Blogs from Mooloolah, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Hey, so we're nearing the end of our time in Oz; off to Brisbane today for the last few days, but have been given free internet here so thought I would do the blog now because I'm cheap and skint. Sorry about that. We had a wonderful time on the Great Barrier Reef a couple of weeks ago - Green Island was absolutely beautiful (as are everything 'Green' in my opinion) and we were able to snorkel with stunning fish/creatures...until I got a load of salt water in my eyes, had a little fit and had to get out briefly. You could wonder around the island, so we did some exploring, had a picnic where a very odd looking bird (small version of Kevin from 'Up') decided to jump onto my lap and try to eat ... read more

Hello from Mooloolaba! Picking up from where i left off on my last entry, I took the trip to Nimbin which was really good despite my initial doubts. After an hour and a half drive through the Byron hinterland we arrived in the ultra hippy Nimbin which consists of about 10 shops selling exactly the same tie die clothes and folk about my mums age offering 'cookies'. The locals all look like they are 105 probably owing to the fact that they all smoke herbal remedies from dawn til dusk - not exactly a good advert! After a short time in Nimbin we headed into the rainforest to visit Paul who has a reasonably sized property with all kinds of trees and plants on the land. We stopped to sample some of his delights which included ... read more

Days 13 = 25: Woolgoolga (17miles to; days 13-17, weather), Evans Head (74 miles), Balina (21 miles), Byron Bay (21 miles), Kingscliff (28 miles), Jumpinpin (41 miles), Moreton Island (32 miles), Woorim (25 miles), Mooloolaba (31 miles) The above stops covers a lot of different territory, I'll try to summarize. As mentioned in the last post, I was weather delayed in Woolgoolga a total of 5 days. A strong low was centered off Coffs Harbor (17 miles south). As soon as it finally moved on, there was another low, much weaker moving in. I decided to go - when opportunity knocks - the south wind was mild, though helpful, however, combined with the wind - there was a fairly strong current heading north - generated from the previous days strong southerlies. At first I thought I ... read more