FRIDAY 10 APRIL     TEWANTIN

Good Friday. It is hot and humid.

The caravan park seems just about full.

Rather a slow start to the day. John played his lemmings computer game. I washed his bloody shirt, and then rearranged my travel books and maps, putting the NSW and Vic ones away in the crate in the back of Truck, and putting the Qld ones in the accessible carton that sits behind my seat.

Went for a drive, to start to get a feel for the area. Drove to Boreen Point, and Elanda Point, both on Lake Cootharaba on the Noosa River. Both have camping areas, and we were partly looking to see if either of these might be a better place to move out to, after Easter. Boreen Point was really crowded. The private caravan park looked awful and seemed to contain mostly feral types. The council park was really crowded; there were no apparent marked sites, just all crammed in together.

The camp area at Elanda Point looked better, but we didn’t linger to look around, as there was a $4 day use fee, as it is inside the Great Sandy National Park. The views over the large Lake Cootharaba were very pleasant – sometimes I do wish we carried a canoe. However, there was a very intrusive presence of power boats, jet skis and water skiers, which spoiled any potential tranquillity. Perhaps Easter is not a good time to judge, though and it might be better when the crowds thin out.

The “little drive” we set out to do turned out to be 66kms.

After lunch back at the van, went for a cycle into Noosaville and back, just because it is a pleasant ride along the bike path, though this, too, was a bit crowded today. We rode 15.5kms.

Late in the day, we heard on the radio that there was a big thunderstorm in the Ipswich area, where three people died from contact with fallen power lines. In the dusk, could see the darker fringe of it, and much lightning in the distance. As we were having tea, some big wind gusts hit, then we had really heavy rain for a couple of hours. It stayed warm, though.

Tea was prawns and salad. I am not sure they were nice enough to warrant last night’s peeling marathon, however.

This area smells great after rain.