Rainbow Beach (Monday, June 1, 2009)

Soo we woke up this morning to a somewhat overcast sky in Tin Can Bay. We all search in the trip itinerary to see what we’ll be doing today, and 18 pairs of eyes spot “Rainbow Beach.” 18 growls follow. “Seriously, it’s cold outside and it looks like it’s about to rain. Are we honestly going to go to the beach?” It’s pretty obvious that we’d all rather just sleep on a 4 hour bus ride than take a nature walk down another beach. Little did we know that our day @ Rainbow Beach would be one we wouldn’t forget!

We jump off the bus and immediately hike into a eucalyptus-dense forest. After about 15 minutes of climbing up hills and fending off forest plants, the sky opens up, and we’re in the middle of the biggest sand blow anyone has ever seen. It’s extravagant! How can there be so much piled sand all in one area? And so close to the ocean? It was beautiful. Glenn says “Race you to the top!” And half of the group takes off up the steep slope. Others of us start walking toward the ocean (or what we thought was the ocean). It feels like we’re almost to the beach when we stop only feet away from a HUGE cliff. “About 300 feet down to the beach,” Glenn tells us, “Go on, have a go!” He wants us to what? Go down that 300 ft. cliff? STRAIGHT DOWN?! Everyone was a little overwhelmed. My fear of heights took over my body, and I froze up. There was no way I’d make it down without some sort of panic attack. But Glenn took my hand and led me down the sandy “cliff,” and you wouldn’t believe it, but I made it all the way down, all 300 feet. That was a huge accomplishment for me! I looked back up at that mountain and laughed. I still can’t believe I did that!

The cliff run was pretty much the highlight of our day, and after our adrenaline levels came back down to normal, we went for a little stroll through the actual town of Rainbow Beach. It was a nice, quaint little town where we had lunch and bought some goodies for our long 4 hour bus ride to Gladstone. On the way to Gladstone, we watched a couple of movies, one of them being Toy Story 2! We all claim to be independent adults, but the children in us tend to seep out when it comes to our movie choices, apparently. Nevertheless, it certainly helped the long ride to our next stop on this amazing trip go a little faster.