Australian East Coast: Sydney - Brisbane - Fraser Island

After the end of the lessons, we stand in front of the school and load our kids into the camper. The goal is Brisbane/Fraser Island, along the coast and also through the mountainous hinterland with its tracks and waterfalls.
Despite the peak hour, we quickly make our way out of Sydney towards the north, passing the industrial city of Newcastle and staying overnight at Lake Glenbwan. This reservoir is on our way to Polblue in the northern part of the beautiful Barrington Tops National Park. Here we hike and camp in nature. The approach on the gravel road is an (audio) experience with the camper.
But once there, it's beautiful! We can't get enough of the views during the drive and in the park we are thrilled by the incredibly tall trees, the colorful birds, and once again by the many different shades of green... We explore some of the walks, such as the one with the funny name 'Honeysuckle Forest track'.
From here we continue to the Fossicker Holidaypark in Nundle. On the way, we pass Scone and the Burning Mountains. Scone is a small town that essentially lives off horses and tourists. 'Burning Mountains' is a promising name, in the end we had another beautiful hike - but the mountain is not burning or smoking, although there is still a hint of smoldering smell. Unfortunately, we did not find gold in the river at the Fossicker Campground;-(... but other vacationers proudly showed us their sifting results..
We continue on to Armidale and the 'Waterfall-Road' to the Wollomombi-Falls. We have breakfast the next day at around 8 degrees Celsius at the Ebor-Waterfalls...brrr... we are no longer used to these temperatures in the mountains ;-).
We explore the Dorrigo Rainforest with its gigantic trees, dense vegetation, and high waterfalls. We take a coffee break in the chill-out town of Bellingen and spend the night at Corindi Beach, just past Coffs Harbour, at the end of a long day.
We use this stop to have the fallen side window reinstalled at a workshop in nearby Coffs Harbour. In the end, there is little time for exploration, but enough for a beach walk.
Our next stop is Nimbin, also located in the mountainous hinterland. Former hippies settled here, the place is very colorful, there are artists, galleries, music, hemp in various forms, Rastas, long-haired and long-bearded grandpas everywhere...
From here we take excursions to the Minyon Waterfall Walk, which we reach on a beautiful (unpaved) Forest Road, and to the Hanging Rocks Pool. This one has been heavily affected by the storms and rainfall of the past weeks, but we can still swim and jump in it!
On Easter Sunday, after the obligatory search for Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny has left lying around the camper, we continue to Byron Bay. We were so early at the Byron Bay Lighthouse that we managed to find a parking space for a relaxed breakfast in the sun. Then we take a guided tour of the lighthouse with a volunteer guide and of course to the easternmost point of Australia.
We continue to the site of the Blues and Boomerang Festival, 9 km north of Byron Bay. Our first festival together since Roskilde! And in the evening, our boys also enjoyed it, with all the loud music, the colorful lights of the stages, and the lighting of the stands...
In Hastings Point, we have a super-duper campground with a water playground and a nearby beach including a freshwater lagoon. We fully enjoy this before we set off for Brisbane at noon. Here we only exchange the motorhome for a limousine and continue without sightseeing to Noosa, about 150 km north of Brisbane. In Noosa, we stay in an apartment hotel with a pool area. This is the main location for the next 2 days, especially for the boys. With some effort, we manage to get them to Noosa Heads Beach for boogie boarding. After recharging our batteries a bit, we continue our journey to Hervey Bay. There, we take the barge (ferry) that takes us to Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island - our final destination of this trip - for the next 4 days.

Fraser Island was a great experience for all of us, despite the unfortunately very changeable and quite humid weather. Highly recommended!
We start with a guided island tour by 4WD bus. It's incredible how this bus manages to move safely in the right direction uphill and downhill through the sand. We even help a stuck Jeep out of trouble, to the delight of the boys ;-). We are shown some of the highlights of the island: Lake McKenzie, the sand beach highway, and the takeoff/landing strip on the east side, walking along the beautifully romantic Eli Creek and along a river where we see the thick eels swim (!!), shipwreck ... From time to time we get caught in rain showers, unfortunately also when we take a bathing break at Lake McKenzie. After some hesitation, we walk over the fine white sand into the turquoise water, it's too beautiful! (At least Torben spotted his first Dingo here!)
Two days later, we dare to drive a Jeep ourselves and take a leisurely look at some of the beautiful lakes and even observe a Dingo walking along the beach! On every hike, we have a long stick with us for defense, as instructed by the rangers, but in the end, we are safe in the car during our encounter ;-).
During a canoe tour along the coast and into the mouth of the nearby river, we explore mangroves up close. It's a beautiful sunny morning - unfortunately, we don't see any turtles that are supposedly living here. But we had fun nevertheless!
We enjoy the return journey on the ferry in stable sunny weather and in the plane to Sydney we sit on the right side: we have great views of the incredibly beautiful coastline from above!!!!
Now we are looking forward to the upcoming weekends, where we want to do what we had to strike from our plan due to time constraints before the trip...
... and to the winter vacation starting on June 23, 2017...