Rainbow 🌈 beach and Fraser....

I made it to Rainbow Beach at just before 1600 and checked into the hostel.  There was only about 15 people on our bus up from Brisbane the rest piled out at Noosa on the way.  The welcoming party for the Bellgrooves!
The hostel is smart,  has a $7 dinner and free pancakes in the morning,  when you check in they give you a tin plate bowl and mug as if you were in a prison which is pretty novel and pretty sensible.  In my 6 bunk dorm I am the only person,  so I have an ensuite room for $22 can't complain at that.  Yes I have to admit I haven't got round to looking at couch surfing yet probably because I don't really know where I am going!
Anyway as soon as I get here there is the opportunity to go sandboarding and watch a sunset. Now the last time I went sandboarding one person broke their ankle and another their collar bike,  not me I loved it but I decided I would pop the trainers on and go for a run and head up for the sunset.
Carlo Sandblow really is quite a breath taking spot between the rows professional photographers and circles of beer drinkers. Even as I arrived there were people leaving saying 'oh I have seen a sunset before'
I could be tempted to say the same and always struggle to compare to the ones at sea. But I have to say there was definitely a little bit of magic about this place.
Carlo Sandblow is so named by Capt Cook (as a lot of this coastline is) after one of his crew members on spotting this from the sea.  The Sandblow is created by strong winds blowing the sand inland covering grass trees and all sorts and over many years building up into places such as this one. Unexpected and thoroughly worthwhile.

0745 start the next day with a free pancake in hand and a much smaller bag..... 2 day tour of Fraser Island.
You can tell its going to be at least interesting when you get picked up by a coach on steroids. A 4WD coach with a front facing camera and a large flat screen playing the view to us.  A quick 10km drive to inkscape and a chain ferry without the chains to Fraser Island at High water, which you could throw a stone at,  and high water meant no beach so we are on an inland track that was originally used by the logging industry.  Originally they used oxes and horses then train tracks and then they realised this place is pretty cool and a unique ecosystem so in about 1937 started to preserve it and re - plant. Its now a world heritage site,  the largest sand island in the world 123 km long and on average 15km wide,  the inland tracks are pretty bumpy to say the least, I made an all-time max on number of sheriffs climbed through the course of the day while sat down,  but once the tide was down we were off off and away on the beach going along at 80+kmph.

First stop MacKenzie Lake formed from an old volcano I believe, it captures rain water so no way out for the water and it is almost mirror like and super clear.  We get there with what felt like an absolute world of people though some tactical photos will make you think it was me myself and I! The water is meant to make your hair soft and the wet sand a good exfoliant and also make your skin soft so in I went.  It was not warm but unbelievably clear and my waterproof phone got try out it's underwater selfish skills

From there we moved on to a walk by a creek in the rainforest.  Yes a rainforest on a sand dune!  The creek is almost invisible and more bizarrely makes no noise,  no running water noise nothing it is just quiet,  because of this it is where the indigenous women have their children due to the serenity.  Fortunately there were no women giving birth while we were there!
We then headed up to Champagne Pools followed by Indian Heads one of the 3 out crops of rocks on this island.
The Champagne pools sit at the top North of the island and are so called because you can see the white foam tops breaking behind the rock pools.
Indian head to be honest is just a big headland upon which it was blowing force prepare to blow off the hill,  we could see sea turtles and mantarays from here but most striking was you could look out to the east to what seems like the end of the earth.  Oh to sail across the ocean  there is something quite calming about the sea even when I was clinging to Indian head trying not to blow away, wrongly named by yes you guessed it Cook who saw indigenous people with spears and boomerangs and thought they were Indians!

As the sky turns on fire and we drive back along 75mile beach which as with all something mile things in the world it isn't 75miles you could see a storm brewing.
I am on a two day tour and I did think I wish I had camped out until it absolutely hammered it down.  He he