Rainbow Beach, QLD

Once we left Tin Can Bay it was a short drive to Rainbow Beach. Rainbow Beach is one of two gateways to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. We weren’t sure if we should book a trip to Fraser Island from here or from Hervey Bay, which was the other gateway to Fraser. I wanted to book from Rainbow Beach because the ferry crossing was only 15 minutes and around an hour from Hervey Bay.

The town of Rainbow Beach is quite small with only a handful of stores, but it has a very beautiful beach and large exquisite sand dunes. Unfortunately the water was quite rough and the wind quite cold so we couldn’t really go swimming. We walked around the town and tried to find the best deal for Fraser. We ended up booking with Tribal travel which included 3 nights at Pippies Hostel. We would be leaving to Fraser Island first thing tomorrow morning so we decided to spend our first night at Pippies that night (and shower ) and then use the remaining two free nights after we came back from Fraser Island.

That afternoon we attended the orientation session and met the people who would be in our cars. We had 6 people in our car, which was smaller than the usual 8. We thought this was nice since we would have more room in our car but it turned out we had more trunk space, not room for passengers. The people in our group consisted of me and Andrew, Melissa and Fabian from Switzerland and Trace & Amit from Israel. In addition to driving in the same car and taking turns driving, we would also be cooking together which meant we needed to go shopping together.

It was an interesting experience trying to shop for food for 3 days for 6 people who didn’t know each other. Not only because we were all strangers but because dietary concerns were also brought into the mix. Andrew and I eat pretty much anything, but Melissa is a vegetarian and Amit and Trace keep Kosher. We spent a lot of time at the grocery store trying to figure out all the meals for 3 days but somehow we did it. We bought a lot of cheese for Melissa for her lunch sandwiches, turkey breast for the Israeli guys and sausage for everyone else. Dinner was much simpler as we made rice with veggies and chicken, but we cooked the chicken separately so Melissa could eat with us. On day 2 we had vegetarian pasta. The most interesting part was the alcohol. Melissa and I let the guys decide on the alcohol and I found it interesting that they only came out with 30 beers for the 3 days. I asked Andrew if he was sure this was enough and he said the other guys claimed they didn’t drink a lot. I knew 30 beers was nothing between 6 people but I also didn’t know if Andrew and I just drank a lot compared to the other people or if they really didn’t drink that much. I guessed we would find out. That evening we went to bed early as we had to get up quite early to get ready to leave. Fraser Island would turn out to be one of the more interesting experiences we would have in Australia.