Back in Maroochydore

To answer the many emails, we did not see any platypus in the Coomera River on Wednesday night so we cannot confirm whether or not they actually exist on the river. Another day maybe?

On Friday we departed Tamborine Mountain and made our way closer to Brisbane. On the way through we caught up with Martin and Raewyn Frost (ex Navy) in Inala (about 20km out of Brisbane).  We admire people who move countries ‘later’ in life and maintain the drive to ensure they succeed in their new environment. Good effort guys and we wish you well with your new life in the ‘lucky land’.

On Friday night we decided to take a punt on a ‘free overnight stop’ we found on WikiCamps that was about 10km out of Brisbane itself. The area was called JC Slaughter Falls in Mt Coot-tha Forest Park. When we arrived at the forest we were able to drive through a pair of boom gates into the forest for about a 1km.  It was nice and peaceful so we settled in for the night.

At 7pm there was a knock on the door and local security informed us that the boom gates were being locked we could not stay in the forest. The option given was for us to move to the carpark down by the road.

Our night in the carpark was most unpleasant. There was traffic noise all night and to top it off at about 10pm a bunch of drunken hoons arrived in their car and started partying at the rear of the motorhome. We put up with it for a little while then contacted the police who sent a car out to sort it. Unfortunately the hoons had taken off before the police arrived but we were thankful for their support and that we got out of it with no damage to the motorhome, the jeep or ourselves. Lesson learned…we would never do that again.

Maroochydore Beach Sunday afternoon

On Saturday we made our way into Maroochydore and the Cotton Tree Holiday Park where we are staying until Monday. Our friends Steve and Jane were out to dinner last night so we strolled down to the Maroochydore Surf Cub for a very pleasant meal and evening.

Today has been a bit of a maintenance day on the vehicles and ourselves and tonight we are catching up with our friends for a few wines and a bar b que dinner.

We leave Maroochydore tomorrow and head into Brisbane where we have booked the motorhome into a park while I return to New Zealand for a few of days and the girls join Dearne in Brisbane.