Judy & Brian Tour Oz

HOME! Well, well, well. Here we are back in our own house. A few statistics for those interested in these things: Days away: 138 or 4 months, 18 days Total kilometres driven : 24,740 (BMW: 19,390, Various hire cars (4) 4,350) Total kilometres covered by the van : 12,300 Photos take: In excess of 5000 Blog posts made : 119 Blog views, and not by us! : 4318 and counting Best thing : Just doin' it!!!!!! For me, this was as close to an adventure as I'm likely to get. Make arrangements for the cat, house, bills, letters. Get car and van ready as best as you can. Pack up all the things that you think you'll need. Put half of them back. Have a last meal and drink with the family and then just literally, drive away into the sunset, knowing that you wont be back for at least 4 months. Transport run out across the Murray, done it all before. Had a fabulous couple of days in Mildura, Dinner in Stefano's restaurant and a whole day being shown all over Lake Mungo nation...

Yes folks, sad but true. Who would have thought that 137 days could go so fast? One minute your heading out all bright eyed and bushy tailed and the next you're looking back on some great times and pinching yourself to check that you really did go to all those places and do all those things. Good job we took snaps and wrote a blog and a diary otherwise we would never have believed it. But, today is the last day out for us, we head home tomorrow, so for now i'll just leave you with some snaps from Lake Conjola, and promise to write an extensive wrap of the whole experience tomorrow. Don't forget to look at the Lake Conjola snaps again as i added some more. Snaps of the day Ducks on the lake Sunset on the lake More arty sunset on the lake A last fish, a last champagne...

Happy Birthday Paul Actually, 'twas yesterday, but better late than never. The Annual Fishing contest was down to three anglers this year, Judy, Paul and Paul's mate Kerry. The lake's entrance is closed to the ocean, the lake is full of fresh water and sadly, the usually scarce fish are completely non-existent. SO, over to the beach. Paul had his beach rod, last used 1973 and a spare for Kerry. Judy had her trusty lake and estuary rod. Paul had pilchards on a three-gang hook, Judy had the usual prawn on a big red hook. I rigged the line as requested for beach operations and off we went. The battle was on, lines were cast, bait was thrown into the ocean, feet were frozen. Fish? Not a one, not a hint of a one, not a bit, not a nibble. Nothing, Zippo. The session was called when a suggestion that the only nibbles that were going to be had would be served on a platter with a nice glass of wine. And so it was that the Great Fishing Contest for the Year 2012 was declar...

It true. The car was shipped on Thursday from Ulladulla to Canberra to Advanced Tech Automotive by the NRMA. Advanced Tech Automotive ordered the part Thursday morning based on the NRMA roadside assistance diagnosis. Now get this - Advanced Tech Automotive called me on Friday at 12 noon to say the car was fixed and ready to go, now that is service. It really doesn't get much better than that in the car repair business. My special thanks to NRMA whose Platinum Coverage service has been truly outstanding. Well done to them and especially "Chris" who took my intial call and handled it with efficiency and top level professionalism. Now that we know how the coverage works, we wont hesitate to take off again next year and head outback again. Far out, as they say,

Yes, that's right, the fabulous X5 has packed it in again. Not happy, Jan! This time we were coming back down the narrow dirt road from Pointers Hill and stopped to take a snap of some coloured birds in a tree and Bam! , a dreadful smell of burnt brakes or rubber or something and then the steering got all heavy like it had a flat tyre. Limped into Ulladulla, parked behind the NRMA shop and called roadside assistance. Turns out that the big pulley (harmonic balancer) on the bottom of the engine has collapsed. Game Over - tow it back to Canberra for repairs is the only really useful option. Now as it happens I am a platinum member of NRMA with top level cover - and they have been fabulous so far : organised the car to be taken to Canberra, organised a hire car for us for the next week, and will, when asked , have the van transported back to canberra as well. Cost? Nothing. Doesnt get better than that. Some snaps of Lake Conjola So i suppose i should post the snap of that col...

After spending a few enjoyable nights with Amy and family in their nice warm house, we spend the last night in Canberra in the van at Eagle Hawk. Couldn't be bothered cooking so we had dinner at the Eagle Hawk Hotel, which they tell us is closing in a few weeks as the new owners want to tart the place up. The van park is more of a cabin coral with a few random van sites. It's also the #1 place for large groups who come to Canberra on school trips etc. Kids - 1000's of them! Not really a problem except the insisted on taking the direct route from cabin to food - right through our site instead of the roadway which would have delayed them 23 seconds. We had the van nice and toasty when the power dropped out. Rats. It was soon restored and the night passed uneventfully, snuggled down under our doona and three blankets. Woke to find the van an ice box and... no power. Only way to cope was a hot shower and porridge,jump into lots of warm clothes and get back on the road. We e...

Just a drive-by at this time. The day we turned up it had snowed for 1/2 an hour at the van park and was generally wet and cold and thoroughly miserable. Went and watched #2 grandchild go through her paces at gymnastics - herds of little'uns doing the bar and the horse and jumping up and down - they're so cute. Saturday lunch we checked out one of our old favourites just to make sure things were still up to scratch, then as we were so far south, we zoomed out to Corin Forest for a bit of snow-play. There was a good six inches of snow still on the ground, but as they say..."You should'a been here earlier / yesterday! Some snaps Snap of the day

Blackies is right near Swansea. We are here for two nights so we can see some old mates before we make our last leg into Canberra. It's a penultimate leg actually as we go away again for a week before making the ultimate leg for good, well for a while at least! I'll add some snaps soon... Here's a few from Caves Beach Snap of the day What? No Illinois Nazis? I guess not, so we'll have to wait for it to go down. Bridge at Swansea, NSW

Finally the sun came out AND the wind stopped. What a combination. Sat around in the sun and wandered about. Found ourselves up the top of the mountain and looking out from Sealy Lookout for a squiz and then came back down for lunch. Judy elected to sit in the sun and read, I went for a walk along Boambe Beach, the only one here at present that is fairly soft sandy, the others have all been churned up a bit by the big seas over the last years. Be sure to see the extra pictures at Coffs Harbour A snap for Lauren Rust? You wanted rust. This is the end of the railway line after 100 years being eaten by saltwater

It's blowing a gale, it's not so hot, it looks like rain, the markets are off! What can you do? Go for a drive is the only option outside of going to the mall, so we went out for the day. First down to Sawtell where from the headland you can see and feel the ocean raging around you. But wait, what's that? No, its not a surfboard rider, even they are hunkered down in their hoodies, its a Kite-surfer. I stuck the camera of multi-frame, focussed the big lens on him and waited. Spoilsport, he just kept zooming back and forth across he boiling waves. Wandered up Waterfall Way to Dorrigo. Ignoring the stack of toilets at the sewage farm, we had a quick look at Dangar Falls. It must be 100 metres down to the pool, but they still have a sign to tell you that diving or jumping into the pool is forbidden! Here's yer sign... First stop up the hill is Newell Falls. Somehow they found enough room for a layby so you can stop and rubber-neck. Mind you part of the safety fence ...

Sadly, we had to leave the relative warmth and sunny sky of Yamba and move a bit closer to our final destination. So we moved 130k further down the coast to Coffs Harbour. Pretty slow going as the Pacific Highway is mostly under a continuous roadworks sign, but should be one hell of a road when its completed. The weather, as predicted on BOM was starting to close in, windy, cold, a hint of rain. We didn't bother putting the awning out and its just as well as the strong gusts buffeted us all night. Drove down to the marina and watch a big fishing boat make it safely into harbour, then watched fascinated by the huge seas crashing over the southern breakwater. I snuck back at dawn with the camera to see if I could catch some of the atmosphere. These waves you can see in the photos, crash right up and over the wall, pretty spectacular. One of the pictures is taken straight on and although I was standing on a dry spot, its just a bit unnerving when you see your viewfinder completely f...

Iluka is right across the Clarence from Yamba, on the north head. The ferry runs over and back half-a-dozen times a day, so naturally we took a ride. Iluka came into existence when they built the training walls, or breakwaters, in 1890 that keep the Clarence open to shipping. All the rock was quarried locally and after it was all over, a bunch of the men decided to stay on and start the fishing fleet in their brand new harbour. About all that is left of the old town is the post office, now a dress shop, and the pub. For some unknown reason, the ferry drops you off right up the other end of the two streets that the town consists of. The pub supplies a courtesy bus but many, including us, elected to walk along the foreshore, which is quite pretty. The end of the line is the fish coop, and unless you're prepared for a big hike (we weren't) that's about it. You can hang about and have a meal in the pub, or walk back down the street to the two shops; a bakery and a cafe. The...

Took the History Walking Tour around Yamba, but used the car instead. Most interesting item was this milepost. Some of us remember them being every mile along the road... Then we had little green shields ever 5k and now you get one big green sign at the start of the section and you're left to dead reckoning and GPS to know where you are    Milepost. 1 mile to Yamba, 11 miles to Maclean  Visited some of the places that the Pacific Highway has let us forget. Ulmarra is billed as "A visit to Ulmarra is like stepping back in time as the village remains one of the finest examples of a 19th Century riverport in Australia." You be the judge. It all looked a bit false to me, like a cardboard fascia had been plastered up to make it look like the town they suggest. For all the talk, there's nothing much there really and a quick walk up and down and a sqizz at the river was all it took. Main Street. Ulmarra, NSW Bluff Point? OK...

We were pleased to wake to sunshine as we were going on a jazz cruise up the Clarence River at 11am for 4 hours. The Yamba jetty was chockers with a mob waiting for the ferry to arrive, so Judy was a little apprehensive about how it would be - would we get on, will there be a seat, will the boat sink? We decided the top deck was the place to be as the seating was in pairs whereas downstairs was seating at tables for 8. There was a large group of ladies of a 'certain age' that had reserved 4 of the 8 tables downstairs and with the band in one corner it was also pretty full. We stayed upstairs until Iluka where another mob was waiting, but it was windy cold and you couldn't hear the band.  Fortunately, a big bunch got off at Iluka to go to the market, but Judy quite rightly suggested that I nick downstairs and grab some of the food before it all went. After I bought some sandwiches and ordered a nibbles platter, I noticed two great seats up for grabs, so I grabbed 'em...

For whatever reasons, we zoomed over to Maclean, about 20k upriver. It's a nice biggish town as well. One the hub of commercial transport on the Clarence, it's only claim today is to call upon its Scottish heritage, as many other towns do. They have a cairn they built, after they lost the bid for the real one that came out from Scotland in 1988 for the Bi-centenary and went to Mosman in Sydney. Their home-made cairn is made from real Scottish rocks however, so they are pretty pleased with it. They also have a bunch of Clan Chief poles showing the Chief's name and the Clan's tartan. All the telegraph poles (yes, all) in the town have a tartan painted around the bottom and all the street signs have the Scottish translation under them, mind you a lot of them seem to translate to No through road ! What the need is some standing stones or at least a circle of standing cabers in the form of telegraph poles. I must tell them. Maybe they should rip over to Glen Innes and take t...

After 4 weeks of lounging about the lovely town of Tweed Heads / Coolangatta, it was time to move on. And on we moved, this time down the Princes Highway past Ballina (yeah, it's finally been bypassed), back onto the goat track past the river towns and just before reaching Grafton, turn to the east and into Yamba. Billed as The Top Town in NSW, it's easy to see why, it's just a delight. Small and unspoiled, it runs along the Lower Clarence River for a short way and up onto the headland. The place is neat, tidy, spotless. There are walking tracks and rivers and beaches and a coffee shop on every corner and a few in between. Its a bit up market, but in a really nice way. Judy's head was turned by all the boutique dress and shoe shops but behaved herself - for now. Did the mini-grand tour of the beaches and sights, it's not that big a place, before returning to the park and taking a stroll along the river boardwalk. I went a bit snap-happy. Check these photos and y...

Been doing nothing much. Had lots of glorious sunshine with a bit of wind here and there but mostly really nice warm relaxing days. Judy has given the fish a fair old shake the last few days, I can't remember her ever catching so many, and some good sized bream amongst them as well. We took a run down the coast popping into some of the smaller towns and ended up at Lennox Heads where we had lunch. Just cruising now, due to leave Friday, so we've done all our sight seeing and I don't think we have missed anything. I have a few snaps of just the local area, enjoy -> Tweed locals But what about one teaser for the day? Surfie. Coolangatta, Qld

OK so we weakened and took a drive up to Brisbane, South Bank to be precise. You may recall this is where the Expo '88 was held, an event which transformed an industrial dump into a world class stage for this extravaganza. But that was then and this is now. We have been there since 1988 but this time it was noticeably different, having been made into an upmarket destination for everyone who lives in or is visiting Brisbane. Judy was taken by the market, (but had no cash, so it was safe!) and we walked along the river to the ferry terminal. We have doe this before but we took the river cat up river to the Qld Uni terminal and back, and then wandered back into the South Bank precinct to find a restaurant for lunch. After an excellent meal we went to the Maritime museum based around the original dry dock built in 1888. Its main attraction is the only remaining River class frigate, the HMAS Diamantina. The whole museum is really good and really made my day. After a longish day, we pai...

Finally some weather worthy of that Qld slogan about being beautiful one day and fabulous the next. The wind has dropped and the sun has come out to play. We had heard about Currumbin Rock Pools, which sounded interesting, but then Judy's hairdresser told her that if you go there, you need to go further up into the valley there are some more rock pools and waterfalls that are just fantastic.... We followed his advice and once we had doubled back onto the right road, we found ourselves at the top of the valley where there was a very pleasant walk up into the mountains, meandering alongside the swiftly flowing creek, tumbling over rocky falls from one pool to the next. Actually the water didn't look that inviting, it was a weird green colour and freezing. Obviously didn't stop some from jumping the safety fences and having a dip. The whole area is now a national park but in a previous life had been cleared of all the huge trees and then completely cleared to make way for ...

The wind has abated a tad so Brian went for a walk along the beach. I stayed in bed! The sun was out so we decided to check out the mountains, lookouts, waterfalls and walks in Springbrook. It is only 30kms from the turnoff at Mudgereeba but the road is very narrow and winding through the mountains. It just keeps going higher and higher with a sheer drop and hardly any guard rails. I was keeping my eyes fixed to that road and got a little sweaty the higher and steeper we got. There were even a few sections that were only one lane over little wooden bridges with a drop that went forever. We drove through Springbrook and another few kms to Purling Falls. It was a lovely picnic area where a few walks originated. Some were affected by landslips due to the amount of rain they have been having up here, so we chose to stroll the 100 metres to the falls from the car park along a moss covered path through the rainforest. We arrived at a lookout that ends in a massive drop with a waterfall plu...

Sadly, its the last day of the holidays for the kids. Kathryn & Ben & Andrew took-off fairly early, while Amy&Steve&Emily&Thomas had an early evening flight. The weather continued to be patchy sunlight with strong gusty winds making it a fairly unpleasant day for beaches or fishing, so a quiet hour or so in the park with Emily on the swings and a long coffee in the comfort of the mall. I've added some more snaps to the Greenmount Beach album => https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/GreenmountBeachQld A snap? Why not have two. Help me, I'm .... ...falling! Later I took advantage of the weather to try and get some wild water shots at the beach, here's one, the others are at=> https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/DuranbahBeachTweedHeadsNSW

The other day I heard that the house that i was born into and lived in until I was 23 has been bulldozed to make way for some new suburban Taj Mahal. I found the news disturbing because its part of my history, part of me and my family, and it's just not there any more. I have photos of course but it'sjust not the same as knowing it's there, knowing you can drive past and show your kids and grandkids. The house was built entirely by hand by my late father in the late 1940's and was arguably fairly avant guard for its time. This is 1950s at latest. This house had built in wardrobes, and inside toilet, the cupboards in the kitchen had doors that slid up into the roof space and there was a built in 'breakfast nook'. It was double brick and the roof trusses were old school '3x2's spaced 18in apart. It was a home for  two mum, dad and us 4 children. We had birthdays, at least my 21st, there and my sister had her wedding reception there. It hol...

A do nothing sort of day. Paul & Sue left at 7 this morning and we miss them already. had a late breakfast and an early lunch with Kathryn & Ben & Andrew. Even had a short snooze in the afternoon before a bit of a play on the beach with Emily & Thomas, well Emily mostly, Thomas was mostly asleep. Finished the day at the Rainbow Bay Surf Club for an early dinner and then off home for an early night. All the snaps from today => https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/GreenmountBeachQld A snap of the day

Big day out at Sea World, through the gate at 930 and out at 5. Many changes here since Judy and I were here last: more rides, more displays, changes to the format of the shows. It's still a great day out and still a place of fascination for kids of all ages. Emily found here place at the kids' corner with may rides on the merry-go-round, the flying aeroplanes and dump trucks. Some of the big children found fun in the corkscrew, aka Sea Viper, the Vikings Revenge flume ride, the Jet Rescue. Others took the monorail for a scenic look at the whole park. The ,dolphin show was great, with three handlers in the water and 7 bottlenose dolphins going through their paces. Gone was the normal platform and hoops and balls, instead the handlers rode them like surfboards, rode them a pair of fine horses and were lifted up on their noses. The dolphins seemed to be able to jump higher than ever and all in perfect synchronisation. Back in the main pool we found more changes. Gone were t...

Bit of a boys day out, Paul & I went to find an old wrecking yard we saw from the M1 the other day on our southbound return from Mt Tambourine. Trouble is we were travelling north and there's a big bit of the eastern side of the road you just can't see. Not to worry, we found ourselves at Exit 66 which happily can be taken to get to the Gold Coast Highway where Rare Spares and Route 66 Spares is located. This is a treat for both of us as it's owned and operated by two old mates, Reg & Sandi Vine. Judy and I found them last year and promised to come back and bring my brother Paul. We all first met in the early days of the computer industry in about 1970. Reg worked for Control Data Corporation, stationed at the Bureau of Census and Statistics in George Street Sydney, where I had my first computer job and its where I met Judy who was a Public Servant and was the Magnetic Tape Librarian and later a Computer Operator. Judy and I joined the Renault Car Club where we me...

Rain set in mid-morning, so we wandered back to Murwillumbah again to check out the pool, our intent was to have a swim. We had also taken our internet thingy with us as it had stopped working and thought maybe it was some local problem. Needless to say it wasn't and we went and found Telstra who took two seconds to determine that we had used our entire 12 month allowance in 3 months. Rats. Threw money at the problem and it went away. Had a really nice lunch at a cafe on the main road before having a wander about the shops, replacing the carving knife I seem to have thrown out with the pizza box last night. Drove around the back streets checking out the lovely old houses. Gave up on swimming, went over to the railway station hoping to take a photo similar to one taken by Merv in 1951. Alas, those lovely old station signs have been replaced by 'modern' signs and have zero character. The North Coast line stopped here and folk had to take a bus the 25miles to the start of ...

It’s raining again – our holiday seems to be linked in to old songs! Not a lot of options in the rain so where else could you possibly go but to a rainforest. Mount Tambourine was the destination today and the Rainforest Skywalk. The roads are very steep and winding but the scenery is fantastic. At least the forest we were driving through was, the cloud was all encompassing so none of the views to the coast and beyond was able to be seen. It was a total white out of clouds. But along the road there were tall and straight flooded gums with the most beautiful bark of sleek olive green co habituating with piccabeen palm trees that just pierced the sky heading for the sunshine. Unfortunately, none of that today. The little village of Eagle Heights was a stopping point where we wandered back and forth amongst the shops until we found ourselves on the island of Corfu, or at least we think that was what the café where we had lunch was trying to achieve. Everything, all white and vivid blue,...

Happy Birthday Muriel Slowish day today. Kept myself amused by walking to Coolangatta to find the spot where Merv & Shirley took some photos on their honeymoon in 1951.         This is the edifice that was erected on or about this very spot in 2001 Inside this Border Marker are some old photos, sadly no captions, but this one caught my eye. It's the same house / shed as in Shirley's photo in 1951. I think that it's the Customs House on the border and the man is holding the gate open as the border was originally fenced and closed. One had to pay Customs Duty to take goods across, also it was closed in 1919 as a quarantine measure during a Spanish Flu epidemic. Also during WWII it was not closed, but used as a checkpoint to regulate movement of civilians and enlisted men, many on R&R. The fence was removed some time in 1950. Oh well, I'm easily amused

It's official. It is raining. Has been on and off for the last two days. Not cold at all so that's a bonus. Amused ourselves at one stage by driving up to Murwillumbah and through the mountain roads to Mt Warning, a huge volcano remnant. It's up in the most beautiful rainforest all ferns and strangler figs reaching for the distant canopy of the giant eucalypt trees. The one car wide road winds its way up the mountain side, criss-crossing the tributaries of the Tweed River. We were surprised at the car park to find it chock-a-block. Seems its the #1 walking track with the 9km, 5 hour trek to the top being the attraction. We thought we'd save it for another day. On the way back down we stopped and took a few snaps and were just crossing the Tweed proper when Judy spotted a platypus right near the low level bridge. We went back and forth but apart from my one blurred image, it proved to be elusive. Went out for dinner and a show last night at the Australian Outback Adv...

Long walks along the beach and around the headland. Hopping lightly between NSW and Qld at Dangar Point, a late breakfast, wander through the Coolangatta markets,a quick trip to Tropical Fruit Salad World and then back to a nice little cafe / restaurant overlooking the ocean. Oh, it's just all go! Spot of fishing,nibbles and drinks, a few hundred snaps on show for Paul and Sue, Echuca to Katherine. Dinner and a show... well the TV was on. The beautiful weather held up fine and clear all say untill about 7 when it started to rain for about an hour. Let's hope its all rained out for another fine day again tomorrow. Snap of the day 

The chores caught up with me again and I had two loads of washing to get done with one eye on the weather as showers were predicted. We were wanting to book tickets for the Outback Spectacular so went to find the local NRMA shopfront. Their tickets are considerably cheaper than anywhere else so that was our first stop. Successfully bought the tickets, so went on down to Coolangatta beach for a walk along the pathways. It is the most beautiful spot with the paths meandering along the beachside for kilometre after kilometre. The sand was very white, the sun was glistening on the water, the surfers were patiently waiting for the right waves and all was well with the world. Paul and Sue passed us at one stage on their bikes and were continuing on to see how far they could go. We stopped for a coffee and sat in the sunshine soaking up the ambience. You could get used to this coastal lifestyle. Lunchtime rolled around and we decided to join the locals at Greenmount Surf Club to have lu...

Drove into a buffeting headwind all the way from Tewantin to the Tweed Heads turnoff, very uncomfortable, made even less comfortable by the trucks and buses roaring up behind us and blowing us all over the show. Got into the van park about noon, and as the ubiquitous van park map and notes didn't expressly say we couldn't wash the van, we did so as soon as we stopped. Went to the big shops to get lots of food and came back in driving rain. Paul and Sue turned up later in the arvo and after tea and scones we went for a long stroll down the river, which is just as well because it's now bucketing down again. No snaps to day, it's just not the day for it.

Sadly, the sky is clouding over and the temperature is dropping. Rain threatens so a day at the beach is out of the question. Instead we toured up to the Timbeerwah Lookout for views to the coast and Noosa and right around for 360 degress taking in the rest of the coast and the hinterland. Toured further up through Cooroy, Pomona and Boreen point up on Lake Cooharabaand back down to Tewantin. Went fishing down the river, finally found a spot out of the wind and Judy settled in for a session that resulted in a few fish and one large crab that did the right thing and dropped off before it go to the wharf. Not much else happening, so an earlyish night ready for tomorrows trek. Snap of the Day

Sorry Ben, Happy Birthday! It being a Wednesday and us being within 200k of Eumundi it is obligatory that we travel to the said township and engage in the tradition known as market crawling. We've been here probably 1/2 a dozen times or more over 20 years and you know, I don't think that anything much has changed. Sure the layout is a bit different but the goods on offer? These people are stuck in a perennial craft based time warp. Life is literally passing them by in front of their stalls. Leather belts, skirts and tops, various food items, 'art' made out of bits of coloured tin or scraps of wood. Perhaps a hat or a piece of jewellery? Maybe a anklet or tattoo? You've seen it all before and you can't help but wonder just how much of this stuff any one person actually needs. I notice a few of the stall proudly claim to be 'original' Eumundi Market stall holders, and some of them look it. We stopped and Judy fondled some beads. The head magically appe...

The weather is still quite cold overnight, so stayed in bed for a while – even Brian slept in – then after breakfast went down to Noosa Marina at Tewantin, to take the ferry down the river into Noosa Heads. We bought a day pass so we could hop on and off. It’s a tad difficult to really take advantage of this as it’s just too long between ferries to see much. We disembarked at Noosaville which has really grown since we were here last. There are heaps of eateries and boutiques. We checked all the shops out and then decided on an early lunch at a lovely cafe overlooking the river. Brian had a steak sanger and I had calamari, both really good, and sipped our coffees in the sunshine. We finished in time to pick up the ferry again – luckily it was 15 min late – destination Noosa. Hastings Street hasn’t changed that much except there seems to be a few empty shops and restaurants and perhaps it isn’t as upmarket as it was before. It isn’t really surprising as Noosaville has really taken off ...

I really do like the sunshine coast. Always have. We decided to head to the “Noosa North Shore”, this isn’t a flash suburb like you might expect but the main access to the beach “roads” to camping and fishing spots here. To access the area, you have to wait in line, be very patient, soak up the tranquillity and queue up for the 8 vehicle ferry that takes you across the Noosa River to areas north. We were not silly enough to actually drive onto the beach with our car, but the ferry was very busy with lots of others with their campertrailers and small boats making the trip. This is an amazing area with approximately 75 miles of pristine beach with fishing the major drawcard. You have to wait for the low tide so you can travel the 20 kms to the camp area along the beach and there are plenty of incidents where people get bogged. In fact we witnessed one today.  We were at the first access point and a small 4WD was totally bogged. There was a group of about 5 men with Irish accents – ...