Bowenville Reserve

We were recommended Bowenville Reserve by a family camping next to us in Surat.  It's funny how you get a recommendation for a "great camp" from fellow travellers that you've met, and when you get there it's absolutely not what they described or what you were expecting. 

Well, that's the best way we can describe our experience with Bowenville Reserve. We were expecting a small camping area where you could set up an intimate camp and enjoy a nice fire to ourselves.

In fact the area that it encompasses is huge to say the least. And because it was the weekend, extremely busy with locals camping there. Mind you, we're not complaining as it turned out really nice, but so many people. The area was the size of a small farm!

That's only about 10% of the place. We had an elevated river view

Beerwah Sports Ground

We stayed here for two nights, each side of having the van repaired at Bushtracker. The local caravan parks have been complaining that the sports ground taking away their business. So now you can only stay a maximum of 3 nights, and no power. When we've stayed here previously there was power. But for $15/night in the centre of the Sunshine Coast who's complaining?

We had our shattered solar panel replaced with a new one, and a shiny new oven which is fan forced! Welcome to the 21st century.

Noosa

Then it was up to Noosa for 4 nights staying in a "real" caravan park, concrete slab, grass, power, water, sullage and toilets. All the luxuries! We were spoilt. The park is in a great location close to cafes, restaurants and the famous Hastings Street shopping in Noosa.

Naturally we had to go to the Noosa Surf Life Saving Club for an extended lunch. Besides being a bit cold, it was so good we went back there again. The second time it was a bit warmer and we were able to enjoy ourselves a bit more.

We really gave our bikes a good workout around Noosa.

The van park is on the river, which is always enjoyable. But it really was too cold at sunset by the water, but Alan braved it in his trackies and Ugg boots.

Hervey Bay

We enjoyed 4 nights in Hervey Bay, overlooking Fraser Island. We enjoy Hervey Bay, as do many older people. It's called "Gods Waiting Room" and we can easily see why.

Makes us feel like a couple of younguns around here.

They also have issues with the bored youth in the area, and all caravan parks have warning out about things getting stolen at night. You have to be very diligent around here. The other night 2 eBikes were stolen, and an elderly gent in our caravan park had his Mobility Scooter taken! How low can they go?

Morning coffee, we can do these things up here :)

From here we have 4 nights in Coolum Beach and then 4 nights on the Gold Coast.

Then..... home? We're still really unsure about going to Sydney and lockdown. So many people we talk to here, and friends back home are saying we're mad going into the terrible situation down there.

But we really want to see our kids and Casper, which we can do once the new rules are relaxed for vaccinated people.  The day after we get home, we'll be able to gather outside in a group of 5.  But if something changes between now and next week, we could be isolated there wishing we had never left Queensland, as we can go anywhere from here, even WA!