My favourite place so far - Tweed Heads South

Highlights	Not so highlights
Heading back to warmer days and sunshine – Both!
Lunch and dipping toes at Coolangatta Beach - Kate
Drink at a bar overlooking Coolangatta Beach - Both
2-hour bike ride around Tweed Head South - Both
Bike riding beside the freeway watching trucks - Will
Bike riding along Indigenous History signs - Kate
Sunsets and sunrises - Kate
Improved communication - Both

(Just a heads up, Clare P skip at least the first 2 paragraphs 😊 - maybe just go to the bottom where all the photos are - love ya' little sis)

All good students know that before you start writing you should list at the top of the page who your intended audience is. So, being a very good student, I’ll pop that on now – only about 4 series later than I should have. I wrote my first blog so my mum could travel with me and since then others have joined her and us on our journey. I also blog so that I have a record of our trip, ready to pick up and plonk in a photobook; printed ready for us to look through many years down the track so we can reminisce over our travels and experiences together.

Whenever I sit and reread this book I want to be reminded of how, over the last 18 months, since we began this unexpected, slightly crazy adventure of selling home and exploring Queensland, our communication and connection has grown stronger (at least until mid-May 2023 😊) – don’t forget that in your old age Kate!! It was a real concern, how do you live in such a small space, day in day out and not go stir crazy or cranky with each other? We have been living caravan together (mostly) for just shy of 12 months and maybe because of that we communicate better than ever. A dear, dear friend during her husband's eulogy said, “We never went to bed angry; we’d sit up and talk until it was resolved no matter how late it was.” That has stayed with me for a very long time and it worried me how many times we went not to sleep angry, but with things left unsaid or unfinished, rattling around in one or other’s head. It’s happening less and less and it’s a change in both of us, more willing to lean on the other, more willing to admit mistakes, concerns and worries. Maybe it’s because there’s no girlfriends’ lunch with a debrief, or a shed to wander off to or I don’t know, but when I reread this book I want to remember the happiness that came with growing together. (Let's hope I haven't spoken too soon!)

Enough of that self-reflection stuff, now, Tweed Heads South - love it!!! Having left Toowoomba we headed to Gatton - can't be in Queensland and not visit the Queensland Transport Museum. Tick, done. Too late too make it to Tweed Heads tonight so we had an eye opening stop over in Beaudesert. Great town, lots I loved about it including the cool nights, crisp morning and a town with all the facilities you needed, including great gardens and sculptures. Also some eye opening conversations with residents of the caravan park who were facing homelessness within the next few weeks. Only caravan park I've ever stayed in where Lifeline was listed on the fridge. After donating all our tinned goods and feeling quite helpless we headed off for our next destination. I can't see a way that I can help their situation I can only hope that having shared a respectful chat around the campfire they felt treated with respect and equality - nothing much in the big scheme of thing but having pondered it over for many hours I don't know what else I can do (and it doesn't matter where I turn I find another homeless person - truly, I mean that, we didn't see any in 2015 but this trip I have chatted with and seen them at every turn!)

After doing plenty of research and finding the perfect camping ground we rang to book in for 5 days, nope, not happening - fully booked for the weekend. "What," I thought, "schools back, no long weekend, oh well, whatever!" so off to our second choice we went, unhooked the van and jumped back in the ute to see where we were. I had no idea that Tweed Heads and Coolangatta are Twin Towns, separated only by a dotted line on a map that designates not only each town but each State - how the hell did these people cope with Covid-19 IN 2020/21? I have no idea although I've been told people swam around the blockades.

After wander along the streets of Coolangatta with Will offering commentary “Botox shop, massage, crystals, facial injections” and on it went we found a bakery and took our goods outside to sit and watch the waves. I couldn’t wait, my toes were just itching to get into that water and my mind kept saying, “I’m in Queensland.” After a quick paddle we found a shady spot, with liquid refreshments, to sit and watch the world go by.

Our second choice caravan park was in Tweed Head South, right under a flight path - as the reviews had said, was along the river with walking/bike tracks linking to the town and over the bridge to Coolangatta and Tweed Heads. It was just the spot we needed. I’d walk along the river in the evening watching sunsets or wander up in the morning to watch the sunrise. On the Friday morning I grabbed the ute key, left a nervous Will in bed and popped over to Tweed Heads, Point Danger Lookout to be specific, to watch the sunrise. ‘Hey, it’s early, it will be easy to park this monster truck, who else will be up at 5.15a.m.’ Note to self – when in surfing capital of Gold Coast, every man, woman, child and their surfboard is up early to watch the sunrise and catch a wave. And if that didn’t make it interesting enough there were barricades

everywhere – I soon found out that the ‘Gold Coast Pro Surfing Competition’ began at 7am the next day – so glad I didn’t pick that day for my little adventure. Anyway, after parking successfully I had a wonderful wander around and viewed a spectacular sunrise – although brief, something like 4-6 minutes from the time the sun popped up just slightly until it could be fully viewed above the horizon.

After that it was back home (I’m really good at calling wherever my pillow is home), time for Will to drive us down to Ocean Shores to meet the next pair of dogs we are to look after. The couple were very welcoming, the dogs very energetic and the whole thing a little overwhelming. But more on that next blog.