Cruisin’ on the sand!

The Ellis and Woods families on Bribie Island

After a wonderful lunch with Dan’s cousin and her family, we took the easy drive inland to Caboolture. The hometown of singer Keith Urban, Caboolture is about 50ks north of Brisbane and is probably the last urban region of Brisbane.

Our camp at Caboolture Showgrounds

We’ve spent the last week camping at the Caboolture Showgrounds. We have discovered that most towns allow camping at their Showgrounds for a really cheap fee, and usually have power and drinking water for you to connect to. Another great thing about staying at Showgrounds is that most of them charge per site, and don’t charge for extra people. In the past (especially at caravan parks) we have been charged up to $15 per extra person (including our 2 year old) per night. Do the math – that’s an extra $45 per night on top of their normal site fee (usually between $25 and $40). If we travelled around Australia staying in caravan parks every night, we would very quickly have to turn around and go home - broke!

One problem with the Caboolture Showgrounds was the close proximity to the train lines. Zaccy loves watching the trains go past during the day, but by the end of the week the cargo trains at night were driving me crazy! There is a big intersection at the end of the Showgrounds and the trains would honk their horns (very loudly) as they approached the intersection. I am usually a very deep-sleeper, but the trains were waking me up almost every hour at night!

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, which was the last day of a week-long equestrian competition. After setting up (next to mark and Amanda’s caravan) I took Zaccy down to see the horses. He has never seen a horse up close and was amazed at the different colours and sizes they come in.

The boys were all very excited to see Charlotte and Jake and we couldn’t wait to hear about their day at Australia Zoo. Charlotte is a huge fan of Bindi’s so they had spent the day there for Bindi’s birthday. Charlotte made Bindi and present and got to give it to her in person and they even spent some time together chatting and taking photos.

While Dan worked one afternoon, I took the kids and followed the Woods family to a local strawberry farm. It is the perfect time for strawberry picking and the kids picked bucket loads. We sat on the hill overlooking the farm and ate fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate sauce for afternoon tea.

The kids pickings

Enjoying our fresh strawberries

Mark has put a new winch on his 4wd and was keen to try it out. One evening while I was cooking dinner I asked Dan to entertain the kids. So Dan and Mark hooked up the winch to a big gum tree, attached the pulley and made a flying fox for the kids.

I told Dan and Mark that they had to do the ‘test run’ and I’m not sure who had the most fun – the dads or the kids!

Unfortunately Marks new winch wasn’t working properly and wouldn’t wind back in. At least we found out at the showgrounds and not out in the bush somewhere! Mark got up early the next day to go and get it repaired.

Dropping the tire pressure for some sand driving

After an early start to school, the boys had finished by 8.30am so we packed a picnic and headed to Bribie Island for the day. We purchased a permit to drive on the beach and in the National Parks and headed off along the Surf-side of the Island. The kids all thought it was very exciting to drive along the beach talking to Mark and Amanda on the CBs. We had a race with some dolphins and watched the sea-eagles catching their breakfast.

The kids playing in the sand dunes

Enjoying having a beach to themselves

After some poor navigation on my behalf, we drove along the beach to the North end of the Island and saw the remains of WWII forts. Then we headed along the sand tracks inland to a beautiful little picnic area called Lighthouse Reach and had lunch and a glass of wine.

We LOVE it out here

Some minor repairs

After a few hiccups with the car (our roof racks managed to nearly bounce themselves off the roof – along with the roof boot and all its contents) we arrived back at the beginning of the Island. We went to the jetty and Mark and Amanda had a go at fishing (no fish, but lots of reeds) and the kids played in the playground while I took some beautiful photos of the sun setting over the Glasshouse Mountains.

On the way home we stopped off at the Caboolture RSL for dinner. Two meals, two children’s meals, soft drinks, beer or wine and desserts for $35!!!  Great food too! They even threw in a meal for Zaccy for free.

Caboolture is located at the base of the Glasshouse Mountains.  Our last few days at Caboolture we spent travelling around the Glasshouse Mountains.

We had a lovely walk through the Melaleuca Rainforest in Mooloolah and took in the beautiful views at the Glasshouse Mountains Lookout. We also walked up the incredibly steep track up the side of Wild Horse Mountain. Sam, Will and Charlotte were little troopers to get to the top without complaining, but the real heroes that day were the dads – Dan with Zaccy in the backpack and Mark with Jake on his shoulders! We were all huffing and puffing by the time we reached the lookout at the top. It was worth it though – 360^o views, from the Glasshouse Mountains to Brisbane, to Fraser, Bribie and Morton Islands and all the way up the Sunshine Coast. It was spectacular!

Zaccy found a "great walking stick"

Very proud to be the first up the hill!

We were exhausted but it was worth it

We spent the afternoon in search of some 4wd tracks and headed out to Donnybrook. After lots of private roads and dead-ends, we finally found a sandy track through the state forest. Dan was keen to get the Patrol dirty and we had great fun playing in the mud. Unfortunately one patch of grass was disguising a very boggy patch of mud and we got stuck! Even more unfortunate was the fact that Mark’s recently repaired winch couldn’t pull us out! The sun was setting quickly and the kids were getting restless. Thankfully the guys managed to get us out using the chains but Mark was not a happy camper!

We were all planning on leaving Caboolture and going to Maleny together, but the Woods need to stay here a bit longer to get their winch repaired... again!

Enjoying a drink (or two)