A rainbow coloured beach, an island and two dolphins

Hello! We’ve had a great, action packed five days since I last posted! We went north from Mooloolaba to Rainbow Beach and stayed in a little, and very busy, caravan park right on the beach. Rainbow Beach was a lovely quiet seaside town- a haven for fishermen and 4WD enthusiasts. We saw the famed coloured sands on the long long stretch of beach and drove along the beach and had a picnic lunch.

We also took a two-day 4WD tour to Fraser Island- a really great experience! We saw long stretches of empty beach, plus, the highlight, a swim at Lake Mackenzie…which is a sand bottom lake, filled with rainwater---probably the clearest water we have ever seen…the lake dropped off quiet quickly to deep water, and it was the bluest of blues!
We also saw Lake Wabby, and walked over some amazing sandblows, which looked like moonscapes! We traveled up to Indian Head with great views over the island, and saw some huge manta rays in the water. We also saw a pocket of rainforest in the middle of the island…and were lucky enough to see a few dingos, plus lots of sea eagles, osprey, kites etc (I was happy seeing so many birds and consulted my birdbook when we returned to the van! J )

While at Rainbow Beach we also visited nearby Tin Can Bay- a small place on a little inlet…the main reason for our visit was to see a couple of tame, rare Indo-pacific Dolphins, which swim right up to the shore to be fed at 8am each day (apparently they don’t show EVERY day, but normally). The story goes that one of the dolphins (Mystique) mothers was injured many years ago by the propeller of a fishing trawler. The local community wanted to help the dolphin recover and began feeding her fish….after she’d healed she kept coming in, and one day brought in her calf, Mystique. Mystique also now brings in a lady friend, Patch, on some days.

We went to Tin Can Bay yesterday and this morning to see and feed the dolphins. You stand in knee deep water and hand them a fish, which they take, ever so gently! Yesterday both Patch and Mystique arrived…and today is was just Mystique. It was a great experience and quite low key!

After the morning dolphin feeding, we drove up to Bundaberg. We initially had planned to continue on right past this area, however decided we might do a tour of the rum factory…so we turned off and drove to the coast from Bundaberg and arrived at Bargara…to our surprise it’s a really lovely little place and really nice and quiet…with a large, green caravan park- so we’ve decided to stop here a couple of nights. We went for a really long bike ride this afternoon, around the coastline…some sections so undeveloped, we were riding on small mountain bike tracks and through fields…lots of fun. We’ll check out Bundy more tomorrow. Oh, and tonight I spied a tawny frogmouth owl in the tree right next to our site! Wonderful to see.

Our next stop from here is The Town of 1770. Many people have told us it’s very pretty and we plan stopping a few nights there….I am hoping to do a day trip to Lady Musgrave Island, where the snorkeling is said to be excellent.

Meanwhile, we haven’t killed each other yet…so all going well on the homefront too ;-) Sending you our love and best wishes…pls keep in touch, Love, Em &Ad xoxo

p.s. tried loading some photos but it didnt work this time...hopefully next post!