Coffs Harbour to Rainbow Beach

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I finished my last update by saying how much it had been raining and that my search for the Koala continues…. I am happy to say that I spotted one today!



I continue…. I woke up at 2.30am at the Art Factory Nomads Hostel car park to the sound of rain and palm tree nuts falling onto the top of my camper. I had to put my ear plugs in. Rain was also leaking through the side of the sunroof and subsequently dripping onto one corner of my bed. I was to sleepy to even consider being concerned so I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up pretty early, 7.30am. It had stopped raining but only for about 30 minutes after I woke. I decided to get up and get sorted. I couldn’t be bothered to get showered so I got dressed and sorted the bed out and headed out into Byron Bay town centre. There was a brief rest bite from the rain again and I managed to walk up and down the row of shops and grabbed a coffee to go.



Before I went to sleep last night I noticed an operating lighthouse, the picture in my earlier blog. It’s the first time I have seen a lighthouse in operation for as long as I can remember. I can vaguely remember one working at St Eve’s Bay when I went there with the family when I was 7. I decided to drive up to the lighthouse as I should be able to get a good perspective view of Byron Bay from up there. I parked and walked up the steep hill to the summit. On the way there were a few viewpoints where you could stand and view each side of the bay. The weather was horrendous so the view was ruined by low level clouds and persistent rain. As I got closer to the top and the summit became more exposed the wind really hit hard, I was nearly blown off my feet. It was raining slightly but due to the wind it was pounding against my face, stinging with every hit. I persevered to the top, took a photo and started to head back down. Just behind the lighthouse was a car park attendant. (I didn’t realise there was a car park at the top until I had walked up there….) I was curious on how fast the wind was going so I asked him if he had a wind speed gauge, he didn’t but he knew a lady in a little hut attached to the building he was in and this little hut was the Byron Bay Marine and Shipping Communication Centre. He opened the door and I was astonished by all the computers and radar screens and weather satellite images in front of me, I kind of felt quite honoured to see all this (Geek). She told me that the wind was registering between 50 and 65mph which isn’t mega but strong enough. She also showed me live satellite weather data which showed that the storms were moving out to sea and southwards which was great as I was heading north today. It started to rain really hard so I walked back down to the car pretty sharpish.



From the lighthouse I drove back down to Byron Bay Town, checked out the back street shops and decided to get on my way north again to Surfers Paradise. The weather was still awful so there wasn’t any point in hanging around there any longer. I planned to camp at a free campsite in a place called Lawrence which was roughly 20k from Surfers Paradise. Yet again I had found this “free campsite” in the CAMPS 7 book and needless to say, as per my earlier rant in previous blogs, there was no “FREE CAMPSITE”, no campsite at all in fact, just a park bench next to the river. A kind police man who had been following me for 20 minutes originally directed me to Lawrence as I was driving like a lost tourist. I had to get a car ferry over to Lawrence and back again in order to get back on the beaten track. Once I was back on the main road and satisfied that there was nowhere to camp there I decided to would get back on track to Surfers Paradise and just find a campsite when I arrive. Surfers Paradise was a 2 hour drive from Byron Bay.



On route I noticed a place called Tweeds Heads on the map which was just before Surfers Paradise. It was a cool name so when I reach the junction I pulled off and was greeted by a lovely wide river, lots of pelicans and nice grassed areas. It turns out that Tweeds Heads is the beginning of the gold coast. I drove through the small but busy town to the beach. I spotted a tiny break in the clouds and some blue sky. I prayed for sunshine. In the distance across the ocean I could see lots of high rise buildings. I thought this must have been Brisbane. All I could make out was the silhouettes these mega structures in the grey skyline. I got back in the van and followed the signs for Surfers Paradise. The road was called Gold Coast Drive. This road tracked the beach for miles and 30 minutes later I arrived at Surfers Paradise, the place where all the looming high rise buildings were. This clearly wasn’t Brisbane! I drove down to “The Spit” which is the other end of the gold coast beach area. I assumed there was campsites there but nope, just camper vans having a spot of lunch. I asked a lady in the shop at the end of jetty if she knew of any campsites, she did say one which was a council run park which was nice but expensive. $47 a night… I didn’t stay here and ended up in Southport which is just on the other side of Surfers Paradise but still on the water’s edge. I managed to haggle with the owner and got a pitch for $25 instead of $38.
Once I had got my van in position and set up I went for a mooch. The sun was beaming by now and I was so grateful. It was the first sun I had seen since I left Bondi 1 week ago. I did a short work out in the park as I felt so guilty as there were so many people training and running and I was sat there thinking “Daniel, you’re looking lame, do something” so I rept’d out some sit ups, press ups squats and sprints. It satisfied my self guilt.
I headed back, cooked a massive lamb joint on the BBQ and had Lamb Rogan Josh and the left overs were for tomorrow night’s, lamb with Potato, broccoli and gravy. The owner came down while I was eating as she could smell burning. I hadn’t cleaned the BBQ good enough and she had to show me how to do it. Kinda felt like a dick but hey, such is life. That evening I chilled out in the van, reading my book which is a published blog about a father and son who drive from Melbourne to England in 2008, it’s a good read and relates to where I have been, the experiences I have experienced already and am likely to experience as I continue with my travels.



The following morning I got up early and left the Southport campsite at 8.20am. I headed back south for 25km to Springbrook National Park. Springbrook is a rainforest set on a mountain. The journey up it took me about 45 minutes through hairpins, single track roads with sheer rock faces on my right with the chance of falling rocks and sheer drops to my left. I couldn’t look to my left, it made my belly turn every time. When I reached the top the views were AMAZING. I went to Peribrook Falls. All the rain that had recently fallen had closed a lot of the walk ways due to the flooding but this meant that the waterfalls were really big and full and flowing so fast and roaring so loud. This was the biggest waterfall I had ever seen. The photos don’t do it justice as to how big it was. I was able to walk west and down a meandering zig zag path down the mountain side to the bottom of the waterfall. On the way I past another waterfall with a little pool in the bottom where there were people lolling around in the grey murky water… “On your own” I said to myself. When I reached the bigger fall, at the bottom, I was gutted that I wasn’t able to walk through/behind the falling water. Two days ago, due to the flooding a huge bolder had fallen and had blocked the pathway. This meant that once I had got my shot and taken in the dramatic but stunning scenery I had to walk back up the mountainside and up 286 steps spread out over a 35 minute climb. It made me sweat a lot, people were laughing at me… They were going down though, I said to each and every single one of them “Good luck” for the way back. Most of the people weren’t in the best of shape either! I left the national park and headed back to Surfers Paradise to chill on the beach for an hour in the late morning/midday sun before my next driving stint to Brisbane. The Gold Coast beach is amazing! So wide, so clean, so bright. The sea water breaks quite far out so the waves always came in slowly and flat. The water was clear but cold. People who were on the beach seemed to be all flocked together. I asked myself why we do this? Why do we always go where other people are? Is it a security blanket? Who knows. I went and sat in the middle of the beach where there was no one just out of protest of my thoughts.



I left the beach after an hour and set off to Brisbane. The roads are different from Sydney. It seems that everyone around the Gold Coast drives a lot faster so I took my van up to 70mph. It killed me to think how much fuel I was burning so I was glad when I reach Brisbane 50 minutes later. Although, when I got to Brisbane at 3.30pm I thought “Why am I going to stay in another city”…. So I sat on the side of the road, googled some campsites in Noosa (2 hour drive further north) and managed to secure a site on the Noosa river for $25 per night. I got there at 5.30pm. Parked up and my neighbour, Nav, introduced himself. He had just got there also. I cracked open a beer, cooked dinner and then cracked open the Goon (Cheap ozzie wine)…. We had a good laugh that night although a combination of too much wine, a key pad entry system to the toilets, the toilets being 100 meters away and me wearing skinny jean shorts meant that I had a little accident as I couldn’t get to the toilet in time… Yep, I’m not ashamed, I pissed my pants….. It was highly amusing for Nav but to be fair I was also too drunk to be bothered by it.



I woke up the next morning feeling like hell! I wanted to do something with my day. I rented a Kayak and went out on for an hour. The tide was going out so loads of little sand breaks were emerging from the sea. I saw a massive cat fish that frightened me and then I frightened it. It was MASSIVE and spotty. First time I have ever seen one so I was in awe! I started to decline in strength and wellbeing the longer I was out in the sun on the water. The downside now was that I had to row all the way back to the shore which was far and hard due to the tide going the wrong way. I stumbled back onto the beach like I had just been shipwrecked, weak and feeling hungover to hell I walked back, slowly, to the campsite. I got to the van, opened the tailgate and the side door and pretty much feel into it. I slept for an hour, woke up still no better so I put on a DVD and didn’t move an inch. A storm was brewing outside so it was good timing. I had already arranged with the site that I would stay another night, I definitely needed to recover before driving anywhere. I was so tired, I went to sleep at 9.30pm and didn’t wake up until 7am.





When I woke I got showered, made a cuppa but the milk was off so I left the site, went for a brisk morning walk through the national park and headed to Woolworths supermarket. I stocked up on food and headed for Rainbow Beach.



Rainbow Beach is further north again. It took 2 hours 37 minutes to get here. On the way here, as I mentioned earlier, I spotted my first Koala. My trip is now complete… I have seen Kangaroos and a possum too! Rainbow Beach is on the edge of a gigantic national park. For miles and miles I was driving through pine forests. The pine forests are spectacular. The formation and uniformity of these trees were perfect and the smell was amazing. As the coast drew closer the pine changed to rough trees, mangroves and eucalyptus trees. Over the last of many brows appeared a sign saying “Welcome to Rainbow Beach”. I drove to the information shop, said where I wanted to camp and the lovely lady there advised me that its $5 a night to camp in the national parks here. This was great news as I had resigned to the fact that I will have to pay $20 upwards wherever I stop. I chose to camp in Inskip which is the far end of Rainbow Beach. I’m so glad I did too… I went to Inskip to check out the areas. Its roughly 3 miles out of town along the coast and on the way to the car ferry for Fraser Island. Again, as with most of the way to Rainbow Beach there was no traffic around and the campsites are little sand tracks off narrow roads. These campsites are small open areas under the trees so you find a place and that’s it. No tarmac, no lights, no fresh water. If I leave to go to town and someone takes my pitch then I’ll look under the trees for another small opening. I found a spot and headed back into town to look at the tours available and to post my last blog. (Not this one). I decided I wasn’t going to go to Fraser Island. It’s an island where you can only go if you have a 4x4. They drive you along a 75 mile beach, you get to meander down a lazy river for 30 minutes, go to a natural fresh water clear lake with beaches, see a ship wreck and go trekking but this would have cost me £100. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. There is still so much stuff I want to see and do and I have seen some amazing islands before which have cost me sod all so I couldn’t justify spending that much. I got some supplies from the local shop and headed back to park in the woods next to the beach. My spot was take so I found another little cubby area. As there is no electric here campfires and torches are the main source of light. Before it got dark I walked along the wide beach. 4x4 are able to drive on the beach, a few went past, everyone in them waving at me “G’Day Mate”. It was a great walk, only 2 people on this ridiculous wide and long beach. As the waves break far out the sea was calm so I got to see lots of little jelly fish and some quite big crabs too. The #standard pelican was also bobbing along up and down the coast line. I headed back to my van, got my beach chair and went and chilled out on the deserted beach. When it got back the place came alive with bugs and crabs. The best highlight for me so far has been sitting on the beach in pitch black. There are no buildings or towns anywhere insight so there is no light pollution which means the stars are out in force. Never have I seen so many stars. The go all the way down to the sea, they’re so bright and there are literally millions. It’s a moment I shant forget. I hope to relive this when I go to the great barrier reef in the next week as I plan to do a few nights at sea.

The next day I did nothing at all. I drove to the shops, got some water and some firewood logs and went back and sunbathed on the beach the entire day. I made the perfect little camp fire and continued reading my book.

The following morning I headed out early to Tin Can Bay to watch wild dolphins come into the bay. It was great to see, something I have wanted to see for a long time. I was there for 30 minutes and then left on my 5 hour journey to Town of 1770 which is where Captain Cook came ashore in 1770.

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