It was a sad morning – with the faint memory of Danny’s farewell at 6am, we sat down to breakfast, just the two of us. The third broken seat left in its place where Danny would be. An empty teacup and an ownerless tent.

Fran and Van

Still, it didn’t take long to get over it once we realised that we no longer had to put up with Danny’s navigation (sketchy at the best of times even with a GPS!) and budgie smuggler shorts. The Bruce highway was waiting and Betty Campervan was getting resless – to the country we would head.

North of Brisbane lies the more relaxed Sunshine coast – named so probably because the coast faces northeast rather than southeast (Gold Coast) and so gets nice evening sun. Our first stop was the Glass Mountains NP to take a look at some cool volcanic landscape. Geologically called volcanic plugs, these towering oddities form a great backdrop to the beatiful Sunshine Coast and you can find lovely fudgeshop-laden mountain villiages like Tambourine. It was a chance to relax and unwind after a few booze fulled nights with Danny, and even fit in a spot of Trivial Pursuit (Which ended 1-1).

Glass Mountains National Park

Already missing the coast, we head toward Coloundra, a pretty seaside town with some awesome surf breaks and fishing. Infact, everywhere you visit on the Sunshine coast has awesome surf breaks and fishing and beaches, you can’t go far wrong. On a nice stroll along the coast we caught sight of some great surf.

Surf at Coloundra

Back at the campsite kitchen we spent a night with Warwick and “Smurf” from Caloundra. A few beers and the best part of a bottle of Bourbon later left Warwick ready to break his other ankle and Nige bracing himself for a stinking hangover.

Coolum beach

Continuing up the coast we stopped of at another lovely beach at Coolum on our way up to Noosa – the tourist capital of the Sunshine coast. Noosa was a really busy, bustling place again with a great coastal walk and lovely beaches. Infact it was about this time that we were wondering whether there was anything to do anywhere in Oz which wasn’t beaches, fishing or surfing. The whole of the east coast appears to own a boat and ten fishing rods, and most a surfboard aswell, though we’ve only really seen one or two days of good surf. Noosa also brought us a torrential downpur as a storm swept through.

Approx 100km north up the coast is Rainbow Beach where we spent a few very relaxing days. With fewer and fewer people around as you head north of Brisbane, it’s not difficult to get beaches almost entirely to yourself. Since the storm in Noosa it now really began heating up and we had to be pretty selective with what we did during the day as temperatures reached 27, 28 degrees. A bottle of wine on the beach in the early evening followed by a meal at the hilltop resteraunt in town seemed like a good way to pass the time!

Rainbow Beach

After a quick stop in Woodgate (again – lovely beach, quick stroll along the obligatory boardwalk, nice chilled bottle of wine) we head up to Agnes Water. By this time we decided that we had had our share of caravan parks and decided to head to a cheap council campsite ($5 each and you’re on the beach). However, full of loud fat aussies and faux hippies it was rubbish, and possibly the worst camping experience despite the great location. We put the memory of that night behind us and got out of Agnes Water pretty pronto. If living the Aussie hippy camper dream is drinking pre-mixed bourbon and coke from cans, trying to surf 2ft high waves and playing techno till 2am then go hug a tree somewhere else. Strange thing is, a common trend of our Oz jouney so far, is that there are soooo many lovely beaches, nice quaint mountain villiages, great forests with amazing camping experiences, and everyone hangs out in the same places (Byron, Agnes Water, Airlie Beach etc….) which I don’t quite understand. If you’ve got a campervan then there’s so much more to see. Anyway, each to their own, and rant over.

Agnes Water - great beach, rubbish campsite

Where was I? Lost in a sugar cane field I think. The area from Bundaberg up to, well, as far as we are now, are thousands of square kilometres of sugar cane fields crisscrossed by the ancient sugar cane railway – presumably set up to ease the transportation of cane from the fields to the mills. The industry gave rise to the towns of Maryborough, Bundaberg, Prosepine and more. All with their Sugar mills and cane railway tracks. If you like rum, as most Aussies do, then you’re in the right place. Apparently Bundaberg rum sends you loopy.

The highlight of the last couple of weeks has to be our day visit to Great Keppel Island in the Keppel Bay Islands NP. With more beaches than people, you’re statistically sure to find a beach to yourself. We only had to walk 15 minutes to find this amazing bay with some great snorkelling. Nige managed to see an eagle ray, lagoon ray, honeycombrockcod, wrasse and more. No doubt it will only get better as we near the Great Barrier Reef.

Fran at Great Keppel Island!

Shelving Beach - our own little paradise

Following that amazing experience we head an hour north to the Byfield national park – really just a huge state forest but with an arts and crafts scene and some great canoeing down the local creek.

Canoeing down a creek in Byfield

After the previous bad experience of Agnes Water campsite we spent a  great night in Byfield NP, at a campsite miles from anyone and anywhere in the RedRock campsite. Set in a pine forest, we were one of three vans in the campsite and so just what we were after – no electricity, minimal facities and the most amazing night skies. Oh, and a little campfire with marshmallows on sticks just to finish the night! Yum.

Continuing north toward Airlie Beach, we stopped off at Eungella (YOUNG-gluh) NP to explore some more of the countryside. We were very fortunate to be able to spend the morning up in the mountains where we saw a platypus (a shy and rare waterbased mammal), water turtles and kingfishers. We took a quick stroll at the Finch Hatton gorge to a waterfall up in the hills (more like a trickle) where Nige took a refreshing swim in the pool.

Bush campfire at Redrock

Nige swimming at Finch Hatton Gorge

Platypus!!!

Next stop Airlie Beach, apparently a bit of a party town and the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Coincidentally we’ll be hitting town on Saturday night so time for a night out!

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