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Published: June 27th 2008
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We left Hervey Bay to continue our adventure down the east coast. Also if anyone is passing through Hervey Bay you might call into the Windmill caravan park where you’ll find my swimmers and beach towel are probably still hanging up! Luckily the rain had stopped and the weather had picked up again. We were headed for a little seaside town called Noosa and decided to stop off at Rainbow beach to see the massive sand dune looking out over the coloured cliff face (hence the name). We drove up to the top of town where you have a short walk through the rainforest until it opened out to the pretty impressive and massive Carlo sand dune; with nobody else there it was amazing, high above the sea. So back to the campervan to head to Noosa, it’s in the carpark at Rainbow Beach that we had the incident with the tree that magically appeared from nowhere and jumped out behind the van! The tree was fine but the van gained some more character. A quick check of the rental insurance (ouch) and it was off to the very confusing Noosa - we kept getting lost as its roundabout city and
made up of about 5 towns all called Noosa something.. When we found the place it was dripping in money compared to anywhere else we had been on the east coast, a bit of a holiday spot for the wealthy.
Only spent one night in Noosa, it’s a cute little town to see but didn't really fit the backpacker budget and we got lost so many times decided it was healthier for our relationship to leave :-) Next stop was Brisbane, via Australia zoo (Steve Irwins Zoo). You’ve got to stop there just for a look, even though it is a highly commercialised Zoo.
Brisbane is a really nice city and we ended up finding a handy campsite, just outside the city and on a bus route so an excellent base to explore the area for a few days. We enjoyed the lazy mans tour again by learning the history of the city from the comfort of the sightseeing tour bus and the citycat ferry. After enjoying a couple of days wondering around the city and meeting up with Douglas’s son and grandson it was back on the road and off to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise.
The weather was back on our side again, the sun was out and it was really hot, perfect beach weather. Surfers was good fun, lots of pubs, beaches and yes surfers! We organised another surfing lesson, thinking we would be pretty good after doing it in Perth. The problem was the waves were about 5 times bigger! You would spend about half an hour getting out far enough to catch a wave and be involuntarily brought all the way back in by one huge one, not brought in standing on the board either, more like holding onto it for dear life! Got battered and bruised but had fun! Next was a day at the water park which was absolutely brilliant :-) At one stage the power went so none of the slides were working and everybody went home, which meant no queues when the power came back on! The next day we tried to catch some of the pro surfers at the Roxy Quicksilver surfing competition and enjoyed a few beers at the surf club for the evening. Surfers was like a bit of a playground and tacky out but great fun!
Next on to Byron bay and
what a difference. The weather had changed again and we were back to rain. First stop was the A&E to get Allen's toe looked at after getting slammed during the surfing. What an experience, tiny tiny country hospital, they even rolled a dead body out right passed everyone and there was just complete silence, thankfully we got to walk out! Byron Bay is a real hippie town, totally difference to Surfers. The pubs were pretty cool, full of backpackers, hippies and surfers. We saw some pretty interesting dancing in the pubs, everyone was definitely on something! We spent a couple of nights and got on the road again next stop Sydney! It was quite a long drive from Byron to Sydney with no major tourist towns on the way. We did stop in one little place, Seal Rocks, were I think we may have been the only backpackers, a well kept secret at the end of a dirt road, very pretty little seaside town and a good spot to break up the drive to Sydney.
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