Sandcolours - Rainbow Beach / 17th and 18th November 2018

This morning, Linni, Marten, and I got up at 5 o'clock to catch our bus to Rainbow Beach at 5:50 am (Marten is continuing to Brisbane though). The first setback was that the hostel shuttle wasn't running, so we had to walk for half an hour with our heavy bags. Also, the kitchen wasn't open yet, which we didn't know beforehand, so we had to leave our food bag with all the pre-planned meals (everything is supposed to be expensive in Rainbow Beach), which put us in a bad mood. But we quickly arranged with Jule and Michi that they would bring the stuff to us the next day, as they would also come and we would cook lunch for them.

Finally, at the bus stop, we had a few minutes and lay down briefly on the uncomfortable steel benches there. Then we got on the bus, and the 2-hour ride quickly passed.

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Upon arrival, we were shown around the huge grounds of the Fraser Hostels in Rainbow Beach, which were actually two hostels in one because the Dingos Hostel was also on the grounds and they used the same kitchens, lounges, and there was one reception for both. However, we had to wait until 12:30 to check in because apparently, it is only possible from this time. So we cuddled up on one of the comfortable sofas in the common room, and I watched the Christmas movie Princess Switch on Netflix (A really beautiful movie!!!), but not before we got hungry and realized that we had no food.

So I went to the nearest supermarket, went in, looked at the prices of toast, and promptly walked out again. Then, however, I noticed that this was the only supermarket in the area, so I pulled myself together and walked back through the open door. The lady at the cash register gave me a strange look.

So, I looked for the cheapest toast, the cheapest noodles, sauce, and spread, and bought groceries for 17 dollars, which would normally have been a 7 dollar purchase. It hurt a bit, but at least we wouldn't starve.

After we could finally go to our room - a pretty large 6-bed room, where a Dutch guy named Dustin and an Italian girl whose name I forgot were already sitting, having just arrived. Both could understand German, but we chatted in English, and the two were very cool and nice. However, the beds were not so cool, as the mattresses were wrapped in a thick hard plastic layer that creaked with every movement. But we would only have to deal with that tonight.

Now we first went to the beach of Rainbow Beach, which was only 5 minutes away, and there was a really cool colorfully painted staircase with the words 'How good is living' on the bottom steps. And living was really pretty cool right now. Of course, we had to take a few photos there, and then we walked along the water for a bit and watched the passing cars because you were allowed to drive on the beach here.

There is a nice legend about why the place is named after a rainbow. There was supposedly a beautiful girl named Murrawar who fell in love with the rainbow that appeared every time she clapped her hands and listened to her singing. One day, however, Murrawar was kidnapped by the evil man Burwilla, who turned her into a slave and possessed a deadly boomerang that was bigger than any tree. Murrawar eventually tried to escape, and the evil boomerang chased her down the sand dunes of the beach until she couldn't go any further. The rainbow appeared to save her and collided with the boomerang, killing it and causing the rainbow to shatter into the sand. That's why there are so many different colors of sand on the beach today.

It was really relaxing to walk in the small waves and look at the colorful rocks and dunes in the distance. But we soon went back because we were still quite tired, and suddenly it started pouring rain. Cooking our noodles in thunder and lightning, we started the race against the fat raindrops that had already formed deep puddles on the grounds since the path back to our rooms was a bit longer. But it was also really funny to look for new shelters only to continue getting wet. In the end, we went to sleep relatively early in the not-so-comfortable beds.

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Today we woke up at 7 o'clock to secure ourselves the pancakes that are offered for breakfast (only between 7 and 7:30 am). After that, we actually wanted to go to the beach right away, but we were still exhausted and lay down in our beds again.

Around noon, we finally headed there, and we chilled out on our towels between a few rocks and decided to try to get rid of our tan lines - which ended with a sunburn on our stomachs. Mission not quite completed.

After some time, however, we saw some rain clouds coming in the distance, which quickly blew towards us. So, we decided to go back, and suddenly we had raindrops on our backs and sunshine in front of us. We wondered why there was no rainbow to be seen. It should really come here most preferably.

Subsequently, when the rain had stopped again briefly, we picked up Jule and Michi at the bus stop in front of our hostel and happily received our food bag. We arranged to meet in the kitchen to make pancakes together.

They turned out really delicious, and we sat at the dining table for a long time, talking about all sorts of things, while it started pouring rain again. That finally burst our plan to go on the sunset walk this afternoon, which is offered by our hostel every day, including sandboarding on the dunes, which was a shame.

But we still had a nice evening, cooked fried carrots - which we have made quite often lately because Linni really likes them - with fried eggs, and chilled with the two girls on one of the sofas in the common room for a long time, talking about our Christmas plans.

Later, we packed our backpacks for the Fraser Island trip, which starts tomorrow. We are really looking forward to it because many happy people here have told us about it.

Song of the day(s): Somewhere over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole because it fits the name of the town here and also reminds me of my grandma, and I need a care package from her.