Got up early and made the most of the amenities by having a leisurely swim and using the communal laundrette so that everything was washed,  dried and packed ready for another adventure.  This is unfortunately the most northern part of Queensland we’ll be visiting. It would have been amazing to get up the coast to the borders with the Northern Territories but we need to keep south so we can hand the car back tomorrow morning without a really long drive.

Scrub a dub dub

With that in mind and the fact the white car was no longer white, I took a bucket of soapy water and washed the car while Sarah got the accommodation ready and the packed lunch sorted.

Goodbye Noosa Lakes

We are taking the coastal passage back, starting on the sunshine motorway and, at present, not much sun in the broken clouds. Here’s to blue skies ahead.

Pip stop

What’s that sign?

We got a couple of items including,  oranges, cherries, black grapes, melon and salad items.  Very healthy and very cheap.

OMG, veg, salads, fruits and prices to die for.  We stocked up for our lunch, dinner, breakfast and tomorrow’s picnic. Say goodbye to packet food and hello to fresh.

Aboriginal

Everywhere we have been it’s been interesting to read about the indigenous people that had a great relationship with their surroundings and cared for the land. Using it’s resources, knowing the dangers and respecting all life that lives within,  especially Mother Nature’s ability to destroy and heal itself.  Where did we in ‘the civilised world’ go so wrong and develop a ‘me, me, me’ at all costs attitude to life and the things we destroy for ‘advancement’ and wealth. What is wealth?

Over the past few days in Queensland we having been reading about the Kabi Kabi tribe. How they nutured the land and were forced off and resettled in towns by the logging industries while their home territories were stripped and chopped down to make way for a new Australia. It’s so refreshing to see how the national parks have helped stop this and bring back cultural heritage to areas.  Places around the world like Brazil are following this destruction of the forests on an unprecedented scale and one can only imagine what the indigenous tribes are going through there.

Industrial Beach

A short walk through the Wyanda Park and we came out to a glorious sandy beach. Picture postcard perfect until you looked left then right.  Both ends were industrialised so we headed off to find something more picturesque.

Shark victim

We headed to Bribie Island. Once there it was off to Woorim Beach. All along the railings were fresh flowers and a plaque in honor of a young 17 year old girl, Charlize  Zmuda who’d been killed by a shark exactly one year and a day ago.

There were still a couple of locals swimming there.  Suddenly they swam to shore and got out.  Chris and his friend were shaken as a shark’s dorsal fin had come up less than 10 meters from them. We went for a walk along the beach,  stick in hand as recommended, protection from the dingos should they come near.  We didn’t venture into the water and soon came to the lifeguard station.  I informed them what had happened at the beach with the locals.  They said dolphins had been spotted there in the morning.  We’re still not going in the water.

We drove to the other end of the island for some exercises. Well we kinda got fitter.

Then back to North Lakes to see Georgie and Jo. We donated our tent and camping equipment to Georgie’s son Jacob and after another tasty coffee, said au revoir, headed to our motel digs for the night via Woolworths supermarket for supplies.