Author: Mrs A
Location: Noosaville, Queensland
We moved our caravan to its $5 storage location across the site and packed up our little suitcases ready to stay with friends in Noosaville, still on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.
We arrived just after noon, and after a few trips up and down the stairs transporting all our stuff (of course it looked like we were staying for several months, given we had Tassie’s bits and pieces too) we settled down on the balcony for a cup of tea and a home made dairy-free, gluten-free treat prepared by Wendy.
Tassie gradually settled in, after several explores of the apartment decided it was D.O.G. free enough to relax and settled down on our bed for a well deserved rest, as per usual.
After a tasty lunch and a bit of grocery shopping in town, it was back to prepare for a trip out on the boat. Ray and Wendy’s granddaughter Charlie is also staying with them at the moment, and Wendy’s former brother in-law Chris, and his wife Sue, are dog sitting two apartments down. It’s all a very holiday atmosphere!
Mr A and Ray went to collect the boat, and cruised on round to the apartment’s private wharf to collect us all, and off we went on the Noosa River for an explore, Charlie, Wendy and I sitting at the bow of the boat.
Below: Charlie (Charlotte) took this of Wendy and I
Below: Chris and Sue
We sped across the water, enjoying the fresh breeze that came with it.
Charlie even helped skipper the boat, with the help of Ray of course.
Reaching the other side of the river, we set off for a short walk across the dunes, watching jet skiers leaping over waves on the incoming tide at the river mouth. Ray and Charlie jumped in for a dip in the water. The rest of us stayed relatively dry, not quite feeling the need to swim and enjoying a glass of chilled Chardonnay as we watched them and the gradually setting sun.
As we headed back to the apartment we diverted alongside the river bank where a beautiful White Bellied Sea-Eagle kindly posed for a few photos.
Mr A and Ray returned the boat to its dock…I don’t think Mr A actually skippered, unless Ray hasn’t heard the stories yet…
Following showers, a lovely evening ensued with a delicious chicken meal which had been cooking while we were out…wine was drunk, laughs were had, and geckos hunted (by Tassie, not us, though we did try to encourage them down off the ceiling so Tas could chase them!). Fabulous fun.
And what an end to the day, Mrs A produced for dinner the most amazing Thai basil chilli stir-fry. It was just so delicious. She knows just how much heat we like, all the ingredients are made up from scratch, and there’s been many a Thai restaurant I’ve been to over the years that have turned out a lot less tastier food. Mmmm
Late afternoon and we were back at Zone with all the jobs having been ticked off.
It was almost dark though as we headed off to find our camp for the night on a property north of Noosa. We pulled into the farmyard and there’s another Zone! Fellow Sydneysiders as well from the northern beaches enjoying their “gap year” travelling around Australia. We are looking forward to hearing their stories in the morning!
We left our bikes, sprayed copiously with deet (the mosquitoes were out in their millions and feeling hungry), and explored the boardwalks. 
Mosquitoes aside, it was a great area to explore, a rare chance to walk amongst the mangroves, spotting the Orange-clawed Fiddler Crabs on the mud flats, and birds flitting around catching flies.
Above – Mr & Mrs A, behind us looking out to Yaroomba and south to Maroochydore.
And here looking all the way south to Mooloolaba…
Looking northwards to Noosa Heads in the far distance…
And inland, to Coolum Creek Conservation Park and beyond. Stunning scenery. The climb down was probably harder on the legs than the way up!
Our afternoon was far less interesting, consisting of a visit to the local car wash, downloading some Netflix at the local library and picking up some supplies at Woolworths!
After checking out the views, we followed a walking trail through the rainforest. Many of the trees are centuries old, with ancient creepers climbing up to the canopy. The birdlife is prolific but very hard to see – mostly up high consuming the rainforest’s riches in fruits and seeds. The scenery is so rich in new sights, with rare trees on every corner, and twisting undergrowth. This rainforest is home to many furry creatures too – we saw flying foxes (fruit bats), and hidden away there are also pademelons (little wallabies), sugar gliders (flying possums), snakes, lizards and more.
Finally our walk came to an end, so we returned to the Maleny Showgrounds, hitched up the caravan and moved just 17 minutes drive down the road to Landsborough. We’d booked this site a while ago, when we noticed it would be Easter holidays when we were in the area. We pulled in realising the campsite is actually nowhere near the actual village of Landsborough, and at the top of a very steep and busy road. Ah – so no cycling from camp down to the local pub from here then. Ah well. In its favour, we are fairly centrally located, and it was just a 20 minute drive from another walk we were keen to do, down in the Glass House Mountains themselves.
This was the circuit walk around Mount Tibrogargan, one of the hikes recommended by our friend Karel, who’s house we stayed at last weekend. It’s not a challenging walk, with some great views around the way and only some short climbing. We tacked on another trail, the Trachyte Circuit onto our walk at the end to extend the distance and experience.
The walk took us through casuarina groves, past giant eucalypts and through melaleuca forest. Dwarf and yellow candle banksia flowers accompanied our journey, along with the odd frog brought out by the wet weather.
Back at the mobile apartment, showers were definitely welcomed, before cooking up a fasting-day Friday dinner of vegetarian red curry followed by fruit, with some more Netflix to entertain us – a couple of episodes of Jack Taylor this evening (thanks Mr Ward for the recommendation!).
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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]
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!
A fun morning tea was had with lots of laughs and discussion with our fellow Zoners.
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.
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 other side of the river was much quieter, with hardly a car on the road. We passed more oyster farms and beautiful white gum trees, before reaching the next ferry about 6km later.
While the afternoon was bright and sunny, we noticed that the sky to the west was looking very dark. A quick look at the weather forecast listed a whole load of warnings, including for severe thunder storms, large hail and strong winds…we whizzed back to the campground to make sure windows were closed and the awning was secured. Of course, no inclement weather eventuated, just a hot cloudy humid evening. Still it was a good 18km ride, and got the blood moving after a few days of not much activity.