Fraser Coast aka Coast of Boredom

My next stop was a tiny village called Rainbow Beach. As soon as I got off the bus, I took a dislike to the place. I hated my hostel, that was too loud and crowded and had lousy security. And the village was absolutely dead: nothing was open after 7pm except for a deserted hotel pub. I also instantly hated my roommates, three very loud German guys who only talked about drinking, farting and masturbating, and called me a boring bitch because I refused to go for a bier with them. All this in German, thinking I wouldn't understand. Too bad they didn't realize I was reading a book in German, and also understood every word they said... Luckily I got rid of them after one night, and for the next two nights the people in my room were much nicer.

I had come to RB to visit the famous Fraser Island, which is one of the must-do places for backpackers to visit on the East Coast. Now, I don't like camping too much, being traumatized by chilly Finnish summer nights with too much rain. I also didn't want to spend full two nights and three days on the island with a bunch of strangers I might or might not like. So, instead of doing the fashionable three-day self-drive tour, I decided to go for a more comfortable and cheaper option of a one-day guided tour. And was certainly very happy with the choice.

I like Fraser a lot, though was also sick of it after one day. The sights were lovely: we visited Eli Creek where we could walk on the bottom of the river through rainforest, spotted a dingo when driving on the beach, swam in beautiful Lake McKenzie, admired some coloured pillars of sand, and, my favourite, walked in the stunning rainforest.

These giant ferns are over 2000 years old! How amazing is it that this plant has been in this spot for so long and is still alive.

Rain in the rainforest.

What I didn't like about Fraser Island were the roads, or, more likely, the lack of them. The bumpy drive and on the sand track made me seriously nauseated, and I was covered in bruises after popping up and down on every bump. Driving on the beach, sverving away from the waves, was really dangerous, so I was very happy having an experienced 4WD driver instead of some 21-year-old backpacker driving one for the first time.

The following morning I got up early for the free 7am pancakes. I didn't feel like hanging out in the room with people packing their stuff to go to the island, so I just threw a jumper on the T-shirt and joggers I had slept in and headed for a "short stroll". On my walk I got an idea to visit a place called Carlo Sandblow. I had no idea what it was, but had heard it was about one kilometre away from the village, and I had seen a sign pointing in the right direction. Later it turned out that my adviser had been talking about the local version of coloured sands, and this Sandblow was much further away. After an hour's sweaty hike on the hills I only reached the edge of the Sandy National Park, but was rewarded with a sign sporting a map that said that the Sandblow was only 600m away from where I stood. I took the last part of the track happily, and found a desert.

It is maybe stupid to say that a desert was 'deserted', but there was absolutely no one there. I had the whole sandblow for myself. And what a gorgeous place it was! The sandy patch provided excellent views both to the sea and the surrounding forests. After playing with my camera for a bit, I just sat there for a long time, feeling so lucky to be in such a lovely spot with not a care in the world.

After my tour I had two days to kill in RB. I wasn't too excited about the prospect, as I had come to realize that there was absolutely nothing, nix, nada to do. I read magazines in the shop, used free internet in the travel agency, walked around the non-existent city centre and even visited the tiny local library to browse through National Geographics. And read my super boring German book I'd found somewhere.

When it was time to leave on Wednesday evening, I felt joyous. It turned out my next destination Hervey Bay wasn't much more exciting though. However, in HB my hostel was much nicer: it was quiet at night, and best of all, had a cinema room with free movies.

Next to some other Scandinavian girls, I shared my room with an elderly American lady. She had come to Hervey for a week's holiday to go whale watching. It's only that the whale season doesn't start before July... She was apparently dying to follow her nursing instinct and chose me as her object. She called me kiddo, followed me around and admired my her, nail polish, clothes, and was more interested in my health (I have a cough she likes to monitor very closely and make constant comments on any perceived developments) and diet ("Do you eat enough fruits and vegetables, honey") than I am. She wanted to help me make friends, and kept introducing me to random people all the time. She was very sweet, but started to seriously get on my nerves by the third day. The day I was leaving, she gave me a card with her email address and phone number, and asked me to contact her when I would arrive in Cairns (where she would be then), hinting that I could have a place to stay with her. I smiled politely, took the card and put it in my bag. Inside my head the honest reply was: "In your dreams, psycho!"

***

Being an only child of busy career parents and having lived the first six years of my lige in a tiny village, I've grown up pretty talented at entertaining myself. I very, very rarely feel bored. But oh God how boring the Fraser Coast is! I've walked around, watched movies, sun-bathed, read novels, wrote my blog, took pictures... I only wish there was a forest I could go hiking in. I managed to find an outdoor gym in a park, that is, a bunch of exercise machines in the park free for everybody to use. It's been nice being able to have a proper workout, being too limited budget-wise to pay for a gym. Too bad boredom also makes me snack more, so I'm not going to leave the town with a suddenly superfit body, haha.

Never in my life have I had so much free time in my hands. Even if I don't always come up with anything cool to use it with, I still love the prospect. During my trip, whenever I've been bored or felt low, I've asked myself if I'd rather go home than be where I am. So far the answer has been 'no'. Because when I go wandering about, around some corner I will find something interesting or intriguing. It's not only the big experiences, but also those little moments that make it worth it.

Sunset behind a gas station where my bus stopped for a short break.