Day 6: Sunshine Coast - Noosa NP - Tin Can Bay

June 27, 2018

The rain is beating on our motorhome roof.

Darn it - I was hoping it would stop raining at some point. It started raining last night and I don't remember any break in the rain since then. Going to the bathroom is like running an obstacle course. It's nearly impossible to not get wet feet, so I, like the Australians, walk barefoot with Crocs to the washhouse. Boy, does it pour!!!

The puddles are already as big as ponds, the water is running in streams across the campground.

When we unplug the power cable, we notice that a blue liquid is leaking from a small external compartment where a new hose was stored. It seems that it rained so heavily last night that the entire external compartment filled up with water. But why is it blue!?
When my husband opens the compartment, the whole compartment is filled with water - BLUE water. Yuck, what is that???

We realize that our previous renters apparently left an open bag of unused toilet chemicals (small blue toilet bags) in the external compartment. These have now dissolved in the rainwater and now the compartment is filled to the top with blue liquid...

Great... we can't easily get that out. What's even worse is that the stuff has an extremely staining effect. So the once white hose is now blue, everything in the compartment is also "blue" and stinks of toilet chemicals. We close the compartment again, currently we can't do anything about the problem. So let's wait and see, maybe it will dry after the rain!? If it ever stops raining...

After breakfast, there is a sense of crisis.
The plan was to go to Noosa National Park. There are supposed to be beautiful beaches there, and several interesting hiking trails with a chance to see wild koalas. But in the rain??? We're undecided.

Directly across from the campground is the "Sea Life Sunshine Coast", also known as "Underwater World".

Because of our stay at the campground, we get a discount on admission and decide to spend the morning at SeaLife.

We have visited several SeaLifes before, they're all nicely done and we stroll through the shark tunnel, watch the sea lion show and admire the many colorful fish and sea creatures.

Around noon, we want to continue, but it's still pouring rain. The water on the road is several centimeters deep. Unbelievable....! But we don't want to wait any longer.

We run to the motorhome, which is parked at the other end of the parking lot, and reach it with soaked clothes and feet. Luckily, we have our portable wardrobe with us. After changing clothes, we head north.

We're making slow progress because the windshield wipers on our motorhome can hardly cope with the heavy rain.
As we drive north, the rain slowly subsides. We spontaneously decide to still go to Noosa Heads, to Noosa National Park.

When we arrive in Noosa Heads, it's actually hardly raining anymore. We navigate through the narrow streets towards the national park. Now comes the increased difficulty level: the entrance to the national park is a big construction site, single lane. The sign says: no trailers or trucks.
Hm, we don't have a trailer... so let's go!

Oh, this is going to be bad....
The road is incredibly narrow because of the construction site. On one side, there is a cliff edge leading to the roadside ditch, the other side is filled with pylons. There is only a narrow road between the cliff and the pylons.
Well, it happens just like it has to:
we shave off at least 5 pylons from the road with our motorhome. I can't even look.

The detour takes us through the residential area all the way to the car park in the national park, which is also a huge construction site. But we're extremely lucky: a jeep leaves the car park right in front of us, so we can squeeze ourselves to the side of the road and park. This will be the only car park for today, because there are surfers everywhere!

In front of us, behind us, with campervans, buses, cars - surfers with their boards are everywhere, some of them dressed only in swim trunks (I'm freezing just looking at them), on their way to or from the sea... in the rain, mind you!
After the stress of finding a car park, we need to have lunch. When we equip ourselves with umbrellas, fleece jackets, and thick shoes, it has almost stopped raining. Great! Let's go now.

We actually wanted to walk the 8 km circuit (Coastal Walk & Tanglewood Trail), but since the weather isn't really nice and we're running behind schedule, we head towards the Coastal Walk along the coast.

It's incredible how many surfers are in the water here. After every curve, there's an even more beautiful beach and even bigger waves with even more surfers.

We could watch them for hours, how they eagerly plunge into the waves and show off their tricks - or simply go swimming.
Even a stand-up paddler got lost in the high waves. Crazy!

The Granite Beach could easily be on the Seychelles if the weather was sunny today.

But even so, the coast is great and impressive and has a certain mystical atmosphere due to the rainy weather. We like it!

We walk along Tea Tree Bay and Granite Bay to Hell's Gate, then the rain gets heavier again and we turn back.

After about 5 km, we reach our motorhome again and notice that the entire side up to the rear tire is "blue" in color... as the blue water leaked out of the compartment while driving and spread along the side of the motorhome..

Darn it...
We're heading to our next campground in Tin Can Bay and when the navigation system gives us a travel time of 1h40 and 115 km, we realize that we won't reach the campground by daylight today. It's already 4 pm, it gets dark at 5 pm. Damn it!!! So much for arriving at the destination before dusk....

Well, it happens as we didn't plan: after 1 hour, it's pitch black and we're driving in the dark on the country road through the forest towards Tin Can Bay. Fortunately, we don't encounter any animals. Phew, lucky! We find our campground "Kingfisher Caravan Park" right away - the town on the peninsula is not that big.

The campground owner has already finished work. We reach him via a doorbell. He is so nice and shows us our site for today and asks if we're here because of the dolphins. We confirm, which he comments on with a shake of his head because he doesn't understand why everyone always comes here just for the dolphins.

Our site is right next to the shower house - very convenient. The private campground is full, once again, we have a site without a slab, this time on grass. Since yesterday, I now understand why a "slab site" makes sense: it's usually a concrete area next to the motorhome where you can put your camping table and chairs and get in and out without getting your feet wet. So it's quite useful when it's raining.

Well... it doesn't matter, I believe that I have reserved a site with a slab at the following campgrounds. Let's see.
The shower house is the cleanest I have ever seen at a campground! It can easily compete with any hotel. We take advantage of the opportunity and take a shower. Outside, a whole flock of kookaburras is "laughing", which we find quite funny at first, but when the damn birds are still squawking and "laughing" at night, it becomes exhausting. It's really crazy, I have never heard such "birdsong" before!


For the statistics:
Campground: Kingfisher Caravan Park
Cost: 28 € / powered site without a slab
Distance driven: 170 km
Wildlife sightings: seagulls, kookaburras, birds
Weather: rain, 15-18°C
Conclusion: The worse the weather, the more surfers on the water!