Gold Coast to Noosa

(Janice’s additional comments in red)

Following on from our last blog on the Gold Coast, we spent another couple of days with Kirsty and Jon during which time Jon was offered an IT job with the Queensland Education Department staring the following Monday which he is very pleased about. We all went for an evening of Putt Putt Golf which was very enjoyable (Jon won) and we were soon on our way to Brisbane. Photo: The ball must be in here somewhere. Kirsty on all 4’s looking. Photo of Surfers from Mt Tambourine.

 

  I loved it in Kirsty’s apartment as we were on the 16^th floor & at night it was so pretty with all the coloured lights, plus we had a storm one night which was great. Sunset from Kirsty and Jon’s apartment.

 

We were staying at the BP Park Scout Training Centre at Samford, a few kms north west of Brisbane and just a couple of minutes from the very pleasant Samford Village. The first day we had to re-stock our fridge and toured around the local area and we met another couple who were in their caravan.  It was nice to have a cuppa & chat with someone else staying there. That night was the coldest we have experienced so far on our trip – it got down to 1 deg C. It seems all of Brisbane was in shock as they are not used to these low temps. As happens with these cold nights, it led to a glorious day after and we went into Brisbane for the day spending most of the time in a large shopping centre with Janice trying on numerous items of clothing and buying some I might add !

The following day we travelled to the character villages of Montville and Maleny where we had lunch and then dropped down into Maroochydore and Twin Waters meeting up with John and Ann Breeze who moved from Tassie about 12 years ago. I was in the Tasmania police with John in the early 70’s. We spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening with them before heading back to Samford.

The following morning we were woken early by the arrival of dozens of Sea Cadets who were to be in camp for 5 days. We moved our caravan to a quieter area of the site but they were all very well behaved.

We put through a load of washing before lunching in Samford Village with Alan Sherlock (ex Chief Commissioner of Queensland Scouts) and his wife Glenda. An enjoyable time was had reminiscing over past scouting events, particularly the 1977 Fiji Jamboree where we were both on the admin team. On returning to camp I noticed that the Memorabilia Centre was open and spent about an hour looking through various scouting memorabilia, including records of the Rover Crew that operated in Changi Prison during the Second Word War.

It rained during the night and the following morning we headed off to Noosa. We are staying at the campsite owned by Noosa Sea Scouts called “Badger’s Wood” does that remind anyone of Midsomer Murders which was originally a country area but suburbia has built up around it. We are 200 metres from the foreshore of Noosaville and 10 minutes from Noosa Main Beach. Photo: Noosa Beach. Photo of Ibis bird, one of many around our campsite for our UK readers.

 

After a quick tour around, we relaxed at the campsite. Today we caught up with some grocery shopping then headed out to Noosa National Park from where we walked to Noosa Main Beach and had a look around. The temperature only reached 19 degrees but we managed to get a bit sunburnt.  Tonight we will dine out on Noosaville foreshore and tomorrow we head for Hervey Bay.  It’s very pretty on the foreshore and I am amazed how warm it seems during the day & how cold it gets at night/morning.