Sunshine Coast - but a bit showery!

For Karen:

There was a young girl from Caloundra,

who had lots of fun and family 'round her

we slept in her bed,

and were really well fed,
but where was that young girl from Caloundra?

Our destination in the Sunshine coast was Caloundra, where we were lucky enough to have another invitation to stay in 'real' beds! This time with Helen Chaplin - Karen Drabsch's Mum, who we have met several times in Keith when she has been visiting the Drabsch's.

We arrived to stay fo a night, or two, and were looked after so well... that we ended up staying for 4! ( You shouldn't be too kind to 'travellers', or they might stay forever!)

This was a great opportunity to get all the "dirt" on Karen, and see some of her "haunts" from years gone by. Especially, when were treated to a visit from some of her family while we were there - Jan & Kevin (and Scruffy, the dog). They had many great stories to tell of 'adventures' with Karen. But "mum's the word" - we won't tell a soul!

We had a great time talking to Helen, Jan & Kevin about camping and travelling and great places to visit. It's nice to hear other people's recommendations, or warnings, about locations we may visit.

The Sunshine coast has some amazing sights, in and around it. Some of the highlights we took in were:

• 
  
  Glasshouse Mountains and home via Maleny ( a gorgeous little town, that would be great for a more in depth, slower look, with less kids and more female company!!). There was some great hilly/mountainous scenery, even if the weather was a bit showery.







• King's Beach, at Caloundra - with it's boardwalk, saltwater pool, brightly coloured kite surfers and sail boarders, and only being a stone's throw from the top tip of Bribie Island. And interesting to see the cargo ships on there way to and from Brisbane, come in really close to the shore and then veer up the coast through the shipping lane between Bribie and Moreton Islands ( I think??)

Barra Fishing, at a fish farm. I think most of the Barra must have escaped during the floods in January!! I hooked a couple, but the line broke both times, so didn't actually reel them in?? But boy - were they huge! So, we'll have to wait a bit longer for our feed of barramundi.

• Noosa Heads - an interesting place. Thought it would be much more 'high risey', but lots of resorts/apartments/mansions built in to the hills and the trees. And very resorty. The walkway through the headland was fantastic - very 'tropical' (including the heavy shower of rain, that just seemed to 'dump' from the sky!) and intermittent views of the coastal rocky headlands, and around each corner was another 100 or so surfers trying to catch "the one". They were everywhere, like a trail of ants, up and down the walkway, boards under their arms and hightailing it to their favourite spot! The one -armed surfer was interesting - wonder if he had had one too many encounters with a shark. But if he had, it wasn't keeping him out of the water!

• The Caloundra Tip Markets! - This was an eye-opener ( not to mention a nasal opener!). Every Saturday, for a few hours, anything that is recyclable is set out and available for sale. A bit like a giant trash & treasure. Amazing the stuff that was there. We went to look and see if their was anything in the way of a half decent bike, that we could get so that we would be a 4-bike family again. We "oh so nearly" bought a reasonable bike for $25.00, that required a bit of work, including a new chain. Jed was not impressed! However, Jon also decided that the $79.00 K Mart option, might be much less mucking around, so this is what we ended up with! (Jed's not impressed with that either... but at least we now have one bike per backside again!)

Thefinal night we were there, we were joined for dinner, by Karen's brother Peter and his wife Sandy and their children Drew & Ella. This was a fun night, with plenty of lively conversation, nice wine, prawns, baked ham, roast vegies ... and the kids got us onto paper and drawing puzzles. Thanks Drew, for the 'impossible' puzzle. It's kept the kids quiet in the car for a bit!

Caloundra and the Sunshine Coast was great - Helen was a great hostess, we ate like kings while we were there and she encouraged us to feel at home, which we did. However, we had to leave, or we'd all be 10kg heavier.

Theonly thing missing in our time in Caloundra was ... Karen, Rod & the Kids(you'll have to be there next time to show us around!)