Up The Dubs!
- Oct 1, 2016
- 3 min read
Location:
Rainbow Beach, QLD, Australia
Even though we weren’t travelling on a through the night bus, we still had to get up early. Ok, we were up at a what you would call a ‘Reasonable hour’ unless you are my lazy sister Laura. Boarding the bus, I was very happy there was a seat for me right at the very front with extra leg room. Having a friendly bus driver is great, but when you want to get some rest and they won’t stop talking to you, then it ain’t so great. A few minutes’ chat is fine, but not the whole few hours’ journey time. Don’t you know that I’m missing out on my beauty sleep!
Arriving at ‘Dingos Backpackers Resort,’ Rainbow Beach, was like arriving home. It was all very familiar, except for the brand new ‘Hostel’ within the hostel, ‘Fraser’s on Rainbow,’ which was built since our last visit, almost two years ago where we experienced our first Christmas away from home. Apart from that, nothing else had really changed. Everything was the exact same. The main strip was the same, the beach looked the same, even though we didn’t get past the look out and onto the beach. Everything is so familiar. Our first Christmas here was very special, drinks on the beach looking at the stars.
Originally when we came to Rainbow Beach, we decided against doing ‘Fraser Island’ as we thought it would be better to do it when we were doing the ‘East Coast.’ Here we are, travelling down Australia’s famous coast line and if there is one thing you have to do, its Fraser Island. We were really lucky with our group, there is only thirty-one of us, which is very small. Each of us were divided up into four smaller groups, with each group having their own vehicle. Our group consisted of mainly Irish girls, apart from Matt from England and Anthony from ‘The Isle of Man.’ That evening, we all had a couple of drinks together, and because Mayo were playing Dublin in the ‘All Ireland,’ there was a bit of harmless rivalry between the ‘Country girls’ and us ‘City boys’ with a lot of ‘Sam for Mayo’ particularly from Sharon as she cheered from her home county, and a lot of ‘Up the Dubs’ in support of our ‘Fair City.’ We had some banter that night. Poor Ethel from Galway had a horrible time from us. After hearing her name, Matt stated it was a granny’s name, and from that moment onwards, we christened her our new ‘Granny.’ Wanting to get a video in support of Mayo, she tried to get us all to chant ‘Sam for Mayo,’ I’m sorry but I couldn’t turn my back on my beloved Dublin and cheer for the enemy. The following morning, we discovered Dublin came out victorious!
When we arrived back from the island, we were happy to discover that we were in the newer ‘Fraser’ part of the hostel. I don’t know why I was getting so excited? It really wasn’t that special. The builder must have put the cheapest of materials into it, but to be fair, the place was comfortable, if even for a night. Soon after we arrived back, a gang of us got some boards, and headed to the sand dunes where we had fun sliding down on our boards with the sand blowing in our eyes! Later on, myself and Jason enjoyed a beautiful sunset. We had the whole area to ourselves which was very special.
It’s not just the places that we visit that are important, it’s the people we get to experience it with. While sometimes we have to revisit a place again, new memories can be etched in our hearts from the experiences we join in on. While most things remain the same on the outside, everything is evolving. From the two so called travellers that put their back packs on for the first time nearly three years ago, to us today, we are not the same person! We have grown and benefited from an ‘Open Heart!’
By Andrew
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