Whilst in Maryborough we had popped into the tourist information as I was hoping to get some information on our next destination Rainbow beach. In the process I found out about dolphin feeding at a small town called Tin Can Bay so this is where we headed and camped waiting for the allotted hour for feeding. The town was originally called Wallu, but was changed to Tin Can Bay in 1937. The origins of "Tin Can" are uncertain, but is believed to be derived from an indigenous name, possibly ''tinchin'' meaning ''mangrove'' in the Yugarabul dialect of the Yuggera language, or '''tinken''' meaning '''vine with large ribbed leaves''' from Doombarah Clan, Dulinbara dialect, Kabi language, or '''Tuncanbar''', thought to refer to the dugongs that frequent the inlet. Well that’s quite straightforward and there was me thinking maybe they had a tin can factory nearby.

The feeding all happens at a small beach café where you can, for a small fee stand in the water with the dolphins and for a little more you can feed one of the dolphins a fish enterprising café owner me thinks!). The dolphins are Australian humpback dolphins that live in the river estuary, not venturing far out into the sea. They were only recognised as a species on their own in 2014.

At 7.30 every morning a group of volunteers organise the feeding session for whichever dolphins appear. A mother and baby arrived early and then 5 minutes before feeding time two males appeared. They obviously know the routine as one dolphin swims next to one volunteer. They only get fed a small amount of their required daily intake so that they don’t get reliant on the feeding and still go and catch their own food. It was lovely to see them. When I held the fish out to one I was a little weary as they have a mouth full of teeth but I didn’t need to worry as he was so gentle and didn’t touch my hand. How this all started was when back in the 1950’s an injured dolphin beached himself on the sand at the Cafe. The locals took pity on him and started to feed him. This dolphin was well battle scarred and became known as ‘Old Scarry’. Once he was well enough Old Scarry returned to the wild but regularly returned to the bay to visit the locals and enjoy a free meal soon followed by others.

After this early morning excitement, we got to Rainbow Beach and walked up to the sandblow
and the multi-coloured sand cliffs. The sandblow is where the strong offshore sea breeze blows sand up over the land. In this case it was over a dense forest so was quite spectacular to step out from the shade of the trees onto a bright, almost white mass of sand. We stopped of in the village for coffee and for Peter to try and buy another nose clip for when he is swimming. He goes in the pools fully kitted out with goggles, nose clip and of course shorts. The true tourist. His first nose clip snapped and in the process cut him on the nose. Not sure if it was a badly designed clip or his nose that caused the break.

Glass House Mountain national park was our next stop. It covers a forested area with some very impressive rock protrusion's, the remains of volcanic plugs. Captain Cook gave it this name when he was passing by as it apparently reminded him of furnaces in Yorkshire. We planned to walk up one of the lava plugs the next morning. These majestic basalt rock plugs formed when the area past over a hot spot in the earth’s crust and lava pushed up through the sandstone. The softer sandstone slowly eroded away leaving the lava plugs, now protruding up through rich green forest. It’s the same geological process making the Hawaiian Islands. It took an hour to get to the top and disheartenly I was passed on the way by many people in sporty little outfits some even running. Not good for one’s moral, but I made it and it was well worth it as the view was amazing.

After getting my breath back we walked back down and headed out to meet up with Peter’s cousin Beverley and her family (husband Stewart and children Harry, Tom and Milly). We have not seen them for about 15 years. They live in a lovely house, Stewart built, about an hour north of Brisbane in Nambour, on the Sunshine coast. We spent a lovely time with them catching up on 15 years worth of news, whilst Tom (a budding chef) made a great curry.

After saying farewell the next day we headed to the Abbey museum but it was closed so visited the Caboolture warplane museum and had a very informative personal tour. Did you know that you can tell if a plane carries nuclear bombs by looking at the windows? If they are made of yellow tinted glass, rather than the usual clear glass, then they do. The yellow glass is made with gold dust which deflects the radiation after the bomb has exploded. We also learnt how you relieved yourself during a long flight but I won’t go into that! They are in the process of restoring a Dakota which they plan to fly to the USA and the UK in 2019. We thought we might keep an eye out for that.

We camped on Bribie Island. Peter popped into a surf shop and came out with new nose clip and a floatation devise. Another piece of kit for his swimming! Next day we visited Abbey museum the next day. It houses a bizarre collection including, Neolithic tools, medieval manuscripts and an ancient Greek foot guard (apparently one of only four in the whole world, impressive I hear you say!). The church has more of the original stained glass from Winchester Cathedral than the Cathedral itself. The Cathedral windows were all smashed during Cromwells time and so the glass in the church is made up of lots of pieces put back together so it does look a little odd.

The original artifacts in the museum were all once the private collection of an Englishman named John Ward. He was born in British Honduras in 1885 and educated at Cambridge. In 1929, following a profound spiritual experience, he founded a utopian religious community at Hadley Abbey near New Barnet and established the Abbey Folk Park, Britain’s first social history museum. He amassed 30 salvaged historic buildings at the folk park, where he displayed his substantial collection of prehistoric, classical and medieval antiquities. In 1940 during the London Blitz, the Abbey Folk Park was forced to close; it never reopened.

In 1945 the museum buildings and the bulk of the collections were sold to finance the migration of Ward and members of his community to Cyprus where he died in 1949. The escalation of violence as Greek Cypriots campaigned for union with Greece forced the community to relocate again, this time to Australia in 1956. They eventually settled in Caboolture, Queensland, in 1965 and in 1978 it was decided to make the remaining collection available to the public.

We finally got past Brisbane and left the Sunshine coast behind us. Just passed Brisbane we headed to Byron Bay on the Gold coast but ended up driving in and out. It was heaving with people and just an uninteresting looking mass of cafes, seasidy shops, boutiques and motels. Not our thing at all. Down the road at at a town called Bellina, a low key version of Byron Bay, we did the same. Deciding the Coast, whether it be Sunshine or Gold, not being to our taste we headed inland and camped at Casino before heading down along a beautiful pine and eucalyptus lined road to Grafton. Grafton is known for its streets lined with purple flowering Jacaranda trees, in bloom for our arrival. The town also has an impressive fig tree lined avenue.

We had heard that Grafton had a large Flying Fox colony on an island in the river so about 6.00 that evening we walked down to the river. We had a drink in hotel overlooking the river. It seemed ages waiting for the sun to set and at one point I thought it was quite dark but then realised I still had my sunglasses on! Finally at 7.30 the bats appeared. Not in one mass like you might see in some horror film but a steady stream flying silently up the river and over the town, out to find food.