To Rainbow Beach and Inskip Point

Thursday Oct 6

Car packed, breakfasted, farewells and thanks made and away by 8.30. Another dull and overcast morning which does make travelling more comfortable. We found our way to Childers and the Bruce Highway easily - 100K shorter than the route we took north!

We stopped in Childers for fuel and an ATM, seeing a Brown Honeyeater in the garage forecourt.

Martina took us east at Maryville, on a coastal route to Rainbow Beach and Inskip Point where we were warned that we would encounter gravel roads. We didn’t. The SatNav really is out of date. We get warnings of roundabouts which no longer exist and ‘keep right’ when the road is straight. We’ve got used to its eccentricities, but the pronounciation of place names still causes much amusement.

Many coniferous forests along this route in addition to the macadamia trees at all stages of growth.

Our first stop was in Cooloola Great Sandy National Park, at a small rest stop where the information board talked about wet wallum !

We used the wet compost loo and walked down the boardwalk as far as the creek, just to stretch our legs. Lots of bird noise, mostly New Holland Honeyeaters and Noisy Friarbirds, nectar feeding on gum flowers. Three very active and noisy small boys apeared, we left.

Inskip Point is a long peninsula, culminating in a sandy track to a barge which takes 4x vehicles to Fraser Island. Ordinary cars are not allowed on the island. We parked at the end of the tarmac road and walked the paths into the forests as advised by Nick and Trevor. No sign of any Button-Quail but plenty of bird noise, surprising at 1.00 p.m., it’s usually very quiet at this time. We saw Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwit on the beach, New Holland and Lewin’s Honeyeaters, White-browed Scrubwren, Little Shrike-Thrush, Little Wattlebird (which is big and noisy), Varied Fairy-Wrens and Bar-shouldered Doves in the forest. The two Eastern Yellow Robins were a far brighter yellow than any we’ve seen before, breeding season splendour. On return to the car, a pair of Red-backed Fairy-Wrens fossicked about, eventually landing on the car bonnet, sliding down it and struggling to the wipers where they perched and ate the dead insects. Delightful.

Rainbow Beach is a fairly small settlement with a row of interesting shops. The surf shop contained the Information Centre - we were bamboozled by the sign. Offered a B and B without B (!!) we took the Rainbow Beach Resort where they had motel rooms and apartments. After a cuppa and a muffin, we found the hotel and booked a motel room. As we were signing in, the phone went and the would be customers were told that all motel rooms had gone. Lucky.

The room is similar to a travelodge room but a bit better. There’s a fridge containing milk, water and glasses, a toaster as well as a kettle and built in wardrobes. Internet too for the first time this week. I deleted some unwanted Emails from the 84 waiting and we went back to Inskip.

The tide was in so the beach was almost non existent. We walked further into the forest without adding any extra birds but... we did meet two very pleasant Aussie birders who told us where best to look for the Button-Quail which is obviously a real lottery, they are very rare. We saw their platelets - indentations in the leaf litter - but nothing else.

We’ll try again early to-morrow. It was pretty dark in the forest by 4.30 anyway.We actually SAW an Eastern Whipbird, the first in five visits - apart from the 'tame' Mr Whippy at O'Reilly's which comes to be fed on the hand. They call loud and frequently from deep cover. We even watched it make its distinctive noise, yes, like a whipcrack......

A quick burger supper and back to the room for an appreciated rest and laptop catch-up. Don’t think I’ll be able to update my Blog before to-morrow night, there’s too much to do and I need an early night. May well make a start.