Caretaker for a day

After spending an appropriate full

moon at Moonlight Dam in the Homevale National Park, we took Pipeline Road through the hills to get to our next destination. At Moonlight Dam, we had the camp to ourselves except for the late night arrival of a couple guys pigging with their dogs. The boys gave us a tip for a great 4wd track through the mountains on the Pipeline Road. Our lunch that day was on top of a hill and was Matt's favourite spot thus far - views from mountain to mountain with the red dirt track winding through the valley.

Once over the track, we landed down a steep decline from Eungalla to our current home for the past four nights at the glorious Platypus Bushcamp in Finch Hatton. After a couple days we must have warmed to the owner, Wazza, as he asked us to look after the place while he went into Mackay for his monthly stock up.

With Rocky the cockatoo and Dog the dog as friends for the day, we settled in on our roles quite nicely. We even worked in a swim or two in the river to pass the time in this true Swiss Family Robinson style camp.

As for the platypus, we haven't spied one ourselves yet but we also haven't tried that hard after the heaps we saw at the Jenolan Caves waters.

We're here for another couple days then on to the Wintermoon Festival before continuing our journey north.

Called a donger home

Revisiting Matt's past homes we went to Blackwater, Nebo and Dysart. In Blackwater we stayed at the camp's dongers - a single room

for each of us! I got to meet some of Matt's colleagues and eat at the mess. Yum, you can see why the miners can put on weight with this open cafeteria style!

In between we did go to Sapphire and Rubyvale in search of riches but alas we'll settle with each other's company.

Lots of rain around here so the lands were green and surprising to me, quite beautiful. We did a great hike to Rainbow Falls in the Blackdown Tablelands before on our way.

Next we are heading to Moonlight Dam for the full moon before going to the Winter Moon Festival on edge of Eungalla National Park.

Testing the winch

 And no, Matt has not resorted to calling me names quite yet but we did take some well provided advice and pulled out the winch on a friendly tree. And it worked! It pulled all 3.5 tons of us. Not to worry, all safety was used and no trees were hurt in this exercise as we utilised our special tree hugger equipment!

The site of this event was after a

brilliant camp at Wuruma Dam. This would have to be my fav so far - water's edge, view to love, no bugs (after the bull ants went to bed) and a dinner on the fire of beautiful steak, pumpkin and broccoli in the billy.

From wine to rum in under 24 hours

From illegal camping to lounging at a vineyard for free - make that an amazingly beautiful one with lovely owners and a dog to keep you company, and we felt like we'd hit the jackpot!

Brierley Wines was a gem of a spot and we purchased three bottles to keep us going.

The next stop wa Bundaberg Distillery. We took the tour and got to savour the taste, sight and smell of the beautiful molasses barn, see and walk through one of the American oak barrels (over 300 of them on site) and the visit the tasting room, aka bar!

With a purchase of a couple bottles of the Royal Liquour (only available

at the distillery) and the gold winner special double barrel rum, we were on our way.

Caught by the Ranger

Where do I start? We finally dragged ourselves from Noosa but only after a good triple surf session with rented boards from Classic Malibu (if you recall, we had to lose our boards in the diet thus the rental). Matt's smile returned in force and I stood up five waves in a row!!

As per usual we don't get far in a day's commute but did have loads of fun stopping in the local pub in Kin Kin. A beautiful establishment with stories of flooding by marks on the wall. We went in to ask the locals about a nearby 4wd track before heading out on it. Alas we got a different answer from each attendee but none without

a laugh and a story. In the end, we did decide on the safer route as they've had loads off rain but it was

no less beautiful.

So, how did we get caught by the ranger? We landed in Rainbow Beach in time to see sunset and the gorgeous Coloured Sands cliffs so decided to wing it and stay in the parking lot on the beach, illegally of course. Security came knocking at 10p so we

moved on to a tuckaway spot in the national park. I make only mention of Matt's altercation with the security officer who could show no ID and wore a mine security vest. No more on that but ask us over a beer sometime.

In our beautiful new hideaway in the dunes, we slept to the sounds of dew building on the trees and falling lightly on the scattered leaves. Only to wake and not dart off early enough (got to have our coffee) before the ranger drives by. Luckily with our story of the improper security guard the night before, he guided us to Queensland's national park rules and let us on our way.

Next stop - a winery that lets you camp with purchase of grog!

Home in Noosa

Landed in Noosa yesterday after a grand 11 kms drive! Yes, this is a slow journey but noone said it was going to be a race.

We did have a lovely dinner with Matt's friends, Kyla & Chris, and a

rainy night in their driveway with the knock of gum nuts on the roof before landing in the Noosa River Holiday Park.

We've had bit of sunshine & Matt is hard at work fishing at the moment but the forecast is for a wet couple days before the sun will emerge again. We booked a week so no rush - I can still enjoy the view!

A zoo-lot of fun

And fun is what we needed after our forced weight loss! We spent the day at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo and LOVED living like kids for the day.

The zoo is well kept with a focus

on the animals. The staff and trainers seem to love what they do and with that the animals seem happy. I'm not a huge zoo person but I thoroughly  enjoyed this one. We went to the croc show and were most impressed by the birds and the control by the keepers to get the rainbow lorikeets to return after so much fun circling the audience. A tour of the snakes for some personal research on the taipans and brown snakes then a wander through to the tiger show and a gander at the otters who always have fun!

The zoo is set up so you always get to see something whether it's the walk through kanagaroo alley or a pat of the koalas where signs point to look up in this tree. A great day indeed!

Then we pulled up camp at the Glasshouse Mountains for a night. Ahh, a hike tomorrow to Mt Tibrogargan then on our way.

Diet time

We've had a rough couple days after realising our massive overload so had to go on a diet that included losing the roof racks, surfboards, table, clothes, guitar, drum, laptop and so much more. I guess having the room for it doesn't mean you can take it. Turns out we over extended our vehicle's gross vehicle mass (gvm) by 300 kilos!

So the sweet sounds of Bluesfest quickly slipped away as if only a dream in the night (but sweet dreams they were with Manu Chau, Paul Simon, Kim Churchill, Ben Harper, Xavier Rudd, & The Lumineers to name a few).

Backtracking a bit, we left the comforts of Byron Bay after the festival & a home stay with Elke for a last farewell & another load of laundry. One night in Robina Qld then we headed inland around Wivenhoe Dam with a night near Somerset Dam before circling back to Gold Coast to sort out our weight problems. The lovely folk at ARB Caboolture gave us the ok on our suspension and we were on our way!

This did mean after one sneaky night in the Robina Pub parking lot, we had a night of luxury at Matt's mom's good friend, Cheronne's. And with this farewell by Cheronne & grandson, Oscar, how could we not be on track?!