Noosa and Rainbow Beach

In which I say a tearful goodbye to the surf crew and strike out alone up the coast

15.06.2007

Hey Guys

Well first I'd like to say I am safe and sound now in Rainbow Beach. Second of all Id like to say, I miss the girls! and Third of all I'd like to say, the beach here is gorgeous!

Now, back to the story.

So when last I typed ... lets see where was I? Oh right. I was in South Bank Brisbane sort of.

Well, since then, I visted the Cultural Museum, Art Gallery, and Museum on the south bank with Claire, and I wandered around the Botanical gardens in Brisbane on my last day there
photos here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28280&l=1c7e4&id=618320647

Anyway, after that, I spent the evening with the girls at a Kareoke bar, and we had a blast! We made it an early evening though, as most of us couldnt afford to get drunk, and I had to be up early to catch my bus.

The bus to Noosa was an adventure all its own! it was supposed to pick me up at the YHA in Brisbane (right up the street from where I was staying) at 6:30 am, so in my usual paranoid fashion, I checked out at 6am, and was at the pick up point by about 6:10. I thought I'd just read my book and try not to think about what I was going to do when I got to Noosa. It worked rather well until I realised it was about 7:00am and my bus still hadnt come yet! I called the company and was put on hold while the operator "called the driver" ... who happened to pull up about 10 mins into my hold time. So I got on the bus, no problem. Just a little late. No one's fault really, they give everyone the same pick up time in Brisbane. From there we headed out, grabbed some breakfast at a truck stop, and went for a short "rainforest walk" which turned out to be about a 700m journey up hill to the summit of a small mountain to view the Glass House Mountains. not great, but thoroughly exhausting. ug! Then back on the bus and on the road ... and stop... in the middle of the highway. Our gear box was broken! Off we all piled and tried to push the bus along the shoulder to get it into second gear or something, but to no avail. Lucky for us this nice guy in a Greyhound company bus pulled up and tried to help us out. When he couldnt get it fixed he just offered to take the bus load of us with him to Noosa! it was great upgrade oh yeah.

Once there I got to wait for an hour for my hostel's courtesy bus, but the hostel itself was gorgeous! I stayed at Dolphins on Sunshine beach. Each unit is like its own little appartment. you have 2, 4 man dorms in each unit and you get your own fully equipped kitchen and bathroom plus a sitting room with cable tv! ... too bad the girls in my unit liked Aussie soaps so much ick! I ended up meeting up with Tom, a guy I knew for a short while in Byron and he took me out for dinner and showed me some sights at the park. It was really nice. The next day I slept in and met up with Tom to walk the national park again. We had a nice day, but it was too over cast to go to the beach. Now people might know, the thing I was looking forward to the most in Noosa was surfing. Sadly for me, the waves were kind of harsh so I didnt get to go out. Or rather, they were harsh until today, when I had to leave! I headed to the beach to kill some time till my bus came and the waves were almost perfect! I could have cried. But I didnt, I read on the beach and watched a pod of dolphins instead, then headed in to catch my bus.

Arrived on schedule in Rainbow Beach, and now i dont know anyone here, which is a very very odd feeling. I went to the beach and read and sunned down there for a while today, and got really freaked out because turns out the I placed my towl about 100ft away from a sky dive landing point! It was cool cuz I got to see people landing for most of the afternoon. It got chilly though, so now I'm back at my hostel.

For those wondering, I'm staying at Dingo's backpackers in Rainbow beach until Monday when I head off to fraser Island. I booked my tour with Peter Pans travel in Noosa, and i'm doing a self guided tour with about 10 other people. Basically they give us tents, food, fuel, and a troupie, and set us loose on the island. Oh and we get maps too. It should be fun! I also booked my Whitsunday sailing while I was there, since you get a deal when you book them together. I had wanted to sail on a ship called the Solway Lass, since its a 100 yr old traditional tall ship, but it was too big and expensive, so instead I took the Ron of Argyll, which is a much smaller boat, but still a classic tall ship design. Instead of housing 38 passengers, it only houses 12, so there is more chance for me to get to actually sail the boat and learn about sailing in general. I cant wait!

In the mean time, if you want to know my Itinerary, I'll be on Fraser Island until Wednesday afternoon, then I'll be back here at Dingos for the evening. From there I'm not sure if I'm going to stay a few extra days or if I'll head straight on to Hervey. Looks like i'll be in Bundaberg sooner than I had thought, since there is literally nothing to do in Hervey Bay except go to Fraser Island. I'll write again in a few days to let you guys know how Fraser went in the mean time, I realised that for those not on face book, you wont have seen my photos, so I'll post the links here because I need some way to end this propperly