The Sunshine Coast
You can tell we are waning a little by the infrequent posts😊 Most of that is due to the freaky weather Qld is having at the moment. Rain here soaks you to the skin if you get caught in it so we have had to be careful with our activities and choose days when no rain was expected. This has been tricky as their wet humid season has started a month early. Temperatures are still in the high 30s with Brassall often up to 35+ so trips to the coast cools everything down.
Nat went back to school on the 22nd but before she did we had a lovely day on the coast at Redcliffe - the only really sunny day all week.
Redcliffe
What a lovely place Redcliffe is. It is mentioned quite a bit in a book I have been reading by an Australian author Trent Dalton "Boy Swallows Universe" which has just been made into a Netflix series. It was quite cool as I knew loads of the places mentioned in the book as it is set in Brisbane/Ipswich.
The most famous residents of Redcliffe had to be the Bee Gees as they started their careers from here. There is an area in the centre of town called the Bee Gees Way which tells their life story - very interesting with lots of video footage of the group along with two sets of statues - one as they were when they lived in Redcliffe as children (teens) and the other when they were a lot older and more successful.
On a Sunday, Redcliffe has a great market. Personally next to Eummundi, I think, it is the next best we have been to in all the States/Territories. For lunch we drove down to Woody's point and had an amazing lunch at the Belvedere Hotel. We were so stuffed that a short walk along the pier was about all we could manage, David did not even make it to the pier, sitting and waiting for the rest of us on a park bench. Was a lovely day though and we all fell asleep when we got home😂.
The next day we organised a return trip to stay with Ben & Leah and their family in Glenview as it was easier to tour the Sunshine coast from there. This enabled us to return home by Friday so we could be back with Nat & Rob for Australia Day and the long weekend.
So the idea was to visit all the remaining water towers in Queensland that we could realistically get too. We had bought the book so had a map and the co-ordinates of where to find them. If you would like to see them all - click the picture - I made it a link to the website.
Monday - 22nd January
First was Chappel Hill Water Tower but as soon as we got into the car to set off that morning we had the engine emergency light come on in the car. To cut a long story short there was nothing wrong. Nat&Rob drive is on a steep incline and the car had been sat out in the 40 degree temp all weekend and we think it didn't like it. So three hours later we set off and I cut out our planned trip to Mt Coot-Tha Lookout and the Botanical Gardens. Thus we would still get to Ben & Leah's by 6pm.
Chappel Hill
The water tower at Chappel Hill was by far the largest and squarest we had seen. It was such a shame that it had become victim to graffiti. Next to the WT was a shelter which also had some lovely murals on them too.
Ferney Hills
Kallangur
Kallangur WT was one of the hardest to actually work out where to park to be able to get out of the car to take pictures as it was located on a busy intersection but David managed to work it out. Also beside the tower was a great tribute to the navy and all elements of it. I thought it was really cool.
Rothwell
This water tower was beside residential housing and I could see why lots of the residents had low fences on the side facing the water tower. Lovely to see no graffiti!
Caboolture
This is one of my favourites. It is on the site of a war veteran's nursing/old people's home. I got chatting to one of the members of staff who said the whole development had been rebuilt recently to ensure that all the rooms either have a view of the glass house mountains or the sunshine coast. It really is a lovely setting.
Caloundra
By this time David had been driving for 3 hours and it was mid-afternoon and the temperature was just under 40 so we needed a break. We decided to drive along the coast to find something and landed at King's Beach. A lovely looking family beach area and was obviously very popular with the amount of high rise hotels and holiday accommodation.
When we arrived at Ben's he was on his ride-on mower trying to get his 2+ acre lawn cut before the forecast cyclone rains forecast for Sunday, hit. He had been out in the garden all day working and looked exhausted - just like Rob! I think it is easy to forget how much work goes into looking after a large property. Anyway we had a lovely evening with Ben and Micah playing their guitars - very relaxing.
Tuesday
Gympie
Off to visit their gold mine museum. I was very tempted to go on the Mary Valley Rattler but it would take about 3 hours and we decided David could do without being bounced around for that length of time but if we do ever make it back, it is on my list of to dos.
The gold mine was as most museums are, fascinating. We started well with a miner's breakfast for David and a bacon and egg roll for me without the dreaded barbecue sauce - which I hate! We then learnt loads we didn't know, saw things we had never seen before such as a pre-qwerty typewriter and got to do something we had never done before - pan for gold. All in all we had a great morning. Best of all the weather stayed dry; lucky for David as he through a pan of water over himself. The only downside was a lot of the museum was still being renovated after the horrendous flood they had in 2022. It was taking them a long time to recover, as almost all the work is done by volunteers, and several exhibits were still shut including the bridge to the mine. We had great fun panning for gold.
Opposite the mine in a local park was a lovely mural.
To drive home we decided to take the back roads through the mountains so we could see Mapelton and Malaney, especially as the former had a water tower. There was an article we had read recently listing the 10 most attractive small towns in Qld and we had visited them all except Maleny so we thought we ought to take a look as the other 9 were lovely.
Mapleton
The drive as expected was lovely. I made a bit of a mistake with where the water tower was, as we just had the name of the road. So I suggested we turn left and we went on a lovely 15km drive up single track roads on the side of the mountain. The houses were pretty spectacular but no water tower. In the end I asked a local who told us it was in the back of the sports centre behind the lily pond (more a lake) - no wonder we couldn't find it from the road. However on the bright side we got to see a lot of this lovely little town and had lunch at the bakery so all was not lost!
Maleny
As we left Mapleton the promised rains descended. As we have said before, when it rains here it pours. We drove through Montville where we stayed on our last visit over New Year in 2019 and not much has changed apart from fewer stores open and restaurants changing hands. A consequence of Covid I guess. Due to the rain pictures are limited and when we got to Maleny we didn't get out but rather made our way home to Bens. By this time the rain really was torrential. A bit of a shame but we have now been - tick!!
Wednesday
We had heard that Rainbow beach was lovely and if the tide was right you could drive onto Fraser Island. Obviously we weren't going to do that as we don't have a 4WD but I did want to take a look. As we were going that high Ben suggested seeing the wild dolphins at Tin Can Bay. Now Rob had mentioned this to us too but we weren't that fussed as we had both swum with dolphins a couple of times before but these were wild and you got to feed them which I thought would be quite cool.
Tin Can Bay
So we set off at 5:00 am in the morning as it was nearly a two hour drive and they suggested you got there for 7:00 am ready for feeding at 7:45 am. David decided he didn't want to go in with them due to the underfoot conditions in the water being very rocky. The tide was in of course and you weren't allowed to touch the dolphins at all but this didn't spoil it as an amazing experience. So cool - they were lovely. I got to feed Ela who is the matriarch of the group. She is 40 and has a 2 year old pup. I instantly felt for her. David got a great video but it is too big to put here. First a little history on Tin Can Bay along with a video David took of a typical hut.
What a fab way to start a day. Breakfast was good here too!
Rainbow Beach
Ben suggested rather than the beach we head for the "Sandblow Lookout". Whilst it wouldn't give us access to the beach it was rather a spectacular sand phenomenon (similar to the desert in Denmark we saw last year) and it was just a short walk through the rainforest to get there.
The photos don't really do the scale of it justice so I took a video from the lookout. Also as you were walking up to it through the rainforest the sound of the crickets or whatever they are was so loud so I took a video of that too - not to mention the trees are lovely.
We did actually then drive down to the beach area further on and it was lovely - I can see why people like to go. Everything always looks good in sunshine. Our next destination was Noosa Bay but again we took some very interesting back roads to get there. I do like finding the single track roads!
Noosa Head
We couldn't remember whether we had been to Noosa before but as soon as we drove into town we immediately recognised it as the parking is "hell" and Rob had to park one end of Noosa and ran the length of the main street to bring the car back for us. Again Ben had suggested we go to the "Boiling Pot" look out as it had the best views. The boardwalk continues around the bay but takes a couple of hours which of course would be too much for us.
The plan was if we could get parked to go into Noosa itself for lunch along Hastings Street which is the "posh" place to eat. However, as expected we had to go right up into the National Park section and got the last disabled spot so didn't want to stay too long. So no lunch 😔.
Peregian Beach
Our only water tower today was to be here. We drove along the coast road from Noosa in the hope we would find a decent cafe (rather than fast food) to have something for lunch but sadly couldn't find anything. Fortuntely we knew Leah was making lasagna for tea so that kept us going. The water tower wasn't the best and you couldn't really get around it.
We again had a lovely evening. Leah made a broccolli salad which quite frankly was one of the tastiest salads I have ever had, the dressing was scrummy. She gave me the recipe.
We had such an amazing, relaxing time at Ben and Leah's, the constant laughter of the two younger girls was quite magical. They are planning a trip to the UK in 2025 and we will definitely be meeting up.
Thursday
We said our farewells to the Crispes and drove off for Bribie Island. There were two water towers there and the beaches were supposed to be lovely. It did not disappoint. It was a lovely day.
Bribie Island - Bongaree
As you cross the bridge the town of Bongaree is on your right. What a lovely town, full of older retirees and I could see why. There was a breathtaking walk along the front, loads of seating, minimal steps down into the water and plenty of cafes to stop for light refreshment. My grandparents would have loved it here. We found a wonderful seafood cafe and people were having fish at 9.30am so we decided it was definitely the place to come back to for lunch (which we did!). The water tower was in a car park for the local bowls club so easy to access.
The wire work statue was made by the same person who did the School Bus statue in the tourist information office in Coonamble - just as impressive.
Bribie Island - Woorim
This part of the area was more for families with wide sandy beaches and lots of holiday accommodation. The water tower was on the main road beside the local IGA. It was so hot we actually went down onto the beach and paddled - it was gorgeous. To show how hot it was, our feet and legs were dry by the time we got back to the car.
We had a lovely morning on Bribie but after lunch we left and headed for our last water tower of the day at beachmore.
Beachmere
Quite a small quaint little town without the usual gorgeous sandy beach really. It was more a walking dog friendly beach as was quite stoney but still lovely.
To get home to Brassall we had two choices either go via Brisbane and motorways or go around the top of the great dividing range through Somerset again. Well for us no question really as we hate motorways. It meant a 2 hour drive home rather than 11/2 but well worth it. We would go through some towns we hadn't done before and then get to Somerset which is one of the prettiest areas we have driven through - it lives up to its name.
Woodford
Well this was a surprising little town because as we drove into it there in front of us was a water tower with very interesting artwork on it - not listed in my book! It was very different and a cool find.
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