Day 8- Gold Coast to Caboolture

Busy day today. Cindy and Robert and the girls came out for a massive feast of a breakfast. Lucky we started packing our things up last night cos we all got to chatting (and chatting...) and ended up getting away a bit behind schedule.

We drove out to Brendale (north Brissy) to get our new annexe fitted. Looks really jazzy! I have to say we were both really impressed with the service we got from The Awning Man. It's a family business and they are the kind of people that instantly make you feel like friends. Apart from fitting the walls for us they also fixed the awning that we never realised was not set up properly and gave it a service. I can't wait to get somewhere for a few days and set it up again and have a play. The kids are going to love it.

Just as we were heading back to the highway and planning to head to our national parks camp near Bribie we got a call from Mum and Dad. They were out at the campsite at Coochin Creek and even though we had booked online through the EPA the site was totally packed and the tiny van area was far too small for us to get our rig in there.... ?? In hindsight we probably should have turned back and camped in near Petrie but instead we decided to go to the Caboolture Showgrounds (another cheap camp listed in the Camps4) but when we got there it was wall-to-wall vans, no shade, and $20 a night for power... i figured a van park would only be $5 more for nice facilities. So a call to the tourist infomation centre and we got the address of the only van park in town.

First impressions were not great but we just wanted to set up and get the kids out of the car so it'll do. $25 a night but i think there might be a pool! (i really hope there is a pool! LOL!). It's on the river and there is a boat ramp but that sounds nicer than it is in reality. It's a really old park but Caboolture looks like it has a few things to do so it will probably be all good. Hard to compare it though with the Gold Coast park which was only $3 a night more.

Normally we'd just head on and find something nice but we have to be back in north Brissy to get our new mattresses on Monday and to catch up with some friends at Petrie so there was no point going too far out of town. Not sure what to do with the booking we paid for online for Coochins??? so i take back my comments about it being a handy website. I think next time we'll go to the campsite first before booking. We should probably also keep in mind that trying to get a spot at a nice national park camp over the weekend is not a good idea.

After setting up we just sat around and had a few beers. Jordy made a friend with a little girl about the same age in the van next to us and they played for a couple of hours which was great. A quick shower, dinner time (Jordy took himself over to Mum and Dad's van and ate with them). A snuggle-wrestling game for the boys before they crashed and then some computer time for me and Tim as we try to plan the next few days.