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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.