Thursday 8 September 2016

Fraser View

Inskip Point should be re-named Fraser View :) . We have never stayed here, but have often driven past when we would go to Fraser Island. This is our view from the van for the next two days. We have many favourite places in Queensland, and indeed Australia, but Fraser would have to be at the top. This is as close as we have been this year.
Inskip Point Recreation Area is National Park and very popular in school holidays. We were lucky to get this spot as there were many campers in all sections of the point. We camped at Sarawak Camp, not far from where the landslide occurred in Sept 2015. Now a fence has been built to stop camping to close to the waters edge.
 We stopped at the fork in the road to Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay to buy some fire wood. Many of the campers had fires burning that night. One needs a permit to camp on the beach, currently it is $6.15 per person per night, and permits need to be purchased at Rainbow Beach before setting up camp.

We relaxed, walked along the beach, Peter fished, I did some sewing. The view was wonderful.
After a relaxing couple of days we headed home via Rainbow Beach.
 

Kybong, Queensland

After picking up the van at 5pm, we headed 45minutes 'up the road' to Kybong. We have stayed here before and it is a very popular overnighter. Most of the spots had already been taken and we ended up pulling over on the side of the entry road.

Kybong is about 10 klms south of Gympie and has for a long time been a truck stop with heaps of truck parking. We have, and still, refer to it as Matilda, as this is what it was when we would pass through when the kids were little. Now the day use area has been converted to an overnight area for travellers. It is situated on a lake with many ibis nesting on an island in the centre of the lake. There are cows in the paddock next door and even though it is close to the highway, there is little traffic noise at night.
It is no longer a Matilda petrol station, but now a Puma. The centre includes a food court and a cafe, as well as a convenience store and tourist information centre. We usually cook our own dinner in the evening and buy breakfast at the food court in the morning.
You can see Matilda, the 1982 Commonwealth Games mascot, lives here.

Wednesday 7 September 2016

Short 5 day road trip

After the last two trips away in the van it got a little cold at night when we were free camping with no power to use the heater, so after talking to many happy campers and Peter researching the different types of heating available we decided on gas heating. Suncoast Caravan Service had a special that ended at the end of August, so off we went to Maroochydore for a couple of nights to have the heater installed. All the caravan parks on the Sunshine Coast are council owned and therefore are all priced the same. After free and low cost camping it was hard to pay $50 a night, but that's what we had to pay. When we were both working we didn't mind paying $50 per night, but now we are not we can spend that $50 in a much better way, example, a lovely lunch for two. It is a shame as we love the Sunshine Coast, but it is getting too expensive now. In saying that, the van park was full!
Anyway, we did the local Op Shops, where I picked up some cool fabric, and shopping for the few days away and just enjoyed the beach and the calm.
On the Tuesday we left the park and dropped the van off at Suncoast Caravan Service, and headed for the Sunshine Plaza and had brunch at Coffee Club overlooking the canal, and walked around the shops for a while. We went to a movie - Jason Bourne, which was pretty good. After picking up the van we headed north to Kybong.