good game.

After breakfast we did some shopping, got fuel, cleaned the house which had to be vacated by 10 am, and when we were all good and ready we went to the Great Sandy National Park for some serious walking.  As there were a number of geocaches in the area Kevin and I came prepared with our GPS receivers uploaded.




The first cache was on the way to Carlo Sand Blow, although I didn't log it as the first one, because Carlo Sand Blow was an earth cache and I wanted to log that one as my 250th cache.

"Thar She Blows"


"Thar She Blows"




This was a relatively easy one at the top of the stairs that lead to the sand blow.  

Carlo Sand Blow

Carlo Sand Blow









This is an amazing earth cache.  The dunes are among the highest in the world, if not the highest and the actual sand blow (the top of the dunes where the vegetation and lots of sand have been blown away) stretches over 15 hectares!

Somewhere over the rainbow




 

From the start of the Carlo Sand Blow it is a walk across the sand to the next cache.  Plenty of pictures of the sand, but none of the cache!

Next there was a pit stop at the parking lot, so Kevin, Angus and I took the (not so) short walk to the next cache.  A walk along the beach.

Sandway to Heaven


The Coloured Sands in the distance

Kevin and Angus on their way

It's quite a climb!


4WD on their way to the Coloured Sands

Nearly there

A happy Angus coming down

This was a taxing climb and I must admit I have cheated, because Kevin signed the log for me.  I would not have made it to the top.  If we would have had more time I would have driven to the track at the top and walked from there, so would then have been able to sign.  I don't feel too guilty now. ;-)


From this walk we reached our cars which took us to the next spot, a picnic area called Bymien.  A nice secluded area at which we arrived after a 3 km drive along a dirt track.  Good practice for my little car! As it was about lunch time we had a picnic and next walked to Poona Lake.









 






Poona Lake


Poona Lake



The cache was within 20 m from the track that led to the edge of the lake and was an easy find (as you can tell from its size) :-)

As the walk to the lake (and back) was a pretty long one and we still have a 3 hr drive ahead of us there is no time left to undertake more walks, so we leave to go home with a coffee-stop en route.






Thursday 17 July 2014

Rainbow Beach - Saturday

Saturday, July 12, 2014


I am going to have a weekend away again.  This time at Rainbow Beach.  Kevin's partner has booked a holiday house for the weekend and I have been invited.  :-)  

On Friday night Kevin arrives after work at Bribie Island.  I've made nasi goreng, so we enjoy dinner together before we set off to Rainbow Beach.  When we finally do it's dark and so we drive all the way in the dark, a trip of three hours.  We arrive at 9:30 pm and I am not as tired of driving as I thought I would be, so we enjoy a chat and a cuppa before we go to bed.

Saturday it's Adele's birthday and she wants to go and feed the dolphins.  The tickets for the ferry and the dolphin feeding have already been arranged, so all we need to do is waiting for the shuttle bus to pick us up and drive us to the ferry.






The ferry brings us to the other side of the inlet to Tin Can Bay marina where the dolphins generally come to shore for a feed.

The (controlled) feeding will start at 8 am.  Before that time we're allowed to watch.








We've taken off our shoes and rolled up the pant legs and are standing on the freezing sand, not really wanting to go into the even more freezing water, but after a while it doesn't feel so cold any more.

The temperatures had already plummeted below zero in some places inland, so the start of winter is really cold this year.

Soon it is 8 am and we are all handed a small bucket with a fish in it after we have rinsed our hands in an anti-bacterial solution so as not to bring any bacteria to the healthy dolphins.

One after the other we are allowed to enter the water and feed our fish to one of the two dolphins that have arrived for a feed.  It is all very commercial, but it's a sign of the times and there is nothing that we can do about it.  Just being happy that we get to feed them at all...











When the dolphins have been fed by the volunteers they know it's time to go.  Not much later the pelicans turn up and want a bit of the spoils too.









When the pelicans have left too it's time for us to go back on the ferry where we warm up with a cuppa.

Back home we have breakfast, which for the occasion consists of poffertjes (a kind of Dutch pancakes).
Adele had planned pancakes for breakfast, but we made it poffertjes instead and she didn't have to cook breakfast on her birthday.

After that it was time for the birthday gifts and cards and she received plenty of beautiful gifts.

In the afternoon the weather was still beautiful and warm enough for the beach, so we went for a short beach walk and Mikayla and Angus spent the best part of the afternoon playing in the waves.



At the end of the afternoon a BBQ awaits us (thanks to Kevin) and we have a delicious dinner with Tiger prawns.



Next update: Rainbow Beach - Sunday