2018 here we come

 Over Christmas we had Emma & Mike come for a visit , of course Pepper came as well , there were several trips up to Brisbane airport & back - for the week ( which we thought was going to be reasonably quiet ) we travelled over 900 klms !! There were the visits to Dave & Deb's ( Mike's parents ) , Deb's birthday party and the odd sight seeing trips .
  One of those was to Mt Tambourine in the Gold Coast hinterland , first stop was Cedar Creek Falls - a very popular swimming spot - shame we didn't know that before hand - here's a couple of photo's .

 As we had Pepper with us we couldn't take her for walks with us in the National Park , so Lyn dog sat while we were gone .
 Next was up to the top of the mountain and Curtis Falls - and another walk through some rainforest down to the falls .

  After checking a few properties down nearer the coast , it was back to Canungra for a swim for Pepper , then off to Dave & Deb's for a Bbq - a surprise for Deb as she wasn't expecting her kids to arrive for Christmas .
 Christmas day arrived and we headed to Mike's sister's for the day , fortunately for us all they had a swimming pool !! After a full day we headed home to Beaudesert and arrived just before a storm hit - one of quite a few in the coming days . We survived the onslaught of wind & rain with only some wet sheets on the bed in the tent - the windows were down on the tent .
  Next day was spent drying things out and catching up on what's been happening in the west .
Back to Dave & Deb's for the birthday party , & here we are .

 Next day it was back to Brisbane airport so Mike could fly back home for work , we expected lot's of traffic , but got nearly none , making it to the airport & back in 2 hours !!

  We've had a selection of sunsets , some memorable and others quite the opposite , here's some of them .

  Unsettled weather seemed to be on the cards for us with storms rushing through several afternoons . Where we are in the show ground there's a small water course that filled up a few times , the next 2 photos were taken on separate days .





 The water flows down through here , then through the golf course , doing quite some damage to the paths & tracks , and closing the tenth hole for several days afterwards . Fortunately the golf club has a practice fairway that they can use to replace it . I have been playing most Saturdays with some success , 2 games I've had 38 points , not so lucky on the monthly medal stroke round however .
  The weather has been fairly hot , with most days over 30 . We managed to find a creek to cool off in most days -
 In Coomera River near Canungra

 Running Creek is another spot we drove to , it's south of Beaudesert and near the Lions Road , which take you to Kyogle in NSW . Pepper got in on the action as well .

 There's a camp ground here as well , it slopes quite a bit so it could be hard to level up most vans , and only has a small toilet block .
  The weather came in over the ridge so we headed for home before it started to rain .

 Here's the creek at the bottom of the hill .

 Did I say rain , it was torrential and a lot of wind as well as lightning & thunder - we were going 40 klms/hr , windscreen wipers going flat out , water running over the Mt Lindsay Hwy , in some spots it was nearly 300mm deep , cars were pulled over everywhere but we kept going because you can become a target parked on the side of the road !!

  We drove back to Brisbane the next day to get Emma & Pepper back on the plane to Perth , it certainly was good to see her again . She gave us a cheese board for christmas that she burnt in the map of Australia and - Where To Next - quite applicable to us !!! 

 We will bid farewell to Queensland for a while tomorrow , slowly making our way south again catching up with family & friends , and with some touring mixed in as well . 

 Cheers & thanks to everyone that made 2017 the year it was , hopefully you've enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed doing it !!