10th to 16th January 2000 (Week 2)

Our first destinations were the Border Ranges and Lamington Nationalparks. Together with oder areas around the New South Wales / Queensland Border, they form one of the biggest protected areas of temperate rainforest on earth. The Border Ranges Nationalpark is best accessed via a scenic drive over the Tweed Ranges. Along this track numerous lookouts and walks allow for sampling this beautiful nature reserve. We accessed the Lamington Nationalpark via the 4WD Duck Creek track near Kerry to the Green Mountains. This park is located around 60 km outside of Brisbane and is a local recreational hotspot for the population of Brisbane. Further north we sampled the volcanic remnants tha make up the Glasshouse Mountains near Berriwah.

Our way led us then to Noosa Heads where we took the Ferry to the North Shore from where we intended to drive along the Beach through Coloola Nationalpark to Rainbow Beach. We had to wait the night in order for the Tide to go down. It rained all night and was as well pretty windy. Unluckily the so caused bigger sea swells kept the beach covered in water even at low tides, so we decided not to take the risk to inundate the car and drove inland to Rainbow Beach. It rained on throughout the whole day. Towards the evening we went along the Beach to have a look at the coloured sands. After 10 minutes we were soaked. Still half an hour to go to low tide, we found the water still covering the beach so that we had to climb some rock boulders to get there. Along the beach a number of cars waited as well for the low tide in order to get around the last of the 8 mile rocks which were still covered in water. On our way back the first cars passed the last obstacles

The next day we took the ferry to Fraser Island. Because of the high tide we had to take the inland road. We visited the lakes with the intention of camping there. Since the australians did have their summer holidays, we couldn't find a campsite. So we drove to Eurong Beach, a part of the famous 75 Mile Beach, where we camped right on the beach. The next day we drove at low tide up to Orchid Beach, visiting numerous attractions on the way. there we made camp to await the next low tide the following day in order to drive up to the Sandy Cape, the top of Fraser Island. On the way back we took a scenic drive inland to Lake McKenzie to go swimming. For the night we drove to cathedral beach where we camped again at the beach.