The focus of this trip was to attend a 95th birthday party, attend an Explorer Motorhome(MH) Rally, visit friends and get the Lestervan serviced at its birthplace in Brisbane.  We also wanted to enjoy the scenery/drive there and back.  Keeping in sync with our ‘be flexible’ mantra we didn’t make detailed plans for the drive.  The way up turned out to be a celebration of beautiful NSW beaches and reminded us what a nice coastline and great National Parks (NP) we have in NSW.

Started with a night in Port Macquarie so we could visit Anne and then overnighted in the Trial Bay Goal campground.  A tour of the goal (jail) gave us some local and WWl history as it initially housed public works prisoners in the 1880’s.  They were attempting to build a breakwater to provide a safe refuge for ships going between Sydney and Brisbane.  In WWl it housed Germans who were rounded up for being German or having German ancestry. (Lucky Dick wasn’t living in Australia then!)

Of course we did a lovely coastal walk before heading to Yuragir NP and camping next to another beautiful beach, where we had a long beach walk in the morning.  The next two nights saw us in Ballina in a tent campground next to another beautiful beach, where we had another long  beach/bush walk but also enjoyed being near a town with nice cafes for lunch and even attended an amateur theatre production of ‘The Wonderettes Dream On’ (could also be known as a walk down memory lane for ‘1970’s music’). It was well done and well sung.

Since we needed to leave the Lestervan overnight for its service we booked into an AirBNB on Bribie Island as we hadn’t been there before and it sounded nice.  It was a very pleasant place to visit and we enjoyed a 7km beach walk, ending up at a surf club for lunch. After we collected the Lestervan we headed for Maleny and checked into the Explorer MH Rally in the showground.  This is a totally new experience – parked side by side with another 40 vans that all look the same as us.  People say to lock your doors as you never know who will wander in by mistake.  We have met at least a dozen fellow Explorers on the road during our travels and all have been nice and quite like-minded.  That continued with the people at the Rally and included a number we had previously met on the road.

The Rally itself was quite informal; from the sausage sizzle on the first night to the women’s and men’s discussion groups, and the catered Rally dinner and dance.  The Band played lots of ‘Baby Boomer’ music which suited the crowd perfectly.  We went to a brewery tour and lunch while others went walking and in the free time I had a successful shopping trip in a very nice dress shop in the little town of Maleny.

From there we drove to Noosaville to stay with our friends, Pamela and Rod. As always we enjoyed a lovely lunch out at one of their many favorite restaurants. It was a pleasant, relaxing visit.  Then we met other friends, Janice and John, for coffee and a chat before heading down to Mooloolaba to join my first Australian friend, Lesley at her father, Allan’s place.  We and the Lestervan have stayed in that driveway a few times now, so we feel a bit like part of the family.  Lesley’s sister, Barbara, also joined us for dinner and the next day the five of us went together to Allan’s 95th birthday party at the Buderim Golf Club.  About 45 people attended and we all enjoyed a great view and lovely lunch.  It was special to celebrate with Allan.  He is impressive and inspiring – gave a nice speech and walked around and spoke to every table at the lunch.  Many of his friends and colleagues from Bowls and Legacy were there, which highlights how active and involved he is in the community.

Our drive home took three nights so we could enjoy a few new places along the way.  Stayed in a free camp on the NSW/Queensland border before doing some hiking/climbing in Girraween NP.  Both of us felt pretty good after making the challenging climb to the top of the Pyramid, which was 250 m high and at least 200m up an exposed rock face. Then we headed for the Waterfall Way, a scenic, narrow road which winds down an escarpment towards the coast; and not surprisingly features a lot of waterfalls and national parks.  We camped in Cathedral NP before viewing Ebor and Danger waterfalls in our drive to the coast. We met Kathie, a friend from the Rally, in another NP camp on the coast.  Enjoyed a nice dinner together and a long beach walk in the morning, before our drive back to Sydney.

This was a 2633 km trip over 16 days and certainly very social, lots of fun and no corrugations in sight!!!