Gympie, the Great Sandy National Park and Sarawak Beach

I'd always associated Gympie with Muster. Apparently I missed it by a few days and it's biggest drawcard was Kenny Rogers. i suspect there is some rivalry between this and the Tamworth country music icon to the south in neighboring NSW. I'm a classical music listener so the Muster was simply idle curiosity.The locals tell me it's really 'the town that saved Queensland with the 1867 gold rush bringing prospectors in from all parts of the globe. After the 'whites' had finished mining, the Chinese took over and yielded four times the amount of their precedecesor. Ouch!

One thing I can definitely share with you without bias - this has to be the hilliest town I've visited. As a cyclist pushing around 45 kg of bike and baggage you really notice the hills. Most inland towns are established close to a natural resource like a river but Gympie was established around the promise of gold.After traveling a short distance on the Gympie to Tin Can Beach road I was stopped by a couple who were visiting from overseas. Renata and David kindly offered to save me from being a local road statistic and took me all the way to beautiful Sarawak Beach. It's North facing with a view of the Southern edge of Fraser Island. I've read the book, seen the film and now I finally get to see Fraser island it with my own eyes.

Those who know me understand when I say I'm in native heaven while traversing this pristine part of Queensland in the Northern Sunshine Coast. There are vast areas of coastal scrub and heath full of many plants in flower, such as Lemon Scented Teatree, Native Boronia, bottlebrush, coastal wattle and eucalypts, not to mention the bird life and reptiles.

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Like the Fleurieu Peninsula and mallee scrub in SA, this is my favorite landscape for hiking and camping as everything is so close and accessible. I decided to do some solitary camping in the Great Sandy National Park. Early one morning, around 2am, I awoke to the sound of a small native animal Long-nosed Potoroo exploring the outside of my tent probably smelling the dried fruit. It disappeared when I unzipped the tent fly but I was greeted by this stunning moonlight glistening on the white bark and leaves of the mallee-shaped eucalypt trees. They looked like eerie sentinels guarding the landscape. With no wind and a very mild temperature I decided to enjoy a cup of peppermint tea and some dark chocolate. It doesn't get better than this!

Tonight's music - Finzi - Five Bagatelles - this makes my heart sing and I can imagine riding through the areas in England where he lived and composed early last century.

I will have to wait till next year.Tonight's meal - stir fry - an easy meal for leftovers.

Tonight's movie - Fargo - an eccentric bunch of characters in contemporary Minnesota portraying obvious Scandinavian roots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_(film)

 

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