Forest Lake

After the downpour on the last day of the Cooloola Great Walk, we stayed in a hostel in Noosa. But the adventure wasn’t over. Even the hostel grounds were flooding! After we had gone to bed, it rained so hard that waterfalls were flowing down the stairs. The water was about 20cm deep and coming up to the bottom of the door. People were shoveling water and using buckets to clear the water. Just 2cm short of coming into the room, the water started to go down again. Phew!

The following morning we headed back South to Brisbane. We found Dave and Leanne through Couchsurfing. They’re a really relaxed couple, with 5 kids, in Forest Lake (near Brisbane). We definitely got the downtime and comfort we were hoping for after our tramp. We could wash and dry our gear and relax our sore muscles. Dave is a great chef and taught us a bit about his cooking. He even trusted me with the BBQ! We had two late nights chatting about everything from traveling and culture to business and politics.

Just behind their house is a park surrounding Forest Lake. It's a really nice, relaxing area, with lots of birds, ducks and water dragons. We stopped at a nice coffee shop half way along the path. The owner had just started a few years ago. Her concept is smart. She convinced a few local businesses to set up a cart on their property. Consistent customers and a free space, for good coffee, literally around the corner.

Dave and Leanne took us to the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre. It was really educational. It has two platypuses, free roaming kangaroos, a wombat, flying squirrels, alligators, snakes, frogs, and more. It is run by (really friendly) Queensland national park rangers who were willing to share everything they knew about the animals. They even showed us the “bush stone-curlew” and their recently hatched chicks! In Aberdeen, Jenna worked for a floating oil production vessel named after these birds. Cool!Read more