Noosa and Rainbow Beach
Sunday 9th July
Having left Brissy for the third and final time – it was back up the Sunshine Coast for a shufti at Noosa. Last time I was here was for Sam and Jamie’s wedding when I was still with Leece and it was (and I’m sure still is!) a tanfastic place. Unfortunately for me it was Queensland school holidays so it was busy as hell. Also, the Caravan Park was absolutely chocker but luckily I was able to get an unpowered site – the last one as well. On the bike and into the main street, nearly getting run over before hitting the beach and it’s mobbed! And Hasting’s Street – Pah. I managed to find a spot on the beach which I thought was OK only to incessantly get sand kicked over me by two kids enthused by he world cup and playing footy next to me! Good body scrub I guess! I solved the problem by taking the ball when it was kicked into me again and kicking it as far out into the sea as I could. Seems the kids couldn’t swim so I was able to get 5 minutes of peace! The final straw though was trying to book surfing lessons and have the guy fob me off until Thursday as he was running a couple of small groups and individual lessons. I was offered a 1-2-1 on Tuesday, but at 100 buckeroonies it was a bit OTT so I declined.
I joked about booting the footy out to sea btw – I punctured it instead ;-0)
Back at the site, the camp kitchen was absolutely stoved out so I dined on a nice bowl of vegetable soup! Back in the van and going through my Dvd’s to decide what to watch, I hear a van reversing next to me, followed by a sickening thud and crunch! I get out in time to see the guy next to me driving his van forward having reversed into a tree and busted his back door and window completely! The thing is, he could’ve just driven in forward into the spot but I’m ashamed to say it cheered me up a wee bit that I wasn’t the only one having a bad day! He was obviously pissed and for some reason I asked ‘You OK mate?’ Bit daft really as I knew what the response would be, but he did surprise me by adding a few extra ‘fucking’s’ than I’d expected! Good on yer mate! AND he was French! Waytago! Luckily he was fully insured as it was a Britz van so he was in much better spirits when he left in the morning. As was I, as I mooched up the road to Rainbow Beach – figuring that it’d be less busy either there or at Tin Can Bay….
Monday 10th July
It seemed like a million miles driving here – passing through Gympie on the way up, I couldn’t decide where the main street was despite the map indicating that the Bruce Highway passed straight through – it’s that non-descript! I even checked the Lonely Planet for advice and it states… “Gympie likes to promote itself as ‘the Town that saved Queensland’….” Well, that says it all for Queensland as far as I’m concerned! BOS.
That said, coming into the area for Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay, you’re bowled over by the beauty and remote seeming road you’re on, interrupted only by the odd Road Train honking at you and trying to drive in your boot in an effort to intimidate you into moving over. It’s the first time I’ve been glad of the London driving experience in that I could meander happily along the route to Rainbow Beach and not give a f@ck about the 300 tonne Leviathan in my rear-view mirror! I only twigged as to how suicidal these guys are when he overtook me on a hill! 50m of truck takes a loooonnnnggg time to go past! That’s some timetable they’re working to.
I knew I was ‘in’ at Rainbow Beach when I grabbed the final powered spot – apparently even here they’re chock full. I promptly booked another night, to give me the leeway of binning it if it was shite or staying at my leisure if not.
As it happened, my first night there I met a cool couple from Canada. But not just ‘Canada’, but the French speaking part. Considering Anglo-French relations over the years and especially the need to sign the ‘Entente Cordial’, I thought there may be some antipathy but these two, Josette and Dave, are two of the coolest people you could hope to meet. Unfortunately for them the night began with the Captain waxing lyrical about all sort of shite, especially the negative points of Port Macquarie to the Aussie family also cooking…. Who then divulged they were from Port MacQuarie…! I almost felt a Wanker! Luckily, Dave and Josette were on my side so we sniggered quietly and proceeded to have a few more beers. I have to say that at this point, I was attempting to go for 2 weeks without any ‘pop’, but those who know me will appreciate that this is (and indeed proved to be) a tall order and so, 11 days into my abstention, I cracked and fished out my bottle of ‘Cab-Sav Wolf Blass’ that I was saving for falling off the wagon 5 days hence! 
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Dave and Josette had been to Nimbin and an arrangement was reached which was entirely unexpected on my part, but most welcome nonetheless. If that sounds suitably mysterious, then let me say Dave/Josette, the last of your gift was enjoyed at Mission Beach with the most delightfully unexpected bonus of enjoying the next full moon! And Full Moon’s it was, four weeks before, as Dave, Josette and myself strolled the length of Rainbow Beach to enjoy the night. Never had I realised how much light the full moon imparts until Dave remarked that ‘it’d be a very difficult place to be ambushed by Ninja’s’. I think I appreciated the fact that Ninja’s in black suits would look out of place on a sand beach lit by moonlight but what really tickled me was the thought ‘what the fack led Dave to come out with that…?’ 
Now, he never said, despite repeated barracking from me but I have to say that Dave had a great, witty and frankly dark (which in my book makes it FUCKING EXCELLENT) sense of humour… and most importantly, timing. I thought this was an exclusively British reserve!! As always, good things must come to an end and the two of them were off to Fraser before heading home, Canada and Melbourne Respectively for Josette and Dave. What a bonus couple of days meeting those two though!
Wednesday 12th July
A surfing lesson no less! I managed to stay up for a while AND catch my own waves! It was hard work though but god, it was sunny and I felt like Dave Hasselhoff without the tacky swimwear! OK, so I held my tummy in, but one should, right?!
Enthused and encouraged by my energetic activities, I also booked a diving trip at the local Wolf (nearly Creeke but that’s for NT) Rocks! And OMG, what a trip that was…
Thursday 13th July (nearly!!)
An ex-Australian Special Forces guy who had also trained (and presumably survived) British SAS training was now running a diving business at the local Shark ‘sanctuary’... Wolf Rocks. As you can imagine, no quarter asked for and so at 6 o’Clock (6AM!!!!) we were rendezvousing (no less), which meant I had to be up at ugly’o’clock. Or as Campbelloni would say – Stupid o’clock! Mind you, as I’ve said before, there’s something very self-satisfying about being up 1 million minutes before everyone else, but I just didn’t feel that way, despite an early night and no booze!
I’ve never been out in such rough sea’s before and on such a small boat – a Gemini again apparently, but it felt more like a table with about 3 million HP behind it, with none of the benefits of grabbing a table when your world is going South! 2 metre swells is fuck all on a cross-channel ferry, but on a 6 metre long boat, it’s an experience! To my credit, I didn’t spew, but neither did anyone else, INCLUDING THE CHIX, thus diminishing my effort… so it wasn’t until we managed to (SCHNELL…SCHNELL, DIVE….DIVE) descend that I could actually get my head together. Mind you, even that was a chore because everyone seemed to descend so effortlessly to 30 metres that again, I felt like a Wanker! God, I HATE Eustachian tubes!
Once down though, like any effort made to dive, the benefits FAR outweighed any discomfort – my god, it’s not a Shark sanctuary for nothing. Within a couple of minutes I’d seen my first Grey Nurse Shark, also called a ‘Raggy tooth’ and these blighters were pregnant – 3m long and VERY fat. In the 35 minutes we were down, I reckon I saw maybe 8 sharks – it’s strange writing now about seeing them that I think how potentially dangerous these creatures can be – a nip from one of the bigguns would result in you losing an arm, or leg, but as with most things down there – they’re curious about the noisy, slow moving, one-eyed metal fish, before leaving you to your own devices, which with a 3m killer in its element, is a nice attitude to have I think! The other thing that bew me away was the sounds of the Whales – I’ve no idea how close they were but they do sound like cows mooing – it’s incredibly soothing.
The second dive was more of the same (don’t I sound blasé now?!) but with the added excitement of seeing the tail of a Leopard Shark (pretty rare things) and almost putting my hand on a stonefish and having the associated difficulties with getting tagged by one of them! Luckily for me, it didn’t happen, but the joys of diving!! When we got out, the guy told us that just 3 weeks ago, he was rounding one of the boulders when a baby Great White glided past. He said it did nothing but swim on and the only question I could ask after picking my jaw up from the floor was ‘How did you know it was a baby?’ His answer? ‘It was only about 3m long’. Only. Fuck that! Apparently the Great Whites follow the migrating Whales and munch on the calves when they can – thank god he didn’t tell me that one before we got in the water!
Having left Brissy for the third and final time – it was back up the Sunshine Coast for a shufti at Noosa. Last time I was here was for Sam and Jamie’s wedding when I was still with Leece and it was (and I’m sure still is!) a tanfastic place. Unfortunately for me it was Queensland school holidays so it was busy as hell. Also, the Caravan Park was absolutely chocker but luckily I was able to get an unpowered site – the last one as well. On the bike and into the main street, nearly getting run over before hitting the beach and it’s mobbed! And Hasting’s Street – Pah. I managed to find a spot on the beach which I thought was OK only to incessantly get sand kicked over me by two kids enthused by he world cup and playing footy next to me! Good body scrub I guess! I solved the problem by taking the ball when it was kicked into me again and kicking it as far out into the sea as I could. Seems the kids couldn’t swim so I was able to get 5 minutes of peace! The final straw though was trying to book surfing lessons and have the guy fob me off until Thursday as he was running a couple of small groups and individual lessons. I was offered a 1-2-1 on Tuesday, but at 100 buckeroonies it was a bit OTT so I declined.
I joked about booting the footy out to sea btw – I punctured it instead ;-0)
Back at the site, the camp kitchen was absolutely stoved out so I dined on a nice bowl of vegetable soup! Back in the van and going through my Dvd’s to decide what to watch, I hear a van reversing next to me, followed by a sickening thud and crunch! I get out in time to see the guy next to me driving his van forward having reversed into a tree and busted his back door and window completely! The thing is, he could’ve just driven in forward into the spot but I’m ashamed to say it cheered me up a wee bit that I wasn’t the only one having a bad day! He was obviously pissed and for some reason I asked ‘You OK mate?’ Bit daft really as I knew what the response would be, but he did surprise me by adding a few extra ‘fucking’s’ than I’d expected! Good on yer mate! AND he was French! Waytago! Luckily he was fully insured as it was a Britz van so he was in much better spirits when he left in the morning. As was I, as I mooched up the road to Rainbow Beach – figuring that it’d be less busy either there or at Tin Can Bay….
Monday 10th July
It seemed like a million miles driving here – passing through Gympie on the way up, I couldn’t decide where the main street was despite the map indicating that the Bruce Highway passed straight through – it’s that non-descript! I even checked the Lonely Planet for advice and it states… “Gympie likes to promote itself as ‘the Town that saved Queensland’….” Well, that says it all for Queensland as far as I’m concerned! BOS.
That said, coming into the area for Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay, you’re bowled over by the beauty and remote seeming road you’re on, interrupted only by the odd Road Train honking at you and trying to drive in your boot in an effort to intimidate you into moving over. It’s the first time I’ve been glad of the London driving experience in that I could meander happily along the route to Rainbow Beach and not give a f@ck about the 300 tonne Leviathan in my rear-view mirror! I only twigged as to how suicidal these guys are when he overtook me on a hill! 50m of truck takes a loooonnnnggg time to go past! That’s some timetable they’re working to.
I knew I was ‘in’ at Rainbow Beach when I grabbed the final powered spot – apparently even here they’re chock full. I promptly booked another night, to give me the leeway of binning it if it was shite or staying at my leisure if not.
As it happened, my first night there I met a cool couple from Canada. But not just ‘Canada’, but the French speaking part. Considering Anglo-French relations over the years and especially the need to sign the ‘Entente Cordial’, I thought there may be some antipathy but these two, Josette and Dave, are two of the coolest people you could hope to meet. Unfortunately for them the night began with the Captain waxing lyrical about all sort of shite, especially the negative points of Port Macquarie to the Aussie family also cooking…. Who then divulged they were from Port MacQuarie…! I almost felt a Wanker! Luckily, Dave and Josette were on my side so we sniggered quietly and proceeded to have a few more beers. I have to say that at this point, I was attempting to go for 2 weeks without any ‘pop’, but those who know me will appreciate that this is (and indeed proved to be) a tall order and so, 11 days into my abstention, I cracked and fished out my bottle of ‘Cab-Sav Wolf Blass’ that I was saving for falling off the wagon 5 days hence! 
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Dave and Josette had been to Nimbin and an arrangement was reached which was entirely unexpected on my part, but most welcome nonetheless. If that sounds suitably mysterious, then let me say Dave/Josette, the last of your gift was enjoyed at Mission Beach with the most delightfully unexpected bonus of enjoying the next full moon! And Full Moon’s it was, four weeks before, as Dave, Josette and myself strolled the length of Rainbow Beach to enjoy the night. Never had I realised how much light the full moon imparts until Dave remarked that ‘it’d be a very difficult place to be ambushed by Ninja’s’. I think I appreciated the fact that Ninja’s in black suits would look out of place on a sand beach lit by moonlight but what really tickled me was the thought ‘what the fack led Dave to come out with that…?’ 
Now, he never said, despite repeated barracking from me but I have to say that Dave had a great, witty and frankly dark (which in my book makes it FUCKING EXCELLENT) sense of humour… and most importantly, timing. I thought this was an exclusively British reserve!! As always, good things must come to an end and the two of them were off to Fraser before heading home, Canada and Melbourne Respectively for Josette and Dave. What a bonus couple of days meeting those two though!Wednesday 12th July
A surfing lesson no less! I managed to stay up for a while AND catch my own waves! It was hard work though but god, it was sunny and I felt like Dave Hasselhoff without the tacky swimwear! OK, so I held my tummy in, but one should, right?!
Enthused and encouraged by my energetic activities, I also booked a diving trip at the local Wolf (nearly Creeke but that’s for NT) Rocks! And OMG, what a trip that was…
Thursday 13th July (nearly!!)
An ex-Australian Special Forces guy who had also trained (and presumably survived) British SAS training was now running a diving business at the local Shark ‘sanctuary’... Wolf Rocks. As you can imagine, no quarter asked for and so at 6 o’Clock (6AM!!!!) we were rendezvousing (no less), which meant I had to be up at ugly’o’clock. Or as Campbelloni would say – Stupid o’clock! Mind you, as I’ve said before, there’s something very self-satisfying about being up 1 million minutes before everyone else, but I just didn’t feel that way, despite an early night and no booze!
I’ve never been out in such rough sea’s before and on such a small boat – a Gemini again apparently, but it felt more like a table with about 3 million HP behind it, with none of the benefits of grabbing a table when your world is going South! 2 metre swells is fuck all on a cross-channel ferry, but on a 6 metre long boat, it’s an experience! To my credit, I didn’t spew, but neither did anyone else, INCLUDING THE CHIX, thus diminishing my effort… so it wasn’t until we managed to (SCHNELL…SCHNELL, DIVE….DIVE) descend that I could actually get my head together. Mind you, even that was a chore because everyone seemed to descend so effortlessly to 30 metres that again, I felt like a Wanker! God, I HATE Eustachian tubes!
Once down though, like any effort made to dive, the benefits FAR outweighed any discomfort – my god, it’s not a Shark sanctuary for nothing. Within a couple of minutes I’d seen my first Grey Nurse Shark, also called a ‘Raggy tooth’ and these blighters were pregnant – 3m long and VERY fat. In the 35 minutes we were down, I reckon I saw maybe 8 sharks – it’s strange writing now about seeing them that I think how potentially dangerous these creatures can be – a nip from one of the bigguns would result in you losing an arm, or leg, but as with most things down there – they’re curious about the noisy, slow moving, one-eyed metal fish, before leaving you to your own devices, which with a 3m killer in its element, is a nice attitude to have I think! The other thing that bew me away was the sounds of the Whales – I’ve no idea how close they were but they do sound like cows mooing – it’s incredibly soothing.
The second dive was more of the same (don’t I sound blasé now?!) but with the added excitement of seeing the tail of a Leopard Shark (pretty rare things) and almost putting my hand on a stonefish and having the associated difficulties with getting tagged by one of them! Luckily for me, it didn’t happen, but the joys of diving!! When we got out, the guy told us that just 3 weeks ago, he was rounding one of the boulders when a baby Great White glided past. He said it did nothing but swim on and the only question I could ask after picking my jaw up from the floor was ‘How did you know it was a baby?’ His answer? ‘It was only about 3m long’. Only. Fuck that! Apparently the Great Whites follow the migrating Whales and munch on the calves when they can – thank god he didn’t tell me that one before we got in the water!
posted by Captain | 12:11 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home