We arrived in Rainbow Beach on Wednesday afternoon after a little car trouble and a quick "half hour" stop at an auto electrician in Gympie that very quickly turned into a two hour break. At least it was in the shade!

It is quite a strange place because there is very little in the town in the way of shops and things to do, but it is busy almost throughout the year due its proximity to Fraser Island - it's only a ten minute ferry ride as opposed to the forty-five minute trip from Hervey Bay. There don't seem to be quite so many backpackers here as in Hervey Bay as it's not quite as popular, but there are hundreds of four wheel drive around the town which makes crossing the road quite an experience!

We got ourselves checked into a nice apartment up on the hill that overlooked Fraser Island and spent the afternoon catching some sun by the pool, before trekking all of ten metres down the road for a meal in the evening. We even managed to get Lynn a wee cake for her birthday!

Yesterday we took in some of the sights of the area and the first stop was up at the Carlo Sand Blow just a little up the road. It was a short walk through some forest and then the area suddenly opened and there is a huge expanse of sand that stretches right up to the top of the cliffs above the beach. It is from here that many people take off in their hang gliders but we didn't see any this time as we walked around to the edge of the cliffs. As we walked around on the Blow we could see all the different colours in the sand that the area takes its name from.

Once we had come down from the Sand Blow we headed into town to check out the beach and see what was about. After a quick stroll along the beach we jumped back in the car and headed to Inskip Point - the departure point for Fraser Island. We went along one of the walking trails that brought us out onto the beach, where we came across a couple in their four wheel drive having a picnic on the sand surrounded by water! From here Fraser Island was just across the water but we could only stay for a while as the sand was so hot and we headed back through the trees for some much needed shelter.

With little else to do and even less inclination to do anything it was back to the pool for some more lounging around before heading back to the restaurant from yesterday evening. Once again we arrived in time for sunset and once again it was too overcast to see anything and tonight we were even treated to a mild downpour to view from our window table!!

Before we left this morning we took a boat over to Tin Cay Bay where we had another encounter with some of our Porpoise Pals. Shortly after we arrived at the little dock a couple of dolphins swam up to the shore while the small group of people at the dock crowded around trying to get closer to them. After a brief talk from the volunteers that were there to ensure nobody touched the dolphins, it was time to go and get our fish in preparation for feeding time.

These dolphins were different from the ones we had fed at Moreton Island and it was great to be able to feed them in the morning daylight as we could see them really clearly this time as they took the fish from our hands. This time around we were able to go back to the fish man again and get another bucket so that we could feed the dolphins twice and they stayed in the shallows for almost an hour before making their way back out into the open water.

On the journey back to Rainbow Beach our captain told us how the area around the bay was a common feeding ground for the Dugongs or 'Sea Cows' due to the sea grasses on the river beds but there were none to be seen this time.

Once we had checked out of the apartment it was time to head back to Brisbane again for a few days before Lynn and Leslie headed back home. We had thought about a quick stop in Noosa to see what had changed since the last time we were all there, but we got slightly sidetracked on the way when a guy coming the other way managed to turn his jeep over and crash into the side of the road! It was pretty lucky that the jeep swerved that way and not this way or there would have been a rather interesting coming together of our two vehicles!

We stopped to make sure him and his daughter were ok and helped them out of the vehicle while the others around us helped to manage the flow of traffic while we waited on the police. Once we were sure they were ok, we headed of back to Brisbane as we didn't fancy explaining why we had an out of date rego sticker on our car (long story!!).

Now we are back in our apartment for a couple of days before the Robb olds head back to the Emerald Isle once again.