Two Saturdays ago one of my boys (15 yo and already 6'4") who plays local Rep. Basketball played against Noosa and the game was an 8.30pm start at Tewantin... Anyway, we made a trip of it by camping the night at Boreen Point, right on the edge of Lake Cootharaba. We drove through constant driving rain to arrive at around 10.00 pm and fortunately had enough break in the rain to set camp. Me; in my trusty swag and my boy in a small 3man dome which he still hangs out of; lol. It rained hard and steady all night and at one stage I awoke to the swag swinging back and forth so violently I called out in my stupor, "Corey, cut that out and go back to bed...." I will just blame it on the couple of 'Beam's best' I had as a night cap! Apart from a couple of times hearing the really pounding rain, right above my head, I slept like a baby, snug as a bug in a rug... Luckily, the entire camp ground is on sandy beaches on the lakes edge... so it was wet but not muddy and boggy when we broke camp at around 7.00 am... We did a run up the back road to Rainbow Beach via Counter Rd and I can tell you- the reputation of Counter Rd as a teeth-rattler is spot-on... We arrived in Rainbow Beach to the steady beat of rain on the car roof... By his stage my boy had the hunger grizzles so we hit the main strip coffee shop for the Ultimate Big Breakfast- eggs, sausages, hash brown, smokey baked beans and ample rashers of bacon and toast.... H'mmm I can still taste those delightful smokey baked beans.... Coffee- well I'd love to boast how I pulled the Portapresso out and made the best dam camping coffee you ever had, but alas, it didn't happen- not on this trip anyway.... So, after breakfast I pulled out the most desirable camping tool that everyone in the coffee shop strip seemed to share- my iPad.... Using Sygic as my gps-route finder... Well it has a facility where people can upload their own photos of interesting sights as well as the mainstream POI's... Pulled up the weather app. And saw on the BOM radar just south of us was clear of rain... So I dialled in POI's and found an uploaded photo of this most intriguing looking tree that I will simply call the 'Urinal Tree', right near Carlos Blow just a couple of K's out of town... Having piqued Corey's curiosity- he insisted it was a Photoshop Tree... Well we heads down to Carlos Blow.... A short drive and a short hike through the National Park... Along the track we came right across this magical Urinal tree.... And a little further the track opened up into Carlos Blow- a natural phenomena that was named by Capt Cook after one of his crew- Carlo Well as we walked, stumbled, rolled, slid and cajoled around the blow we were constantly being shadowed by this massive great low we could literally see directly off the coast in front of us... We watched as sheet after sheet of rain was swept in to Rainbow Beach village, right in front of us. It was one of those natural wonders where we had a clear birds eye view of the Lighthouse some 14 Klm's away to our right, but barely 800 metres to our left was hardly visible through the driving rain... Anyway, after getting back to the car and having a further look around we started to head back home... 3 1/2 hrs away in Brissy. Corey fell asleep about 30 seconds after getting back in the car, to head home, so I took a detour back through Gympie and did the Gympie Tourist Drive "route 40", I was constantly amazed at the natural beauty, history and how frequently I was looking "up" at the dirty brown tide line in the trees, etc, left by the Australia Day floods.... Well anyway it's only a couple of weeks later now, but in those two weeks we have come to learn that big rain low we were constantly skirting around off the beach at Rainbow Beach was in fact ex cyclone Oswald that in these two weeks once again flooded Gympie, northern NSW, etc.... The moral of the story.... Well this was nothing more than a night away with my boy for a basketball game... Now it has become a family story and treasured memory that will be woven through the fabric of our family for many years to come... Cost: $200- Value: Priceless
