We left Airlie Beach and travelled for most of the day with intermittent downpours, some very heavy. We decided to free camp along the way and found a good place but it had huge puddles between us and the toilets. We relaxed, had a meal and then decided to turn in for the night only to find our bed was soaked! The window at the front of the van over the bed had leaked because we had not shut it properly! With the driving rain the water had worked its way in and wet the bed including one of Vlasta's Laura Ashley pillows. We took everything off the bed and turned the mattress over and put our spare sheets on. The night was not bad and we left in the morning with the duvet in the car and the fan on full to try and dry it out.
We stopped at Childers and tumble-dried the sheets at a laundromat. We free camped again this time with a dry bed because we had taped the window closed which kept the rain out (we did not yet know it leaked because of our error in not securing it properly) although the rain was not that heavy.
Next day we headed to Tin Can Bay - what a dump! On the way out we stopped at a simple caravan park called Standown between Tin Can Bay and Gympie. Lovely quiet place with everyone chatting around a log fire before dinner.
In the morning we visit Vlasta's friend Kate in Gympie before heading for the Sunshine Coast where we managed to get into the Forest Glen caravan park in a lovely wooded area near Buderin.
