Gold Coast Road Trip!!

Road Trip!

Monday morning we made our way back towards the airport to pick up our Jucy El Cheapo Camper, which we had booked for the week, for a road-trip to the Gold Coast. Albeit very modest and only costing $20 (£10) a day, we were quite impressed with our little van and began to head South towards the Tambourine Mountains.

From the top of Mount Tambourine you get some awesome views both towards and away from the city. We drove around for a while and had a good look around before heading towards a little campsite set into the forest. After changing the benches in the back of our little camper into a bed, we had the pleasant experience of being able to watch the stars as we fell asleep, sun roof open! The weather was starting to warm and had become really quite pleasant.

Fauna and Flora

The next morning we visited The Tamborine Mountain Glow Worm Caves. The artificial caves were created as part of a conservation effort to help protect the glow worms. Primarily their success at breeding means that they now host a very healthy little population, but also allow a safer way for both humans and glow worms to interact. The tour guide we had was full of beans and gave us loads of information on the Tambourine Mountains Glow Worm Caves, Tambourine Mountain itself and of course the glow worms. After a little tour and a short video where the lights were dimmed to let our eyes adjust we were led into the glow worm caves, where an amazing light-show, much alike the night sky, was presented to us!

We stopped for a short walk down to the Curtis Falls, a beautiful little free walk through rainforest to a great viewing point of the falls, before heading to Tambourine Rainforest Skywalk where we were able to take a walk in the canopy of the Rainforest. The self guided route contains some information on the more popular rainforest residents and although we didn’t get to see any wildlife, aside from a couple of small birds, it was worth paying for the walk to get a better angle on the Rainforest. After a bite to eat, we jumped back into the camper and headed south again to Surfers Paradise!

Surfers Paradise

We arrived on the Gold Coast with enough time to visit Broadbeach before it started getting dark. After a quick walk to pick up some sand to cover the camper with we headed to a campsite next to, but pretty much on, main beach. This was a little more “glamorous” than the sites we had intended to stay at but it was almost on the beach and we were looking forward to a good shower. After dinner we headed into the parade of shops near Main Beach and located a Baskin Robins for pudding. On the way back we managed to stumble across a Bavarian bar where we stopped for a quick drink and to watch a bit of Wimbledon.

The next Morning I found myself on standing on Main Beach, cold, at 6am, for no good reason, awaiting the sunrise. There was a fair amount of cloud on the horizon which did make the effort seem a little unreasonable but we still saw the sky ablaze with early dawn colours. Although I am not sure what was most impressive; the sunrise or the amount of surfers who had managed to make it out on the water before the sun had actually reared its head!

We then dotted ourselves along the Gold Coast, heading south, to check out it’s famous beaches and, in addition to Main Beach and Broad Beach, we managed to have a quick walk along Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach and Miami Beach taking in turns to drive so that Nikki could get used to driving the camper. On her second stint of driving we were directed by a police officer to pull over into a coned off area where she was randomly breathalysed. Something you never see in the UK, but is great to see!

Our last stop was another sunset beach visit at Coolangatta where we had a quick walk along the beach before I took over the driving for the rest of the way down to Byron Bay. Once we had successfully located a campsite with some room available we parked up and headed into town to see the sights and Dinner.

Whales and Dolphins

The next morning we took a drive up to the light house at the end of Byron Bay. As we parked up the parking attendant was keen to make sure we knew where the whales and dolphins had started showing and sure enough 4 or 5 pods of whales were putting on a display in the distance and as we walked around we saw a few dolphins hunting in the waters around the lighthouse!

We had booked a to go out on a Go Sea Kayak Byron Bay tour and as we had an hour or two to spare we headed to the beach for a walk. As we walked down the path towards the beach the morning tour were just coming in and to our delight we could overhear them talking about their encounters with the Dolphins. Eventually it was our turn and the friendly staff got us kitted out and ready to go. It was amazing how knowledgeable and caring of the Bay the staff were and it was an absolute delight to from the moment we arrived to talk with and learn from them about Byron Bay.

The hardest parts of sea kayaking are getting out through the brakes and surfing them back in. I know this now, having failed to do each of those without ending up in the water, however this just adds to the fun! Although we rowed right out of the bay, stopping a few times to rest-up, we failed to spot any wildlife. Surprisingly this did not spoil the experience as our guides filled the journey with information on Byron Bay, whales and dolphins. After our THREE HOURS of paddling in the sea, which included half of that of rowing towards the beach, a mere speck on the horizon, which never seemed to get any closer; we were cold and shattered. Luckily though, once we recover we get to do it all again as the guys at Go Sea Kayak Byron Bay offer a wildlife guarantee, so we are looking forward to going back out and seeing some dolphins up close, after a few trips to the gym of course!

Back to Brisbane

This morning… we are in pain. The three hours of kayak torture have caught up with us and waking up on a rather cold morning with our muscles screaming was a little bit of a chore, especially given the task of packing up the camper to head home. Seeing as we only have a week before we take on our bigger camper for a month Nikki wanted to get some driving hours in, so she drove the complete journey back from Byron to Brisbane. I’d forgotten how dull being a passenger was!

We’ve dropped off the Camper back in a similar shape to when we collected it and after a quick shopping trip in the city we headed home and are going to get our heads down for horse riding tomorrow morning. We are going to hurt!