RAINBOW BEACH, INSKIP POINT AND LOTS OF CAMPING AREAS ...

We woke to a beautiful day today... After the rain yesterday, the sun was shinning, no wind and we had a day to ourselves to explore.  

We had a leisurely start to the day,  a bit of a sleep in, a lovely cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs and then we headed into Rainbow Beach for a look around town.

My cousin and his wife have been coming to Rainbow Beach each July for the last 39 years and they were telling us about houses that they rent each year when they come.  They love to come for the fishing and this time of year the Winter Whiting abound in the waters around here...

It made us think that it would be nice to have a week down here in a house and spend a week fishing in the future.  Anyway, we headed into town to check out the house that they had stayed in the previous week...

Holiday letting home - Rainbow Beach

This house would be a great house to rent as it is within walking distance to the main shopping centre at Rainbow Beach...  It is also within walking distance to the beach..

This taking crocheting to an all new level... 

Another one of those holiday lettings..

The township of Rainbow Beach has many distinctive features but perhaps its most endearing characteristic is that it revolves around one main street and at the end of that street, is the ocean. That might explain why the majority of this close-knit community ends up at the Rainbow Beach Surf Club as the sun begins to set. Like any great surf club, it lures the locals with its spectacular views and warm, inviting atmosphere.  It is perched high above the beach and like the locals, it has lured us too and we decided then and there that we would make the time to haa meal there and enjoy the amazing views that the balcony there afforded of the beach below...

The surf club was high above the beach and to get to the beach we had to walk down quite a fleet of stairs to the sand below.  This beach is a 4WD's paradise with many cars making their way up the beach heading to the amazing colour sands that this part of the coast is noted for...

Before heading down to the beach below, we checked out the the large stainless Steel propeller of the Cherry Venture which  serve as a memorial to the wreck that was washed up on the Teerwah Beach...

 The "Cherry Venture"was a 1600-ton cargo ship of Scandinavian origin.  It ran aground on Teerwah Beach on 6th July 1973 and remained on the beach for 34 years until its removal in early 2007. On the day it ran aground, it was traveling from Auckland to Brisbane when it got caught in a huge storm.  It was wrecked due to a combination of the severe storm and the lack of cargo it was carrying.  At the time Buoys in the area recorded wave heigths of up to 12 mt.  The unladen ship sat high in the water, which, when combined with the high tides and strong swell, propelled it to a point far enough up the sand that it could not be successfully, refloated, despite attempts that involved dredging the beach.  Fortunately, the captain, the crew of 24 and the 2 monkeys onboard all survived

In December 1985, the ship's stainless steel propeller was removed using a thermal lance by Bill, Tony and Bruce Dunne of Caloundra.  It was later restored by the Rainbow Beach Business and Tourism Association and then mounted as a monument on the Esplanade at Rainbow Beach.

In late 2006 it was announced that the wreck would be demolished due to increasing dangers posed by its deterioration including explosed asbestos in the engine room.

The removal process, which necessitated cordoning off a section of public highway which runs along the beach next to the wreck, began on 13 February 2007.

After the demolition of the wreck in 2007, the state government ordered the site to be buried for the safety of visitors. In 2013, Cyclone Oswald and local storms caused severe erosion at the site which removed the layer of sand above the remains of the hull. This sparked the tourism business as the wreck was and now still is a special example of Australia's shipping history.

From the lookout - looking down on Rainbow Beach

The Rainbow Beach Surf Life Saving Club perched above the beach...

 From here we wandered down the stairs to the beach below.  Our plan for the morning was to walk a couple of kilometres along the beach to check out the coloured sands...

There were quite a few cars running up the beach...

Lots of car tracks everywhere

 It was amazing just wandering along the beach, we discovered a natural art gallery where the wind and rain constantly resculpt cliffs of coloured sands.  This is so much different to what we remember from our last visit here 40 odd years ago.  Back then, all I remembered, were sand blows right down onto the beach.  We marveled at the beauty of the cliffs , the iron-rich minerals have stained the sand with a complex array of yellow, brown, and red hues, while pure white sand has been leached of all nutrients. 

 

Wander along Rainbow Beach and discover a natural ‘art gallery’, where wind and rain constantly re-sculpt cliffs of coloured sands. Over thousands of years, iron-rich minerals have stained the sand with a complex array of yellow, brown and red hues, while pure white sand has been leached of all nutrients.

We marveled at the  the spectacularly-eroded cliff lines of swirling coloured sands andl at the magical ‘earthy’ rainbow created by the mixing of sands of different colours. The cliffs extend along the beach  all the way to Double Island Point and you can walk as far as you wish before retracing your steps.

 

The sand stone rocks around here are quite soft and we found numerals examples of these as people have engraved into them over the years.  Some make for interesting reading...

The other thing that fascinated me was the amount of fresh water that was seeping down the rock faces and running out into the ocean.  I remember none of this from our last visit...

Fresh water falling down the rock face and running out into the ocean..

Streams of fresh water runs out like this into the ocean..

The colossal cliffs are not only famous for their colours, but also for their immense size. They can reach heights of 80 metres and boast layers upon layers of coloured sand deposits. They are a natural record of the passage of time with each layer representing a different era. There are about 72 different colours of sands represented here, and it's colours are most vibrant after a fresh rain. 

The rainbow sands are of significance to the native inhabitants to the area who believe the towering sands are the resting place of a rainbow who died for the love of a woman. According to Aboriginal legend, the magnificent coloured sands found along Rainbow Beach formed when a beautiful Aboriginal maiden named Murrawar fell in love with the Rainbow. While trying to protect Murrawar from an evil man who stole her for his slave wife, the Rainbow shattered during the fight, spreading his colourful spirits across the cliffs.

For this reason, Rainbow Beach is still considered to be a place of safety, allowing the women who visit to benefit from the protection of the rainbow. However, its amazing beauty also attracts people from all over the world who come to marvel at nature's masterpiece which has been thousands of years in the making...

Fishermen fishing along the beach...

The sand from Carlos Sandblow from the beach..

Carlow Sandblow from the beach..

Sand sinkhole...

The beach can almost be like a highway with the 4WD's going back and forth along the beach.  You really have to be alert at all times....

Amazing variety of coloured sands..

An example of the very many coloured sands at Rainbow Beach..

Amazing lines and patterns of the roots of trees...

Heading back up to the car park..

We had spent a good two or three hours on the beach.  Loved every minute of it.  If we had driven the car along we could have gone a lot further, but we were a little reluctant to drive it out near the salt as we already have a little rust in the car so didn't want to accelerate it any more...

By now it was after 1pm and we were feeling quite peckish so decided to head out towards Inskip Point to see if we could find somewhere to have our picnic lunch..

On our way out to Inskip Point we came across a road to led to Bullock Point so we decided to detour to check it out. Bullock Point is a small three land public boat ramp and floating walkway located close to Inskip Point..  It is a popular boating and fishing destination...

This barge was moored at Bullock Point...

  Inskip Point is situated right at the tip of the Inskip Peninsula which is a 12 km narrow sandy finger of land built up by wind and waves.  It forms a natural breakwater at the entrance to Tin Can Inlet and Great Sandy Strait.  Inskip is a gateway to World Heritage-listed Fraser Island. Beach she oaks, cypress pine and other coastal trees and shrubs shade the very popular camping areas ringed by open ocean beaches and sheltered estuary shores. All are within 15 minutes drive of Rainbow Beach.  Fraser Island is separated from Inskip Peninsular by about 2kms of water..

The flora of the area consists of coastal trees, such as cypress pine and casuarina, and coastal shrubs which provide habitat for a range of birds. There is good signage to help visitors identify the fauna and flora with notices including "During summer, numbers of shorebirds in the Great Sandy Strait can swell to 30,000 when migratory birds join resident birds ... for migratory shorebirds, its a marathon journey. Many birds travel over 25,000 km each year, with some larger species flying more than 6,000 km non-stop." Among the long distance visitors are the bar-tailed godwit, the grey-tailed tattler, and the red-necked stint. Not surprisingly the water around Inskip Point are rich in sea life and turtles, dugongs and dolphins are regularly sighted.

Inskip Point.

We watched the barge here coming and going from Fraser Island as it carried many vehicles across the strait returning with cars from Fraser Island.  The barge seemed to be running every 40 minutes or so...

We were looking for a picnic area to have our lunch, but there were no designated picnic areas here.  Steve took a bit of a wander through the bush and found a nice little beach area with fallen trees that would would allow us to sit and have out lunch. 

Patterned bark with fungi

Checking out a picnic area for us...

Sandwiches  for lunch

We then explored some of the flora and fauna around the point...

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves which was really lovely... We had fun writing messages in the sand to each other.  I really love doing life with this incredible man.  I feel so incredibly blessed that we have similar interests and enjoy a lot of the same sort of things...  I know so many couples who aren't interested at all in pursuing hobbies or interests of their partners...

Shadows together....XOXOXO

After we had our lunch we spent some time relaxing on the beach before heading back into town.  Driving back we detoured into the many camping grounds along the road to check them all out...

They were really busy with lots of folk int there camping.  Camping permits for Inskip Peninsula camping areas are required and must be purchased before you set up camp.  Minimal fees apply to camp here...We found that there was either a 28day or 30 day limit also on camping there

Lots of the camping sites have lovely views of the beach and ocean...

There are lots of new drop toilets, most of these seem to be pretty new.  We noticed a lot of work being carried out in the camping grounds.  However whilst there are toilets, there are no showers....

I would probably be a little nervous about camping here as the area is nortorious for sinkholes and landslides with the lastest one happening a couple of months before we got there.. In April this year  a portion of the very popular beach collapsed into the ocean at the same location where cars had been driving onto a Fraser Island barge a short time earlier...

In September 2015, 200 metres of the Inskip Point coastline fell into the ocean, taking with it a caravan, car, car-trailer and tents.

Then in May 2016, another even bigger section of the point broke off, sparking concerns from locals that the point would one day be entirely gone.

University of the Sunshine Coast Associate Lecturer in Earth Sciences, Peter Davies, said the phenomenon was caused by fast-moving currents alongside the beach which were eating away at the sand beneath the surface.

By the time we left here we only had about a half hour window before sunset.  It was such a perfect day with no wind that we decided to head back towards the caravan park and head to the boat ramp to end our day by watching the sunset...

Such a perfect end to an amazing day we have had...

Perfect reflections..

Perfect reflections in the water...

Sunset is the best time to visit the marina and boat ramp, as visitors enjoy golden hour here.This spot is known by the locals as Sunset Harbour and the views of the sunsets here did not disappoint... They were stunning as they reflected and silhouetted along the waterways and mudflats.  We were to come back here most afternoons to enjoy the beauty..

It's been a wonderful day and ending it here at Carlos Point watching the sun set below the mountains and water was the most perfect way to end this magical day... Feeling very blessed indeed....