Dodging the crowds...

Teewah Beach

OK, we are going to try and not make a habit of this, but yet again we are a bit behind. If you don’t like reading our really long essays, then your probably quite happy with these nice short updates, however I know when I go back to read it at a later date, trying to reminisce on the days gone by, we will be annoyed with ourselves for not putting in the quirky little stories and details which in the end made the trip what it was.

I know sometimes we talk as we, sometimes as I, sometimes referring to Meegan or to Brett, I hope it isn’t too frustrating but we are both writing this blog. Sometimes Meegan will be writing, sometimes Brett, sometimes both at one.

Meegan bought a Hula Hoop at the Markets a few weeks ago.

The past 2 weeks has been spent weaving our way from the coast back up to the hinterland, from Byron bay up to Inskip point, basically just trying to dodge the school holiday travellers and crappy weather.

Initially we stuck around Byron and Ballina for a few days as there was a big swell coming in which meant Brett could hopefully finally get some decent waves. Decent waves he certainly did get at Tallow’s and Lennox Head. Lennox head being one of the best rights he has ever surfed. A perfect long right hander breaking along the point, with wackable shoulders that peel for up to 500m. After Brett got his fix we escaped north to try and evade the wet weather. We could not escape the rain, it just poured and rained and drizzled and rained, at least it didn’t get to cold and we were still able to kick around in thongs and minimal clothing for most of the time.

Lennox Head

We spent a few nights at a free camp at Mulaweawa, the camp itself was pretty good, the twenty roosters that occupied the camp were at first, a little bit of a worry. We made a small mention of roosters in a previous post but not the full story, so we will go back a couple of weeks to a rest stop just outside of Brunswick heads.

THE CREATURES
This tale begins with two young lovers making their way on the road around Australia. Money was a little tight, time they had plenty of so they generally free camped wherever their little truck Bob could find a spot. They avoided rangers like ninjas on a mission, always one step ahead, arriving late and leaving early. However, there were creatures of the night that could not be avoided. These creatures had razor beaks, knife long talons, and a shrill COCKADOODALDOO!

They dwelled in the deathly hallows, sometimes known as “the roadside rest area of Brunswick heads” awaking poor travellers in the middle of the night with their piercing calls.

One night in early September the young lovers had spent the good part of 2 hours cruising the streets of northern NSW for a comfortable camping spot that would not attract a hefty fine. The deathly Hallows was their final port of call, the creatures waited, evil eyes watching as the newcomers approached in a strange looking white camper. At 10’oclock the creatures gave their first warning call, a short, sharp reminder of what was yet to come. The young lovers failed to heed the warning signs passing it off as mere confused hen, restless in her roost of one of the near by houses. They lazily laid there weary heads down for the night.

As the clock struck midnight the cacophony of noise cut through the night air like a hot knife though butter, the sound chilling enough to freeze the blood of a battle hardened soldier. The lovers awoke with a start, after a few minutes silence returned and they sleepily fell back to their pillows.

The creatures gathered on mass, content with their introduction, they waited anxiously, eager to commence the next assault.

One o’clock came and went; Two O’clock however is when feathers hit the fan! Literally.

One cocky little creature started up, continuously for five minutes. The lovers covered their ears with pillows and tried desperately to block the penetrating squawk emitting from the mouth of the creature. After a 30 second interval the second little cock started, it went on, cock for cock for over half an hour, blood curdle ling cockerdoodaldoo’s cut through the night air.

The creatures were ecstatic, they had prime position, in a tree only meters above the camper where they could all perch, safe (or so they thought) among the branches.

The creatures continued their charades for the next hour, rapturous in their achievements. By this stage the young lovers were no longer happy campers, their attempts to silence the disharmony, with words of their own joyous language were futile. It was time to go to war.

The brave young soldier went were no man should go, he left the warm sheets of the cosy camper, kissed his sweetheart on the cheek, and went out into the night to face the unknown creatures, knowing deep down he may never return to his awaiting fair maiden.

Arming himself with whatever he could find he went out in search for the creatures of the night. His main weapons mere honkey nuts found scattered on the floor of the cove, and a pink solar powered torch. He needn’t go far to find the enemy, with an almighty heave, he dislodged the first beast from its roost. The fair maiden inside the castle was bearing witness to the noise of the battle below, with a “squawk squawk” here and a “squawk squawk” there” here a “squawk” there a “squawk” every where a “squawk squawk”! Feathers filled the night sky! The enemy was silenced, the brave warrior returned to his bed in hope of a good nights rest.

Only half and hour later, round two had begun. The creatures had the upper hand as they had not only 2 but 5 soldiers ready to do battle with their vocal cords.

The soldier leapt from his place of slumber, rage fuelling his fists. He belted the creatures from there branches, one by one they fell on the camper, screams from inside the filled the air as the maiden feared the worst. As they hit the floor, the soldier was on their heels chasing them down the alley into the dark of the night.

History had been made the creatures had been beaten. The brave soldier returned to his lair, ready for battle if ever they should return again.

The End.

So by the riveting story above you may understand our concern with the roosters. They actually did keep us up all night. By four o’clock Brett couldn’t get back to sleep as he had been chasing them on and off for the last few hours. So he read while I got some beauty sleep. Luckily the roosters at the next spot were proper roosters and only cockerdoodledoo at dawn and not for very long!

Kite Festival at Coolum Beach

The weather for the week was very, very wet. Basically nothing but rain for about four days straight, since then we have had a fair bit of sunshine in the morning but the rain generally returns in the afternoon. To fill the rainy days, we saw a couple of movies, surfed when there were waves, chilled in the camper, checked out the slappers of Surfers Paradise. This place is no paradise, if you can picture lots of buildings, concrete skyscrapers with a few patches of shitty beach, well that is basically it. There is no surf.
The only decent surf had between the 2 of us in these few days was when Meegan was shredding Rainbow bay, part of the famous “superbank” apparently one of the top five waves in the world. There were no Mick Fannings or Steph Gilmores out and it wasn’t big but young Meggy was out there tearing it a new one. Because the waves were so soft Brett had to push her onto them which in the end worked to her advantage as her waves count was a lot higher than any of the plebs out there.

We slowly migrated back up north towards Noosa, found another great little oldies camp, complete with chickens, a hot shower and free coffee and biscuits all for $4 a night, about 30k’s north of the Gold coast.

The next day surfing was in order, and Caloundra was the spot to provide the waves. The only problem was they were mushy chest high slop that left us more frustrated then pleased. Sick of the crap waves and with nothing but slop forecast for the coming days we made our way inland to one of Meegan's favourite little towns Malaney. On the way stopping in at our favourite little dairy for tenth time just to check and make sure there cheese is still tasty, it is. The night was spent camping at the local showgrounds where our bodies were cleansed under a hot shower for the second night in a row. The crew camping next to us also happened to have two 3 week old staffie pups travelling with them.
The little critters were very cute and had only opened their electric blue eyes that day. They were so cute that we didn’t leave the showgrounds until 12 the next day as they were hard to say goodbye to.
Check out these Puppies.
Saturday saw us at the famous Eumundi markets for our 3 visit, again worth the time there. The next few days were spent chasing the surf around the Noosa Coolum area. With only a few scrappy waves and masses of humanity around (its Queensland and NSW school holidays at the moment) we were both getting sick of hiding out like criminals for committing the unlawful act of sleeping.
So we decided to head into the Coolum and Rainbow National park. Our first destination for the night was at Harry’s hut a quaint little campground by the river. The signage and maps were pretty average to say the best so we spent an extra couple of hours cruising through the pine plantations looking of some indication of were to head. Finally we arrived via the “ High clearance 4WD only track” and passed a low clearance 2wd coaster bus on the way in. Because of the high tourist numbers to the area who rent the all famous Hyundai Getz and expect it to carry them to the other side of Fraser Island, a lot of the signage here is majorly exaggerated. (Not to say they aren’t all warranted). Believe it or not, this area was the first time we really needed to engage 4WD in Bob to get us to our destination. Not that we were worried about the performance of the car the weight of the camper was on our minds as we headed into some very soft sand. Luckily tho Bob took up all challenges and spat them out the back. (Its got to be said tho that our first sand attempts were in the company of many other beefed up forby’s whose owners would have loved the chance to flex the V8 donk).

Lunch at Rainbow Beach.

After checking out Inskip point again and braving the treacherous storm and surviving the “crazy” sinkhole, we made our way out of rainbow beach and down to Teewah beach.

While we waited for the tide to drop a bit we took a little walk along the beach, as we walked we slowly started collecting a bit of Rubbish off the beach. In the end the only reason we turned around and started heading back up the beach was because our hands were full and we could carry no more rubbish. This was in a spot at least 50km from the nearest town or house in the middle of the beach, and our hands were full with rubbish, much of it fishing gear.

When we were up at Innskip point we came across 2 dead juvenile turtles on the beach. The turtles eat the plastic bags thinking they are jellyfish and it ends up blocking their lungs so they cannot dive for food, the end result for the turtles is death. I’m no marine biologist, I don’t know if these turtles died of floating lung syndrome however, if you want to do something to make yourself feel good (or make you really angry) grab a bag head down the beach and top it up with everyone else’s shit.



Enough of the ranting, that night was spent on the beach at a nice little campsite out of the wind. The next morning we had a 40km cruise up the beach to get back to Noosa and again by the time we got back Meegan's feet were a foot off the floor from the rubbish we collected along the way. When we got back to Noosa we discovered masses of people cars and people so we headed out of there and made our way back into the hills. That’s where we are tonight, a nice little spot in the middle of nowhere!