Sand Sledding & Cliff Sliding

The last few days have been quiet fantastic since we had left Straddie. On Monday we went to Noosa National Park. Like most everything else here in Aussie it was simply stunning. I walked through many of the trails and I felt like I was going through a tropical rainforest. The plants and other fauna on either side of the path felt out of this world. I also noticed many of the plants we had been discussing in lecture there such as Casoptera (sort of like this Australian Pine Tree). There were more dolphins at this little look out called Dolphin Point. After walking for a while I headed over the to the beach where most of the group was. Then I went for a swim. The water was wonderfully warm. We ended up spending the night is the little town called Tin Can Bay. We walked to the convenient store that night and bought Tim Tams. They were totally delish. I had black forest flavor with little bits of fruit inside.

On Tuesday we kicked off the awesomeness by heading over to the harbor at Tin Can Bay. There we waited for a wild dolphin to swim into the harbor. The family of dolphins had been coming there since the 1950s when the community nursed an injured dolphin back to health. So there we waited, hoping we too would be able to witness this event. Eventually 20-year-old Mystic swam right up to the shore in the harbor. He was absolutely stunning. We all gazed in awe for a few moments, until the rangers invited the audience to step right into the water beside the beautiful, silvery dolphin. Then I got to feed the dolphin fish. It was a wonderful experience to be able to have the opportunity to feed a wild dolphin. He literally gobbled the fish right out of my hand. I guess they only feed the dolphin about a kilo of the 25+ kilos of food it will eat in one day that way it still remains independent. It’s pretty cool. The government is now discouraging such actions in other areas of Australia but they still allow the community of Tin Can Bay to feed the dolphins because of the history and tradition that rests behind it.

Afterwards we headed over to Rainbow Beach. It was beautiful with many different shades of colored sand. We made a trek through this path until we arrived at the sand dune. It was gianormous. It stretched about 100 meters off of the ground. We saw boogie boards along the side of it. Glen our instructor explained that people slide down the dunes similar to sledding in the States. So a group of us ran up the sand dune. It was quite a ways up and my legs were burning by the time I reached the top of the steep incline. Then I ended up rolling all the way down the side of the dune on my side. I tumbled for a while until I finally reached the bottom. I was unbelievably dizzy. Then we walked to the edge of a very tall cliff and looked over Rainbow Beach. To my surprise there was no staircase down. Instead in order to get to the beach we had to SLIDE down this 200-meter cliff. It was crazy. I got so much sand all over me and inside my clothes. It was totally an adrenaline rush.

Once we got down to the beach, the water was turquoise and the sand was multicolored. It was gorgeous. We then went for a swim and sun bathed a bit.  Then after a while Pete, Lauren, Kristen, Jordan, and I had gotten hungry and decided to head into the little township. We walked for about 30 minutes across the massive sandy beach and up a windy road until we finally reached the little town.

We ate at this cute little restaurant in town. I got fish & chips again with a passion fruit soda yum! Except we had to pay 30 cents for each packet of ketchup and those who know me know that they made quite the pretty penny that day. All in all the food was great though. Then we went to some cute little shops and bought post cards. Then I ended this awesomeness with Tiramisu & Nutella gelato. Best thing ever like legit!

 Yay for a fabulous adventure.

Later, mates!