Queensland part 1 - The Aftermath

We’re on the road again now that ex-cyclone Alfred has run it’s stretched out course. We’re only a day or so behind our rough schedule after a week of blitzing through Brisbane, the Gold coast, and the Sunshine coast (haha.), but missed out on some epic national walks and, of course, the surfing. We’re just about in coastal croc territory as we post this so enjoying the last ocean dips while we can. Anyhoo:

Sunday 9th March: Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay

WE ARE ON OUR WAY!! It might still be rainy, and we don’t know what the sun is any more, but we are back on the road. After checking all the travel and weather maps our destination is Byron Bay. We had a couple of stops along the way which we had wanted to do but alas floods don’t co-operate with swimming holes, so we had to skip a little bit.

Our first stop was just a couple of meters drive down the road to the Coffs Candy Store to see the infamous candy being made. Sadly, Alfred was causing them lots of havoc and with only one member of staff able to come in no candy was being made, but we did get to talk to an overly excited little pug.

The drive was pretty boring - straight up the A1/M1 but there were some cool art works on the many bridges we drove under. Our lunch stop was in Ballina. The Airbnb owners warned us not to stay because if it rains, we will get very stuck due to being low lying, so we had a flying visit to the Big Prawn! It truly was huge and surprisingly undamaged (minus one wonky whisker). We then headed to the water front for a lovely rainy and windy coastal walk, it was cool to see the erosion on the beach - a good 70cm drop down compared to the old slope.

Final stop before the campground was Byron Bay lighthouse - the most easterly point in Australia. Still rainy and still windy but we enjoyed the fresh air. Some crazies were even running in the pelting rain! Our campground was the most expensive yet and we had high expectations, but it was dingy and there was no hot water for most of the time… pretty unimpressed with it but hey ho. A funny end to the night when it was so humid the smoke alarm went off in the campervan!

Monday 10th: Byron Bay to Brisbane

We said “so long suckers” to our campsite and proceeded to explore Byron Bay and stock up on supplies. Our efforts were thwarted by the local electricity outages as all the ALDI fridges/freezers were empty and defrosting and so the remaining shelves were fairly bare too. Oh well, onto the next stop.

On our way out we called into the Stone and Wood Brewery, one of the few places open that day in Byron, for a quick tipple and tourism. We then called round to “the Farm” - an area just outside of Byron Bay dedicated to “farm to table” produce. With a light drizzle to keep us company we walked around and viewed the livestock and crops: chickens, goats, and a wee highland cow; and a few fields of banana trees and macadamia trees. We were looking forward to a warm lunch at the Three Blue Ducks (the same tasty chain we went to with mum and dad in Melbourne) but alas they were closed and only a small cafe was open. Ex-cyclone Alfred strikes again!

We continued along to a small village called Bangalow to the Butcher and Baker. They only had a limited menu available but what they did have was delicious. We halved a roast pork and gravy batch and a pork and fennel hot dog. They did not disappoint, and we could have eaten them both again! We decided if it had not been peeing with rain, we would have spent some time exploring but damn it was miserable. So, the bottle shop and the butchers were the only two places we did go!

A must see near Bangalow was Minyon Falls, we thought ooo that will be great after the rain we have had. But after about a 25-minute drive we hit a road closure and no other way there so who knows what Minyon falls looks like! Only a 50-minute pointless detour…

Our next stop was the Tropical Fruit Farm. They were open because we checked but a completely flooded out road meant that we couldn’t take the normal route, and the 20-minute detour pushed us just over the opening hours. A sad Chloe with no delicious fruit.

After a number of phone calls around the gold coast campgrounds got us no where we had to head to Brisbane. We got there at about 5.30pm and went for a lovely swim. This campsite is cheaper and SO much nicer than the last one. We are here for 2 nights to explore the city tomorrow.

Tuesday 11th: Brisbane

The time difference of an hour meant we were awake bright and early today and finally, for the first time in what feels like forever, we saw blue sky and the sun! Maybe not for the entire day, but at least some of it – I’m wearing positive pants today. We spent the day in Brisbane CBD and used Public Transport rather than drive and because of all the flooding, their payment system was down so it was a free transport day - thanks Alfred!

We started the day with our standard mountain walk - Mt Coot-tha. A small walk and we are looking forward to the national parks opening for some better ones, but it was a great way to feel like we were back on our trip. The humidity could have been a killer but the small over flowing creek crossings made the walk enjoyable. The views from the top were surprisingly good too!

We got back into the centre and headed to Southbank for some food. We went to Fritzenburger which was yum, but we were so hungry we didn’t think about taking a photo of our 241 burgers! We continued to explore the south bank and headed to the pool on the side of the river but due to the flooding it was closed.

The rain came back again at this point, so we took a quick turn to the Cultural Centre/Queensland Museum. There was a lovely opening exhibition about the Aboriginal people and making their voice heard. It was really calming and lovely to read the stories. We are hoping to find some more cultural experiences as we head up/round the country. The museum was a bit like the natural history but information mostly about Queensland. Awesome to see how the habitat/flora/fauna changes from the coats to the inland, really makes you realise quite how big Australia is!

A city stop without a brewery (mostly closed!) means only one thing, our next chocolate shop! The CHoCoLaTe Elements. We had a lovely chocolate tasting session with the owner starting with dark chocolate and ending with some ruby chocolate. We got a couple of bars, a 70% dark and a 57% which was on the border of milk and dark. Super yummy and we are making the most because she explained that the price of Cacao beans has gone up roughly 620% in the last few years - not good for the chocoholics like us.

Having only done 16000 steps we decided to head to Kangaroo point. I’m sure on a normal Brisbane evening there would have been heaps of people climbing/abseiling the rocks but considering they were more like small waterfalls there wasn’t much to see apart from some fun statues along the walk. We couldn’t believe how many people were running in the 28C, 98% humidity, they are braver than us! The bars started to come out as we were walking around but the public transport was on a reduced rate, so we headed back to the caravan site to make sure we didn’t get stranded! For a city, the Southbank was really lovely, but the Northbank was significantly more built up with sky scrapers. We still aren’t city people, but Brisbane was clean and friendly at least!

Wednesday 12th: Brisbane to Gold Coast

We opted for a late checkout at the Brisbane Holiday Village to make the most of the cracking facilities. Chloe and I did some morning lengths in the salt water pool, making the most of the sunshine that had hidden from us for the past week. A breakfast BBQ was on the agenda: sausages, eggs, beans, and Avo, plus a BOGOF on hot drinks courtesy of our stay. Unfortunately, the weather had had enough of our antics and decided to bucket it down during breakfast, but the outdoor kitchens and BBQ are under cover fortunately!

With our lazy morning finished, and the passing of the cyclone and its effects, we decided to make our way back down towards the Gold Coast to catch up on the things we skipped. Our main agenda: Tropical Fruit World once more! This time social media told us it was more or less back to normal, so we once again crossed the NSW/Queensland border (and time zone) in search of exotic fruit.

After retracing our drive to the Fruit World and comparing flood water levels of the nearby regions with our previous visit, we pulled up into the carpark and spotted the Big Avocado - another “big” statue for our list that we didn’t notice on our last hasty visit! We opted for a fruit tasting session, which the staff improvised given the recent reopening but oh so worth it. We tried a range of scrumptious and weird fruit such as: red papaya, purple dragon fruit, carambola (star fruit), mamey sapote, achacha, jujube, fuerte avocado, and babaco (champagne fruit). Chloe’s favourite was the achacha and mine was a tie between the babaco and the sapote.

Following our fruit feast, we called in at Snapper rocks for a leg stretch and saw the very luminous “frog rock”. We then headed over to Surfers Paradise to see firsthand the impact of the storm swell. Where once was a sandy beach there was instead up to four metres of sandy “cliff”. Not a single surfer in the waves, simply beachfront walkers taking photos of the erosion. A visceral reminder of the power of nature and a glimpse into the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.

Thursday 13th march: Gold Coast

We went prime gold coast visitors today and headed to Movie World for some adrenaline coasters! We started at the front for the DC rival’s coaster, turns out it’s the biggest Hyper Coaster in the southern hemisphere so the picture showed mostly Mike with white knuckles holding on for dear life. We stayed in the same area and went on the Green Lantern still a thrill, but I think we both enjoyed this a bit more as the head was rattled! Next stop, Mikes favourite the Justice League ride which was a shooting one. Chloe sucked at it, but Mike got heaps, turns out gaming so much has uses on these rides. We watched a 4D Wizard of Oz show, pretty average but the Aircon was a nice reprieve from the blazing sun.

The afternoon took us to the Wizard of Oz Area, an almost brand-new area which gave two thrill rides, but they were a bit tamer for Mike thank fully. An ice cream and sit down watching a stunt car show was a lovely break for round two on all the rides and one new one - the flash coaster. It was horrendous, imagine a pirate ship but on top of that, the set of six you were in was spinning and that’s exactly what it was. We both came off feeling pretty sick! We managed all the rides again and this time Mike was talking in the queue and even on some of the rides, think it solved his fear so hopefully we can go on some more as we travel. Overall, a pretty epic day, we were too cheap to pay for the official photos, but these ones made us smile!