Monday, 12 October 2026
We had a lazy start to the morning where the boys sourced more food at Shore to Shore Seafoods and Budd’s Butchers and the girls topped up a few supermarket supplies, so we will eat well for the next couple of nights. Further domestic efforts involved a couple of loads of washing to freshen up some clothes, so that we have plenty to wear for the rest of the week and during the journey home.
At noon we motored down the coast to Kawana Waters to meet my cousin Ann for lunch. Ann lives on the Sunshine Coast, so I let her know we would be in her area this week, if she fancied catching up. Ann booked us into River Bar & Dining, a lovely waterside restaurant at the Kawana Marina. It is hard to believe that we only catch up every five or six years … or so … with the conversation flowing freely while we enjoyed our meals.
On the way home we decided to drive the scenic route all the way along David Low Way from the Maroochy River to Coolum Beach. Hmmn, I am sure Bernie enjoyed the scenery which was wasted on me because, of course, I fell asleep. With a tummy full of risotto what chance did I have? I was NEVER going to be able to stay awake for the drive back to the apartment.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on more holiday relaxation on our spacious balcony overlooking the resort gardens and pool. We thought about actually using the pool, but couldn’t get motivated enough to do it, ha, ha.
It was BBQ dinner tonight with the boys taking the steaks down to the communal BBQ facilities downstairs, while Sandra and I looked after the salads and set the table. And by looked after, I mean we peeled the tops of the containers and opened a bag of coleslaw to stir dressing through it. We’re on holidays, we certainly didn’t prepare salads from scratch!
After dinner the card challenge resumed. Sandra won the warm up game of Jo to take the tally to:
Bernie 2
Robin 1
Sandra 1
We then won one game each of Bolivia to take the Ashes Tournament to 5:2 in favour of NZ. We didn’t catch up at all BUT, at least we didn’t fall any further behind.
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Another lazy start enjoying a leisurely breakfast, before Bernie took us out for a drive through the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Rather than take the official Tourist Drive(s), Bernie found a website that claimed to take us on ‘the roads less travelled’.
The first lookout programmed into the SatNav was Wild Horse Mountain Scenic Lookout. After a 46 kilometre trip down the Bruce Highway (M1) we turned into the Beerburrum East State Forest to take the short, but STEEP walk up to the lookout tower. From the tower we had 360 degrees views of the state forest, Glass House Mountains (Mt Tibrogargan, Mt Cooee, Mt Beerwah), Coochin Creek, Bribie Island and Sunrock Quarry. The ‘state forest’ label is a bit strange as its not natural bush or forest, it’s pine plantations that surround the lookout. There is a native forest buffer along the water course but the rest of the greenery consists of Slash Pine x Caribbean Pine hybrids.
From the state forest we cut across to Steve Irwin Way, before waiting at the level crossing to cross the railway line to turn onto Barrs Road. Reaching the Old Gympie Road we turned left to find our way to the Glass House Mountains Lookout via Beerburrum-Woodford and Glass House-Woodford Roads. Now in the Beerburrum WEST State Forest we were looking at the same mountains from the other side, ha, ha. They are very striking volcanic mountains …whichever way you look at them.
We used the facilities at the lookout before retracing our route back to the Old Gympie Road. We took a small detour on the Coonowrin Road into the township of Glass House Mountain, snagging yet another different angle of Mt Cooee and Mt Tibrogargan.
Returning to the Old Gympie Road, we took Peachester Road to the small township of Peachester. Then onto Storrs Road which took us to Bald Knob Road bordered by state forest, an ecological reserve and a conservation park … and some paddocks with cattle grazing. Arriving at the Landsborough-Maleny Road we turned left towards Maleny before taking another left onto Mountain View Road to arrive at the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve and Rainforest Discovery Centre.
After enjoying a light lunch at the Mountain View Café we headed off on the rainforest walk. We spotted plenty of rainforest trees as we enjoyed the birdsong from the canopy. On the whole the birds were elusive and it was more about hearing them than seeing them. We were lucky enough to spot a couple of pademelons fossicking for food on the forest floor. It is like a permanent twilight under the forest canopy, so it was quite difficult to spot the wildlife!
As we neared the end of our circuit it started to spit with rain. Hmmn, not too bad under the canopy, the rain proved to be slightly heavier than we imagined as we made the open dash from the rainforest walk back into the discovery centre. And we were fogged in. Unfortunately we did not take photos from this viewpoint before our walk and now the mountains … invisible! It’s all about the timing and boy, did we get it wrong. Not to worry, I am sure we have taken that photograph on an earlier visit.
With the rain – and fog – intensifying, we made our way onto the Maleny-Montville Road, stopping briefly at Gerrard’s Lookout (paragliding hotspot, but not today!) before turning left onto Flaxton Drive at Montville. The rain was coming down harder still as we turned onto Flaxton Drive heading for Mapleton Falls. Ahem, not a great day to visit a waterfall. The view from the top viewing platform allowed only a glimpse of the top of the falls and, after that glimpse, it really started to pour as we returned to the gazebo thingy covering the interpretative boards. It was far too wet to contemplate the walk to the bottom of the falls. In fact, it was so wet, I implored Bernie to dash over to the truck and nose it in under the gazebo to collect the rest of us. I was only joking, but he actually did it so that Robin, Sandra and I didn’t get soaked getting back into our ride, ha, ha.
We turned back onto Obi Obi Road to head east towards Mapleton and then made our way down towards Nambour in torrential rain, the sort of deluge that only Queensland can supply! Without going into Nambour we turned northwards for Yandina where we made our way to the coast via the Yandina-Coolum Road. The account here is sketchy because everyone except Bernie had a snooze!
We had another feast of prawns tonight. Last time we were up here we were buying them from the seafood wholesaler freshly cooked after they came in on the boat in the morning. That’s how we remember it anyway??! The two lots of prawns we have purchased on this holiday have been frozen because they now cook them on the boat and snap freeze them while they are out at sea. So, in my opinion, not quite as good as last time because they have been frozen, but still a pretty decent prawn pig out.
Sandra won the warm up game of Jo again tonight. Then NZ won the first game of Bolivia. Never have we seen such a run of eights/nines/tens going to our opponents to take control of the games being played. Oh, yes we have, I think much the same thing may have happened last year when NZ also surged to an early lead??? Anyhow, we did manage to win the second game to maintain the status quo of Australia trailing NZ by three games. The tally now standing at 6:3 in New Zealand’s favour.
Bernie has been playing 70s playlists on Apple Music as our card playing soundtrack and our current situation calls to mind that 1975 classic by Max Merritt & The Meteors … ‘Slipping Away’. But … I’m not allowed to say that because it’s being negative.
