Less travel for this part, with three nights near Byron Bay and another three south of Brisbane. We still explored some stunning forests, but also got out on the golden beaches, swum in a tea tree lake, saw whales and kayaked with dolphins.  

Day 10  – Byron Bay and kayaking with whales and dolphins

Today was pretty perfect.  Bel (our lovely host) had messaged the night before asking if I wanted to join her at yoga the next morning.  In the spirit of saying yes more, and because I was feeling a bit ‘bent’ after so much sitting in the car, I agreed.  One catch – it was at 6am so an early start ☹

Set my alarm and made it out on time.  Actually enjoyed the yoga a lot.  Normally I’m more of a pilates person but it felt good to stretch.  The only trouble was that I left my waterproof there.  My only coat which needed to last a year and I’d lost it in a week!  

We set out from the house to Byron Bay under a hot sun and headed straight to the peninsula.  Parking is expensive so we headed down the road another couple of hundred metres until we hit the free parking area.  From here it was a hot walk along the coastal path on the northern side of the peninsula past golden sandy beaches which seemed to only be in use by surfers. 

As the path climbed up the headland we kept our eyes open for whales – supposedly the humpbacks can be seen from the coast at this time of year.  The humpbacks migrate north to give birth and then head back south with their calves to feed in Antarctic waters.  As we reached the most easterly point in Australia we were rewarded with whale after whale in the distance and a pod of dolphins swimming about near the cliffs below. 

The lighthouse offers free tours up to the top and around the museum, but was fully booked for the next few hours by the time we arrived.  As we’d already seen lots of whales there was less need to get to the top for the view so we moved on.  The path back around the other side of the headland was through trees, therefore shaded and much cooler thank goodness as it was a super hot day (around 30 degrees so very unseasonal).  There were hardly any people on this very pleasant path but it doesn’t have the sea views. 

The real reason we’d come to Byron was for a kayaking tour in the bay to find dolphins at 2pm.  We got back in the car and headed further into Byron only to find that the kayaking centre was only a few hundred metres from where we’d parked, not in the centre of Byron as expected so we doubled back to the same parking spot.  The downside of this was that our assumption that we’d be on the waterfront with lots of places to choose from for lunch was very wrong.  The only place nearby was the Beach restaurant.  Take out fish and chips was available there for relatively reaonsble prices but we were drawn in by the oceans views in the restaurant and the possibility of healthier food.  The ocean views were nice but it was a posh place – we hardly knew what any of the menu options were and had to use Google!  The seafood ravioli and brussel sprouts with mozzarella were both over-salted for my taste so we didn’t even enjoy it very much.  At £80 for the meal we were not impressed.  Good job we were ahead of budget before this!

Our kayak tour group was a small one which was nice, only seven other people and two instructors.

From the start our instructor, Duggie, was entertaining and engaging and the mood of the group was good.  They quickly established that (apart from the kids) everyone in the group had kayaked before a few times so after a quick refresher on paddling the boats were sent out into the surf one at a time.  Despite it being a hot day there was a stiff breeze and the waves were coming in strong.  After a quick chat with Duggie and a look at the waves, we decided to share a boat between Chris and I and let the instructors take the kids.  I was convinced I was going in!  Luckily they pushed us all in through the first wave so all we had to do was paddle hard to get through the second.  Either we weren’t very in sync or the second wave came fast because we hit it as it was breaking and got lifted right up.  I got some serious air at the front, and very wet upon landing. 

We rafted the boats together for a second briefing.  Duggie only had three rules, ‘stay close together (so we are less threatening to the dolphins), think happy thoughts and tra-la-la-la-la’.  Should be able to remember those…

Just offshore is where the turtles are so we stopped to look for green golf-ball shaped heads to pop up and were rewarded with a couple.  Evie’s first turtle!

We paddled into the bay a bit, following the shoreline but staying out of reach of the breakers which were coming in sideways down the coast.  A great view of surfers from side on rather than the front and some of nature’s original surfers – dolphins coming into the bay riding the waves!

We rafted together whilst we looked for dolphins.  Supposedly they like singing so we sang happy birthday to Brooke (one of the other tour members), and Aiden made his dolphin noises to call them.  Duggie also reckons they respond to positivity and happy thoughts – would you approach someone who looked like they were in a bad mood?  So we relaxed on the surface, enjoying the coolness of the water and the feeling of the sun.  I was having such a good time just being out there that I didn’t really mind if we saw anything or not. 

We did though, they appeared off to the side, initial sightings were a little far away, but most people in the group would have gotten within 25m of one at some point I think.  We had one come really close to our boat when we had drifted off a bit (the seas were a bit wavey to stay rafted properly once we got further out). 

After numerous dolphin sightings, our instructors turned their attention to whales.  As we were a relatively fit and competent group we went out further from shore towards where the whales are passing, which meant going into larger and larger waves!  These were fun though.  We got some whale sightings in the distance, blows mainly but some people thought they saw bigger splashes.  The trouble with kayaks is that you’re so low to the water that the waves totally block any view you have when you’re not on top of them. 

The time came to start paddling back which was hard work – we were going against the tide and the ever changing water depth as the waves rolled around us meant that at times the paddle was in air and at other times sunk super deep into the water, and when the waves push you forwards you’re propelled fast, but then in the backdraw it’s like paddling through treacle.  Very hard to get into a good rhythm (Chris was suprised to hear this though as he found didn’t notice any of this…!).  It was at this point that I was extra glad we hadn’t gone out with a kid each as I needed Chris paddling on the back to keep up!  

We were still watching for whales as we worked our way back and suddenly saw a blow ahead and slightly to the right – a whale in the bay!  We paddled furiously towards it for a minute, waiting to see where the next blow would come so we could judge the direction it was travelling – straight for us!  We put the brakes on and drifted, knowing that it would have to come past us on its way out the bay.  Sure enough there was a calf, a few hundred metres away.  Waiting eagerly as they went under to see where they came up… past us and on out to sea, but both mother and calf within 30m!  They would have swam almost underneath us!  Very exciting although we wished we could have seen more of them of course.  They headed out into the ocean and we continued our paddle back. 

Now for the tricky part – getting back into shore without capsizing in the breakers!.  With no-one to assist this time we were on our own.  The kids had been able to move about the boats when we were rafting but we passed them both back to the instructor for this.  He showed us how it was done and landed the kids on the shore.  Nice and dry.  A couple of other boats got in but the next one was over.  Our turn.  It’s about speed coming in, so we tried to go fast, but were not straight so had to straighten up.  This cost us a lot of speed and when the wave picked us up from behind we went sideways.  Somehow, despite being pretty much underwater I found I was still in the boat.  I turned round to see that Chris wasn’t.  I was being pushed sideways into shore and felt rather smug that I was going to make it in, when a second wave hit and the boat flipped onto my head.  After a moment’s panic at finding myself underwater with a boat on my head I quickly regained sense and remembered it was made of plastic and pushed it off.  I was glad of the helmet though. 

Seemingly Chris has ‘slipped’ off the boat when the wave hit and effectively stood up in the swell rather gracefully.  As he was meant to be steering us through the wave as the rudder man that left me high and dry – thanks hun!

After changing back out of the wetsuits we headed home feeling rather elated 😊

Worldschooling:

Learning about dolphin behaviour and what attracts them.  Also about our interactions with them.  Also learning to kayak and paddle.  

Bird species seen: 52

Day 11 – Lake Ainsworth and Lennox Head

Time for a more chilled day today.  We played in the garden in the morning and sat around catching up on admin and playing board games from the cupboard. 

After lunch we headed out to Lake Ainsworth, a lake next to the sea with tea trees growing around it.  Their oils seep into the water and stain it brown, so it looks like you are swimming in tea (or some really dirty water!).  The tree oils are really good for your skin so people come here to swim for their health. 

It was not a hot day, with a bit of a wind but I was determined to go in and swim.  It took me a while but I made it.  Evie found an abandoned body board so they messed about in the shallows floating around on the board. 

It seemed wrong to be so close to the sea and not visit so we walked the 100m down to Seven Mile Beach near Lennox Head where the kids tried their new board out on the waves. 

Worldschooling:

Learning about their movement on a body board, floating etc.  Also about tea tree lakes.  

Bird species seen: 55

Day 12 – Springwood National Park

Left our place with Bel reluctantly this morning and headed towards the Springbrook National Park.  We took the scenic route up through Murwillumbah.  If you pass this way stop off at the Moo Moo Roadhouse in a little town called Moo Ball.  The town is tiny but they’ve gone all out on the cow theme, even the lampposts have been painted black and white!  We stopped here for fuel and the tills weren’t working so they gave us a free chocolate milkshake from the café.  Possibly the best milkshake ever and the food looked reasonably priced too ($12 for a burger, $5 for our very large milkshake).

Springbrook, and many parks in the area, are part of some of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.  Only 0.3% of the original rainforests remain now and are protected as vital habitats.  We stopped first at Natural Bridge, which is as it says, a natural rock bridge over a river.  This formed when the flow from a waterfall over hard rock eroded a cave underneath it.  A few metres back stones in a pool were moved around by the flow and slowly wore their way down into a deep pool.  Eventually this broke through into the cave, along with the waterfall, leaving the previous section as a bridge.  Inside the cave glowworms live (but can only be seen at night) as well as a colony of microbats, which we did see flitting around at the end.  They seemed to be jostling for the best roosting spots. 

There’s a lovely 1km trail which runs down to the falls and the bridge through the rainforest.  As we were still in the freak heatwave and it was predicted to be 34 degrees in Brisbane (!!) we welcomed the cooler mountain temperatures and the shelter provided by the trees.  It was barely hot at all – a very pleasant temperature so we recommend this place when it’s hot on the coast.  In the reviews it seemed that this area can get very busy with coachloads of people from Brisbane.  Whether it was because it’s winter here still, or because it was a Friday, we saw possibly 7 other groups on the trails with us.  Not bad really. 

Then it was back in the car for another 40 minutes drive up to the ‘Best of All Lookout’.  There is a very short trail to the lookout, from which you can see all across the massive volcano crater, which goes as far as the Nightcap range to the south.  This was created 23 million years ago so not all of the crater rim remains but you can see the scale from the lookout and it’s pretty impressive.    Unfortunately for us a dust cloud was coming in from the West so it was pretty hazy and the pictures all looked rubbish.  We saw a Wedge-tailed Eagle though so our trip to the lookout was totally worth it 😊.

By now we were hungry so we headed for the picnic area at Tallanbana picnic area where there are picnic benches nestled amongst the rainforest for a tranquil lunch disturbed only by the Brush Turkey who seemed to think we should be sharing our sandwiches with him. 

From here the Twin Falls trail heads off across the top of the cliff line, over the stream that produces the falls.  We carried on to a windy trail through the rainforest, down the cliff, through some boulders and then a cave to the base of the falls. With the drought only one of the falls was flowing but it was still lovely.  The sun seemed to be setting and the light was auburn even though it was only 3.30pm.  Turns out this was the dust clouds coming across the sun. 

The trail back up took us behind a second waterfall and along the base of the cliff.

As we headed up we saw our first snake – a carpet python (we think).  Luckily he decided to move off the path so we could pass.

From here we headed further north and turned up at our first homestay Airbnb where we are actually living in the same home as the owner.  They weren’t there so we had directions on where to find the key and in we went.  Felt very surreal walking into someone’s home when they weren’t there.  Beautiful place though with an amazing spacious kitchen/lounge/diner on the back.  Cue fumbling our way around the kitchen for utensils, a few minutes figuring out how the hob works and then cooking.  Veggie chilli tonight.  Our host Heather had left a message to say she wouldn’t be there that night so we have a tv and a sofa to ourselves later!!  It’s the little things!  Whilst enjoying our film complete with adverts we caught the news roundup.  I have to say, it was a little more exciting than the news at home, with two forest fires and a random brawl for no apparent reason!

On a serious note, the forest fires here are really extreme at the moment, which is not usual for this season.  Everything’s so dry after the drought that the Australian forests are like a tinderbox. 

Worldschooling: 

Learning about the volcanic activity and seeing the scale of the volcano crater here.  Also maths on the pads during the car journey (an app they used to use at school).  

Bird species seen: 66

Day 13 – Karawatha Forest Discovery Centre and the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary

We met the lovely Heather this morning when she popped in to check we’re ok after breakfast.  She’s staying overnight somewhere else though so another day with her beautiful house to ourselves. 

Whilst the kids initially wanted to stay in and play with their toys, the promise of koalas soon tempted them out. 

We started with a drive to the outskirts of Brisbane, where the industrial areas stretched for miles.  So many car sales lots!  Then suddenly a forest amongst it all.  The Karawatha Forest is one of the largest areas of remnant bushland within Brisbane, and at 900 hectares it’s large.  The vegetation here is mainly dry eucalypt forest with some swamp areas.  Being in the middle of a suburban area it’s important to protect it, but also to ensure it doesn’t become too isolated from other areas.  The local councils are doing a lot to preserve the species here and maintain this as an important habitat with initiatives like building a land bridge over a main road so that the forest is linked to other bushland with no road danger.  Hopefully their research will show that it works and more can be rolled out.  Personally I wonder how the animals will know it’s there and know to head 500m down the road rather than just run across, but hopefully I’m wrong.

There is a discovery centre on site which entertained us for about half an hour with facts about the forest.  Then we headed out into the picnic area.  There were two birthday parties here making use of the covered picnic areas which come with gas stoves for outdoor cooking!  We also saw another carpet python by the play area (!!).  Luckily the Grey Butcherbirds were mobbing it and making a fuss so we all knew it was there. 

There are a number of trails, a couple of which start from this picnic area so we headed out down the 3km trail through open eucalypt forest and found our own private picnic bench halfway round.  With a lovely view and a cool breeze it was a very pleasant place to stop and escape the sun. 

To entertain the kids on the way around we played a game where you have to make up your own animal and explain it to the others.  Evie in particular loved this and we drew them later in the evening.

After a play at the park and in the water area we set off for the nearby Daisy Hill Centre for Koala’s.  This purpose-built centre houses some koalas which are being rehabilitated or cannot be released to the wild after becoming sick or injured.  There’s a lot of information here about koalas, including their behaviour, conservation, and how to spot them in the wild.  Eucalyptus leaves are not very nutritious, so they get very little energy and spend 16-22 hours a day sleeping nestled in the nook of a tree. 

Their bums are designed to blur the shape and blend in with the trees so you’re unlikely to see one in the wild unless you really know what you’re looking for or get lucky.  This will prove to be a difficult point to win!  You can get really close to these rescues here and watch them sleep, or if you get lucky like we did with Jordan, watch them move around the trees and feed.

Worldschooling:

Learning about koala behaviour and the ecology of Karawatha Forest.  

Bird species seen: 69

Day 14 – Upper Coomera

Our options today involved beaches, playgrounds and a lovely, large empty house.  We let the kids pick the activities today so we walked down to the local park and lake in the morning and played there for a bit.

The whole estate we were staying on was built within the last 15 years or so and so all the houses are new.  Unlike England where they would all look the same and have to be crammed in, they have well sized plots, wide roads and, although there is some repetition in places, most houses look different to those around.  As a designed built housing area they also created a little lake, grassy area, courts, toilets, a covered playground and (seemingly standard) covered picnic bench areas which include a cooker.  There were two more parties underway or being set up down here so it’s obviously the thing to do.  It was a Sunday so it was really nice to see a large number of families using the park, playing ball games etc. 

Back at the house we chilled out on the shaded deck, ate pasta lunch and then thought about the afternoon.  We were just 20 minutes from the Gold Coast so we should probably have gone and had a look, but Chris and I were put off by all the high rises we’d seen from Springbrook and the kids could not be tempted away from their toys and the chance to stay in one place for most of a day by the promise of sand and sea.  Today was their choice so we stayed in.  I was happy with that as it meant some time for catching up with the journal (I was about 5 days behind!!).

Heather arrived back after lunch, and had a friend with a baby visiting so we chatted to the lovely lady from Hervey Bay.  Being from a touristy area like Hervey Bay she was used to English and American tourists.  Apparently people often put on their best Aussie accent and say ‘put another shrimp on the barbie’.  She was quick to point out that they never do this as they call them prawns and rarely BBQ them!  She’s also met someone who thought Australian’s ride Kangaroos!! Ha ha.

We cooked dinner for Heather too and spent the evening chatting about life and everything.  She’s been running her Airbnb for about 18 months and aims to provide cheap accommodation options, mainly to families, so they can use all the local theme parks and have a cheap holiday.  This place was the cheapest by far of everywhere we stayed (about half the price!) and much lovelier than hostels etc so she’s definitely succeeded! 

My only issue with it was that she has a dog and I’m allergic.  My antihistamines kept the worst of it away but it left me a bit tired and irritable for these few days.  Sorry family!

Despite the lack of activity I still managed to add another 4 birds to the list on our walk around the lake and got a great view of a King Parrot 😊

Bird species seen: 74

Follow the next step of the adventure up to Rockhampton or catch up with the previous leg from Sydney to Byron Bay…