after surviving a 16 hour greyhound bus ride to Rainbow Beach, we left yesterday morning for a self-guided four wheel drive camping trip with 8 other people we have never met. We left our hostel in rainbow beach early Monday morning with a four wheel drive vehicle packed with everything we would need for two days on the beach. It was so awesome to drive on the beach! The conditions were pretty rocky at times, and we really had to be careful when the tide was coming in, but it was an interesting experience. We saw a shipwreck (the Maheno) and manta rays from on top of a beautiful cliff. What a day! We camped right near the beach. Camping was definitely "roughing it". We had to bury everything because the dingoes might come and steal our food (I am serious...for you Seinfeld junkies, the line "a dingo ate my baby" is apparently based in truth when a woman claimed that a dingo ate her baby. Since then, there are signs everywhere warning people to watch their children. Sidenote: yes, we saw a dingo. Not that interesting...dingoes look like fox-sized dogs). We slept on the beach and could hear the ocean. Unfortunately, we couldn't go swimming in the ocean because of the tiger sharks that could eat us. yes, we are definitely living on the edge here!
After a few hours sleep, we all got up early to try to beat the tide to make it to a beautiful lake. What an experience! I drove on the other side of a car for the first time ever. It's really weird to shift with the left hand (although the pedals are on the same side as back home). The road was so bumpy. I felt so hardcore to drive offroad. When we arrived at the lake (Mackenzie lake), it was worth the drive. The sand was just like in the whitsundays, but the water was incredibly wonderful. it felt so great to be in freshwater instead of constantly coughing up salt water. From there, we walked around a rainforest, admiring all of the different kinds of trees. We left shortly thereafter to make our way back. The ride back was a blast! The driver was almost doing it on purpose to make us fly out of our seats. Thankfully we were wearing sealbelts so we were ok. :)
Now that we are back in rainbow beach, we will likely head out to Byron Bay, and aim to be in Melbourne by the weekend. We fly out to Sydney for Auckland on the 13th so we want to make sure we use our time well.
Some pictures (left to right): Indian Head, hugging a tree in the rainforest and near the Maheno wreck.
4 comments:
You guys look great! Jason, I was sure I'd see you in your crow costume - another halloween, another country? Michelle, glad you came out ok from the water, keep to the trees!
I think I will pass on you bringing that boat home. It's the wrong color to begin with and I'm not 2 keen on the air conditioning system. But hey thanks anyways please keep looking.
You guys are living in paradise! *drool* Now I have more incentives to save money!
opps! That was Marsha
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