FROGGLES TRAVELS

After months of packing, selling and renting out of properties, we are getting ready to hit the road, and hopefully complete that lap of Australia.

Anticipated departure date is the 26th February 2016 and our first port of call will be Scarborough Holiday Village in Redcliffe north of Brisbane.

Good bye Palm Meadows Drive and looking forward to our return to this lovely home.

Townhouse being packed up

 


 

 

 All belongings packed and safely stored and ready to leave the beautiful Gold Coast.

AND NOW OUR TRAVELS BEGIN

 

Caravan Hitched and ready to go

Good luck hug from Sue at Currumbin Caravan Storage

26th February we collected our caravan from Currumbin Caravan Storage, Sue & Tony (the owners) were fantastic, they helped us get the caravan correctly leveled up with our car, and not to mention a wealth of information, tips and advice on doing the lap of Australia.

Our trip from Currumbin to Scarborough went well, we were heavily packed as we had all the excess stuff from the Townhouse that could not go into the container that was going to be distributed between Angelique and Adrian.  

Our Setup at Scarborough

Set up at Scarborough as can be seen not much shade, was very hot

Our first leg of the adventure did not go without it's own problems.  Due to the caravan having being stored for such a long period of time, the batteries that fit underneath the bed in the caravan, was at an all time low.  

With this happening, it meant that one of the batteries became defective and decided to give up the ghost. 

Our defective battery

  


It bulged and split wide open giving off an acid smell, throughout the caravan. 

Super bulged battery

The problem was remedied by Marshal batteries on the Monday 29/2/16, at a staggering cost of $800.00. 

 

Our Saviour's of the day

                                                      

Fortunately we were able to stay with Angelique and Blake on the Sunday night, as we had to disconnect all the electrics to the caravan.

Bee Gees Way - Redcliffe

Information on all the Bee Gee Brothers

Once our 1st Challenge was sorted, we did do a bit of exploring around Redcliffe that boasts this lovely walk way in honour of the Bee Gees.  The Gibb brothers grew up in Redcliffe as young teenagers before becoming famous.

Statues of the Bee Gees

Wall showing all their songs

On our explorations we discovered a lovely walkway on the esplanade of Redcliffe, it has a BBQ area and a pool area, a real gem hidden away from the everyday hustle and bustle of life.  

Swimming pool

Walking along the path with the views

 Scarborough caravan park also had a lovely walk along the waters edge, and a lovely cafe close by to get good coffee and a great breakfast.




We left Scarborough on the 2nd March and made our way to Bli Bli which is situated inland from Mooloolaba and Maroochydore, and stayed at a place called Riverside Caravan Village.

Setup at Bli Bli Caravan Park

View from our site to the waters edge

The first few days we went to Coolum, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba, Marcoola beach spending this time walking on the beach with the dogs.  Bernie also went boogie boarding and the waves got the better of him, with him coming out with badly grazed forehead and injuring his left shoulder.

Needless to say the rest of that day was very subdued and sat in our shelter on the beach and had cheese and crackers for lunch.

After this we decided we were "beached out" for a while so went inland, and what a fantastic decision.  Saturday 5th March we made our way to Palmwoods, Montville & Mapleton.  We stopped in Palmwoods for breakfast at an organic cafe, horrified to find that it was definitely organic and there were some worms in the food, either from the salad greens or the tomato.  However, I was so thankful for my investigative eyes, that spotted this.  Needless to say the owner was horrified and gave us a refund.  Must say did not have much of an appetite the rest of the day.

Montville main road

Lily ponds at Mapleton 

Next day we travelled inland and decided to head towards Yandina, from here we started driving towards Wappa Dam only to come across Wappa Falls Astronomical Observatory.  What an amazing find.  2 Hours later we left, this man reminded us of Doc from back to the future.  He built this astronomical observatory via donations, and holding lessons in astrology in his back yard, he also goes out to schools, etc.  What an amazing man. 

Outside his auditorium where he showed us all his telescopes, some videos, very fascinating.  Spoke mostly about the suns effect on the earth.

In his observatory, here he was showing us all the different stars and different galaxies out there.  Next to him you can see the bottom half of a telescope that he built.  

So much like the Nutty Professor.












 

 A little later we made our way to Wappa Falls and Wappa Dam

Wappa Dam gorgeous spot with BBQ facilities really lovely.  However for us travelling with dogs could not stay too long, as dogs are not allowed.

Portion of Wappa Dam and wall.

We then travelled through a national park road making our way back to Mapleton to then travel to Kenilworth, Imbil, Kandanga taking the Mary Valley tourist drive.  All very scenic.  Attached below is a map showing our travels while we were in Bli Bli - 02.03.2016 - 9.03.2016

The Green highlighted areas is what we travelled from Bli Bli

Next port of call is Tin Can Bay 09-03-2016 - 16-03-2016