Jill and Joe's Gap Year

What a reaxing time we had in the forest. Took a day trip to Rocky to the beautiful Botanic Gardens and the zoo.......really stunning gardens, where we sat and had lunch under the biggest Banyan Fig trees you could imagine. Sad to leave Red Rock Campground, apart from the hoards of families who arrived and surrounded us with their dogs and kids and tents and campers.

So many campers told us Carmila Beach was inaccessible due to soft sand, so we stopped at Clairview Caravan Park on the way up. What a funny little place, nothing but shacks along the waterfront and the caravan park, which has the shop, bar, bottle shop, post office, tourist information office, restaurant and beachfront. A bit like something in Fiji we thought, tables and chairs going all the way to the waters edge. We had the most delicious roast beef with all the trimmings for $13 each on Sunday night. And of course the "guests" are from all walks of life, some permanents, some travellers like us. We met a couple from Port Sorell who have sold their house and are living on the road and loving it.

Just 2 nights at Clairview then we headed through the roadworks again, to arrive at Cape Hillsborough National Park. We stopped at Mackay only to go to Bunnings, and found ourselves at Seaforth. It's a little fishing village just 40 km north of Mackay......just a servo and a general store and a bowls club.....where we went for a beer and won $61 on Keno. This campground is right on the water, but no swimming because of crocs and stingers! Miles of beautiful white sandy beach, 25 degrees, and not allowed to swim!! This park is $22 a night for no power, hot showers for 20c, water taps and bins. The bloke comes around and collects the money in the evening. We have, as usual met our neighbours, and had a hilarious sausage sizzle with a few of them last night, ending with lots of joke telling.

Joe has spent a fair bit of time today mucking about with our diesel heater in the van which is not working..........to no avail. As luck would have it there is a Webasto service agent just 10 minutes from Airlie Beach who is going to have a look at it tomorrow morning. We had a very cold night at the weekend where we had to fire up the hot water bottles, so it will be good to get the heater working.

Tomorrow off to Airlie Beach for a few days......might take a day trip to Hamilton Island for a treat! Joe has packed his paddle board away for now.....too many nasties in the water.

I've been a bit slack about writing for the past week, mainly due to being terribly sad about our great friend, Steve, who was badly injured in a tragic accident in Launceston just over a week ago. He is in the Austin Hospital with his beautiful wife, Wendy, and his 3 kids, by his side. The good news is he is improving slightly, but it is going to be a long slow process, and Joe and I are feeling completely helpless being so far away. He's due to become a Grandad (twice) very soon, and we are keeping in touch with friends and family to find out any news. We are so aware that life is so fragile and so precious. We send all our love and positive thoughts to Steve, Wendy, Tom, Georgie, Sophie, Clare and Manfred and all the family.

We are sitting in the most beautiful forest, at Byfield north of Yeppoon. It's called the Red Rock Campground, has lovely clean toilets, picnic tables, wood barbecues, no showers and it's only $10 a night. It is absolutely pouring with rain and Joe is collecting water off the the awning to fill up the tanks.....he is filling a 10 litre bucket in 10 minutes!

There's a little stream running just beside our van.....if this rain keeps up Joe will be able to use his paddle board in the stream!!

We did something yesterday we said we would never do......we towed the van in the dark. Left Noosa at 9am, heading for Bundaberg, then decided we wouldn't go there, we could make it all the way to Byfield by 5pm. However after 200 km of road works, and about 50 stops by the lollipop men, we didn't get here till 7.30 pm. Not a good thing to do, towing the van in unknown territory in the dark, with the chance of a puncture or a breakdown. Oh well, we got here safely and thank goodness there was another couple here who showed us a good spot to park. It was very dark and just starting to rain. The van was a bit wonky overnight but we've levelled it up now and it's perfect.....Joe had to dig out under the wheels on one side of the van to level it up.....often the easiest way if the ground's soft.

We didn't get to look at Rockhampton or Yeppoon on the way through as it was dark, so we will take a tiki tour when the rain stops. It's still quite warm in spite of the rain, still shorts and t shirts.

It's nice to be free camping again, looking out at trees instead of other vans and amenities blocks. Very relaxing, and the van is well set up for free camping. We could last out here for weeks. Cheap, too, which is a very good thing after Noosa!

Had a nice week at Noosa, caught up with Penny and Reece which was great, and had an Indian meal with Rowan and Ann from Brisbane who were parked behind us. We said Goodbye to Rick and Donalee, the SUP experts, over sunset drinks on the beach. Joe has learnt so much from Rick, and they've become good mates. He never did get a surf lesson, but had a manoeuvring lesson instead, and he DID get wet.

On Mothers' Day, Joe took me to the market for a big fat German Sausage instead of breakfast in bed. I had a lovely parcel to open from Oliver and had `phone calls or texts from all 5 of our kids. I had a long awaited chat with Chris, which was nice.

One evening we went to the Surf Club with Penny and Reece, and had several wines with a meal while watching the waves roll in. After dinner, we strolled over the road to Riccoco and danced the night away to the sound of the multi talented singer / musician. We had so much fun! And then, because we thought we probably hadn't drunk quite enough, taxied back to the vans fora delicious Cointreau on ice. Very quiet day to follow!

So from here to Carmila Beach, near Mackay, we think. All plans subject to change of course.

Love to all our friends, so good to keep in touch.

Ignore the last paragraph of the last blog.....we had a huge surprise planned and I couldn't talk about it.

We have just had a trip to Melbourne to meet Ros and Paul to surprise Ros for her forthcoming birthday. Paul and I have been planning this for a couple of months, and it all came together so well. We have had a great fun time, SO good to see them and spend time. Had an amazing feast at Chin Chin on Sunday night, joined by Richard and Trish. We all had a "feed me" banquet, which turned out to be 7 courses of the most delicious south East Asian morsels. Washed down with French red and Australian white, a mixture of beers for the boys, we were stuffed to bursting. Of course we hadn't consumed quite enough so we went to Chloe's bar to top up. We have laughed and had lots of fun all weekend.

I forgot to mention that Joe introduced himself to Brad Sewell in the loo at Chin Chin (Hawks player for those of you who don't know Brad!)

We had a great "night in" with our mates Tim and Helen at their lovely McKinnon home......we were going to the footy but stayed home instead for the best lamb shanks followed by steamed pudding a la Helen! Just as well we stayed home because Collingwood thrashed the Saints anyway, and it was too bloody cold.

Yesterday Joe and I caught a very early train to Epping, to the Crusader caravan factory to chat to the manager about how we can perhaps trade our van in on a new one, to give Joe more room to stuff things in. We love our van so much, but there is limited room for all the tables and chairs and paddle boards and things we seem to have acquired. Still in the very early planning stage.

Now sitting at Tullamarine waiting for our flight. Said very sad goodbyes to Ros and Paul, and left them with the promise we will catch up again somewhere in a few months. Lovely to know we can just pick up where we left off with those guys. We all care so much about one another.

Heading to Noosa tomorrow, where Joe has a lesson with Rick and his paddle board in the surf.....quite different to calm water paddling. We will have Penny and Reece there, and have drinks planned with Rick and Donalee. We WILL have an AFD today!

After thinking we would never be able to tear ourselves away from Noosa, we have found this friendly, vibrant seaside town of Caloundra. There are so many small towns along the coast it's difficult to pick one. This is perfectly situated to explore this beautiful area. There's a boardwalk just in front of this caravan park that goes for miles along the waterfront, all the way to Pelican Waters one way and right up to Moffat Beach the other. It also has the Pumicestone Passage, which is fairly calm for Joe to take his paddle board.....he's just got back from an hour on the water, and is making me avocado on toast and delicious Lavazza coffee for breakfast! Yum!

We have come south a bit for a few reasons; wanted to catch up with Chris in Brisbane which unfortunately didn't happen, wanted to see a bit more of this beautiful Sunshine Coast and Hinterland, and wanted to keep away from the tropical cyclone that's hanging around further up north.

We've had a beautiful trip up towards Maleny, to the Mary Cairncross Reserve, one of the best remnants of subtropical rainforest in Australia with amazing views across to the Glasshouse Mountains and an excellent education centre. The Reserve has some huge trees, some of which we have never seen before. We had several" Ssshhhhh! Listen" moments where the beautiful birds were singing and whistling their own little tunes so loudly we couldn't hear ourselves speak.

We took a drive down the coast to Pelican Waters, where we stopped and called up a real estate agent to enquire about the price of a waterfront block..... Just for fun! $600,000 for the block, then you have to build a jetty and probably spend around the same to build the house to match the neighbours! No thank you! They are so close together you can hear the toilet flush next door. I told the agent don't call me I'll call you.

Our last day here today, tomorrow we start our trip up north, with 5 days back at Noosa on the way......just can't pass it by! We have several lovely coastal spots picked out to camp along the way, getting us to Ellis Beach (near Port Douglas) at the beginning of June. We will catch up with our friends Mark and Max Goulston (ex Muddy Creek Road) who live at Cairns. All very exciting, and not to be rushed.

Looking forward to seeing Penny and Reece at Noosa.....they have a new drink called Spritz, which they discovered on their trip to Italy, so I'm sure we will be sampling that with them. Bill and Annie are in South Australia, heading towards the Nullarbor, feeling the cold. Jan and Graham are having a few weeks here in Caloundra, where they used to live.

Great to hear from our friends, and keep in touch. Don't forget about us, keep us in your minds. Come and join us for a holiday sometime, just let us now so we can fluff up the rooftop tent!!

Well, what a nice week we have had. In our old spot at the Noosa River Tourist Park, Site 82, same neighbours as last time, Ron and Pam.....they have been coming here for 9 weeks each year for the last 16 years!

Lots of walking, swimming in the surf every day, and Joe has hired a Stand Up Paddle Board, so he takes off up the river, around the waterways, happy as Larry. He's loving it so much he is about to buy a board. Can't fit a regular board in the car or van, so it's an inflatable one.....very stable, great quality and it folds up into a rather large back pack for travelling, complete with pump. That will be so good for paddling on all the gorges, rivers, dams etc., and Joe is going to have a lesson in the surf. I will hop on one day when noone is looking!

We've become friends with Rick and Donnalee who own the paddle boarding business. They invited us to dinner at XO, a fantastic Asian restaurant at Sunshine Beach where we had a banquet for $55 per head........the most delicious Asian food we've ever tasted, quite an experience and quite reasonable we thought. Rick and Donnalee take SUP groups to the Maldives, and to Fiji. For $11,000 you can have a week of luxury paddling in The Maldives!!! For now we will enjoy it right here.

Eumundi Market has grown, still great, very busy, can't buy anything when you live in a van! On Sundays we go to the Farmers' Market and stock up on the freshest most delicious fruit and veg, meat, bread and other locally produced delicacies. It's the best market we have ever been to and we do most of our shopping there.

The Nambour Caravan Show was on last weekend so we took a trip out there.....got ideas for our next van! Then we took a picnic to the Kondalilla National Park, and walked to the beautiful waterfalls and pools.....the tropical rainforests are just stunning at the moment after all the rain.

I have been doing some online study to enable me to keep my registration as a nurse.....so far I have done Medication Management and Infection Control and have got 100 % for each. It's OK doing it when it's raining, but hard to discipline myself when the weather's gorgeous.

Looking forward to Graham and Jan arriving on Thursday for a few days.....we haven's seen them since November, so there will be lots to catch up on, and it will be good to hear their stories about South Australia. Then on Friday we are meeting Vicki, our manager at Joe's Place for hair, who is coming up to Ipswich for a few days and we will meet her for lunch at Caloundra.....Joe will get a haircut on the beach!

That's all for now.....missing all our friends and family, but not missing cold weather and not missing work! Love to all xxx