What diet?

Whilst visiting the Gold Coast with C., C. & S-J, we had ice cream that blew the calories off the map for the week. At Baskin-Robbins Ice Creamery in Broadbeach where we ate a 2 scoop bonanza so disgustingly delicious it was worth every calorie - rich chocolate with peanut butter; and vanilla with cookies, in giant sugar cones. mmmmm.......OMG!

Booming Queensland

We can't believe how much infrustructure development is going on in Queensland between Maroochydore and the Gold Coast. The number of new highways, byways and freeways is staggering and that's just the roads. The new teaching hospital, Queensland University Hospital, being built next door to Griffith University with an expected completion of 2012, is a third the size bigger than biggest hospital in Melbourne. It is enormous!







And new, very expensive housing estates on canals, with multi-million dollar houses seem to be everywhere with these houses are so big it is almost obscene. We saw a house in Sovereign Bay with a price tag of $17 million to house mum, dad, two kids and two nannies (one nanny per child!). Take a look at the photo, and also the one that looks as though Colonial Sanders has moved in.





Some houses have garages underneath to cater for 5/6 cars and then 2/3 story homes on top. We just couldn't believe what we were seeing. Obviously, none of these folk have heard of the Global Financial Crisis or Global Warming!

We also had a personal tour around Griffith University and it makes other universities look like preschools in comparison. Griffith Uni has obviously attracted some serious government funding. The 16,500 day students have facilities that some students can only dream of. The lecture halls, library, teaching rooms, doctoral student work rooms and student recreational facilities were stunning. Around the campus there are over 200 computer work-stations available to students 24 hours a day with the latest, greatest technology available to each and every student regardless of course.

There is also a stand-out 'sense' of professionalism by both academic and general staff, as well as an expectation that students too will rise-to-the-occasion with their professional conduct at all times. The whole atmosphere is truly inspiring but then I guess an injection of the sort of funds that must be going into Griffith Uni in any university would be conducive to inspiration!

We're off.............

Can't stay another day! This caravan park is the pits so we're off tomorrow to Biggera Waters (Gold Coast) to visit friends at Arundel. Have booked ourselves into the the Treasure Island Holiday Park at Biggera having had it recommended to us from fellow travellers. We're going to save the visit to the Eumundi Markets for another trip.

We managed to catch up with 2 out of 3 friends here in Maroochydore so decided to get out of here tomorrow to Gold Coast for 2 nights before making our way south into New South Wales. Haven't yet decided just where we'll stay but then that's the beauty of having our own bed - we just have to find somewhere to park it. Hopefully somewhere between Tweed Heads and Evans Head will have easier accommodation options as we would like to stay put for at least a week before heading back inland toward Moree and home in 2 and half weeks. If anyone has any suggestions, send us an email please.

Last night we caught up with friend S. whom we haven't seen for 27 years. Had a great meal at a nice pub with the unlikely name of Trader Dukes. It was good to see S. and we all decided that we didn't look a day older than we did 27 years ago. All lies of course, but which one of us was going to argue the truth?

This afternoon we had the pleasure of having afternoon tea and dinner with PD. and J. at their beautiful home and garden. The garden made both of us jealous to see what can be grown with a bit of warmer weather. PD. has a magnificent tall tree forest growing right outside his back door with ferns fronds so big 6 people could have a great picnic underneath them and still have room to spare. There is a veritable feast of veggies growing 2 steps outside the kitchen door, and a fruit salad growing at the side of the house. Lovely!

We also met PD. and J's beautiful 17-month-old dog - whose breed we can't recall - named Dougal. Dougal kept an eye on us the whole time just in case we might play catch with him, or even let something yummy fall his way!

We drove around this morning having another good look at the Maroochydore/Mooloolaba/Cotton Tree areas and found a caravan park at Cotton Tree which we would like to try some time in the future. The whole area is really beautiful and if it weren't for the expected influx of around another 60,000 residents, which the area simply won't be able to cater for, it would be a fantastic place to retire. No - we're not moving!

Decisions, decisions! Will we stay - will we go!?!

Well, we stayed in the Maroochy River Cabin Village and Caravan Park simply because accommodation is so hard to get in this neck of the woods, and we have 3 friends to see here so have no choice other than to stay put. We forgot to the mention in our last blog that the park turned out to be next to the Sunshine Highway so, overnight, we had not only traffic noise to contend with but the flood lights from the expressway over the caravan park can be seen from the International Space Station!

The only thing to do this morning was to head out and about for the day and we certainly weren't disappointed with the scenery. Maroochydore and Mooloolaba town centres are lovely, as was Bribie Island, Caboolture and Caloundra. All tourist-oriented of course, and lots of high-rise but still beautiful beaches, lots of trendy shops and cafes, good sushi and great weather.

Still more exploring to do over the next couple of days, and on Saturday morning we're off to the Eumundi Markets before heading out of here on Sunday morning toward the Gold Coast to see our 'surrogate' grandson S-J and his mum and dad. (It won't be long now guys!)

Maroochydore - we're outta here!

We arrived at our pre-booked destination at Woombye (near Buderim) late this afternoon only to discover that the site was totally inappropriate for our van. Struggle though we did, there was no way our caravan was going to fit onto the site. So we had no choice other than to pull-the-pin and make a retreat before all the park 'busy-bodies' threw in their two-bob's worth!

Desperate phone calls for accommodation resulted in the only site left anywhere for a 100klms (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration - maybe it was 50klms!) and we made our way to the 'Maroochy Cabin Village and Caravan Park', described as being 100 metres from the river, the site 'grassed' and the owner to assist to reverse the van if we needed it. Need it! You should see this site! We were greeted by not a skerrick of grass and huge palm trees on the perimetre of a damp, slippery, slimy patch of dirt suitable only for a camper-trailer. T.'s nerves shot through the roof and D.'s stress levels reached epic proportions just looking at it. The owner offered to get his tractor to back the van into place and after much too-ing, fro-ing, and audible cursing, the van is finally in place. So wet is the ground that the owner scrounged up a couple of planks so that we have something to step onto to avoid slipping! I think we're outta here tomorrow morning instead of staying the 4 nights as planned! Will keep you 'posted'.

Wild Night in Bundaberg!

Ok, I know some of you are thinking, what do these Grey Nomads get up to at night that constitutes a 'wild night'? However, let me assure you that last night's experience had absolutely nothing to do with anything exotic we could have dreamed up!

Normally the song of rain on our roof at home is music to our ears but last night's 101mls of precipitation in Bundaberg caused more angst than joy. For over 3 hours torrents of rain pounded the 10-square-metres of our roof; thunderous rumbles rolled around and tongues of lightening licked the surrounds of the hatch directly above our bed. And just to top if off, the huge shade tree we'd so admired the day before, creaked and groaned directly above our heads. Sleep we didn't! As Bundaberg is a geographically relatively flat region, we quickly packed up this morning and left before water run-off turned into floods. We did drive through some flood water but were lucky enough to be able to drive south into clearer weather.

Lake Maraboon: Fairbairn Dam (Emerald) - 2 stops back!

Situated 18klms from the town of Emerald, Lake Maraboon is a park on the foreshores of Fairbairn Dam. It was very relaxing even though the park is quite big and clearly very popular. The fact we got a site at all was pretty lucky as we understand some visitors book months in advance. We had a great site backing onto bushland for 2 nights and were visited by wallabies and possums which came into the camp ground at night to feed on the lush grasses throughout the park. There are apparently koalas in the area too but we weren't lucky enough to see any. We were also visited by a variety of birds - Take a look a the pictures of the cheeky lorikeets who invited themselves almost into our door!