House sit 2 done and dusted, now for some exploring

Highlights	Not such highlights
Leaving Traveston safely with all pets and caravan intact – both	Going to the old car rally we couldn’t find - both
Gympie gold museum - both
Noosa – Kate
Seeing the Scenic Rim area - Kate
Highfield Pioneer Museum – both, especially Will

Sorry photos are out of order but we are keen to hit the road again soon.

Oh My Goodness…I can’t tell you how relieved I was when Will hitched up the van and towed it without incident from its precarious position - leaning heavily to the right over the owners brand new septic system. I had decided I was worrying over nothing, and worry I did every time I looked at that damn van, so I asked Will with 2 days of our sit to go (expecting reassurance and to be told I was overthinking things as usual) “Dear, are you worried about getting the van out of here?” assuming I’d be told, “Not a problem.” Will answered, “Hmm, yes, it is going to take a bit longer than usual, but it should be OK”, causing my stomach to do an extra flip! Bugger, I loved his honesty but no real reassurance there, so I tried to follow my dear friend Claire’s advice – don’t sweat the bad stuff until it’s happened.

Feeling a little guilty that we’d enjoyed a few outings to my liking I made an effort to find things to do to please both of us. Off we went to the Gympie Gold Museum – a really interesting museum (run by volunteers) with many different exhibits including telecommunication, gold discoveries around the area, old fire engines (K-series Inter so that was spesh), old school rooms, blacksmith and so much more. (I thought Uncle Des would enjoy it if he ever drives down south again.) After a quick trip to the supermarket after a walk around the local lake where Will declared “We’ve just found bin chicken island” we went back to the house to read and chill.

The next day we set off to check out the local car club run. The Facebook page said they were meeting at Lake MacDonald, bring your own lunch or buy it. Well, I assumed, they’ll be meeting at the café. Can’t be hard to find. Hmm, there is no café at Lake MacDonald but there is a botanical gardens sections which is where we parked waiting to see the old cars. One blue chevy truck went by, first in one direction then the other. By then we had decided there wasn’t enough room for a car club to park where we were so at my insistence Will took off following the blue chevy. When we were miles from the lake with the unknown driver turning into a dead-end street I insisted that enough was enough, we weren’t going to stalk him any further. On our return trip we did see a few other nice cars and then we spotted a very special valiant. So, we pulled up near it waiting to see which direction it went. We got bored before it moved and headed to another section of the lake but on the way we saw as sign ‘Noosa 20km’. “Well, we could go and if it’s too busy just turn around and come back,” said Will, who knew I was really keen to go, but as it was the Sunday of a long weekend also thought it was pretty bad timing.

After one more look at one more spot around the lake for old cars without any luck, off to Noosa we headed. I knew I had no concept of how big it would be but I really had no idea how many inlets there were and how you weave your way around the place. We got to about 500m from the main beach when traffic started backing up and people were looking for parking spots, so we turned left and left again. “That’s it, we’ve seen it, time to get out of here,” Will declared. “Fair enough,” I said. I now at least had an image when people talked about Noosa, I was grateful and happy with that. As I was checking out Google Maps figuring out how to get us out of there Will declared “There’s some seating there, a water view and a car park. How’s this for a lunch spot?” “Perfect,” was my response.

We sat in the most unpopulated part of Noosa watching catamarans, hire boats, gondolas, jet skis, you name it, on the water as we ate our picnic lunch. Perfect!

On the way back Will suggested we got to the waterholes I had mentioned. I took a deep breath and said “I really want to but they are 10km up a dirt 4WD track and it’s rained all night and I really want to but I’ll freak out the whole way but I don’t want ‘What ifs’ to stop me from doing stuff and I need you to help me make a decision” all in one breath!!! Will said, “It’s just a dirt road like we went on yesterday.” Deep breathe, “Ok, let’s go” so I grabbed my book ready to distract my eyes and off we went.

It wasn’t actually scary at all but after a very slow 5kms the road turned left and took a steep downward tilt and Will, who really couldn’t careless about water holes said “How about we head back,” I was happy with that, I’d overcome some of my fears and was ready to go and chill out. We got back, Will hooked up the van while I played with the dog and it was a lovely ending to a lovely simple day.

We headed off early the next morning and made our way to Toowoomba. My great mate Karen had texted me about a different camp sight called ‘Hipcamp,’ the second entry on it for Toowoomba was at Highfields Pioneer Museum. We pulled up and Will considered saying “Let’s just go, doesn’t look that great,” but I just went on in, bull at a gate. A lady came towards us and said, “No one in the office, it says to go to the General Store.” Will spotted the sign so we lead the way, hmm, no one home, sign says “Go to the Damper Kitchen” by now I was chuckling, it was an orienteering course just to get in!

Well, after a little look around Will asked, “How many tractors do you need?” Yep, there were heaps of them! And then we made our way to the transport section. We’ve been to a hell of a lot of transport-based museums together but Will has never been gob smacked before – there were some wonderful items on display. Some were replicas of the very first motor vehicles ever built and all were in working order,

Lunch spot at Noosa

One of the old Inters at Gypie Gold Museum

It's always a Bill's trough when this bloke is around - Susan, Cheryl and Rick know what I mean

From there we headed to Toowoomba where we lashed out on an expensive caravan park so I could do the washing and go for a walk-in town early the next morning. Hmm, the washing lines were full, the ensuite we paid extra for hadn’t been cleaned, there was no camp kitchen to speak off but there was a Dominoes Pizza just down the road for dinner and a Brumby’s early the next morning for fresh croissants and coffee after my walk – all good in the end.

I was glad to look around there, but the weather inland was much, much cooler. Before we’d even arrived I started planning our route back to the coast after visiting the Queensland Transport Museum at Gatton, via Beaudesert where we are tucked up warm and cosy tonight.