17/12/17 Sunny Coast views

  We arrived on the Sunshine Coast and stayed at Alexandra Beach . Catching up with travelling friends Ric & Marc , was a highlight - spending the afternoon - which turned to evening .
 Ric & Marc picked us up in the morning and took us for a drive around the hills to the west , views down to the Glasshouse Mountains & Brisbane were great even though it was overcast & threatening to rain .

 After a nice cup of tea , we headed around to Maleny and found the cheese shop - what a selection they had , soft cheeses , cheddars , blue vein etc etc etc , we purchased some Mexican Chilli and another chilli one - tried it yesterday , and oh my , wasn't it nice !!!
  Then it was Baroon Pocket Dam for a Bbq lunch . The dam is a small one , but deep , surrounded by hills .

  After a sausage sizzle , chasing scrub turkeys away from the table & food that they'd taken a liking to , it was back on the road to Kondalilla Falls . With the recent rainfall , the falls should be flowing well .
  We parked and started off down the hill on a 3.7 klm walk . Before long the track took us into the rainforest and down to the first creek & small falls .

 Then around to the next falls .

 Further down the track is the lookout down the valley below the main falls - it looks out onto the Blackall Range .

 Onward down the track , there's a fork in the track - one to the lookout and the other to the pool above the falls - a popular swimming spot !!

 Down to the main falls lookout delivered a great view of about 70% of the falls - they drop 80m to the bottom - the lower 30m was covered by trees . There is a circuit walk that takes you down into the valley below and then back up the other side , we declined and headed back to the car instead .

  Here's some of the rainforest we wandered through .

 Next on our day out was Mapleton Falls , just a short walk from the carpark . Views of the falls are from above and behind unfortunately . A shower of rain greeted us , falling into the valley below . Underneath the falls is a rainforest canopy of trees and a lot of palms .

  With that we headed for home and a cold beer . It was a lovely day spent with Ric & Marc , getting chauffeured around and seeing the sights .
 Next day we got the bikes out and rode down to Mooloolaba Spit , on the way is a memorial to HMAS Brisbane - the hull was sunk off the coast and now is a reef and dive spot - the only one where you can scuba dive and make your way through the ship's engine rooms etc . The memorial points to the spot where into sits .

  From there it was down to Mooloolaba Beach .

 The spit is just below the tall buildings in the previous photo , the next view is from the Spit Beach looking back toward Mooloolaba Beach . This is an excellent spot swim if you don't want waves .

  There's a fresh fish shop here , they also serve fish & chips - we have eaten here probably 4 times over a 20 year period , and it's always been great - today didn't disappoint either . We had a piece of coral trout & chips and some calamari chips  - awesome !!

 Making our way back to the van , we passed a lake with some massive sculptures in it . They are a black swan and an egret - they're mounted on an island , out of reach of people . The black swan is the local council emblem , the egret is the emblem of it's sister city in China . The swan would have a wing span of around 6m !!

  We are now down near the Gold Coast for about 3 weeks , we negotiated Brisbane's traffic , finding our fridge supplier and getting a new seal installed .
 Well there you have it , Christmas is around the corner so I'll take this opportunity to wish all our readers a wonderful christmas and new year !!
 A map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cFOpDDmXggqCaWowNxpIfYaOf1_BJ0Mf&usp=sharing

9/12/17 Storm season

 Hi folks , still here , just been a bit quiet of late . So here's the goss .
 Our awning has been changed , don't remember it being so white or clean !! It did make us stay for an extra 2 weeks while they got an awning sent up from Melbourne .
  While waiting I played some golf , we rode the bikes around and gave the timber cupboards a fresh coat of lacquer - who said there's no maintenance to be done ????
 We did have a look around the district visiting Innes Park and Elliot Heads where these 2 photo's were taken .

 The Hummock is a hill between Bargara and Bundaberg that has a lookout , lots of houses and aerials , it's located in the middle of very fertile soils - here's a lookout it .

 In the picture is - sugar cane , macadamia's , rockmelon , corn & chilli and much more !!
  The workers at Takalvans in Bundaberg did a good job replacing the awning , letting us head off to Hervey Bay for a few days before going out to River Heads for a week or 2 .
 We've managed to get some stormy weather around us at the moment , with the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast & Brisbane getting almost daily storm cells , hopefully they get rid of the stormy weather before we get down there .
 We had a quick trip to Sydney to see Justin & Taylor , we spent 5 nights there , the rain seemed to follow us , but we had a great time with them . Here's a couple of photo's from Macquarie Shopping Centre .



  Just in case you've forgotten , it's nearly christmas !!






































 We left our view of Fraser Island behind and headed to Tin Can Bay for a few days before we head to the Sunshine Coast .

 And to top it all , here's a sunset from River Heads .

  We will be catching up with friends & family on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast , hopefully the blog will become a little bit more regular , Cheers . A map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UDdehLO9jxar5vz950dOecn2_YcHBUxI&usp=sharing

11/11/17 Big wind came and blew it all away

 Leaving Lake Monduran , we headed out to Bargara for a few days - we are still here .
Played golf on Saturday last week , but the heat & humidity got to me a bit and wasn't the best game . After having a relaxing Sunday , cycling here & there for some exercise , and basically just relaxing , we decided to recoat the dining table . A trip to Bunnings in Bundaberg and a few necessary purchases , we headed back to the beach . Here's a couple of photo's of the bike track near sunset .

  Another side story - we got a bullseye stone chip in the windscreen when we went up to Cape York , it decided to crack in a couple of directions - one straight across the line of vision of the driver , so it's time for a new windscreen . We found Bundy Windscreens and went to check in - Tuesday 8am it is !
  Tuesday dawns so I'm off into town for the windscreen , arrived at 7:55 and was back on the road again at 9:15 , how good was that !! Back to the van to play with the table again and spend some time on books and puzzles . That afternoon a front was coming through , promising thunderstorms , rain & lightning . It started off with some very light rain , then lightning & thunder , then some more heavy rain . It was predicted to get windy , but the forecast direction was on the opposite side to our door and awning , so we left it out , it was tied down as well . Next thing we knew there was an enormous wind gust , the van shook , the awning started to flap , bit's of trees flying around everywhere and torrential rain !! I had thoughts of going out to untie the awning but that was never going to happen , it was far too dangerous outside !! Next thing , the awning was bouncing , there was a loud bang as it bounced around and the roller hit the edge of the roof above the door , ropes were loose or lying on the ground . The rain finally let up letting us go out to check the damage .

 The awning was totalled  awning was ripped for about 1.5m this end and pulled out of the track at the top of the far end for about 500mm . An aluminium arm had snapped to allow this to happen . After surveying the damage and taking some photo's for insurance purposes I cut the remaining awning off and removed the arms from the van . Meanwhile the rest of the park looked like someone had gone berserk with a chainsaw trimming branches from every tree , water was lying around , some vans had water views , some had water lapping at their steps .

 It took park staff 2 days to clean up all the tree debris and tidy up . Bundaberg was hit with a one in ten year storm , trees were ripped down , and had 14,000 people without power for the night and next day - funnily enough we still had power and never lost it , others in Bargara had no power till Wednesday night !!
 Fortunately for us , the park has skip bins so we could throw all the bits and pieces of awning into them . The roller is 18 feet long though , so we needed to borrow a hacksaw to cut it up - I asked the park staff if I could borrow one , they arrived on site with an angle grinder and proceeded to cut it up for me as well !!
  A few phone calls and the insurance claim was underway , just have to wait for approval and the replacement to be fitted , and we are good as gold again .
 The wind has stayed for the rest of the week , with constant 30klm hr winds gusting up to 50-60 , so not a lot of anything else has been done . Golf today in the wind was going to be interesting , but I managed to play to my handicap with 36 points .
 That's it up to date , Cheers

4/11/17 Down the lake

 Leaving Emu Park , we headed south making our way toward Hervey Bay at the end of the month . Stopping at Miriam Vale we bought some extremely nice mango's from the local supermarket . Lunch & a little walk around done , we headed off down the wonderful Bruce Hwy to Lake Monduran .
  Arriving early afternoon , we set up and had a relaxed afternoon . Happy hour rolled around so we chatted to 2 couples set up near us - there weren't too many here - nice and peaceful . During conversations we learned that one couple , Rick and Vicki , knew Garry & Linda - our friends in Rockhampton - small world !!
 Checking the dam wall & spillway out , we found approx 300mm of water flowing out of the dam meaning there is a lot of water flowing in 2 weeks after the big rain . The stains on the spillway wall give an indication of how much water was flowing out at the peak of the flood - around 3m deep - that's a lot of water !!

 The brown & orange stain shows on the rocks further down as well .

  The kayak came off the roof and hit the water , there was also visual evidence of the water levels in places along the way .

 This lake is quite large and goes back about 40klms to the north , with arms stretching out to the east & west . At the moment there are many islands , but as the water subsides the islands will join back up to land areas .

We paddled about 2 klms then turned to the left into one of the areas that covers about 500 acres . We chased the shade as the sun was starting to bare down us - you could fell yourself starting to bake . There is a nice little spot we found , had a log we could sit on , bottlebrush trees lining the bank and hundreds of birds flitting around the trees - made for a really nice lunch spot .

 The lake is a very popular spot for fishermen / women , with many boats zooming all over the place . You can hire small boats here as well as houseboats - would be a nice relaxing holiday on the water .
 Here is some of the scenery as we saw it .

  That's us for the moment , here's a map link :- oops Google not willing to let me do a map tonight , so no map , Sorry !!

1/11/17 Emu's in the rear vision

 Well here we are again , we've left Emu Park and headed down the wonderful Bruce Hwy . But before we went , the drone came out for a fly early one morning , and we also headed out to Byfield .
 The singing ship is quite an attraction here , as the wind picks up , the tubes on the sail start to make music - they don't stop till the wind drops !! Here it is on the headland .

 The tide was out , so there's plenty of sand & rocks .

 The dark walkway you can see is part of the Anzac Memorial - quite a good one as well !!
 While the drone was buzzing around , I took a short video - came a bit close to some plants , rocks & the railing - the wide angle lens make it look closer than it actually was though hahaha .

   Heading off to Byfield , our 1st stop was Upper Stoney Creek - a picnic area on one side of the creek and camp site on the other . Here's the creek .

 The water here is this colour all year round , and was cool , but didn't stop anyone from going for a swim . Along the sides of the creek were some flowering shrubs and of course Lantana - but the flower looks great .

 Next stop was Red Rock campground , Stoney Creek also runs beside here , but also has crocodile signs up .

 Further up the road , we arrive at Byfield and go up to Raspberry Creek Homestead . It was a homestead located in what's now Shoalwater Bay - an Army training area . They used the homestead for accomodation for a while before donating it to Byfield Community , it's now being used as the Library & Community Centre .

 This Slab timber cottage was also on the farm originally - some of the slabs have been replaced .

 The gardens around the yard edges had a variety of flowers .

 Next on our drive was Waterpark Creek . This is one of the most picturesque places you will find , the rainforest just melts into the water and flows down the creek - beautiful !!

 We headed back in toward Yeppoon , stopping at Bangalee Beach - views back down the beach to Yeppoon .

  Back into Yeppoon and a look down the esplanade and beach . The council has done a lot of work along the esplanade , with a water park for kids , playgrounds , grassed areas and a stage & terraced seating .

  After all that , it was time for a beer , that's it for today , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dUYjRBDsAkQW6AA8ACS-slAiSQo&usp=sharing