Sunshine Coast
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
1
26
228
Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
Mackay,
Australia
Saturday, December 30, 2006
We spent last night at Noosa Heads State Park, near the beaches, so we'd have a head start on the sun this morning. Noosa Heads is a very popular resort town and for good reasons. The breaches are beautiful, although not as extensive as the Gold Coast, rather stretches of white nestled between dramatic rock out crops against which the surf crashes. We trekked a few kms down on the walkway down the coast to Alexandra Beach [GPS 26 23.040S 151 06.940E] another 'free' beach. By 2 PM we'd gotten our dose of sun and were in the camper headed north again on the Bruce. We wanted to get as much distance as we could so we drove until it was dark and pulled off at a highway rest stop just south of Gladstone. [Gladstone city center: 23 50.581S 151 15.336E]
Dec
12-29a
. 30, 2006 Gladstone is located on the Tropic of Capricorn. Not far away are the Capricorn Caves, a good side trip on our way to MacKay where we are to meet Stuart and Denise. We have been exchanging e-mails for months and had hoped to spend a night with them but we are behind schedule and will only have time for a short meeting.
The Capricorn caves are a karst formation inside a mountain and are supposed to be the largest caves in the southern hemisphere. There are some interesting cavities in the cave and the tour takes only an hour. One large chamber is called the cathedral where weddings take place on compress bat guano many meters thick. The acoustics a so good in the chamber that the Queensland Orchestra has performed here. Obviously it was not the whole orchestra because it's not that big. Aussie tour guides have a tendency to exaggerate. But it's worth the time and is not far off the route. By early evening we were in MacKay at motel with efficiency suites just off the beach. [21 09.898S 149 11.739E]
Dec. 31, 2006
Denise and Stuart meet us at our motel this morning and brought along fresh Danishes for breakfast
12-29b
. We learned about life in MacKay and their work here and told them stories from the road and life in the states. We had a very memorable exchange, promising that if we were every to pass this way again we'd make sure to spend more time with them. For sure if they ever come to the states again we want them to stay with us. We were on the road again by noon. Our next destination is another must see tourist spot Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. In the late afternoon we found a camp site at Taylor Wood Caravan Park Proserpine near Airlee Beach. We were just in time to join the other campers in a New Years Eve celebration and dance. It was a wild time in the Woods. [20 24.433S 48 40.276
