Gold to Sunshine Coasts

We left the Gold Coast and headed up the Highway, travelled thru Brisbane.   What we saw of Brisbane looked quite nice.   Wasnt interested in visiting any of the sunshine coast tourist stops,  and travelled on until we found us in a nice little campspot by a lovely creek, that was chockers by late afternoon.   Sadly everytime we ventured out to sit by the campfire, it rained, so all happy hours were abandoned.   The next day a trip to Eumundi and its Market.    Thanks to Andrew and Jan who recommended it.  It was a great market full of very nice crafts, beautiful  clothes, fruit, veges and lots of alternative type healing aids. Cures for everything here.   Psychics and tarot readers   Great food here as well.   Rick especially loved the German Sausage Hut.    We could have stayed in the market carpark overnite,  but opted to head up the road a bit.   We are at a beautiful campspot now, but in hindsight we probably should have stayed a little closer to the Coast for a day or so.   As we ended up driving 50km back on two days to sightsee.    Thats the joys of not studying the maps.

Birthday Boys having brekkie

Justin and Xavier

Dan and Bella

gold coast views

Boomerang Golf Club Clubhouse. Lush and beautiful golf course.   Not sure about the golf club, but highly popular for weddings as the golf course is a stunner.

Views from the National Park 35kms from us.

Natural Arch Waterhole.  This cave is full of glo worms.

Paintings along the Freeway.  The paintings are off children that have died or have a terminal illness.   Some bastard actually came along and graffitied eyeglasses on these little faces but it has now been cleaned up.

Happy Birthday Boys

Today, Saturday, 7th June is the boys birthdays.    Happy Birthday to our sons, Daniel who turns 36  and Justin who turns 34.    Dan lives in Bali, so we had a quick chat to him on his special day and hope his lovely family - Kristel, Bella and Cooper spoilt him.   Justin is home in Melton and we know for sure that Rachel and Xavier would have made his day very special.     HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS.     xx mum and dad.

A belated blog birthday wish to my brother MAC who had his birthday on Saturday 5th June.   MAC lives in Washington DC.

Coolly Rocks Festival

This Hot Rod/RocknRoll Festival has been something that we have wanted to see for years.    It goes for 9 days in Coollangatta and brings thousands to the City, including 1200 Hot Rods.   Thats the limit on the no. of cars allowed.   The most we have ever seen in one place.     Plus there are dozens more, not entrants, that are parked around the streets or cruising the roads.   We spent all of Friday and Saturday checking it out.
Besides the cars, there are rock n roll bands playing everywhere,  dancing, huge markets on the foreshore and lots of very" interesting people" to look at.   The bars, cafes, coffee shops are all jammed packed.   This must bring huge dollars into this City and the traders must be loving it.

 On Saturday, the two main streets are closed to all traffic and you  wander up and down for klms. checking out the Hot Rods.   It was a nice sunny day, and we watched the hour long Street Parade, Harleys, Floats, Bands, Dancers and "celebrities" all got huge cheers.   For those that may remember - Issy Dye, Denise Drysdale, Delltones, Wilbur Wilde and Frankie J Holden all were in the parade.   Plus, racing legend Jim Richards and OUR favourite, Charley Hutton, the Ace Spray Painter for Boyd Coddington.  Our fav. Hot Rod DVDs are "American Hot Rod"
and Charley was the spray painter on many of the projects.   No big deal for most of you, but I was hoping to get a pic with Rick but lost the guy in the crush later on.    Hundreds of market stalls selling everything from Mag wheels and tyres to fashion of the 50s There were lots of women, old and young, (some who simply shouldnt have) dressed up in the fashion, hair and make up of the 50s.    We sat for a while and watched them passing.   It was an eye opener sometimes.   Rick conned one of the girls on the merchandise stand to sell him a T Shirt that stated he was an entrant in the Festival.    They had run out of big  sized Festival T Shirts and the only ones left were for Official Entrants.  He told her he was an entrant, just didnt have his car here.   She was very nice to him.    Maybe took pity on the Old Bloke.   !!!!!!!!!!!!!
A fantastic weekend, its on again today, Sunday, but we have had our fill.   Time to do something else before we leave the Gold Coast.    Loved every minute of it and so very happy we came and saw.

Mudgeerabba

 Finally hit Qld. on Thursday afternoon.    Great to see our friends Coral and Terry who live on 2 acres of paradise just 10 mins out from the beach in a very beautiful leafy area.    We met Coral and Terry in Coolgardie in WA in 2011 and stayed in touch with them ever since.   Caught up with them again in Maryborough last year.    Terry is a car nut like Rick so they hit it off immediately.    They offered their home as a base for us to use whilst on the Gold Coast.    We all went to the local pub for dinner last night which was a great way to wrap up Ricks birthday.   Excellent food and great company.

Terrys 39 Ford He fully restored

Terrys 59 Ford Fairlane  Convertible Project.

Ricks Birthday - Thursday 5/6

Some graffiti I loved

Rick turned 66 today so we had a morning tea in a little town park. Gooey vanilla slices and coffee.  He even had bacon and eggs for brekkie.   Rick claims he ONLY gets them on his birthday, so I kept up the tradition.    We drove from Tenterfield to Casino and once again we were loving the scenery.   Its so lush and green all thru this part of the world.    The fields are emerald green and full of new born lambs.   Such a lovely color contrast.   The sun is starting to shine now and we are feeling so much better in ourselves.   I have even broken out the Crocs.     Then, once again, trying to make up time we decided to take a "short cut".   It probably added at least an extra hour or more to our trip and almost gave us puppies as we negotiated klms.of the most narrow, winding, hairpin turned roads we have ever done.  BUT in saying that, it was one of the MOST beautiful and scenic drives we have done.   We travelled from Lismore to Mullumbimby.    Apparently there are 3 ways to get to the Gold Coast and we took the worst option of the three.   Pretty much typical of us of late.    We could easily move to this area.  There was barely a turn that we made where the views were to die for and all we could say was OMG !!!!!!   The roads so narrow that houses both sides had valley views stretching for miles.      It was lush rainforest, fern, gums and plantations of what we think are Macadamia Trees.   Green Green and Green.

 My guide dog as we drove thru the rainforest.   The canopy of the trees meet in the middle of the road, crisscrossing, blocking out the sun,  Vines and branches hang down over the road, hitting our roof as we drove thru them.    It was physically draining on Rick and Tony as many of the roadsides dropped away to nothing and the turns were tight and very little room for error.

One of the narrow bridges we crossed thru.    We were actually very happy to find ourselves eventually back in civilisation and actually on a Highway.