Toowoomba to Rainbow Beach

We travelled on now in direction of the Great Sandy Nationalpark, which basically consists of 2 sections. The the Coloolah Section, located between Rainbow Beach and Tewantin, and Fraser Island, the worlds biggest sand island. Due to the upcoming summer hollidays a great number of visitors was expected starting from the 26th of december, therefore we decided to visit Fraser Island first.

In Rainbow Beach we got hold of all the required permits to visit the island and to camp. On the 23rd of december we boarded the ferry at Rainbow Beach (Inskip Point) which took us to Fraser Island (Hook Point) from where we then slowly made our way due north towards Sandy Cape. Here we spent the next 2 days with relaxing and sunning ourselves on the beaches before we then slowly started our way back to the south. Just about at that time we heard of the devastating bushfires around Sydney that were lit by maniacs. We expirienced the weather from its best side. It was sunny and hot above average. Actually according to the meteorologists it was the hottest summer in the last 100 years. Temperatures of almost 40 degrees were recorded on several days even along the coast and despite the sea breezes. Therefore we we mainly seeked to cool of in the lakes along our route and refrained mainly from the walks.

We spent New Years eve in Rainbow Beach. The Fireworks were delivered through the strongest Thunderstorm we ever witnessed. Luckily we had earlier on decided to spend the night in the cool comforts of a Motelroom for a change. The following day we visited the Coloolah Section of the Great Sandy Nationalpark. We drove along the Freshwater Track through the rainforest towards the beach which was occupied by thousands of campers and sunseekers. Along the beautiful and diversly coloured Sand Cliffs we travelled towards Tewantin on the Beach. Traffic being comparable to a to a quiet heavely used highway. By now the low tide had set in and allowed now to travel along the beach back to Rainbow Beach. As soon as we had passed the wreck of the Cherry Venture, the heavens clouded over again and started to dump some more water on us, which even lasted throughout the night.