Suburbia.....

And we thought tolerance was needed in the bush and camping grounds-well in suburbia you need Tolerance with a capital ‘T’.

Our first night camped on the front lawn of our friend’s house – Keith and Gaynor at Coolum, we were subjected to a 4yr old girl screaming-nothing wrong with her – she screams for attention, (this child also has pet bantams that wake at daybreak), the other neighbour is an autistic adult-extremely low functioning-requiring 24/7 carers- he moans like a cow who has lost her calf to the dingos. Mix this with the neighbour vacuuming their car at 6.30am, the rental across the road who have finally gone to bed after their all -night party-Murray and I were not happy little ‘vegemites’.

Had we spent too long in the bush? Certainly, we had forgotton what surburbia living was like. While camping either in a camp ground/caravan park or free camping-the courtesy ‘rule’ is no noise before 7am or after 10pm.

However the plusses were; we had access to a beautiful pool, a daily newspaper, a Dan Murphy’s store not far away-no restrictions on buying alcohol. Each morning at day break we woke to the sound of lorrikets mixed with modified cars leaving for work, now and again we heard sirens or cars having a prang. The first few days we heard helicopters hovering over Clive Palmers Golf Course-it is a short walk away. Clive shouted 1000 needy people to a free Xmas Day lunch-we didn’t qualify-not sure what your ‘needs’ had to be. (PHOTOs)

Each house in the street was decorated with xmas lights and one even had a laser show beaming across the front of the house each evening. Murray decorated Keith and Gaynor’s house and their xmas tree,-we even discovered that there are special guttering hooks and self-adhesive fairy tree light hooks for flat surfaces.

We didn’t have any Xmas decorations, so I knitted a piece for the power pole next to our van and a xmas loop for the pool fence across the road-this lasted less than 12 hours! (PHOTO)

The humid muggy weather saw us head to the hills-we had a lovely drive to the Emundi markets, Kennilworth-cheese, Maleny.  At Kennilworth we bought a hand knitted nativity scene. (PHOTO)

The Australia Zoo-this was a rip off-, perhaps , we have become blasé having seen it all before. Entry is very fierce-the most we have paid so far on our trip-$47 each via concession, otherwise $59 each. $2 extra pp if you wished to visit the animal hospital. There are various shows during the day-we watched the (15mins),  Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors show-pathetic with staff making stupid wisecracks at each other, and birds flying across the stadium-Cairns Tropical Zoo has the best wild bird show we have seen in Australia. From what we could see there is a large area dedicated to exhibition space on the life of Steve Irwin-even the highway is named after him. Murray enjoyed feeding the elephant and Julia enjoyed hiding among the exhibits. (PHOTOS)

We had a night in Brisbane-purchasing a mystery hotel room through lastminute.com. The mystery hotel was the Mecure at King Edward Square-very central and we were upgraded to a refurbished room-it had a king size beautiful feather down mattress on top of the other mattress and a huge flat screen TV. We don’t have a TV in our van – so TV is a novelty-short lived though, by the time we had sat through endless advertisements, there appeared to be only 2 minutes of news. Breakfast was scrummy. While in Brisbane we visited the city library, state library, museum of contemporary art, tried a yum cha, (not as good as Perth or Auckland), (we are hanging out for a good feed of yum cha), and browsed the mall.

The cardboard seat made from corrugated cardboard caught my eye as well as the Asian quilt. Murray enjoyed the dinosaur sculpture. PHOTOS

Christmas Eve-up at 6.30am to the seafood shop to help Gaynor and Keith pack 2tonne of prawns into 1/2kg bags. (PHOTOS) Their business is for sale-if you are interested please ring Gaynor on 0412211147.

TCB/xmas

This year we are experiencing a few more Christmassy activities. Last year we decided to get off the road and hide away in the Mt Remarkables National park, but this year as we drive along the Queensland Coast we are made more aware of Christmas.

We enjoyed the Xmas Carols at Innes Park and were surprised by the turnout of people. Even the dogs joined in the fun. (PHOTOS)

Superman and Muz send Christmas greetings to everyone and hope you all have a safe Christmas.

Heading towards Tin Can Bay, we stopped at a free camp on the side of the road at Apple Tree Creek. This is an extremely noisy/busy spot-last week 3 people were killed here-we can see why, although it is 80kmph as you pass through Apple Tree Creek, very few trucks adhere to this. At night the speed noise is incredible as you listen to trucks roaring along the road. Apple Tree Creek has the most delicious pizza’s we have ever eaten, at the Sticky Beak Café and they also make a divine ginger beer/mango drink. The main reason we subjected ourselves to this noisy camp was – across the road is the Flying High Bird Park-claiming to be Australia’s largest aviary. It was, actually rather interesting and very clean, a bi run down, but even so we felt worth a stop. (PHOTOS)

Moving on the next day we headed to Tin Can Bay Tourist Park. We treated ourselves to a week here and the added convenience of an ensuite site. An ensuite site comprises of a shed/room next to your van that has a shower/toilet/hand basin and you don’t share with anyone. This ensuite was as big as a small garden shed, so we were able to put the WAECO in here and our dirty laundry, and the boys at night. These sites do cost more, usually up to $10 a night more, but being top tourist park members-with our discount we had a week here for $173.00. Alongside this we had access to a large concrete pool-the nicest and cleanest we have come across. One thing we do find in camping grounds is people keep to themselves-the friends we have made on our trip have come from ‘free/bush’ camping.

TCB is a lovely seaside, less commercial than Rainbow Beach. While we have been travelling, we have enjoyed the hospitality of various clubs as we join members for a spot of bingo. We have discovered that on the Queensland coast either morning or afternoon tea is provided, eg sammies and last week a Xmas afternoon tea at the Tin Can Bay Bowling Club-very yummy.

Fraser Island did not interest us, so we viewed from across the sand at Rainbow Beach. (PHOTOS)

A trip into Gympie was interesting-we had no idea this small town is on a hill and in the last floods the main street which is situated at the bottom, I guess in the valley floor, flooded. There is no reason to be fat in this town, up and down all day you would be walking, can’t imagine being able to ride a bike. Gympie has a lovely mosaic remembrance wall. The town must be suffering as it has numerous op shops, closed shops, and $2 shops. (PHOTOS)

On Thursday we are moving to Coolum Beach to spend Christmas with ex Kiwi/Perth friends.

Remember photos can be viewed on a seperate blogsite.

Photos can now be seen at

Hi Everyone who are reading our blog-
another blog has been created if you wish to view photos that relate to our adventures from Elliot Heads sth...onwards....
www.theadventuresofsupermanfotos.blogspot.com
Merry Xmas
Superman and friends