Our day at Rainbow Beach started off with some sunbathing, before going on a kayaking tour along a place called pelican bay to spot turtles among the mangroves! This was the place were turtles came to rest and hide whilst the tide was in during the day. Below us we could see the intertwining roots stretch out along the sea floor, and above a dense cover of green leaves and branches, perfect as shelter and somewhere to escape from the blazing heat! Steven and I were in one kayak and Shawnee and Max in another, whilst our guide lead the way on his paddleboard. Excitingly Steven and I saw a green sea turtle swim out from the mangroves into deeper waters, when it felt threatened by our presence. The turtle swam underneath our kayak before it dissapeared into the darker waters. My first ever sea turtle! On the way back, after the group had spotted another one (Steven and I weren’t lucky enough to see that one) the four of us engaged in some competitive racing.
On returning to Rainbow Beach we went for delicious ice cream, and I had a generous amount of tiramisu and donatella/chocolate icecream in a cone. Looking back now, it was one of my favourite icecream shops of the entire trip. We then decided to go to the Carlo Sandblow Dunes, famous for the mosaic of coloured sands. The dune say high above the sea and gave views of the entire bay. The dune was coloured in different shades of orange, red, grey, brown, yellow and white, formed as a result of rapid turnover from winds and different leaching levels. The dunes dipped towards the sea, forming steep hills on either side where families and children could sand board.
The Fledgling 