11-14 September

It was time to say good bye to Coolum Beach - we’re heading to the “Landcruiser Mountain Park” in the Coast hinterland (60km north of Kilcoy). This meant it was the first time for me to go off-road. The park is designated for 4WD, several tracks on different grades from easy to hard. I know I’ll be scared every time I’m going off-road and there will be and hills and bumps. It’s such a hard work to spot the obstacles before they hit you. Our closest neighbours here are some other campers but mostly cows, deer, ducks and of course roos.  I don’t have any idea what else might come out at night. But now it’s time to close the Netbook as it’s getting so dark I can hardly see and have to get closer to the fire to keep warm. Next morning and I can keep writing as we’ve sunlight again. We had the fire burning for some time, kept pocking all the time so it will burn completely. Unfortunately we didn’t buy any potatoes and the office shop didn’t had some either so we couldn’t do some baked potatoes - we have to keep th is in mind when we’re shopping next time… The fire was good, little red spots on the wood - beautiful sight when no other light was around also the stars were good visible. No wonder - there is nothing around - the closest village is 60km away so there are not many city lights which can disturb the view.  The only other lights were from the fellow campers and the more advanced and experienced 4WD which went out for a night run and then it was time to say good night - crawling into the tent and sleeping bag and listen to the night sounds.

After a good night sleep (wasn’t really too cold - I woke just twice due to a cold chill) we had breakfast under the watchful eye of two kookaburras and starting the day with the next drive or with the first look at the competition [Superior All Terrain Competition]. Our first look at the competition lasted for 2 hours, it was interesting. The cars looked quite funny, some looked more like a spider than a car and they drove thru terrain you wouldn’t believe and of course over rocks - one nearly fell over but managed to stay on the wheels. One car, called Barbie, had to be maintenance when we arrived - they had to do something under the car or so… it was standing on the wheel jack with one wheel off but they didn’t touch the reserve. After we had enough, it gets boring after a while (you can just watch them from a bit of distance) we went back into the park to have a look at further tracks. Unfortunately most tracks were too hard for us or the car so we started on one and had to turn around. Most times we walked the track before driving. And we had to cross two creeks which still had some water so we had to test the depth…

Next day and the sun came out to warm us and dry the tent. Today we tested our recovery equipment, the winch and the exhaust jack. Both is working well - you just have to be careful using the jack and watch that the “air” can flow directly into the ball. We’ve tried the winch with and without the U-Bolt to experience the difference - it was a lot easier with the U-Bolt. We winched the car directly towards the tree and over the stones we placed in front of the tyres. In the afternoon we were completely scared because of the smoke coming out of the forest behind our tent. We had to be assured by the park owner that there is no danger. As it’s just spring everyone is doing some kind of back burning and one fire was burning on the property next to the camping spot. We could hear the fire and the smoke was coming directly at our tent so we were already packing our stuff to move further down the road, closer to the park exit and more on the lawn.  The owner came around and told us that the fire wouldn’t come before Monday afternoon if at all. The fire was burning on the other side of the hill and it burns really slow downhill. And of top of it all the woods behind us were state forest so there would be fire trucks if the there would be any danger.  So we stayed where we were and he was right. At night we even got a beautiful side formed by the fire. The sunset was more red than the days before and we could really see the fire glowing in the distance colouring the mountain head red. Next morning you couldn’t see any of the fire - it was too damp during the night. Ah before I forget to tell - we bought potatoes so we had our baked potatoes from the camp fire with baked fish and peas as side - was working really well and was delicious.

Cu, Anja & Tom