Up at 8am, and said happy birthday to Eleanor over porridge.
Then Jeff drove Jim to the Britz campervan office, arriving there when it opened (winter opening hours) at 10am. There were6 people in front of Jim in the queue.
Jim eventually departed the Britz office with campervan at 11.50am!!! - fuming because of how long it took to get served and I was not the last in the queue either. It felt like half a day wasted.
To add insult to injury, this campervan has a few (minor faults) like the internal power source not working.
We departed Jeff's having had lunch (no point in making a picnic at 12.15!), and took the opportunity to eat birthday cake with Eleanor.
The it was bye, and thanks to Jeff and his wife who have been fantastic and tolerant hosts - and on the road (2 hours behind schedule)
First stop was a national park know for Koalas including a sanctuary, and we all cooed at the cute Koalas. We also saw wallabies in the park.
Departed there at 3.30pm, and called into Woolworth supermarket for a rapid shop - then set off, not knowing where in earth we would sleep that night.
The motorway down towards the Gold Coast was packed, without doubt we passed more cars in the hour we were on the motorway that we have passed in the rest of the holiday (all 7000 km travelled so far) combined!. It really is sooooo much busier on the East Coast.
Our original plan was possibly Byron Bay, or one of the many national parks - the issue was the impending dark - it gets dark promptly around 6pm.
We worked out we had enough time (just) to get to the Springbrook National Park, so made our way there. Its 1000 metres (3000 feet) or so high, so cooler. We arrived just with 15 mins to spare before dark. Only 2 other campers - anyone sensible is up north where its warmer!. The people next door (young grey nomads) have been here since midday and showed us a picture of a 6 foot python that they saw in the camping area earlier today!
We put the lights on the campervan. They went off withing 5 minutes. Either its not fully charged *it should be 5 hours driving to fully charge and we have only driven 2 hours) OR there is a fault. So we put the engine on in order to get ourselves sorted and see to cook, then ate by wind up torchlight - a couple of gin and tonics made it feel more cosy.
Outside several bandicoots are out and about to keep us company
There are no clouds - and a moon so bright it casts a shadow - + great starts - but the downside means that it will be chilly without a doubt tonight.
The National Park is not too far from a small village - so we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had mobile / Internet reception. Thus were able to get a skype call into E granny and grandpa
Plan for tomorrow is to explore the national park, which includes a waterfall that you can walk behind, then drive onto the hippy town of Byron Bay where we better book into a powered site to get this campervan functioning fully!
photos to follow
Stayed at The Settlement Campsite, Springbrook National Park, Springbrook, QLD 4213
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