Tin Can Bay to Mudjimba - Mudjimba, Australia
Mudjimba, Australia
Where I stayed
Mudjimba Beach Holiday Park
Thursday (22 October) was a very warm morning so by the time we were all hitched up we both felt like a refreshing shower!! Leaving the park around 9.15am we initially headed back towards Gympie before re-joining the Bruce Highway heading south approximately 100km to the Mudjimba Beach Tourist Park arriving just before 11.00am.
Our site was in the designated dog section (we found it to be very limited for dog friendly parks on the Sunshine Coast – particularly for larger dogs!) and with both a tree at the front of the site, one at the back of the site and trees directly opposite which made manoeuvring the van onto our site quite an exercise! Only adding to the difficulty was that we arrived just minutes after the family who had the site opposite us, so we also had to contend with their setup!
Finally onto our site and all setup we enjoyed a quick lunch before heading out to check out the local dog beach (looked good) and then further south to Maroochydore, Mooloolaba then continuing down the coast to Caloundra and Golden Beach. This was meant to be our next stop – however after driving through the very cramped park which was pretty well surrounded by high rise apartments on all but one side we dropped it off our list. After this we headed back to the park to prepare for some predicted severe thunderstorms. Fortunately for us they didn't actually eventuate!
Friday morning (23 October) the sun rise was at a ridiculous 5.03am (by the end of the next week it gets as bad as 4.59am!!!) so the small kids across from us were up and about by not much after 5.10am!! So not long after we arose, showered etc and then took Aero for a nice long walk as he would be having some extra sleep time later in the morning when we went into Maroochydore so that Wendy could have an eye test!! Fortunately her actual vision was still 20/20 and the optometrist put her 'blurry vision’ down to a change in environmental conditions! She does however need to invest in some reading glasses!!
After the eye test we popped down to Mooloolaba to have a walk along the foreshore before a delicious lunch at the local Surf Club. Wendy finally found somewhere that did Nachos with mince whilst I had a huge and very tasty Caesar salad! And the view was amazing lovely blue sky and golden sand! Heading back to the park after lunch we took Aero for a nice long walk and swim along the Mudjimba Beach.
Saturday (24 October) was quite a wet and miserable day, we did try heading out to the markets at Eumundi however after a very brief and damp look around we decided to leave and come back on the following Wednesday when it would hopefully be a tad finer. Spent the remainder of the day in the van and for the first time in quite a while we actually put long sleeve jackets on!
Awake and up early on Sunday morning (25 October) as the kids across the road were once again up with the sun and this time Dad had joined in and started packing up their van around 5.30am! We took Aero for another longish walk then left him behind (he loves all this extra snooze time!!) whilst we headed off to check out Beerwah (the sportsgrounds there get a really good wrap in Wiki Camps so we wanted to see them – may be an alternate next stop in lieu of Golden Beach). It looked really good and there were quite a few vans there! Next we did a short drive along part of the Glasshouse Mountains tourist route, where at one of the lookouts we met up with a Brisbane car club out on a weekend rally. One chap had a cut down Mini which Wendy thought was really cute, even hopping in for a couple of pictures!!
By now it was lunch time so we headed to what used to be known as the Ettamogah Pub but has now been renamed Aussie World Pub (yeah very tacky)!! However whilst the name was quite woeful the food was lovely. It was then back to Mudjimba to take Aero for a stroll and then he and I laid back to watch the V8 race at the Gold Coast whilst Wendy headed off to do some shopping! Later during the night a large thunder and lightning storm passed over our park, I awoke and listened to it for about 10 minutes, whilst Wendy (who hates thunder) was apparently awake for a good 2 ½ hours!!
On Monday (26 October) we headed a little north this time to visit Coolum Beach (where we had planned to stay however they have a 10kg weight restriction on dogs that are permitted to stay there). Then onto to Noosa along the river to Noosaville, Tewantin and the marina before heading back into Noosa where we spent quite a while trying to find somewhere to park. The town was preparing for the annual Noosa Triathlon so the main carpark area was closed. Eventually we decided that we’d just park up on the grass along the side of the road and hope for the best that parking inspectors had the day off! It was then into the Noosa Surf Club for lunch……..with more stunning views and great food we decided that Surf Clubs may become our staple for lunches!!
Arriving back to the park mid-afternoon it was off to the beach (for the last time as it turned out) for Aero’s favourite part of the day…off leash run and swim time!!
We had seen quite a few people who had ‘semi’ permanently mounted their Satellite TV dishes to the rear bumper bars of their vans and had decided some time ago that we would like to do the same. I had earlier found the mounting bracket at a store in Brisbane (the same company that supplied our satellite set up in WA). So on Tuesday (27 October) we all piled into the car and headed down the Bruce Highway (and part of the Gold Coast M/Way) to Underwood in Brisbane. After successfully buying the mount we called into the local Pet Barn store with Aero so that we could weigh him. When we first left home he weighed around the 35.5kg mark, we had him weighed in Mandurah WA and he had lost a couple of kgs topping the scales at 33kg. Somewhere along the road he had regained his missing kilograms and is now back to near enough 35kg!!
We then started the trip back north, via Scarborough near Redcliffe where we had heard there was a very nice park that was also dog friendly!! We decided that it did look really nice, so our next couple of stops will be the sportsgrounds at Beerwah and then Scarborough. We grabbed some Subway for lunch and parked to eat it overlooking the not so attractive mudflats at Deception Bay.
Arriving back at Mudjimba (via the now pretty defunct Big Pineapple) we took Aero for a really long walk along the beach but with lead on all the time (it was a bit late in the day for him to get soaking wet) before heading back to the park to once again prepare for a severe storm that had earlier wreaked havoc on some outer areas of Brisbane and was now heading in our direction. Thankfully once it reached our area it had significantly weakened and other than some intermittent thunder and lightning and light rain we had no issues.
After having rained most of the night, it was a wet and quite dreary looking Wednesday morning (28 October) that greeted us. However we still decided to drive out to the markets at Eumundi where at one stage the sun even shined…..only for about 5 minutes though! But the markets were great and we shared a huge and very tasty baked potato with bolognaise sauce!!
When we got back to the park where it was still wet, grey and drizzling – we renamed the Sunshine Coast to the Miserable Coast we started to pack up ready for our departure tomorrow. Wendy also put a load of washing through the parks washing machines (sheets/towels) and for the first time this trip we had to use the laundries driers to dry them!!)
Once we had done as much of a pack up as we could, we took Aero into the Pet Barn at Maroochydore (just to re-weigh him and confirm that he had re-gained his 2kgs). Sure enough the scales again gave a reading just over 35kg!!
That night we had a lovely Chinese dinner at Pacific Paradise. Tomorrow morning we move (but not very far) to Beerwah for 3 nights where we will also catch up with Karen and Michael (on Friday) and then Nikki and Ben on Saturday!!!
Oooroo Mick, Wendy and Aero
Times asked in the past 7 days: 7