Brisbane to Mackay

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Hi again,

So we've made it as far as Mackay and yes the heat and humidity, along with a few tropical thunderstorms are beginning to make the camping thing pretty tough. We left Brisbane to head for the Sunshine Coast, but it still being school holiday time accomodation was pretty hard to come by along the beach and so we ended up spending two nights in Nambour which is about 20 minutes inland. It didnt really bother us as there wasn't a whole lot of sunshine around anyway. We stayed in a 'Rainforest' campsite for 2 nites and got a little too close to the wildlife for my liking (found a rat in the camp kitchen!). Regardless we had a nice few days around the sunshine coast, chilled out on the beach, went to Underwater World (a pretty good aquarium), browsed the local markets and visited a Ginger factory (poor excuse for a tourist attraction).

Moving north we stopped in Noosa for a few days, a cute little seaside town that we really enjoyed. Overall I preferred the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast. While in Noosa somebody (Eddie) did a little research about where to spend Australia Day. It's funny now but I wasn't laughing when we arrived in Gympie to celebrate Australia Day. The place was like a ghost town- there wasn't a sinner around and certainly nobody celebrating their national day. We stayed put anyway and went out for a few drinks in the local RSL where we brought the average age down by about 30 years! We got to listen to some real hick country music and I guess see a little of the Australia thats not about the beach. Even the campsite in Gympie was fairly unique and had its own resident Elvis.

So Australia day celebrated we headed for Rainbow beach. From Rainbow we did one of the self drive safaris out to Fraser Island which was great craic. We had a good group of people which made for a lot of fun:-) Lake McKenzie was definitely worth seeing but apart from that the trip was more about the group camping and the goon and beer. After Fraser we had a good nites rest in a hostel in Rainbow before hitting the road again. The next stop was Bundaberg. There's not a whole lot to see here which was fine as we spent the time trying to de-sand our clothes and sleeping bags after Fraser.

After Bundaberg we stopped in Town of 1770 for a couple of nights. We camped on a fabulous beachfront campsite and just chilled out. Its a pretty undeveloped area considering how nice it is, but we did notice a good few real estate agents around so I'm guessing it wont stay that way for long. While there we headed out on a 'Chopper' tour one evening. The tour started pretty well and the bikes were cool, but unfortunately 2 Irish girls in the group came off their bikes and had to go to hospital- 2 separate incidents. The only local ambulance took the first girl back to Bundaberg, 1.5 hrs away, so when the 2nd girl came off a helicopter had to be called in. Hopefully the girls are going to be ok, but needless to say this pretty much put an end to the tour and has definitely put me off motor bikes. Eddie loved them though.

We left 1770 yesterday to continue north and stopped in Mackay last night. It's called a city but its neither big nor busy and doesn't really have any high rise. In search of some air con we decided to head to the cinema last night but get this- the last film showing is at 6pm on a Sunday! We struggled to even find somewhere to get food at 6.30pm yesterday evening. Outside the coastal resorts Australia seems to completely shut down at weekends. I won't be landing in any more random towns on the weekend without supplies!!

Ciao for now..

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Photos

Eumundi markets
Eddie, after a tough morning being dragged around the markets

Fraser Island
The iguana took a liking to my clothes

Fraser Island group
Tired and smelly after a tough few days!!

Bundaberg Rum
No, it won't fit in the car Eddie...

Chopper tour
Unfortunately the evening didn't quite turn out as planned