22 - Coolum Beach, Queensland - 29/10/18 - 10/11/18

Entry 22 – Coolum Beach, Queensland Sunshine Coast. – 29/10/18 – 10/11/18.

We had requested for our caravan repairs to be brought forward if a possibility arose and we chose to stay within close proximity of the repairer even though they expressed doubts it could happen. Sometimes things can go your way, but it still requires some help and optimism on your behalf. We were delighted to have our repair date brought forward for commencement 29/10/18 from the original start date of 26/11/18.

Without our mobile home we spent two weeks based at a rental house, at Coolum Beach in Queensland’s ‘Sunshine Coast.’ The house was located just under a kilometre from the beach ticking all of our required wish list boxes, off street parking for our tow tug, in a lovely quiet location, within walking distance of shops, provided internet, a good kitchen, air conditioning and came with an added bonus, our own private swimming pool. The swimming pool turned out to be a wonderful experience. We had a cooling dip each day with up to three sessions some days.

Our first full day at the “Sunshine Coast,” it drizzled rain most of the time, where we thoroughly enjoyed being sheltered indoors with freedom to move about “in a house.”

Once the rain dissipated we commenced exploring our locality by foot. We enjoyed some magnificent walking paths along the beach side locations. We were in suburbia with people, vehicles, buildings and noise all around us. It was a novelty experience which we tired of after a few days, preferring our bush out back Australian environment with noise generated by nature.

Our closest point with our section of Coolum Beach

This was part of our walking path through the back streets towards the beach

Looking back to our beach

This location in Australia the sunset is over the land

Even at 6.30 am on a working day the beach was already feeling busy

By day four we decided to explore further afield viewing some appealing sounding locations requiring the use of our tow tug for transport to locations up to 40 kilometres away. The Chenrezig Institute, a Centre for Buddhist Study, Meditation & Retreat welcomed visitors like us whom were permitted to wander about the retreat grounds which for us included browsing the library, temple, garden of enlightenment, spinning the prayer wheel sending out thousands of prayers on each spin, spending some one on one time with a Buddhist Nun obtaining a brief overview about meditation and enjoying a vegan meal in the Big Love Café. Another one of those, “Enlightening,” experiences.

Prayer wheel

 

Another bonus provided by a large city environment was access to good internet coverage. We utilized this reliable internet, (taken for granted by city people, inadequate or patchy access for around 75% of the rest of the Australian land mass,) where we attended to all our needs that are easily addressed via the internet. We even managed to skype with our Canadian extended families, our daughter one day and her in-laws another day with their faces and expressions beaming out at us from the other side of Earth as we chatted.

In between addressing our maintenance and other requirements we regularly walked around the Coolum Beach areas and enjoyed the vast walking tracks of Noosa National Park.

Spot the Koala

We were very pleased with the non-fuss service provided by our caravan repairer, Bushtracker Caravans Pty Ltd. The repairs seemed to be of a high standard and we had requested some upgrades at the same time consisting the installation of a new fridge power feed wire, a TV aerial (previously non-existent) and a new electric awning where the awning retracts in either direction with the push of a switch. The exterior features of our caravan were taking on an appearance similar to the current models.

New front window with new cover and new electric awning

The Sunshine Coast is a beautiful scenic location with comfortable day time temperatures during our stay ranging 27 – 33 C and night time lows around 17 – 20 C. It was great having access to all ones daily needs but came with a copious amount of hustle and bustle created by city life.

It was time to move on heading for home travelling away from the outer city environment of Brisbane, through the country side with its more tranquil lifestyle, home bound to Adelaide. It was bye to our populated beach side location.