Caloundra - just beautiful

Leata's first attempt at 'scenic' photography, and she reckons it's pretty good! Yes we are staying at Dicky Beach, one of the seven beaches at beautiful Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, and it's fabulous. The evenings and mornings are a bit cool, but the daytime temps are around 24 degrees, just perfect for beach walks and swimming. I took the photo above at 6.00 yesterday morning, just as the sun was coming up. Why was I up at 6.00 you may ask? Well, there is a family of birds living in the tree just beside us, and at 4.30am, something happens (we haven't worked it out yet), but the babies start squawking and squeaking really loudly, and then they quieten down again. Maybe mum has left the nest??? Then at 10 to 6 ALL the birds start, and the worst are the lorikeets, screeching madly, so I was wide awake and decided I might as well see the sun rise, it was well worth it!

Dicky Beach around 5.oo in the evening, and again at 6.00 in the morning on the right.

Dicky Beach is named after a shipwreck, as the sign says, and the photo on the right shows what is left of the wreck, an amazing sight on a beach!

This is where some of your pineapples come from! Yes those are pineapples right up to where the house is, plus the paddocks and paddocks of them which you can't see. Just so different to Victoria.

Why is wozzie looking so pleased with himself? Is it because we had just climbed Mt Tibrogurgan pictured below???? Well, how about walked around it, that's probably closer to the truth! We had a lovely two hour trek, and the views of the other Glasshouse Mountains are just sensational, as you can see from the photo at the right.

About three minutes after we took this photo the train went past! One can never quite escape suburbia!

Two more days at Caloundra, and then we are moving on to Alexandra Headland for a week, about 16 ks. up the road, just another part of this stunning area. We are starting to meet more and more 'grey nomads' from Victoria, they are all around ten or more years older than us, we are the babies! But apparently this is the time when the "Mexicans" start to move North for the Winter, so I reckon we are going to meet quite a few of them. It's interesting hearing other people's stories (they all have one to tell), and we get lots of reports about different caravan parks, where to stay and not to stay. Having a ball and loving it!

BRIBIE ISLAND - LAID BACK OR WHAT???

This is a really nice part of Australia, very peaceful, laid-back way of life, and yet just a short way from Brisbane. Access is by the bridge in the photo above, the 'hills' you can see in the background are the Glasshouse Mountains, which we hope to do a little bushwalking in next week. It is really nice to get away from rush-hour traffic, traffic lights (I did a u-turn in the 'main street' today, and there wasn't a car for miles). After four weeks of driving around in heavy traffic, Wozzie is enjoying either (a) not driving cos we're walking (b) not driving cos I'm driving (c) not driving because we're at the beach all day!

and this is the beach! Just so crowded, it's hard to find a spot, ha ha. We fished off here yesterday and yes! we caught a nice little flathead, but, being uncertain of the legal length threw it back. the fines for undersize fish up here are horrendous, so why take the risk. Woz caught some bream this morning, all at least five inches long, again too small to take, but lots of fun.

There are some very interesting, (to say the least), signs on Bribie Island. We were assured that the sign above applies to both the dogs and the humans!

No nude bathing??!!! So what are the neighbours watching????

Well, that says it all, I guess! If you look closely, there's actually a bloke sitting in the bus shelter, wondering what the hell we were doing taking a photo of the it .............................

So yes, we are having a great time. One more day of sun, swimming and fishing here, and then we pack up and move on to Caloundra, for more days of sun, swimming and fishing. We are both looking forward to that, having stayed there for a week when we had our long service leave. We are booked into a beachside site, should be great! Have I left you feeling disgruntled and sick of Melbourne weather???????????? Objective achieved! Love to all, from the happy wanderers.

BRISBANE

View of the Brisbane river, taken from Victoria Street Bridge. although it's hard to tell from the photo, the water under the victoria street bridge is the same colour as the Yarra, almost made us homesick (but not quite!)

We walked along Southbank (where the man made beach below is), from the city and then returned via the ferry. We wondered why no-one was waiting at the ferry terminal, but all standing on the concrete pathway above. Being green as the grass, we wandered down the gangplank and stood on the floating deck waiting for the ferry, sea sickness here we come! of course, as the other boats go by, the floating deck starts rocking, doesn't it. Hold on tight! The things you learn as you go along.

We took the bus into Brisbane city from Eight Mile Plains where we were staying. We had no idea what to do, of course, never using bus systems, so followed the lead of another couple who were staying at the caravan park, and bought return tickets, off peak. (we assumed they knew what they were doing as they had done it the day before!) At around 2.30 we decided we'd had enough of the city and headed back towards the bus station, we made it with two minutes to spare, as if we had missed the 2.40pm bus, we would not have been able to use the off peak return tickets until after 7.00pm. We're not just learning about caravanning you know!!!!!

The bus system in Brisbane is unbelievable. Alongside the freeway into town is a dual carriageway, just for buses, with stops like train stations all the way into an underground bus station in the city. The buses advertise the fact quite proudly that they run on natural gas, so there were no fumes getting into the bus from a black exhaust, but we won't mention all the other fumes that waft over from the freeway. And because there are only buses on this carriageway, sit down and hold on - they fairly fly along and seem to have no trouble manipulating their way around the tightest corners. i kept my eyes shut most of the time, it was safer.

This 'beach' is in the city area that housed the 1988 World Expo. We didn't swim at this beach but we swam at the pool below. Notice that there is no-one in either area of water, that is because it was FREEZING.......!!!!

Yes, we finally managed to drag ourselves away from Surfers Paradise and Main Beach, caught up with friends in Brisbane, but really there was not a lot that interested us there, so we are now at Bribie Island, arrived a day early yesterday, as we were hankering to get back to the ocean. It's a lot quieter here, although we were surprised how many people live here, a very thriving community, but of course, a LOT less traffic than Brisbane or indeed the Gold Coast, there are too many people living there for the infrastructure to cope with. So we now start a week at Bribie, and I think we will enjoy it immensely (photos next time), but we are camped here under the palm trees, just across from the pool, and it's Friday arvo, and we're off the the RSL for tea, sounds pretty good to me!!!

This is the life!

Which one is Woz??????????

Monday morning we hitched up the van and drove an enormous and taxing 13 ks up to Main Beach Caravan Park! We are just across the road from Main Beach, about 2 ks north of Surfers, so it's a great spot to catch up on all the local sights, including of course, SeaWorld, which we visited on Wednesday. It was certainly up to what we had been told to expect, on a perfect summer day, not a cloud in the sky, and it's all water, palm trees, and of course, who could forget the creatures we were there to see! The dolphins were breathtaking, the polar bear decided that he would dive under the water and swim around and play with his toys just for us! and the aquarium, well I'm sorry it leaves melbourne aquarium for dead. this thing is huge, with the most amazing variation in fish that you could ever wish to see, from tiger sharks to schnapper, tuna, barramundi, right down to tiny 'nemos', all in the same tank. We would have stood and watched for at least half an hour, it was fascinating. We discovered that the two fish we caught in Nambucca Heads were butter bream, because there were some in the tank!

Warren surprised me for Mothers Day this week, with a night in Surfers, staying at the Gold Coast International Hotel, the view was sensational. We had a great time, it was a good base to wander round the shops and see the sights, and there are some sights to see, I can tell you!

Warren wants to know why all the girls that serve drinks or meals here are gorgeous creatures with blonde hair, long legs and everything else that makes girls girls! If you get my drift. I think it's time I took him away from here! And those meter maids! woo hoo. I thought I might apply for a position, ha ha. We had a bit of a windfall last night, went to the Southport Surf Club which is just over the road from where we are, bought some raffle tickets, and won a monster chicken tray, and I mean monster chicken! it should feed us for two nights! we are now cooking it, as I type, in our BBQ-oven, this thing has been great. Tonight we are going to watch Australia play New Zealand in the Anzac 100 year test, they are showing it on a big screen telly here at the park, so we will wander over with our chairs and drinks, should be fun. Oh, and did I mention, we have been swimming, in the ocean, every day. the hardest decision is which beach to swim at. Ho hum - decisions, decisions! I'll leave you with that thought.