Rainbow Waters Holiday Park is typical of most Australian holiday parks in offering all kinds of accommodation options from campsites for a tent to furnished cabins so there is something for everyone. It’s located a couple km from the small town of Rainbow Beach next to the boat ramp in the the Great Sandy Straits.
This is the cheapest option to get a roof over our head if you don’t have a caravan – a park cabin. They have a mini-kitchen, a double bed and 2 bunks and use the common bath/toilet facilities in the yellow building you can see just behind it.
This lovely little Crested Pigeon has some kind of injury. He was hanging around one of the other cabins for our birding group. I hope he’s OK, I always feel protective of birds like this.
We walked down to the boat ramp area to see if there were any shorebirds about. The restaurant wasn’t open so a good thing we brought our own food to BBQ!
Sacred Kingfisher – I love the flash of blue when they fly!
Masked Lapwings were everywhere.
Woodswallows.
Look closely to see the chicks of this Masked Lapwing.
Walking back, here is the other side of the common building that houses the bathrooms & laundry room.
The camp kitchen has 2 gas BBQs with flat cooking areas, not grills, a fridge, a pizza oven and a couple burners.
Bush Stone-Curlews hanging around the tent area.
Parent Magpie teaches youngster how to steal chips from visitors!
A bush turkey, confident with Thanksgiving being over forages very close to the kitchen.
Showing the bush setting of the camp. We also saw some Galahs, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and a few birds I didn’t see clearly enough to id.
If you stay here, bring heavy duty mosquito repellent such as Bushman Plus 20% deet as the midges are a huge problem here. They aren’t so active when there is a breeze about but the minute it dies down, they attack! I advise bringing your own food – stock up in Gympie if you have to or better yet, Brisbane. They don’t have wifi but you can get a reasonable cell phone signal, otherwise you have to drive to Rainbow Beach and visit a cafe. It’s a good location if you want to bird in the general area of Cooloola Cove & Tin Can Bay.