Hervey Bay to Brisbane

We had a quality bit of luck on the night of Mishee's birthday, I put $1 into a slot machine, somehow it turned into $64! So that paid for a tank of fuel. The next day we relaxed and did some washing and left the campsite. We were craving some TV so we went and watched a film called 'Public Enemies' starring Johnny Depp, would recommend it. We had a free stop that night just south of Hervey bay..

The next day we drove to Rainbow beach, yes another beach! But they are nice and free activities! We didn't do a lot here, I went for a run along the beach and Mish cut my hair with nail scissors!! Which took about an hour, but I was happy with the result considering the conditions!

We had another free night near Gympie and it was the coldest night yet, absolutely freezing! So I got up early and started the van with Mish still snuggled up asleep in the back. I drove us to a view point for breakfast.

From here we set off to Noosa heads, this was a very expensive and slightly pretentious place, but was a gorgeous little town right on the beach. As we were walking around Noosa some woman and man shouted from their beemer 'get off the road, use the f***ing path'. We couldn't believe it but then we could as some Aussies are sooooo aggressive! Their fuses seem to be shorter than anyone else I've known! That afternoon we headed to Coolum beach where there was a surf contest on and you would feel out of place here without long blonde hair, guys included! This place was too cool for school!

We managed another free night and woke at 7am to go trekking up the Glass House Mountains. The mountains were named by Captain Cook. Quality little 2 hour hike, a really steep ascent to the peak. I almost broke my ankle a number of times. The views at the top were breathtaking! Then I went for a little run and Mishee came to pick me up in the van.

Later that day we went to Bribie island (aka Beverley Hills, houses here would set you back a cool million!) and watched the most amazing sunset over the Glass house mountains. We cooked a pizza on the BBQ and burnt the bottom so badly it was like eating charcoal! The sunsets in OZ are amazing and the weather even in winter is gorgeous with clear blue skies every day! That night we stopped at a truckers stop. They had a hot shower but only in the mens!!!! So I had to sneak Mish in and stand guard outside!

We were up again nice and early at 7am, and headed in to Brisbane. Driving Carlos around a big city is not much fun and we felt like Carlos was a pig in the city. Brisbane reminded me a lot on New York as the streets were all in blocks and the Botanic gardens here are a lot like Central park, on a smaller scale. We did the tourist thing and went around the museums and things and up the City hall clock tower which looked like the one out of Back to the Future (what a film!)

That night we drove south around 50km to a campsite in Nerang which took us 2 hours to find, we thought someone was messing with us! It got sooo bad that Mish burst into tears in frustration and I was continually hitting the steering wheel. Then when we finally got found it the front entrance to the Campsite was blocked by roadworks! Luckily a nice lady saw we were in distress and pointed out the back entrance! We needed a drink after our ordeal so headed to a sports bar, which was full of old local guys watching the rugby. Ads struck up some banter with them about the cricket and they called us Pommies so we called them convicts and they turned out to be really nice!

We are only 900km away from Sydney. The next plan is to hang around Surfers paradise for a few days and get our surf on (narly man!) There is also a Theme park near here which we may splash out on!