We’ve hired a car and are planning to head North with a vague aim of reaching Cairns before we fly out of Brisbane in three weeks. Queensland’s a massive state and we don’t want to spend too much time on the road so I’m not sure we’ll make it much further than Townsville in the next three weeks.

Our first stop is Rainbow Beach, a small coastal resort on the Sunshine Coast about three hours from Brisbane (our starting point). It’s generally known as the gateway to Fraser Island, a beautiful island which can only be accessed on foot or by four wheel drive, but having been to Fraser Island before (albeit 23 years ago!) we decided not to go there again but instead have a short stay at Rainbow Beach.

 

The town itself was very quiet, apart from the hostels, which were teaming with backpackers. Although it was very warm (about 28 c), the weather was quite unsettled and the beach was too rough for activities such as surfing and kayaking, so instead, we headed out on foot to see a couple of local sights.

Our first stop was the Carlo Sandblow. To reach it, we walked about two kilometres through the bush, during which time I fretted about dangerous Australian wildlife. I saw a sign at the beginning of the trail warning of various snakes and spiders which set me on edge. I was particularly keen not to trip over a Death Viper – apparently you can tell them apart from the other kinds of snakes – when they see you coming, they don’t slither off, they stay where they are. The hazards of walking in Australia as opposed to New Zealand!  Fortunately, no Death Vipers were spotted.

Having survived the trail, we climbed up onto a cliff and popped out on top of an enormous expanse of sand. It was a shock after walking through all the trees, like suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a desert. The temptation to run down the steep, soft sand was too much to resist. After that, we made our way gingerly down to the edge of the sandblow. We wanted to see the cliffs of multicoloured sands which give Rainbow Beach its name, but apart from noticing different strips of colour at the cliff edge, we couldn’t really see the cliffs. All we could see was the darkening sky and a massive band of rain falling over the sea – it was definitely time to go.

 

It’s a circular walk, so we set off in the direction of Rainbow Beach as quickly as we could. The walk back up the sand to the top of the sandblow was a lot harder than it was coming down and I really felt it in my calves. After that, we half ran half walked down towards the town, anxious to beat the rain. Fortunately, we reached the town pub just before the heavens opened.

The next day, we drove a few kilometres out of Rainbow Beach and took a rough dirt track into the bush. There are dirt tracks all over this area – it’s a popular place to go off road in a 4 wheel drive with camping kit on board. Fortunately, this track wasn’t too rough as we only have a standard car: just a few potholes to dodge. We stopped at the first carpark we came to and followed a path into the bush, heading for Poona Lake. Again, I was nervous about Australian wildlife, but the only wild things we encountered were some stunning trees and a few screeching cockatoos.

Half way through the walk, it began to rain again – we decided to ignore it and push on. Rain over here is very different than in England – just as wet but much, much warmer. After about half an hour, we came out onto a small white sand beach. We had reached the lake!

 

It was a beautiful place, very atmospheric in the rain. We were the only ones there. There was no traffic noise, in fact no noise at all apart from the sound of the rain and the occasional bird call. Despite the rain, I decided to go in. I had brought my bathers, but since we were alone I ditched the bathers and went in my birthday suit.

Entering the water was easy – the sand was soft under feet. The water was very warm and quickly became quite deep. Fraser Island has several lakes which I swam in before – this was quite similar. The water is very brown but this is just due to the tannins in the trees. It’s very pure, probably pure enough to drink. I swam around for several minutes, not wanting it to end.

 

As I came out, the rain lifted and the water seemed to change colour from brown to green. I quickly dried myself and dressed and then we set off back down the path. The walk back to the car was uneventful with no scary animal encounters.