Wednesday 4-Thursday 5 April: It’s rainy in Maleny

Author: Mr A

Location: Stanmore through to Maleny, Queensland

Yes, it’s definitely rainy in Maleny! It has slowed us down, outdoor activities been limited to short walks into town dashing between the showers that are almost constant. We chose to stop here after passing through once before and really liking this little town brimming with cafes, book shops and…the best damm cheese shop this side of the Alps.We were planning a longer stay down by the Glasshouse Mountains, but the only camping option was this rather squelchy field.So we moved on, climbing up through misty rainforest into this beautiful hinterland behind the Sunshine Coast.We were thankful for the V8 of the Cruiser pulling the Zone up these steep hills. We picked a spot at the local showground, power, water and clean toilets for $20 a night – suits us. We wandered up into town through a pretty walkway, and headed for that wonderful cheese shop.Lunch was very civilised, vegan burgers, and a first for me trying a turmeric latte to wash it down. It’s that sort of place. Some locally made fudge was dessert, and then we wandered past this little brewery. We just had to didn’t we.Back to the Zone then for a quiet afternoon cosied up with Tassie and Netflix downloads, with the rain justifying this lazy behaviour by lashing down every time we contemplated going for a walk.

Thursday: Today dawned grey again, so no rushing about I can tell you. It was pots of tea and a very happy cat. We did dedicate a couple of hours to planning the next phase of our trip.

Finally we dragged ourselves out for a drive in the rain, planning to walk if the rain held, but that morphed into a circuit drive and finding ourselves back at the van listening to the rain via a quick trip to the local barber shop.

We braved the showers and walked into town again…oh we find ourselves at the brewery again …better stop. I spy pickled eggs on the menu – heavenly with a beer.

It was round the corner then for a curry. Sadly we were very disappointed with the food and service. Ah well can’t win them all. Time to move on tomorrow.

Monday 2 & Tuesday 3 April – Getting our Zone in tip top condition

Author: Mrs A

Location: Pullenvale, north Brisbane, Stanmore, Queensland

Easter Monday fasting day dawned mostly bright and sunny, although the rain decided to pour as soon as I had hung out the freshly washed sheets to dry. Funny how that happens.

Mid morning, ZoneRV employee extraordinare Rhys drove up after his night out in Brisbane to take a look at our water system. What service to come out on a public holiday!

We have been experiencing an unreliable water supply, with the water pressure being very weak. Rhys thinks it all links back to the dust our water tanks appeared to inhale while we were travelling through the Pilbara. We had orange water coming out of the taps for quite a while after that, and have even recently (despite the water tanks being clean) had blasts occasionally.

Rhys installed a brand new filter (our third in 15 months, second in a month!), a new pump and will install a new mains water regulator next week when we are in Coolum Beach for a caravan service. Water pressure from our tanks is great now.

Tuesday we were up and about early and on the road shortly after 7am, heading for north Brisbane and a company called Vehicle Components (which installed our caravan chassis, towbar, brakes and airbag suspension) for our 10,000km service. We were sorry to farewell our beautiful Pullenvale location, but excited to see new areas.We unhitched the mobile apartment and headed off, camping cat and all, to kill time while we waited for the mechanics to do their magic.

We had a few tasks to do, so drove first to a huge shopping centre in the suburb of Chermside. We found a quiet parking spot in the shade so Tassie would be safe in the car, and went on in. Fortunately it was a cool (just 21 degrees!) and rainy morning, so we didn’t need to worry too much.

Fellow Zoners, Libby and Phil who don’t live too far away, came over with their cute granddaughters to join us for a coffee and a chat.

Three hours later, tasks complete, we headed off and tried to find somewhere for lunch. We found a deli with 4.5 stars and fabulous reviews on Google and Trip Advisor and thought we would be sorted. Sadly for us we were wrong. The food was pretty ordinary for both of us, and we struggled to provide them with a single star.

From there we decided to escape the oppressive city and head to the coast…and breathe…yes, much nicer. First of all to Shorncliffe Pier where Tassie was dive bombed by noisy miner birds and magpies….

And then on to a spot overlooking the Boondall Wetlands where we shared a small portion of chips to take away the taste of our nasty lunches!Shortly after 4pm we got the call from Kieran at Vehicle Components to say that the Zone was ready for collection. There had been a lot of work done, thankfully mostly under the 2 year warranty. They had done an extremely thorough job and replaced all our shock absorbers, our brakes and the piping and panel for our troublesome airbag suspension. They also gave us advice on the right towing height for the car rear suspension airbags and the distance we needed to measure from the bump stops on the caravan.

We took notes which will hopefully continue to make sense tomorrow, and pulled on out with Kieran’s thumbs up and went on our way. We feel confident we did the right thing by bringing it back here to the source, they clearly know their products inside out and were able to do a really thorough job.We drove west out of the city, heading towards the Glasshouse mountains, the setting sun together with April showers providing us with a spectacular evening sky show as we travelled.We pulled up in a muddy field in pitch darkness at around 6.30pm, hoping we were in the right place, but not really caring. Once settled safely into our mobile apartment it didn’t really matter where we were, a glass of wine and a Netflix movie with an exhausted warm cat on the lap, all was good in our Zone.

Easter Day April 1: What a great rail trail

Author: Mr A

Location: Pullenvale & Ipswich, Brisbane’s far western suburbs, Queensland

Rail trails are our favourite kind of riding – away from cars, devoid of steep hills, and in Victoria and SA tantalisingly peppered with wineries. Queensland also has one I found out through Dr Google, via the very helpful site railtrails.org.au, completely funded and run by volunteers. Alas no wineries on this section of rail trail, perhaps accounting for the fact that in the 30km of riding it we saw 2 other cyclists! Who knows why such a wonderful ride, safely tucked away from other road users, winding through beautiful scenery, wouldn’t attract heaps of riders on a public holiday?I loaded up the bikes onto the Cruiser, so glad we have a spare wheel mounted bike rack with us, as it was a 30 minute drive through narrow twisting country lanes that were decidedly un-bike friendly, to where Google told us was the start of the trail. This turned out to be 7km from the actual start of rail trail itself, but still on a good bike path. After a detour to find a toilet (there’s none on this section of the trail) we were finally on our way.What a fantastic ride – we were almost immediately surrounded by bush and farmland, rolling hills on either side, only the birds twittering away and not an engine noise to be heard. The trail is called the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail and stretches for 160km, with further sections still attracting funding and being completed. I do hope no one who agreed to spend the money is counting traffic on it. Four of us on the first 22km of the trail on a public holiday would surely cause them to think ‘Is this money being well spent?’ Perhaps the “build it and they will come” philosophy is operating here. Let’s hope they are right, but with cycling participation nationally falling for this type of casual riding, I have my doubts. What a shame. We had an awesome few hours on this gem of a ride.Back at base in Pullenvale and a late lunch magically appeared from Maria (our friends’ mum). Given we were two hours earlier than planned I’m not sure quite how, but we weren’t complaining. A Moravian favourite apparently of cauliflower, broccoli, mince and spaghetti was washed down with a beer. Perfect. Then it was off to the local garden centre for cake, coffee and potting compost – not all these items were consumables of course.I then settled in for a long overdue bike cleaning and maintenance session while madam did some work on a couple of research papers she is preparing with doctors in the USA. A very light salad and a dose of Netflix and a sound sleep again in the quiet haven of our location.

Thursday 29 & Friday 30 March – Not quite in the big smoke

Author: Mrs A

Location: Pullenvale, west of Brisbane, Queensland

We were awoken around 6am on Thursday by a rain shower, which had us leaping out of bed to close the skylights and rescue the washing we had hung out last night. Despite it still being dark, once awake, we couldn’t really go back to sleep, and so set about getting packed up and ready to head off on our way.

We were on the road by shortly after 7am and heading north into Queensland through intermittent heavy rain showers. Other than a brief interlude for fuel as we crossed the border, we didn’t stop until we reached Pullenvale. There is no official camping area here, rather we have been invited by some old friends to camp on their property. We pulled in through their gate and parked up right alongside their swimming pool, with access to power, water and our own bathroom with shower! It could not be more perfect, other than the fact our friends Martina and Karel plus their two sons are away at the moment, so we don’t get to see them.We were settled in by 2pm, then realising that Queensland is an hour behind New South Wales, so had to change our watches to 1pm (it’s ok NSW readers, you need to change your clocks on Sunday – also an hour back!). The afternoon continued to be warm and showery, truly tropical with high humidity. Martina’s mother, Maria, is living at the house, so we caught up with her for a cup of tea and a chat. She has moved here from the Czech Republic, and although her English is not perfect we managed to enjoy a conversation.

Good Friday morning Mr A cooked us all breakfast on the BBQ which we shared with Maria, before we headed out to see a bit of the area. We have both visited Brisbane for work, but had never seen the suburban areas. Pullenvale is about 17km west of the city, and feels very rural. The property on which we are staying is 10,000 square metres, consisting of rolling lawns, a dam, creek, waterfall and several fields. The next door neighbours have horses – it’s all a long way from the Brisbane we have ever seen! We decided to drive out to Mount Coot-Tha, 287 metres above sea level and towering above Brisbane and the coast. It is also home to many bush walks, mountain bike trails and picnic spots. We brought along our hiking shoes hoping the rain would stop and we could do a walk.

Alas the rain was determined to continue, with heavy downpours every 15 minutes or so. We drove though winding streets to reach the lookout, and dodged the rain to catch the view while it was visible.Beaten by the weather, we decided to abandon our walk plans and headed back for a pot of tea and a hot cross bun. It is Good Friday after all!

We had a relaxing afternoon, spent swimming in the pool and reading as the weather brightened up. It’s so nice to have the place pretty much to ourselves, and Tassie is really enjoying having the run of the place.

A lovely relaxing evening was spent with dinner eaten outside by the pool – a Goan Fish Curry which we accompanied with a fine bottle of red and shared with Maria.

Wednesday 28th March: Biking and paddling around Wooli

Author: Mr A

Location: Wooli, NSW

It really is a dreamy sort of place, well when the fishermen are not bombing past our caravan trying to shave seconds of their entry to the water time. Other than that very peaceful. Looking forward to getting off the grid a bit more in a few weeks time when we are up in Queensland.

Tassie decided with the sun shining she was inspired to take some outdoor time, her tunnel providing the necessary hidey hole.We headed out for a paddle this morning, unfortunately just as the wind picked up so it was a pretty short one. We headed across the Wooli Wooli river (so good they named it twice?) right from our caravan, then headed along the opposite shore towards the ocean. Beautiful paperbarks and mangroves lined the edge, twisted into incredible shapes.Massive sand dunes towered over us, framing a beautiful contrast with the blue water. Love these little packrafts to enable us to get out here on the water.

Miss T again decided she would grasp some fresh air, she seems to really like the artificial grass we have on our site, don’t blame her so do we! Looks like grass, feels like carpet, doesn’t need watering or weeding. Her exploration didn’t last long as a flock of noisy minor birds spotted her and descended to squark and dive bomb her – more than enough to send a shy blue Burmese back into hiding!

The afternoon saw us out on the bikes for a quick spin along some of the same trails as yesterday, and they were equally gorgeous. We attempted to ride back along the beach but the incoming tide and soft sand defeated that plan. So it was a quick rest stop at the Wooli Hotel for cold one before retuning to the Zone, just 11km under our belts. A happy hour was spent trying to get our plumbing sorted, with limited success, so we have a pretty measly dribble of water unfortunately. Hoping this will get sorted at Zone when we go for the service in a couple of weeks.

A pre-dinner drink was called for, and I dug deep in the Zone cellar and produced this beauty that we have carried round for a while.

It was given to us by a friend (Steve Shipley) who was moving abroad and having a bit of clear out. This bottle is from the vineyard he lives on in the Hunter. It really demonstrates its 13 year old age in that deep burgundy colour that a classic Hunter Shiraz should show. Also note the Weber all prepped and ready for action – it’s chicken fajitas tonight. The chillis we were given from a farm stay near Eden are absolute rip snorters (technical culinary term) and really fire up the dish…that’s the sunset below, not the result of the spicy dish!

Tuesday 27 March: Wind changes the state of play

Author: Mrs A

Location: Wooli, NSW

Our initial plans of taking the packrafts out on the Wooli Wooli River were thwarted by a brisk breeze and grey skies threatening rain again, so we decided to get out our packs and go walking instead. On our 14km explore yesterday by bike, it had looked as though we might be able to cross the river on foot at low tide, so we headed off down there intending to cross and hike through the Yuragir National Park. Alas, once down there, we could see the water was much too fast flowing and deep for us to cross without a boat.

So, we decided that oysters would help us plan where we might go instead. The local oyster shed had no oysters on display, and we found that the rain had closed the river, the oyster farmers reliant on the Department of Agriculture to test the water and find the quality safe before they could harvest more. Oysters are filterers, meaning that their meat will consist of whatever they sift out of the water – in this case the rain has flooded the marshlands up the river, allowing the likes of E. coli bacteria to enter the stream. So instead, she went out back and returned with some oysters she had purchased from Merimbula, relatives of the the very oysters we had tried a few weeks ago!Our brains fuelled by oyster goodness, we decided to drive into the National Park north of Wooli and see whether there was a walk we could do there.

It was a short drive, but we soon arrived at a sign directing us to a campground. We drove in and ‘voila!’, a sign directing us to the Wilson’s Headland Circuit walk, just a 6km return. Perfect. We set off on what was to become one of the best walks we have ever done. Full of birdlife, fabulous views, plenty of variation in the scenery and vegetation it was great. The national parks authority had provided quality boardwalks and stairways – simply beautiful.There was not another soul on the walk either, something I am certain will change as we hit Easter this coming weekend, and the Queensland school holidays. Orchids, irises and delicate flowers were to be found with careful looking, not always obvious at first glance.We stopped for a plum at a cliff top bench with an incredible view. This would be a fabulous whale watching spot in the winter months.Readers who are still working will then be pleased to know that after all this fun we returned to the mobile apartment where I spent the next 4 hours programming an online research survey, while Mr A relaxed with a good book. Life is all about balance!

It’s such a peaceful and pretty part of the world. There is definitely a true community here in Wooli, though I am not sure you would describe it as truly thriving. It was clear from talking to the lady in the oyster shop that they are very reliant on the influx of visitors during the school holidays, and that the weather plays a big part in its success. She seemed quite anxious that the recent rain would put people off travelling down here, and that the lack of local oysters would put a big dent in her earnings. Her shop advertises that it stocks groceries as well as providing fish and chips seven days a week. The groceries when we entered were pretty scarce – a tin of supermarket brand coconut cream for $2, a few boxes of lasagna pasta for $3 and some loaves of bread.

The campground is extremely quiet – other than us just one or two other caravans and a couple of fishermen in tents – not really bringing in much money to the area given we all self-cater. While this is great for us as visitors, I can see that scraping a living from our meagre spendings would be very hard.

Monday 26 March: Exploring Wooli

Author: Mr A

Location: Wooli, NSW

We said some fond farewells this morning to our fellow Zoners and headed up the coast to the small settlement of Wooli, nestled between the vast coastal stretch of the Yuraygir National Park and Australia’s first marine park, the Solitary Island Marine Reserve.

The 500 or so permanent residents of Wooli live on a narrow isthmus, with the river on one side and ocean on the other. The houses were all impressively well kept, many advertising holiday rentals as the town swells to many thousands in the school holidays.Our caravan park wasn’t anything to rave about, we are about a metre from a road, albeit not a busy one, but once the privacy screens were up it felt a little better. Sadly we then got the news that our friends have had to say goodbye to their cat today. We knew it was coming but still it will be a tough time for them. We have so enjoyed sharing the joy with them that our respective feline fur children have brought us. Happiness is fragile.

So off we went for our usual bike based exploration of our new surrounds. We headed down to the end of the conveniently located cycle path running by our park and there we saw where the river met the ocean. It was magnificent, and we were so grateful for the tip to come here from our friends Rosemary and Richard. We road back through town and out into the national park along a sandy track. The bird life was prolific, a black shouldered kite soared overhead and a noisy friarbird made…well noisy noises.

We rode past an oyster farm shop, sadly closed but we will be back in the morning, in fact I am likely be clawing at the door pretty early – it has been a while.

Unfortunately this evenings’ showers were a dismal affair as our water system seems to be playing up again providing us with very poor pressure…last time we fixed it with a new water filter, but that was only a few weeks ago. I doubt it is that causing the problem. Mrs A’s dinner was a real hit though, zucchini spaghetti with a spicy vegetable sauce. Very few calories and absolutely delicious.

Sunday 25 March: Sunshine brings paddling with Dusty

Author: Mrs A

Location: Moonee Beach

Moonee Creek was our destination this morning, just a few metres down a wooded slope from our caravan. Having left our beautiful fibreglass kayak back in Sydney, we inflated our pack rafts, sacrificing speed for the benefit of not having a 7.3 metre boat on the roof of the car. We were joined by fellow Zoner, Darryl and his boxer Dusty for a paddle. The creek is fairly shallow most of the way up, but Dusty preferred to ride on the front of Darryl’s boat rather than swim or bound alongside, while we were entertained with stories of Darryl’s adventures paddling around Cape York, in the far north of Queensland. Tales of large crocodiles, hammerhead sharks and three hour hikes before dawn to find fresh water reassured us we will probably not be paddling in our inflatable boats up in that part of Australia!

We returned for a BBQ brunch and a chat with our fellow Zoners, learning more about the individual tips and hints they had to share.

The afternoon was too breezy to get the boats out again, so we went for a stroll down to the water from the campground. It’s such a picturesque area, with the campground sitting up above the estuary of Moonee Creek, offering views across the water. It was approaching low tide, so we were able to stroll across most of the creek through its warm waters.From the rocks at the mouth of the estuary you can see right up the coast along Moonee Reserve, the salt spray making the air look misty and atmospheric.This is such a special part of the coast. We wished our family in the UK could be magically transported here – the children would love playing in the sandy shallows, and there is so much to do and see. Some people staying on the site were feeding the lorikeets with honey and bread [below: Scaly-breasted Lorikeets]

We concluded our day with another 6pm drinks o’clock in the camp kitchen with all the Zoners. We all reflected on what a success this weekend has been – some like us are relatively new caravanners, learning as we go, while others are seasoned experts with experience to share. I think we have all learned something from one another, whether it’s a new gadget or modification or finding a new storage space – along with the friendships made, the time here has been absolutely worthwhile.

We’re planning to advertise another date towards the end of April (thinking around 20th-23rd), somewhere north of or inland from Noosa where perhaps some of the Zone team could pop along and join us for an evening or afternoon. We floated the idea with the Zoners here, and there is already some interest and ideas of locations being suggested. If you’re interested in joining us and think you can get there, watch the ‘ Zone Owners – Zoners’ forum on Facebook for more details as plans firm up!Off to pastures new tomorrow, Wooli Beach (as recommended by our good friends Rosemary and Richard in Sydney)…looking forward to finally getting our oysters there!

Saturday 24 March: The “Zone off” reaches a crescendo!

Author: Mr A

Location: Moonee Beach

It was another intermittently wet day, following an evening where a bloke with big bags of marbles was hurling them onto the roof of the caravan all night! The morning Bollywood markets at Woolgoolga we sought were cancelled due to bad weather, so a café breakfast was the substitute. Now guess which meal was mine and which was Mrs A’s?Yes…home made toasted muesli for me. I will be wearing sack cloth and ashes next. We checked out the spectacular scenery and lookout in the bright morning sunshine after breakfast, before heading back to Moonee Beach….As we left camp another Zone was coming in, and finally in the late afternoon the last Zoner checked in, coming straight from the factory at Coolum Beach yesterday. So 14 vans have checked in here – around 10% of the total number on the road. I think it’s interesting that we would all be quite happy to come and spend a weekend with mostly total strangers, just because we brought the same product. We think it’s a lot to do with the Zone Owner’s Facebook group that has allowed us to get a feel for the type of people who are buying them. The posts are positive and collaborative, exchanging tips and ideas, all moderated very professionally, unlike some of the other groups we belong to in the caravan space. In these challenging times for Facebook it’s good to remember that social media can also be used very positively, in this case encouraging on-line relationships to be converted to real world connections.

So an evening was spent very merrily at the local Moonee Beach Tavern, 27 folk I think from many different walks of life, chatting away about their lives and travels, united by a love of the great Australian outdoors. It reminded me of how lucky we are to live in a country that enables us to do something like this. We have spent the afternoon walking on a pristine beach that Catherine and I had to ourselves, and then we spend the evening planning new adventures with a whole bunch of like minded people.

Our walk was special – not only did we see off the last of the rain, but the sun came out, allowing us to walk the 7km without getting anything other than our feet wet and enabling us to enjoy this stunning coastline along Sapphire Beach.We are also thankful that we don’t have to worry that someone with a semi-automatic is going to break into the pub. The worst we had was a young football team rehearsing some testosterone fuelled war cries. We go to bed with full bellies and I think generally happy hearts. Yes a bunch of us have our health issues, our family problems, but compared to so many in the world… life is good here, and long may it continue.

Australia as we know has had a “dream run”, the Lucky Country. Our challenge will be as America withdraws from Asia – how will we respond to the rise of Chinese soft and hard power? Will our politicians be up for the new challenge that represents for Australia? I hope they find the courage to look beyond their short term personal ambition to provide the leadership we will undoubtedly need to navigate the changes this will bring culturally and economically.

If you fancy a sobering read then check out respected academic Hugh White’s essay “Without America” (https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2017/11/without-america)…this gives some clues as to our potential future landscape…

Friday 23 March: Exploring around Coffs

Author: Mrs A

Location: Moonee Beach

The sound of thousands of ball bearings being thrown on the roof of our mobile apartment was what greeted us this morning, with heavy rain showers blowing in from the ocean. Adventurous plans of going hiking in the rainforest were abandoned in favour of cake baking and morning tea with our fellow Zoners, also dodging the inclement weather. As the morning wore on, more Zone RVs arrived taking us up to 11 vans, making the caravan park look like a muddy rainforest version of a Zone showroom, should such a thing exist!A fun morning tea was had with lots of laughs and discussion with our fellow Zoners.

Eventually there was a break in the cloud, so Mr A and I decided to head into Coffs Harbour to find some long awaited oysters from the Fisherman’s Co-Op…as we entered though we were enticed by the smell of freshly cooked Blue Grenadier and chips, and so were swayed into having a naughty lunch instead. Oysters will wait until tomorrow!We have such good memories of our last visit to Coffs Harbour, the beautiful sights and plenty of walking, paddling and cycling opportunities. Its a beautiful part of New South Wales.

After filling ourself we decided we ought to get out and do a walk, and drove up into the hills behind Coffs to Ulidarra National Park. There we managed a short 3km return hike to the Korora Lookout which rewarded us with views across the region and to the north – a rainforest walk with beautiful natural sculptures telling an Aboriginal story.From there we drove to the Forest Sky Pier, a jetty which stretches out over the rainforest allowing a view across Coffs and to the south. The views were magnificent, probably moreso because of the dramatic skies with billowing clouds, showers and rainbows out over the ocean.We returned to the campground via the Moonee Tavern, confirming our group booking for dinner tomorrow night and booking the courtesy bus to ferry us down there. Before long 6 o’clock drinks were calling us, and we all reunited in the camp kitchen for stories of travels and tips for future adventures.

The rain settled in again for the evening, drowning out any chance of conversation or entertainment via the television. It’s forecast to be similar weather tomorrow, hopefully with the odd break allowing us to enjoy the Bollywood Market along the coast…yes, Bollywood….sounds intriguing – who are we to consider not attending that spectacle! Watch this space for news of tomorrow’s adventures!