BFN Tours

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Hello Again,

Last entry as we are nearly done! This last 6 weeks has felt like 6 months.
Well here I sit in sunny Maroochydore except it's teaming down, not happy Jan! The last few days have been quite full as seems to be the way with most of our travels. We left our paradise at Hydeaway and stayed a night at a place called Carmila. The site was perfect on the beach with no wind and no other people next to us, unfortunately this stretch of coast is where the tide disappears for miles. We arrive at low tide and the lads spend the next hour walking out to the water across the mud flats while Tim and I battled zillions of cats eyes, the natural born enemy of the self inflating mattress. Nothing that carting hundreds of bucket loads of sand wouldn't fix however. That done we chainsaw some timber and get a nice fire sorted and sit and watch the tide roll in whilst being savagely attacked by sand flies. Boys voted this one 2nd crappiest.
Onward- a night near Gladstone with the only notable experience being Connors 1st catch. Then onto Teewah Beach which is about 20kms south of Rainbow beach. We drove for most of the day to get to Cooloola Nat Park, the last 16km is a serious 4WD track down to Freshwater Camp. We finally arrive to find that the camp doesn't allow fires so we decide to turn around thinking we couldn't access the beach camping from here. Luckily my desire to look at the beach turned out to be a blessing as we get onto the beach to find about 50 4WDs racing up and down the beach and we learn that we can in fact get to the beach camping from here. A quick call to get Bushy to turn around (not an easy manoeuvre on a track with a camper in tow) and we set off down the beach to find a camp. Normally you would think a 20km stretch of beach would offer plenty of accommodation choices but on a sunny weekend up here things are packed, there are literally hundreds of people camping in every nook and cranny and the beach has become a 4WD super highway. We eventually find a spot and set up camp in the dunes overlooking the pristine surf. Definitely beer o'clock!
Sunday turned out to be a magic day, no wind 27 deg, low tide in the middle of the day(very important for beach driving) and water so clear it looks fake. We take the fourbys along the beach to "the Tip" and then take the short track across the headland to reveal wide bay and its a "wow" in so many ways. The first thing you see is hundreds of 4WDs littering the beach and people swimming, fishing, surfing, etc for miles. We drive all the way along the beach which is a spectacular drive, the coloured sand cliffs on one side and the crystal clear waters on the other, and have a quick look around Rainbow beach but we all decide to go back and and enjoy lunch on Wide Bay. We climb the sand flows and catch a few waves and generally make the most of what is a absolutely magic place.
Monday, we went over to Frazer Island for the day, no where near enough time to really explore given that it is such a huge Island, but we went to look at Lake Wabby with Bushy and the boys whinging all the way about the 1/2 hour walk in and same back, and we saw a couple of dingos and got to rescue a bogged European tourist who was actually blocking our exit onto the beach, and generally got a taste of what's to see on the Island.
Tuesday morning we wake up to rain, and we all now how much fun the beach is when its wet and windy, so throw in packing up the camp in these conditions and I think just plain miserable sums it up. We get our soggy selves off the beach by about 10am(waiting for the tide to recede) and drive down the beach towards Noosa, which is the southern access to the beach. Onto Maroochydore, and for Tim, myself and the boys a nice apartment for a couple of days, whist Helen and Chris stick it out in the camper at our old favorite- Cotton tree Camp Ground.
In reflection it is certainly not the easiest trip we have ever done but we have sure seen and done some stuff. We will have covered just over 10,00km by the time we reach home and have discovered some great places that warrant a revisit. We are looking forward to catching up with you all and boring you with our stories and photos.
Till then it's bye from all the BFN Tour Crew.

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