Tin Can Bay

With a certain amount of regret, we abandoned proffered careers as snorkel tour operators, said our farewells to Geoff and Dianne and boarded the ferry for Yepoon. Since the ferry left at 11 we couldn't really drive back to Noosa and arrive at a reasonable hour, so we collected the car from the car park and set course for Tin Can Bay, a little town about 100 Km north of Noosa, and one of the stops on the trip that I'd originally planned to sail with Endless Summer. While I'd studied the charts for the harbour, I didn't know a thing about the town of Tin Can Bay other than that you were supposed to be able to feed dolphins there.

Actually, we dawdled a bit in Yepoon so it was completely dark (6:30) by the time we got to Tin Can Bay. And, the kids, tired hungry and unable to read because of the dark, had to be bodily restrained from killing each other in the back seat. And, tomorrow (Thursday) was ANZAC day, roughly analogous to Memorial Day, plenty of reason to expect all hotels to be booked.

Tin Can Bay looked to be a forlorn little town at the end of a long lonely road, but our luck held out. The one lighted hotel that we passed turned out to be quite nice and they had a vancancy. Better still, they were just around the corner from the yacht club which was one of two places that were still serving dinner. We had a great meal and met some of the local yachties, one of whom volunteered helpfully that building his boat had taken seven years and three different boat builders. And then everybody laughed... No worries mate!

We actually did get to feed the dolphin.

Our Jeep Adventure

After the dolphin feeding which took place at 8, and the Meyer feeding which took place at 9, we decided to check out Rainbow beach, so named because of the nearby multicoloured sand cliffs.

Some of the coloured sands.

After weeks of salt and sun, my curly hair...

Quicksand! Don't drive in this.

Nicoline working on the coloured sand collection.

So many people drive on the beach that they actually have speed limits and police patrols. Didn't see any sign which forbade the spinning of doughnuts, though.

I'm a bloke I'm an ocker and I really love your knockers...

The rarely sighted Nicomarsupial. Distinguished by its giddy laugh, climbing ability, and large appetite.

After driving along the beach for 20 Km or so you get to the wreck of the Cherry Venture. This was featured in the movie "Endless Summer II" where it seemed to be on a deserted stretch of coastline. Like the Cape St. Francis scene in Endless Summer where the surfers discover that someone has built a suburb on what once was pristine beach, we found about 200 4wd vehicles parked around the wreck. Scarry how life imitates art.

We stopped at a (cold!) freshwater lake in Big Sandy National Park on the way back. Tristan chased this monitor up into a gum tree. Hopefully, monitors can climb down as well as they go up. We must have seen at least a dozen monitors.

After we left the beach, the jeep trail wound its way through the bush. Some parts were pretty sparse and others were more like the rainforest we saw around Mt. Warning.

Inskip point

Having turned the jeep back in, we hiked out to Inskip point for the sunset and the moonrise. Inskip is how one would sail into Tin Can Bay from the open ocean. Across the channel is Frasier Island site of numerous natural wonders that we'll have to see some other time. Aside from 4 wheel drive sand tracks, there are no roads. You can either rent a 4wd rig and brave the wilds yourself or book a seat on one of the giant 4wd busses.

Nicoline's pelican picture.

Instead of leaving you with a nice romantic sunset picture, I'll close by noting that Aussie mosquitos (or mozzies as they're known) are too pugnatious for ordinary mosquito repellents with names like "Off". Down here, nothing short of "Mozzies F#ck Off" will do the trick. That's an actual product name, sailor.

We're back in Coolangatta. When we arrived the kids noticed "Wet & Wild" and "Dreamworld" themeparks on the highway near here and since we have forced them to do so many sucky adult activities like petting kangaroos, feeding dolphins, or swimming with manta rays, we have to give in and do something that they will enjoy. We did "Wet & Wild" yesterday (in spite of occasional rain showers) and tomorrow it is off to Dreamworld for Nicoline's birthday. I hope they serve martinis...