day 76 and 77 Caloundra and Brisbane

Day 76 Sep 8 Thurs Caloundra to Brisbane -
After a full day exploring the wonderful Australia Zoo we have another beach day at beautiful Caloundra Beach - More boogy boarding, more clean, soft white sand and another picnic lunch with free barbecue. The girls are becoming much more confident in the water and really getting the hang of the waves and boogy board. Sadly we leave the Sunshine Coast - but not before I have a minor accident whilst doing the chores at the back of the van. A sharp knife falls off the back shelf and point down lands in the top of my foot - ouch! As usual we dry our towels in the morning sun, hanging off the doors and bonnet of the van - we are really getting the hang of life on the road!   We have no option but to pay for a van park in Brisbane as the options for free camps and rest stops are pretty non existent. We head towards the "Aztec" themed holiday park - a purpose built holiday village housing static mobile homes, caravans and campers and tents. It has amenity blocks with laundries and sockets and super clean and modern showers and bathrooms.  A real treat!  Again David does the washing and charges the laptop and camera batteries while I do bedtime!
Day 77 Sep 9 Fri Brisbane -

Today we head into Brisbane to swap the van with the leaky roof, dodgy gas stove handle and other minor faults. As we arrive into Brisbane we are grateful for the sat nav which guides us effortlessly into the CBD just as the drizzle threatens.  It is quite straightforward swapping all our bits to the new van - and we realise that we now have 2 new gas bottles which will hopefully last till Sydney. A regroup in a very good coffee shop at the bottom of a nearby office and shop complex and then a dash to the new van (which we left in the Jucy depot) as the rain starts. We decide that there is not much we really want to see in Brisbane - it is a city like any other with its' museums and attractions - so no real reason to stop for any length of time expecially in the rain. We contemplate an afternoon at the movies seeing The Smurfs (a combination of a treat and a bit of normality) but the times dont work and so we content ourselves with a trip to Woolworths, a scoot round the shops and a snack lunch at the Westfield complex which we passed on the way in and on our route towards Sydney. We aim for Tweed Heads and Coolangatta and in the end camp at rest stop 1 in NSW of Camp 6 - Stotts Island Nature Reserve rest stop. Amazingly as we drive in after dark we spot what looks like a chicken roosting in a tree, lit up in the headlights. On closer inspection, i.e. a second drive round the turning circle... IT IS a chicken in a tree, or more accurately a cockerel! And the delights of another rather stinky composting toilet - this time sited up a long ramp in a wooden pavilion complete with local natural history facts!