2016 - Batemans Bay: 07/29/20

Day 3: Tue 16 Feb – Rainbow Beach

Walk: 4km

As we were staying right on the beach we decided that a beach walk was in order instead of a ride. So off we went and ended up with a 4 km walk. This was on a piece of toast and a coffee, so when we returned we had a full breakfast.

We had arranged to drive to Tin Can Bay for a wander and lunch with G&Y and G&G. So, we left about 10:30am and drove through Cooloola to get there. When we got to Tin Can Bay, we wandered around the jetty area and just as we were about to enter the cafe where we eventually had lunch, someone noticed a dolphin following a boat into the jetty. Despite a sign telling us we could not 'dolphin watch' from the jetty, off we went. Amazing! Greg put his hand in water and the dolphin came up to find out what all the fuss was about.

Lunch was taken under a hot tin roof, and the meals were OK, not brilliant though. They could have had a fan to provide a little breeze! It was back into the aircon of the BT50, and back 'home'. Wendy had a snooze whilst Greg went for another paddle at Carlow Point this time.

M We decided to have dinner in tonight. We had roast veggies with lamb chop for Greg and steak for Wendy, and it was much better than the pub dinner and a lot less costly! After cleaning up, we went over to the Fischer's van for 'movie night'. Watched Billy Connolly's Tour of Ireland which was funny and informative.

Tin Can Bay Marina

A friendly dolphin at Tin Can Bay Marina

Day 2: Mon 15 Feb - Rainbow Beach

Ride: 29.5km; Paddle: 1.5 hr

We were up fairly early and after our first coffee, we rode out to Inskip Point to check out the ferry crossing to Fraser Island. We were only there for about 20 mins and we saw the ferry make 2 crossings. Lots of 4WDs and big 4WD tour buses.

After returning from Inskip, we had breakfast, and while Wendy did some computer stuff, Greg went for his first paddle in his new kayak, a Hobie Lanai, at Bullock Head. He really liked it and wants to do more paddling for the upper body workout.

After lunch (the usual salad and meat/fish) and a little snooze whilst waiting for the temperature to drop a little bit, we went for a walk with Gunther and Yvonne to Carlow sand blow. Well, we walked all the way up the hill, and G&Y drove! The unique "moonscape" sand mass covers over 15 hectares and overlooks the towering coloured sands. It is an amazing feature and well worth a look.

As we were all quite hot after the walk, Wendy, and G&Y went for a dip in the caravan park pool and it felt great to cool off. After a quick shower to wash the hair, we all went out for dinner, again! Gail and Graeme were with us, and we by-passed the pub and had a very delicious dinner at a pizza and pasta place which was probably just over the back fence of the park, but we had to walk around. Greg was the only one who did not have a pizza (he had salmon gnocchi). All the pizzas and Greg’s dish were all superb and of course, we walked away looking like fat ticks! It was also a BYO, so we took our own wine to save a few $. Another relatively early night

Inskip Point - Fraser Island ferry embarkation and disembarkation point

Sandblow

Graffitti tree

Inskip

Sandblow

Day 1: Sun 14 Feb – Hippo Farm to Rainbow Beach

Drive: 122km

Walk: 3km

As we had been to a wedding in Flaxton (Sunshine Coast Hinterland) the day before and stayed the night, we did not get home until about 11am. We then rushed around packing the caravan for the big road trip and got away at 1:30pm. We arrived at Rainbow Beach Holiday Village about 3:15pm, set up the van (site #65), unpacked everything and then went for a walk along the beach. It is a very easy beach to walk on as the sand close to the waterline is very compact.

Gunther and Yvonne were with us as we walked past the rocks to find a Land Cruiser ute upended on the rocks, ooops! Gunther told us that this was not an unusual occurrence as people became frustrated with waiting for the tide to recede and just took too many chances. This person was not very successful! We did witness some very successful crossings with some of them being quite skilled at avoiding both the rocks and the waves.

We decided to eat out this night as it was our first night there. People had been raving about the Pub so off we went with high expectations. Well, our meals were OK but very overpriced. Gunther ordered rissoles expecting something like he gets at the Howard pub. Unfortunately, the “rissoles” were just those frozen hamburger patties!!

After dinner we went in search of ice-cream. We found the place and Wendy ordered a proper ice-cream in a waffle cone, whilst Greg, Gunther and Yvonne ordered the soft serve. Wendy’s was perfect, but the soft serve was more like squished ice with a bit of colouring to make it look like ice-cream. So, again, most of us were quite disappointed. So, we certainly won’t be going back to the pub, nor ordering soft serves from the ice-cream shop!

We walked back to the vans, showered, etc and were in bed quite early.