Day 3 Sunday 9th July
Following on from kicking off our trip on the Sunshine Coast, we continue our Australian East Coast Road trip today and travel to Rainbow Beach and further up the coast to Hervey Bay. We checked into our super cute, immaculate accommodation at Debbie’s Place in Rainbow Beach and then had a walk across to check out the fantastic beach to stretch our legs after a couple of hours in the car. We ended up wandering about and playing in the sand for hours.
Then, mid-afternoon we took the short drive to the Carlo Sand Blow. Again just for a look and again, stayed for hours. There’s almost a 360 degree view from the top of the sand dune – across to Fraser Island and then west for the sunset too. Rob put the drone up in the air for a few shots and the kids loved rolling around and diving about in the sand. Watching the sun set into the Australian Outback was a real highlight -. Frickin’ amazing. And then it was time for beers and cooking up some chicken on the BBQ at our accommodation to go in our awesome Butter Chicken with the locally made curry paste from the Caloundra Street Fair.
http://rainbowbeachaccommodation.com.au/
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/cooloola/journeys/carlo-sandblow-walk
Day 4 Monday 10th July
We had an early start today to go and see the dolphins that swim into Tin Can Bay, about half an hour out from Rainbow Beach. Arrive there early to get more of a chance to feed them. We arrived at 7:30am and at first there weren’t enough dolphins to give them a feed but you can see them real close up as they come in right to the shoreline. As more of the pod arrived, Lou and the kids upgraded to feed them too – Great fun and cold feet.
After this we were pretty hungry so drove back into Rainbow Beach for a massive breakfast at Little Parliament. Big food, and awesome quality for a little town.
We just stayed in Rainbow Beach for the one night and then drove up the road to Urangan in Hervey Bay. Nice little spot with a kilometer long, 100 year old pier to stroll along on a sunny afternoon.
Our place had a great pool, which the kids were keen for, and then we were out for more big food at the Cafe Balaena at the nearby marina. Apparently the views are epic here but we were here in winter so it was dark and the wind breaks were down. But try the chicken and scallop salad – we know that’s epic.
http://www.barnaclesdolphins.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/littleparliament/
Day 5 Tuesday 11th July
This was whale watching day in Hervey Bay. A fabulous day for it with super calm waters and no swell to speak of at all. We went out early, well 8:30, for a half day trip with Tasman Ventures. As we sailed out to the bay we were treated to spectacular views of Fraser Island which was very cool and although we’re not heading across there on this trip, it made us think maybe next time for sure we’d like to take a trip kayaking that coastline for a bit.
Anyway, the humpback whales didn’t disappoint and we saw a couple of different pairs. They rest up for a bit of a break in Hervey Bay on their annual migration from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef. They were pretty chill and curious so were happy to just hang around the boat – obviously just posing for photos and video. The trip we took is 5 hours which felt plenty good enough for us. There are some full day tours available with other operators though, but we were treated to some awesome commentary onboard and learnt heaps about the animals we were seeing. This was a fabulous highlight of our trip to see such massive, majestic creatures up so close.
Check out the next blog from our Australian East Coast Road Trip here.
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