Sunshine Coast Part 1

We left Brisbane on Saturday 28th Feb for the Sunshine Coast....our camping adventure! First stop was Caloundra (pronounced Calandra!) We caught the local bus to Dicky’s Beach where we had booked a few nights for our tent! The holiday park was perfect...better facilities than lots of hostels!!! A pool, kitchen/bbq area with a fridge, a tv/games room and even free wifi! And of course the added bonus was we were steps away from the beach....perfect!

We pitched our little 3man tent, all good fun and then had a look around the area. There is a strip of shops just off the beach with includes a butchers, bakers, convenience store, a few fish and chip shops and of course one or two surf shops...it was so pretty!! Caloundra is a small town which has about 5 or 6 beaches and Dicky’s is about a mile from the main shopping area which id say is a similar size to Mumbles. The beach is lovely and even has its own ship wreck ‘SS Dicky’ (hence the beach name!) which hit trouble along the shoreline in 1930. Its a great focal point of the beach and lots of children swam by the wreckage, all curious to see what was there and also a great place to play games!!!

They don’t call it the Sunshine Coast because of its rain!!! The sun was shining and the temperatures were high, once the sun set we didn’t even consider a hoody of trousers, it was lovely and warm! To finish our first night we treated ourselves to fish and chips!
The next day (‘HAPPY ST DAVID’S DAY!!!!) we were pro active and took the coastal walk into the main town. It was so pretty and quiet. We passed through Moffat and Shellly Beach which had some amazing beachside houses (we’ve picked ours!) and then walked on to the popular Kings Beach. The views were fantastic, the sea was clear and the sun was hot! We made a stop at the supermarket and then caught the bus back because we were hot and bothered!

We spent the rest of the afternoon down Dicky’s beach where I wore my Welsh bikini to celebrate the day and within two minutes of being on the beach a lady came up to me and asked where we were from! She was from Aberystwyth (is thats how you spell it? And emigrated out here with her family 9 months ago....best things she’s ever done! With weather like this pretty much all year round I couldn’t disagree! In the evening we enjoyed cooking a bbq by the tent, it was perfect!

The camp site got very quiet by Sunday afternoon as families went home for work and school the next day so we had a whole patch of grass to ourselves, not that we needed it! We stored all our belongings in the tent and locked it up when we went out and don’t worry we took valuables with us wherever we went!

On Monday 2nd we got really excited as we went to Australia Zoo ‘home of the crocodile hunter’. We caught the courtesy bus from the bus station to Beerwah, a small township 30 mins inland. Our bus driver gave us a bit of info about the zoo, how it got started as a reptile sanctuary by Steve Irwins dad Bob back in the 1970’s and how it’s progressed into one of the most visited zoo’s in the world. In 5 years they hope to have a kingdom of animals from all over the world and a resort where you can stay and wake up to the giraffes and elephants on your balcony! All dreams Steve envisioned for the future!
It was a Monday and relatively quiet so we were able to cover the 70 acres with ease. As you enter the gates there is a tribute to Steve with big statues of the Irwin family (himself with his wife Terry and kids Bindi and Robert).

We got to see alligators and of course many crocodiles. A big highlight was the giant tortoises from Madagascar. They were only 35 years old and already big, they can live up to 200 years + and will grow a lot more! Was crazy! We fed the three Indian elephants their breakfast and watched one of them get a bath and play football with the keepers...so cute. They used to travel Australia as part of a circus so they had a few tricks up their sleeve. We fed more kangaroos and met a few more cutey kualas! We watched tigers play (the keepers with them) and sore loads of other animals too.

Obviously the highlight was the show in the Crocoseum where Steve Irwin is famous for his outlandish crocodile experiments! Before the croc came out we had a bit of fun watching other reptiles and also a bird show. It was good fun, however you could see how quiet the zoo was as so many seats were empty! The crocodile show was great though.....he got him jumping up, running for food on the grass, it was quite scary. The guy doing it wasn’t quite as daring as Steve Irwin but it was great fun to watch!!!!

The temps that day maxed at +30....it was boiling! And walking around all day really takes it out of you! (Don’t worry Dad, if we go anywhere where walking is a must we will rent you one of those old granny scooter bikes!) haha!

The zoo was great....best we’ve ever been to.....they allow you to get up close and personal with a lot of the animals and there were a few shows to watch which is lots more entertaining than watching a sleeping animal in an enclosure. All the keepers are hands on with the animals and it looks like a wonderful job! The Irwins own about 1500 acres of land around the zoo so with only 70 acres being used at the moment and a resort being built, it looks like things can only get better. And the Irwin kids Bindi and Robert are right in front of the camera too, so it looks like they will follow in the footsteps of their dad.
It was a great day followed by a even earlier night (sleep by 8.30pm)! I cant describe how warm other than we slept on top of our sleeping bags every night and even kept the door open sometimes because we were so warm!

As i’m sure all you campers are aware.....early nights lead to early mornings (daylight and the tweeting birdies don’t help) so we went to watch sunrise at 5.30am over the Pacific.....couldn’t fault it! We checked out by 10 ish and headed to our next destination.....Maroochydore! Another 3 nights camping in the sunshine by the beach.....don’t you wish our Gower camping was a bit like this!