Hello and welcome to 2019!
Our year started slowly because despite doing next to nothing for the past few weeks, my body threw itself into a flare up of all chronic conditions. Thankfully, our nomadic lifestyle enables us to take each day as it comes so more rest was in order. This enabled us to really make a plan for the weeks to come – our final month in Australia. Where even has the time gone??

Our first adventure took us across the border into Queensland, officially visiting 6 states in just 3 months, with stops in Surfers Paradise, Kirra and Burleigh before a quiet, free night next to a pub (obviously) whilst we made plans for Brisbane.

Now, after 3 months of budgeting, you’d think we would be pretty good at this, but alas, we seem to have haemmorrhaged money so we aimed for every free thing you could to in Brisbane and it really did not disappoint!
First stop – The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium. As avid watchers of the night sky, this free museum all about our solar system and its stars was very informative and well worth a visit on route to Mt Coot – Tha lookout and cafe. The view was incredible and on such a clear day, you could see for miles! I enjoyed an ice cream (that I dropped and miraculously saved again) whilst Dave enjoyed his coffee whilst enjoying the view.
We had a quick peruse of the information board too – well worth doing to find out about local events/music/local heritage sites etc… and read about an old gold mine camp, just down the road from Mt Coot-Tha. We set off, using the ever useless Google maps, but kept driving past it? Strange! We eventually found the ‘old gold mine camp’ – in true Australian fashion, it was literally a stone with a plaque on it. So small we missed it. Onwards, to our next free spot of the day, the Queensland museum.
We wandered around the lost world exhibit which documented all the animals/dinosaurs that once roamed Australia.
Included in this exhibit was a fossilised section of earth that showed the only known evidence of a stampede – there were dinosaur footprints of all sizes, including crocodiles! They also had an immaculately preserved great white shark that had been there for 24 years as well as a giant squid!
Upstairs, we found the display of Australian Taxidermy animals including the wedge tailed eagle and its enormous wing span and a preserved Australian Cod which is believed to now be extinct.
QLD Museum feeling our love for a free museum!

 

Our life on the road became infinitely better when we were recommended an app about Showgrounds and their camping facilities by a lovely lady at another show ground. Showgrounds and recreational parks offer all the facilities you need – flushing toilets, hot showers and often laundry – for a fraction of what a caravan park may charge you. Often, caravan parks can try charge you $30 – $40 A NIGHT. Showgrounds on the other hand will often charge as little as $10 a night which is a blessing when you’ve been at the beach all day and need a decent shower or, like me, you body flares and you need some home comforts. Dayboro showground was a prime example of Showgrounds doing well – brand new facilities and right next to a field of COWS! Winning combination! After an evening meal of Singapore noodles, we settled in for an early night before another day of Brisbane sightseeing tomorrow.

Day 2 in Brisbane started with a trip to Old Petrie Town – a small town, renovated to mimic 1930’s Australia – I can tell you, it doesn’t look much different to some of the towns we passed through/stopped at in modern day Western Australia! But, we had a wander around, looked in a few of the shops and stumbled upon the QLD Steam and Vintage Machinary Society workshop where we got chatting to one of the chaps who worked there. He proudly showed us around ‘Jennifer’, the societies mascot. She was a beautiful deep red steam locomotive that had been lovingly restored over 14 years and she was beautiful. You could see how proud of Jennifer he, and the team, were. What a lovely way to pass an hour!

Next stop: Brisbane, where we found all day free parking and a farmers market to buy our evening meal veggies and some lush nectarines for the walk along South Bank (yes, another South Bank!). We stopped at Streets Beach – a man made beach right on South Bank with splash pools and a park, all for free – for a paddle, before boarding the free City Hopper, to take a trip down river to Eagle Street Pier and Brisbane City Hall. Although the city hopper was super busy, it was nice to see Brisbane from a different angle and to rest our (my) knackered feet/body. We had originally planned on riding the lift up the clock tower, but that was not to be as it was fully booked so we strolled around the free museum (yes, another one!) before taking a slow walk back to the car across the river.

After another night at Dayboro and an evening of laundry – anyone else feel like they have accomplished something great after laundry day? – we were up early for a morning of chasing more waterfalls. Since we arrived in Australia, I have wanted to swim in a waterfall so much. After a quick google search, we located Gardeners Falls just 30 minutes away so off we went. We were lucky to arrive before 9am, to a waterfall where you could leap in from different natural platforms OR use either of the 2 rope swings. We had the best few hours, jumping in and out and swinging from trees before it got super busy and we decided to escape. Whilst I packed up the bag, Dave sauntered across to the top of the waterfall to wash his flip flops. He lost the flip to his flop to the rushing waters of Gardeners Falls, never to be seen again! We spent ages waiting for it to just appear in the lagoon below, but to no avail. Poor Dave! RIP super comfy flip.

 

The following few days were spent preparing for our mad dash up the east coast before we have to sell our Pamela at the end of January and head over to Bali.
Pam was gifted with an oil change, all new tyres and recovery tracks for our trip to Fraser Island the following week.

Whilst we have had a marvellous time so far here in Australia, the best was yet to come..