Well we clearly have not been everywhere and we have not seen everything but we have certainly had a decent scratch around this fabulous land while sticking mostly to Highway 1. Do it again? In a heartbeat as there is so much more to see and experience even if the exact same route was done again. The truth is you can never see it all even if you had a lifetime and that is what makes this country so remarkable. Besides before doing another lap we would prefer to explore Tasmania, Victoria, The Centre, The Murray...the list is endless.
Travelling in QLD can be slow due to the amount of road works on the Bruce Highway and the drive between Airlie Beach and 1770/Agnes Water proved to be a loooong day. We got in late so to the delight of the children we had to stay overnight in a motel room, yeah TV!! 1770/Agnes Water is near where the Great Barrier Reef starts so if you are travelling north from here with surf boards it's you're last chance for a surf off the Australian east coast. Nice spot, nice long beach which leads north to the delightfully named Bustard Bay where interestingly enough you can see the sun rise and set over the same body of water. Lieutenant James Cook landed here in.......yep you guessed it 1770. We did very little here besides school work, reading and a bit of beer drinking because there is really not that much to do.
Next stop Rainbow Beach just south of Fraser Island. Here there is lots of stuff to do including horse riding, kayaking, sand surfing, surfing and getting to drive on beaches if you can afford it. The QLD government have recently put all sorts of charges for driving on beaches and even going on to Fraser Island. Given our restricted time and the cost of going to Fraser we decided that we were going to leave that adventure for another day, or several in the not too distant future. But there were other things for us to do and with Rainbow Beach Horse Rides we had a couple of excellent hours riding along the beach with our hosts Andrew and Nicole who provided us with some beautifully placid quarter horses to ride on. Even Finn had is own horse and was allowed to have control of the reins at the end of the ride back at the pen. Although we did not get above a walk the ride was not without excitement as my boy Cadbury fancied giving himself a sand bath with me on top, luckily I was able to roll away which is what you can do when you are shaped like a beach ball! Beer to the rescue again. After that the old boy was happy to wander off into the surf for a bit of a paddle. We all thought it was a great time and I am surprised Marley has not tried to ask for a horse yet.
Next morning we took off for some sea kayaking off Rainbow Beach in the hope of spotting some bottle nose dolphins which we did in a matter of minutes as they were giving some fish a chase. This was looking good especially when a mother and child popped up in front of us but then they shot off past us down the beach chasing their breakfast. I learnt that kayak does not go as fast as dolphin especially into the wind against that tide so for the 40 minutes we scanned the ocean, nothing and then all of a sudden another two popped up and did some circle work around Finn's and my kayak and the shot again. Finn had done enough by now and we decided to head for shore with Amanda and Cal leaving Marley and her partner out on the water with the instructor. As soon as Finn got to shore he wobbled down the beach toward the 4WD looking like a penguin wearing a hi viz vest. Don't worry mate, Dad will look after the kayaks....off you go. Funny thing was when we got all the gear packed up and we were travelling down the beach we found the dolphins again just a few metres from shore so we just sat there and watched them for ten minutes and had the best view of them all day.
Rainbow Beach is so named because it has 74 shades of sand. It also has a 15 hectare mass of sand atop a sand cliff called Carlo's Blow. No photo's does this place justice, but I'll post some anyway. The kids had and awesome time sand surfing some of the steep sides and we also witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed. I went a bit snap happy but hopefully the attached gives a fair impression of what we saw.
Maroochydore was our next stop where we were looking forward to catch up with our friend Cameron who we spent a great couple of days with. The Eumundi markets were not a big hit with the boys until I bought them a couple of sling shots which come in useful for dealing with Myna birds when we get back home. The markets are pretty big and I think Amanda and Marley thought they were in heaven, I must admit they are the best markets I have ever been to but did find time to sneak away from them with Finn to The Imperial Hotel for a quick refreshment but sadly learned they had stopped brewing Eumundi Lager several years ago.
There is also a half decent zoo up on the Sunshine Coast called Australia Zoo, The Irwin's home base. I don't know why but I thought it might be a bit rubbish but in fact it turned out to be the best zoo I've ever been to.
First impressions are that it is really well maintained and the animals have plenty of room. There are also plenty of "meet the animal" type of talks by the keepers and of course the show provided by The Irwin's themselves with the obligatory croc feed and a very impressive bird show. Although there were a few tigers, giraffes and elephants the vast majority of animals were Australian. Well worth a visit.
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| Wot, is it time for breakfast Mum? |
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| Weird, never been fed by a tiger before. |
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| Marvellous ou can see everything from up' ere |
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| Someone say breakfast? |
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| You have vey big paws.
And then onto the Gold Coast, or more precisely Sea World, Movie World and Wet n Wild. A lot of fun all of them. We did all the rides at Movie World and have to say they are all fairly scary but the best was Arkham Asylum followed by Superman...whoa fast n frantic. Callam really enjoyed the Scooby Doo ride which was really scary, ha ha. Finn had his own little persons section riding on the Speedy Gonzales taxi and the Road Runner roller coaster. At Sea World we teamed up with our friend Shani and had a great day in the sun enjoying the dolphin show, meeting Sponge Bob as well as getting on a few rides and seeing the fantastic underwater aquarium. Wet n Wild had to be done even though the weather was not the warmest but Marley and I made a commitment to hit every slide and ride, we all ate and slept well that night. The weather was closing in and we made a decision not to make any more stops before Port Macquarie. It was great to see Nan and Pop have a BBQ, a few beers and watch the Wallabies play The Lions.
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| I got a better smile than you Spongey. |
Well there might be one more blog in me because on the road we play a game called the best and worst, the forgettable and the unforgettable and sometimes it is quite funny so it may provide some laughs and some possible hints about what you may want to do if you ever choose to take a trip around this great country of hours.
If you want to see some more photo's get into my or Amanda's Facebook.
Cheers and thanks for reading.
