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Published: November 9th 2009
DAY 366
Now that was a night’s sleep! I did have a 3.00 wake up which took me a while to drift off again but overall that was a magnificent nights sleep.
We again needed to have a fairly early get away as like we have previously posted, we wanted to be on the Sunshine Coast early as possible this morning, to get our cooker replaced and sort our fridge problems out.
On went our whistling friend and soon Caroline was out of the trailer, she too had enjoyed a great nights sleep also with a 3.00 wake up, we both commented on the additional vehicles that had pulled in, but were gone by daylight, the only remaining campers were those of us that had pulled in for the evening.
I could see that again today I was going to need to bribe Caroline into putting a bit of a hustle on, our provisions were low, no breakfast cereal, no bacon or eggs, we had a pancake mix but I just could not be bothered to do pancakes for breakfast.
I looked in the fridge, it has not been performing very well at all, everything was
Map
The pink bits show the rough route that we took, not hugely accurate but gives an indication of where we have been and the vast bit that we have not yet seen!soft, and even though it has been running off the auxiliary battery for nearly 1000k’s nothing in the fridge is even remotely cold let alone frozen so we will have to throw some of our food away, sadly.
A company called EvaKool makes the fridge here in Australia, it is Australian owned and manufactured. This is our second one as the first one failed in the first week, we are not here to criticize only comment if it does or doesn’t perform well and our fridge was swapped over straight away without any fuss by Camping Country.
Soap box time: you get an excellent fridge with a Danfoss Compressor, but everything hinges on a $1.00 cigarette lighter type plug, that is less than disappointing.
However, I must say that the fridge has worked hard on this journey, the weather conditions can vary so much that one minute it is baking hot, and at all costs we try to keep the fridge in the shade when we are stationary, that way it should not work so hard, when we are driving the air conditioning is usually on anyway so that should help. Not to mention of course the
pounding that everything takes when you are on the dirt tracks, often with real bad corrugations.
Anyway enough with the grumbling about our equipment, Andy’s bribe worked well for me, with such a short hop into Gympie, yes Gympie, I was up and about, packing up with some haste, I could taste that bacon and egg roll already and yes, glad to say that I seem to be getting back to eating egg, albeit a little bit dubious, but slowly slowly.
We were ready to roll at 7.20 am, only one other person had pulled out before us, the sun was up, the sky was blue but a cool wind was blowing across the hill. As we make our way South, the sky starts to turn grey, the clouds roll in, but I am sure it will brighten up.
We pass another free campsite on the way, it looks like a nice little roadside stop, it is full of caravans and fifth wheelers, it was to be our third choice if the one we left this morning was not right.
Arriving early in Gympie, don’t ask me what time it was, I was only too pleased
to see the Golden Arches welcoming us, we swing into the drive thru, hoping that the trailer will get round, they do make them rather narrow, but don’t worry we only took a few plants out on the way round, they will grow back!
Breakfast ordered, next window we paid, breakfast is ours and we are on our way again.
With the clouds still in the sky we get to another milestone in our journey, this may seem a small thing to some of you, but to us this is quite big, but we come to an intersection where highway 15 heads up towards Noosa Heads (nice place) and thus our loop is effectively closed from that point.
This junction is the furthest North on this road that we came last year when we were pottering around the Sunshine Coast getting ourselves sorted out, so our odometer reading states 132,339k’s, I just need to work out how many kilometres we have done exactly since picking up the Patrol last year.
We are now driving on familiar roads, in a way it feels a bit like coming home, I like the Sunshine Coast very much, there is
Griddled!
The griddle is great for cooking our steak something about being here, now we are seeing familiar sights such as Mount Coolum dominating the landscape. I would love to just drive straight over to the coast road and take my time, but we press on, these sights will be here for us to do again another day.
Our first Australia Zoo sign comes into sight a huge picture of Steve Irwin adorns the landscape, we both feel sad when we see that sign, the signs for Brisbane are coming up thick and fast now with ever decreasing kilometres.
A little bit of rain falls on the windscreen, so for the second time in two days we actually have to use the windscreen wipers, they work with some effort squeaking their way across the huge window in some kind of protest against having to work for a living.
Soon the clouds fall away and the sun is shining, this is the Sunshine Coast so it is what I expect to see.
At 9.15 we pulled up in Buderim and went straight to Camping Country, we knew that they would not be open until 10.00 but we had plenty to do while we waited, such as type the blog.
The day is warming up nicely, I sit in the truck and listen to some music while Andy sits outside the shop in the shade typing the blog, some 30 minutes later he came round and said to me “I don’t know what happened but I cannot find the blog I was typing, please can you have a look?”
This does not bode well, we have both worked on this document which is already over 4000 words, so I open windows explorer find the document and open it, it is empty, yes empty, not a single typed word, not a single letter, it is all gone, gone, gone!
I asked what happened, Andy tells me that Word crashed and when he opened the recovery document, that’s all it was an empty document, there was no way I could recover any of it. Something drastic had gone wrong today and deleted everything that we had typed in the last couple of days. I cannot tell you how disappointed Andy was, he put his heart and soul into that document, not to mention time. He was also very keen to make sure it was published on time for all of you to read, so we knew what had to happen, and that was to retype the whole thing.
In the meantime Jarrod’s smiley face appeared at our windscreen, we were greeted like long lost friends, we briefly chatted about our adventure but Jarrod had work to do, so we let him get on with filling gas bottles while we went and had a mooch round the shop until he was ready.
I could do some serious wallet damage in this shop, they have some great goodies for camping, but my sensible head is on today.
We all disappear into Jarrod’s office for a long chat, a cup of tea and problem discussion, nothing is too much trouble for Jarrod, he listens and answers all of our woes, one by one solving them, of course with the exception of the fridge which we will run down to the manufacturer in the morning.
The good news is we have a replacement cooker for the one that broke down in May, excellent we may not use so much gas. The Oztrail cooker that we bought in Tom Price to get us by had not been a good cooker and we think leaks gas like crazy, our usage tripled with the Oztrail cooker.
There is no machinist in today, so tomorrow morning we arrange with Jarrod that we would bring the trailer in so that Eeva can have a look at the zips that have gone wonky to see if they can be repaired or replaced, bearing in mind our tent is our home and they have limited time to keep it. Jarrod had offered to come to our campsite to see it, but it is his day off and we are not that mean!
A while later we need to get our campsite for the night, with so many choices on this little gorgeous stretch of coastline, Alexandra Headland, Maroochydore and Mooloolaba, so we chose the one with the swimming pool the Big 4 at Maroochydore. They should not be too busy as the schools have not broken up for Christmas holidays yet.
We find our way with ease, when I go into reception it is so lovely and cool, music is also piped into reception that reminds me of a spa, in other words very tranquil and relaxing, excellent for taking away the stress of one’s journey.
I am handed a map, the receptionist tells me what sites are available, and then says I will let you through, go and find a suitable one and then come back and book in.
The gate is lifted, we drive through and almost immediately find a nice shady spot to camp in. While Andy unhooks I go back to reception to check in. I explain to her that we will be taking the trailer off site in the morning for some repairs and that we will leave some of our gear on site, she is happy with this.
I get back to find Andy chatting to Jim, he is one of the maintenance guys here and is originally from Lode Lane in Birmingham he saw us and remembered us both from our last visit here which Andy tells me was 13th December.
In no time at all we are set up, while Andy gets the new cooker set up, I sort out the huge pile of washing, it was so large the bag was not big enough so I had two bags, the good news being that they have new washing machines here since last time, although they are $4.00 per wash, they are front loaders capable of double loads and, wait for this one, the washing detergent is automatically loaded into your wash so I do not have to use my own!
I have two loads spinning around each taking 23 minutes on a warm wash, by now the kettle has whistled and my cup of tea awaits.
23 minutes later I am pegging the first load on the empty washing lines, by the time I have done that, the second load is ready so I peg that one out too! I realise that I have actually taken up 4 lines with the washing so thank goodness it is quiet here, remembering how bad it was for washing line space in Darwin!
The sun is still up and the day is quite blustery so I have no qualms, the washing will dry in this.
A while later we drive into Maroochydore to pick up a few groceries, fresh milk, bread and something for tea. We have a griddle with the new cooker so want to try it out, so steak is on the menu tonight.
We walk through Myers in the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre, my eyes are out on stalks, we are in the shoe section, there is a sale on, there are lots of lovely goodies here and Christmas seems to be in abundance, but no, I have to walk through with my blinkers on and not deviate one little bit as much as I am tempted to pick up and look at some of the shoes. I feel like a Magpie suddenly entranced by all the lovely new shiny things that I want to touch.
We walk past a lot of shops to get to Coles, there are so many lovely clothes in the shop windows, but alas I still walk past and don’t stop to look, I wonder if Andy would miss me if I sneak of for a bit?
We do not buy too much in Coles as we cannot keep it in the fridge and we don’t know if we will have to do without it for a day or so while it is sorted.
Back at camp while Andy carries on typing up the missing blog, I get on with dinner, we want an early tea, we are both hungry, so before long the burners are heating the griddle, I am frying thinly sliced potato with onion and then steak, the smell is so delicious a few campers comment on walking past, but they luck out as there is only enough for two.
After dinner Andy finished up the blog, I went to the camp kitchen to wash up, chatted to a couple of Dutch girls who are over here for three weeks. Then while Andy went for a shave and shower I added my bit to the blog, when he came back I mentioned going for a swim because I thought it would be a good idea and the water did feel warm earlier.
Despite the cool breeze we wandered off to the pool, it is now dark, but the pool closes at 9.00 Andy is in first and even he pulls a face, ooops the water is colder than I thought, but I am still right behind him, after 3 seconds Andy wanted to get out, but we do last a bit longer, about 3 minutes then decide that it is too torturous and we have work to do.
Andy gets the kettle on, a hot cup of tea is in order to warm up, so while Andy makes the tea, uploads photos and the blog I go and have a lovely hot shower, oh bliss!
I had hoped to catch up on a missing episode of Packed to the Rafters, but truthfully it was 10.00 by the time we finished with the blog, we were both tired, it has been another long day and despite trying to do a Sudoku once again I had to give in and go to sleep.
But wait, is that the sound of heavy rain on canvas that we can hear, I am afraid so!
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lurpak34
barnaby davies
Cor, some mileage.
I like the map photo. What a big country Australia is. I left stuff in Sydney ten years ago, with this naive idea that I'd whizz round the "island". Not a chance. I flew out of Perth; the bags are still in Sydney! It's a shame you missed out Wave Rock, Albany, beautiful Esperance etc. in WA...but you just can't do everything! And thank you, Mrs. Kangaroojack, for reading him my blog!