A ray of Sunshine..

Sunshine Coast

You would have noticed by now a common trend in the blog, that is, the emphasis on “people”. The highlight of the past three months as we have travelled around Australia has been experiencing first hand kindness from people, strangers of course. Kindness was what Sunshine Coast was all about, back two months ago, second week on our journey to be exact, while we camped at Wee Jasper, we had the pleasure of meeting Di and Wayne from Queensland, we really only spoke for about 20 minutes, they offered us their spot as they were leaving and it was just a little more private, right by the river. As we said goodbye they gave me their number and said to give them a call when we got to the Sunshine Coast and that is exactly what we did. As we drove our caravan into their driveway first thing that got my attention was how beautiful their house was: big pot plants at the front, white bench with beautiful cushions, nice garden, anyway we were very grateful that we had a place to camp. As we got down and greeted them it came to our realisation that we were not sleeping in the caravan but inside their house! Not only that, Di and Wayne had arranged a room with three small beds for the boys and Carlos and I had our own room. Our room was beautifully decorated, colour matched cushions and soft fabric, elegant fittings and blinds and not to expect any less as Di is an interior decorator. That night, as I lay down after my long bath, I stared up at the ceiling fan and just could not believe how Di and Wayne took not one but 5 strangers (and two dogs) into their stunning home, fed us and made us feel so welcome after having met us for 20 minutes..I just couldn’t …

Feeling blessed we got up early in the morning and got ready to explore. We only stayed for the weekend so Sunday was the only day we had to explore the Sunshine Coast, first stop, Glasshouse Mountains. Well, I can tell you that there are many, the one we ended up going to "Mount Beerwah", 556 metres high, clearly the tallest of the 10 volcanic mountain peaks in the Glasshouse Mountains. The car park was quite full and busy with people walking up, carrying water, wearing runners and hiking shoes. This surprised us as we thought we were going to a look out.

As we got to the information board we realised that the mountain was quite popular for climbing, we were clearly not prepared for climbing but we still decided to walk to the base to have a better look, we got there and looked up in awe, it was Queensland’s version of Mt Everest. Where the climbing started (base camp) or was supposed to was steep and slippery rock, it looked scary, in fact we watched for about 10 minutes as a young girl and her partner were “frozen” and could not get down, there were stuck, luckily someone came to their aid. Of course, as I am about to wet my pants just thinking about it, the kids wanted to climb. Luckily for me we were just not prepared, firstly we were wearing sandals and crocs, we had no water or hats, no energy bars and definitely no satellite phone just incase we needed to call 000 to come and get us. The closest we got to climbing it was through an alternative way, the “goat track” not a 45 degree climb but a more realistic one where you walk on a path consisting of ledges, crevasses that progressively ascend.

The actual climb is just incredible, apart from warning signs there are no signs of which direction to take, no aids or supports to hold on to and it was really REALLY high, from below you could see the grandiosity of the climb, just by looking at the people at half way mark, from the bottom they looked like ants.

Like Uluru, there is a warning sign from the Aboriginal community advising that it is dangerous and they would prefer for you not to climb it and respect the land. Definitely not for the light hearted.

Second stop, a cute little town called Maleny, we had lunch there while we listened to a busker. The problem with cute little towns, as we are finding out is that they are very expensive….which is not so cute, anyway we had fun.

Next stop, and this, I was really looking forward to was Kenilworth... to a cheese factory, now we are talking. I absolutely love cheese and this was a dream come true. After testing a few samples and filling up our fridge with cheese we set out to our last stop, Kondalilla falls.

By the time we arrived it was starting to get a little late, just around 4 o’clock, we set to go and it was a beautiful track, surrounded by lush green forests, moss and the smell of eucalyptus. We got to a small waterfall thinking that was it but that was just the beginning of an 90 meter waterfall.

We followed the track and were a little confused of where to go and where it was taking us, but just as we were about to turn around we met someone that told us to walk 5 more minutes and we would arrive to the base of the waterfall so we kept going, descending, we had a young couple behind us so we through it would be safe to keep going just in case it got late in the day. Finally we made it to the base, slippery like anything because of moss, we climbed boulders and made it so close that you could just feel the mist of the water as it fell and crashed on the bottom ground.

We really enjoyed this moment until we realised that we were losing light and we really had to get going, so off we went. This time, as it was getting darker Carlos decided to go first, just to make sure we didn’t take the wrong path or get lost, as I am walking I suddenly came to a halt, Noah who was in front of me had stopped, everyone had stopped, I looked up, right in front of Carlos, less than a meter, right on the walking track, slid a massive green carpet python.

I looked and could not believe it, part of me felt excited, other felt like running with my arms up in the air, screaming for help. This here was the first (and hopefully last) snake we have come across on our trip, I guess a python is better than a brown snake any day. We waited until it went through the bush and we carefully walked around and kept going up… talk about adrenaline rush, may I remind you that Australia hosts 18 out of 20 most venomous snakes in the world, just a fun fact for you to know! We made it out of the National Park just in time, being surrounded by giant trees and forest, dusk came up sooner than we expected.

Back at Di and Wayne’s house our dogs had been spoilt, so much so that I really wondered if Lola wanted to stay as she kept wanting to be inside. Di and Wayne had a lovely dinner waiting for us, shared some great information about where to go next and just made us feel so special.

Back to the topic of kindness, I think it is a bit like pay it forward, we would not hesitate to help others because we know what it feels like to be on the other end, being helped but not only that, helping others or "altruistic" work just gives you that funny feeling inside of you…makes you smile and gives you hope... which is priceless :) To everyone who has helped us so far in our trip…THANK YOU.