Rainbow Beach

 17/09/2012
  There are a few storms about and the forecast isn’t too good for the next couple of days. Just our luck as we have come to Rainbow Beach to chill out, and lay on the beach topping up the tan. We ran into some torrential rain on the journey up which wasn’t good for motorway driving.
Rainbow Beach hasn’t changed much from when we were here in 2009. It’s grown a bit, but the sea front has had no development at all.
 We walked down to the beach (2 minutes) and called in at the Surf Lifesaving Club for a schooner or two. The balcony there looks out over the beach and out to sea , we sat there watching a whale rising and generally messing about until a whale watching boat came on the scene and got too close. We didn’t see the whale after that.
 The weather might be a bit unpredictable right now but it’s warm enough to sit out in the evening after the sun has gone down, but we need to wear our fleece tops. Looking forward to the tropics now.

 18/09/2012
  First day in one of the really nicest of  beach resorts and we spend most of the day sitting under the awning watching the rain. It did clear mid afternoon allowing us a good long walk on the beach and a paddle in the surf. Rainbow Beach is so named because of the coloured sand cliffs that stretch for miles around the bay. The colours change quite sharply from one  to another, there is a definite line between red sand and white sand, then it turns dark brown and so on, they say there are 70 different shades but we didn’t bother counting.
 As we have missed most of today due to rain we are staying another night, leaving on Friday. The forecast is excellent, temperature rising to 30 plus by the end of the week.

 19/09/2012
 That’s better, temperature up, cloud and rain gone, nothing for it but a day on the beach and in the sea. I had forgotten how strong the rip currents are here, rips combined with surf makes for hard work trying to swim, so I gave up to just thrash about body surfing. Great fun but very tiring and you never seem to arrive back on the same bit of beach that you started from, no wonder there are surf life savers on duty all the time.
 Good weather is a must here as there isn’t much to do other than laze about on the beach, there aren’t too many walks to go on either. One of the big draws to this place is Fraser Island, just a short barge trip away. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world and a great place to drive your shiny 4WD on  sandy tracks, if you are that way inclined. If we had a 4WD it wouldn’t appeal, I have never understood the Australian fixation with driving on beaches, it’s just a mystery to me.
 We are not holding our breath but we could be on a lucky streak. We are lottery winners!……just 29 buck but it’s a start.

20/09/2012
More of the same after the morning sea mist had burnt off, meaning, doing very little other than laying about on the beach. That, then a beer in the surf club then a couple in the Rainbow Beach Hotel because it’s on the way back to the van…… it’s a hard life!