Laurie and Ken

Laurie and Ken

Saturday 24 February 2018

Near Byron Bay
We are back at Mark and Cherie's house near Byron Bay and it's been a quiet few days. We are getting lots of rain and the roads are closed because of to much water. This happens a lot because of the amount of rain that falls and then it runs down off the mountains and floods every where. It just takes time for the water to pass.

Further down the road more flooding.
 
Next week we have made plans to rent a house on Stradbroke Island just off the cost near Brisbane. We have to take a barge across to the island. This should be a great few days, the weather looks great. 
 

Friday 16 February 2018

We are back in the city.
We have arrived at my son Ken and his girlfriend Sharon's house to visit until Wednesday. We are trying to stay as cool as possible. The temperatures are high and so is the humidity. After a hot day it rains with a big lightning show, but not enough rain to cool down the temperature. Our rented van is all clean and ready to return on Monday. Tonight we are going to a Chinese New Years Eve party and where we are going they have a pool, so lucky! We will return to Marks and Cherie's house on Wednesday see what comes up next.

Monday 12 February 2018

MUST SEE!

I was surfing the net a I came across the web site of the young couple that had there boat beside us in the hurricane. They have returned to there boat to see what was left. Have a look at these 2 videos. This young girl does a great job with a camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuH00Ifjhq4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xc-_19cD00&t=638s
Next stop Ocean Beach.

We left Noosa in a hurry because the camp grounds told us we were not allowed to use our gazeebo. In the heat, it was our only shade since there was no shade in our camp in the hottest part of the day. So our next stop was Ocean Beach 1 hour north of Brisbane. We could tell we were getting close to Brisbane because every thing was getting busy. I find it very difficult to drive in the round abouts. You have to signal into the round about then turn the wheel and shift and also drive on the opposite side of the road then signal out of the round about. We made to Ocean Beach and had a walk down the beach area. The tide was out so it didn't look great for swimming.


Off in the distance on the last sand bar there are people dragging nets. I'm not sure what there after but I could also see them catching grayfish. They have a long tube with a pump on it and they can suck up the grayfish out of it's hole. You can fill a bucket in no time.

We then walked back to the camp and sat in the pool for the afternoon.
The next day was a biathlon in town so the streets were closed for the morning. So 1 more day in Ocean Beach sitting  by the pool.
The next day we drove through Brisbane and now we are on the south side of the city. This park is very close to down town and I'm surprised how quite it is. We are very lucky that they have a nice pool here because today the temperature will be going up to 38c or 100f  HOT HOT HOT!



 
Camp site.
 
This is our last three days on our van trip and I'm glad we are close to a pool. Next I will spend a day getting the windshield replaced and giving the van a good cleaning before we return it on Monday. Wednesday we head back to Byron bay and I hope to do more scuba diving.

Saturday 10 February 2018

It's getting hot again!
The last post I said we were in Woodgate Beach and we were going to go for a hike in the National forest. I was a little excited because it was getting a little boring taking pictures of just birds and I wanted to see some thing different. So off we went in the late morning for a 5 kilometer walk. At first it was a walk across a board walk through a wet lands area.



There was nothing but trees and water and tall grass. We walked quietly hoping to see something. The path changed from boardwalk to a foot path through the forest. Still saw nothing but big old trees.
 
Then the path changed again to white sand and short brush. Because we were going into a forest I suggested to Laurie we would not need hats and sun glasses. After about 2 kilometers we were exposed to the sun and white sand, but that was ok just another 3 kilometers to go. We walked slowly and quietly so we might see something. Laurie looked low and I looked high! I was hoping to spot some Koala bears in the trees and Laurie looked for anything that moved on the ground. After about 4 kilometers we had not seen anything and we were getting hot. We were glad that the trail was almost to an end. All of a sudden up ahead was bad news. The trail was washed out and under water. We were very hot and getting a little burnt from the sun and we had to turn around and walk all the way back. After walking about 7 kilometers we arrived back in camp and we were tired, hot, thirsty, and disappointed we didn't see anything. So we sat around the camp for a while and took more pictures of birds.
 




After leaving Woodgate we were off to Rainbow Beach. This is where we took the pictures of the Cockatoos on our way North. They were still there waiting for us to come back!

 
 There were a few others that came into our camp looking for hand outs.



We only stayed 1 night this time and the next day we were going to Noosa Heads. We wanted to meet with friends that we met on a boat while we were sailing in Puerto Rico. We found that the camp grounds were just ordinary and a little pricey for what you get. The camp grounds were on a river and it was good for swimming and fishing.


There was great fishing here.
 Sharp teeth!
And a few on lookers!


The next day we went into town to meet our friends Peter and Janine for lunch . We could see why the price of the camp ground was a little high. It was the only camp ground in town and this is a high end resort area. There were resorts after resorts, I wondered if anyone lived in town???? This was not a good time to forget my camera. But I had my phone and snapped a few pictures of the beach area.




 Laurie and I agree Noosa Heads is the nicest town we have seen in Australia. It is very busy and it is hard to find a parking spot. But once you get into town it is very nice.
We are now at a camp ground in Ocean Beach witch is a hour north of Brisbane. It's nice and it's quiet and it has a pool. It also has a beach area but I would rather be in the pool. Tomorrow we are going to drive a little south of Brisbane to a BIG4 campground. This should be exciting!!! Right now we are just seeing a little of the area around Brisbane before we have to take the van back.







Monday 5 February 2018

Back to our favorite spot!

The weather was hot and windy so we changed our mind where to stop for the night. We decided to go back to Tropical Beach Park in Bowen where we could get a spot on the water and get a breeze for the night. We thought this would be better than a well treed spot with no breeze at all. I think we made the right decision. The day was very hot but the wind kept us dry.
Last time we were here we were on the other side of that picnic area.
 We got a great spot to watch the world go by!
 This is what the free Australian BBQ's look like.
 We slept again with the back hatch open all night. It was a great breeze.
At night we watched the full moon rise.

 
Our next stop was Yeppoon, a small town on the coast. The park was not one of the better ones we have stayed at but all we needed was a breeze and a pool. After setting up we had a feeling we were being watched. And we were!
A couple of Possum's keeping there eye on us.


Then there were more visitors.
They marched through our camp to go next door to be fed.
And a few more visitors

 
Next stop, a BIG 4 camp grounds with all the fun pool toys and fun activities. It turned out to be a rainy day and we didn't get out of the van at all. The wind was high and there was a lot of rain over night. Next day was much cooler and less humidity. So on the road to the next stop, Green Acres Park. We drove in and drove right back out. This was not a spot we wanted to stay at. On the side of the high way we decided Lake Awoonga Camp Park. We arrived before noon and it turned out to be a good place. Every thing was still a little wet but starting to dry out fast. We set up then went for a walk. We have not seen many wild kangaroos so it was a treat to see a small group that stays close to the park.
 



Since I have been here I have tried to get a picture of a Kookaburra. You can hear them every where laughing but there hard to see in the trees. I finally got some pictures.

 We saw this bird and I couldn't get a good picture of it. It was a good size parrot with a blue body and a yellow head.


A mina bird
 
This is a public picnic area at Lake Awoonga 


 
Today we have arrived in another small town called Woodgate. We are in a great park so we will stay 2 nights. We had a good walk on the beach today and we will do a walk through the National forest tomorrow.