Eager to get close to Brisbane as it's only
a week till we fly back to Melbourne for another festival (a tad celebrity I
know). We put almost a thousand Kilometres behind us, sleeping at the side of
the highway and becoming a little robotic in our driving modes – drive – stop –
eat – drive – sleep – drive. In honesty and hindsight we we're a little hasty,
whizzing past turtle egg laying, crocodile tours, rum country.. and ending up
in WHITE VAN HELL at the 'Sunshine Coast'. Sounds alluring doesn't it.. 'The
Sunshine Coast' but the truth to the region is
there if you look hard enough as I’m now pretty sure the whole coast is a
cleverly concealed retirement village, a cocktail of that and posh-campers is a
little hard to swallow so fresh out of the rainforest.
TIN CAN BAY AND RAINBOW BEACH
We backtrack slightly up the coast and spend a couple of days between Tin Can bay, a sleepy little town where first thing I the morning you can feed 'wild' dolphins if you've got $5 for a fish, the patience to be surrounded by a thousand morons with sticky fingers trying to pet the things and a group of 'wild life protecting' enthusiasts who are so overwhelmed by the tourism the dolphins attract and the bird-life that presumes (rightly so) if there’s fish being handed out then they deserve some as much as the next critter, that they have taken to fending off the birds with large poles. So real is the threat from the birds that the feeding itself feels more like some form of sordid drug-deal than a family album moment.. 'you have the drugs?' - 'you have the cash?' - all under the ever watchful and twitching eyes of over-dedicated, under appreciated, retired hobbyists in khakis armed to the teeth with poles, paddles and a crazed, fierce stare, the likes of which could probably trigger an instantaneous regurgitation of stolen fish in the most serious and hungry of pelicans.
And Rainbow Beach which is neither hippie nor 'fruity' but gets the name from its multi-coloured sandstone cliffs. The beach would be lovely but for some reason the council permits people to tear through it in their four-wheel-drives and motor bikes. Great if your a petrol head, not so great if your a bit 'old fashioned' and believe the beach should be vehicle, petrol and excessive noise free. Still, the beach has a hidden gem 'Sand Blow' a micro desert created from the the dunes being blown inland from strong sea winds. Quite incredible and no vehicles permitted.
And WE CAN SWIM IN THE SEA AGAIN! Though after weeks of refreshing rainforest swimming holes the soupy warm ocean doesn't really compare. Still, nice to know the options there.
Byron bay, the kind of place you want to hate before you even arrive due to the sheer amount of people who have told you “Ow your going to love it!”, every backpacker has been here, is on their way here, or can't leave here. And to be honest.. we liked it, a lot! The beach is the towns obvious appeal, a seemingly endless stretch of golden sand, shimmering mountains sitting on the horizon behind a vale of sea mist carried by a steady, cool breeze. And lots of surf, for everyone, even us. “lessons?! We don't need lessons, Jaimie grew up next to the ocean, I've lived in Cornwall, course we know how to surf!!” And we do, we just haven't done any in long enough to forget that the ocean WILL punish the unprepared. And we we're definitely unprepared, running in a frolic skip to the ocean like lambs to the water. Only to be regurgitated like bad mutton. However, we we're determined and with a brisk change of strategy (stop trying to surf with the pro's, swallow your pride and get in with the beginners) and a regained (after a solid beating) respect for the power of the ocean we eventually catch some waves.
