Everyone likes a road trip, right?  The fun of seeing new places, getting out of the general day by day rut, spending quality time with others, collecting new memories.  Road trips are cool.  The idea of hitting the road on a camping trip with the plans to visit many old friends along the way absolutely hit every button for us.  As it happens, we have a number of friends we hadn’t seen for a while that for various reasons have migrated to southeastern Queensland.  And why not, this is a beautiful corner of Australia and ideal for couples who have outgrown their children. 

The drive from Sydney to Brisbane is a bit under 1,000 km (600 miles) and if you were really in a rush you could do it all in a very long day.  But that would be mad because some of the most beautiful coastline of Australia separates these two cities and travellers are spoiled for choice of long stunning beaches, quaint little towns, back-to-back national parks, lighthouses, rivers, sand dunes and just about anything else you want.

Julie and I spent three days driving north to the Gold Coast with a plan to revisit old haunts and explore new places as we camped in some of the great national parks along the way.  That sounds great and we tried to stick to that plan as close as possible but torrential rain – which doused vast areas of land burnt this summer and at least interrupted the prolonged drought – dampened some of our plans.

The rain wouldn’t go away but we were undeterred.  The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s most magnetic tourist destinations with its long beaches, world class golf courses and endless supply of high-rise hotels and apartments, restaurants and shopping. And on the Gold Coast were two sets of friends we hadn’t seen for a long time and were pining to catch up with again.

Mike and Mandy are some of the most genuine and down to earth people you could ever meet.  Burdened with health challenges in their family of four that others wouldn’t be able to fathom, these two are always upbeat, funny and endearing to be with.  We’ve known them forever and had a long fun night with them which didn’t end on the same day it began.

The next day we tootled up to Tambourine Mountain, a tall mountain towering over the Gold Coast which featured some touristy little towns, magnificent groves of Moreton Bay Ash and fab views of the valley and coastline below.  That night we stayed with friends from our Bangkok days, Paul and Fiona, and it was great fun to reminisce about those days as well as catch up on what we’ve all been doing since.  Like many people who have settled on the Gold Coast, they seem to have an idyllic lifestyle and are living the dream.

Is that the sun shining through our bedroom curtain?  Indeed it was and we headed north again under promising blue skies and warm sun.  North of Brisbane we turned east and crossed the bridge onto Bribie Island, once a sleepy sand island off the Queensland coast, now a well established holiday and retirement destination with multiple little towns, a national park making up 80% of the island, and some long beautiful beaches.  We spent a beautiful warm afternoon on Woorim Beach, enjoying the clear ocean water and rare sunshine.  Another night in our warm and cosy roof top tent.

The next day we headed inland and explored the Glasshouse Mountains, did a few short walks to get near some of the action, drove in and out of frequent rain squalls and loved the wet smells of the Aussie gum forests.  We then headed just north to the Blackall Ranges which features a beautiful drive along its ridges and passes through a number of quaint little mountain towns that rely on weekend visitors.  We did a couple more short walks to see gushing waterfalls and enjoy the vibrant rainforests, walking amongst the giant tallowoods, box brush and our favourites – not just because of its name – the blackbutt.  We finally camped for the night at the showgrounds of Kenilworth, a sleepy little town that appreciates every dollar spent there. 

The quirky little markets in the small mountain town of Eumundi have grown in popularity over the years to now completely overtake the town – and all the parking spots – on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  We dropped by on Wednesday morning and walked amongst the stalls of clothes, food, new age medicines, homemade crafts, local art work and other various items of dubious value, enjoying the experience, dodging the rain, sampling the food. 

John, Caroline and their daughter Amanda have settled into life in Noosaville, an upmarket community at the heart of the uber-trendy Noosa area, full of canal homes, expensive shops and beautiful people.  Once a sleepy little town at the mouth of a winding river with a great national park on its headland, Noosa now attracts people from all over Australia and the world to soak in their special vibe.   We have known John and Caroline since Europe, John was the MC at our wedding and Julie is the Godmother of beautiful Amanda.  This was friendship royalty.

We spent two nights with them, the first being joined by Wendy and Murray, old friends from Sydney who had moved to the area ages ago and who we hadn’t seen in an astonishing 31 years.  Suffice to say we had a lot of catching up to do and the night finished with many sincere commitments to keep in touch.

Our next stop was further south.  Tony and Jo were friends and colleagues from my working world, including many years of common time while living in Bangkok.  They had retired to a beautiful home on a canal in Pelican Waters near Caloundra and we enjoyed a night catching up with them and their lovely daughter Maddy. 

All this heavy duty socialising with dear friends was taking a toll on us but Julie and I were up to the challenge.  We headed south to Brisbane to set up camp in the huge guest room of our Bangkok friends Philip and Joanne.

Joanne, the consummate host and entertainer, used our arrival as an excuse to contact many old friends from our Bangkok days and the 12 of us enjoyed a wonderful day reminiscing about our travels and living overseas while enjoying spectacular views of the Brisbane River.  Julie and I couldn’t have been more happy – and honoured – to have had the chance to catch up with so many friends in this special Bangkok reunion.

But there’s no rest for the wicked and the next day we caught the cat ferry into Brisbane and explored this vibrant modern city with its signature river tightly weaving its way through the skyscrapers and under the myriad bridges that connect all points.  We stayed that night with Les and Tracy, another couple that spanned both my career and our time in Bangkok, now living on the 40^th floor enjoying panoramic views of Brisbane, writing books on their travel experiences and enjoying the good life.  Great friends and great to catch up.

But our time visiting friends was over and we needed to weave our way back home again.  We headed inland to a couple of the national parks that straddle the NSW/Queensland border, explored a few new places and camped that night in a remote campsite in low-profile Mebbin National Park, not a soul around us, surrounded by noisy birds and cute little pademelons (small marsupials similar to kangaroos) with our first camp fire of the trip.  Now that is bliss!

We woke to the sound of raucous kookaburras calling out from trees just above us and yellow-tailed black cockatoos feeding, fighting and squawking from nearby pines.  The rainforest was alive in sights and sounds, we loved every moment.  The drive south out of the park was superb, tall trees, groves of ferns and palms, thick vines growing everywhere, the jungle at its best after the heavy rains.  We pulled into the little mountain town of Nimbin, well known in Australia as a hippy enclave in the 70’s and 80’s, still home to many people who choose a quieter more detached life.  Good on them.

The scenery on the drive further south was a joy to behold.  The rolling green hills, fresh with long grass and fat cows from the recent rains, provided a joyous backdrop to the drive down to Grafton and then through some back tracks to the mountain town of Dorrigo and the nearby national park.  We came to the small community of Ebor at 1,350 metres (4,300 feet, very high by Aussie standards) and free-camped at a recreation ground outside of town.  Another great day, another beaut fire, another fab – if slightly cold – night.  We could get used to this stuff.

As we headed further south we passed through numerous areas that had been heavily impacted by the recent fires, tall forests of gum and pines completely stripped and blackened.  We also crossed bridges over rivers that had swollen beyond their banks with the recent heavy rains.  That’s Australia for you, drought, fire, flood, repeat.

In fact, as an example of this cruelty to those who live on this land, on the previous day we had wanted to take the scenic road from Grafton to Armidale across the Northern Tablelands.  But the road was closed and we were told by locals that a couple of the wooden bridges had been burned by the fires, only to be quickly replaced with temporary bridges that were then swept away in the floods.  Man, that’s rough.

But all too soon we were home again. Good friends are important to everyone and Julie and I are lucky to know such a fabulous group of people from all our different life phases and experiences.  To have the opportunity to catch up with so many and combine that with a re-invigorating road trip has been the perfect medicine for us.  We hope to return the favour to all these great people some day soon.