Volunteers, Mountaineers and Elf Ears

Volunteers, Mountaineers and Elf Ears
Buddina, Australia

Buddina, Australia

So after 3 weeks on the road we were ready for a break from camping and living in La Toya and were lucky enough to find ourselves another Helpx role on the Sunshine Coast. This was another homestay with the lovely Lorelle and her 16 year old cat Moggy. Lorelle lives alone with her kids having grown up and flown the nest and she loves company and therefore lets our one room to helpxers and the other to Airbnb, we were so lucky to stay here as we were made to feel so welcome it was like a home from home as soon as we arrived. Our role here was to do a bit of gardening and to sweep the pool and as Lorelle didn’t really have enough work for us to do our 2 hours a day in exchange for accommodation she invited us to do our hours in the Salvo op shop (charity shop) which she works at. We were needless to say over the moon at this option and could not wait to get stuck in, we even volunteered to do double shifts with the following day off to go exploring.

So working in the Salvo for me meant tidying shelves, picking up clothes, tidying hangers and generally doing all the work that you would expect in a charity shop. For Tim it meant searching every box, rail and bag for the most fun and exciting item that he could play with, pose with or wear. Admittedly the M&M costume was a great find, but when Tim asked me to go into the changing rook with him because he couldn’t get on the ladies size 12 denim catsuit by himself I was a little concerned. I did however assist him into the catsuit which was a horrible horrible sight and I genuinely questioned my sanity at opening the changing room door to take a full length photo for all the store to see Tim in his denim clad glory. Oh the shame!

So after a ‘hard’ days work we had the next day off to take a trip to the Glass House Mountains (via the Big Pineapple for the obligatory photo of course), the name probably should have been a bit of a giveaway but after a month of driving on completely flat roads we didn’t even think twice about taking La Toya on this day trip until suddenly we are on a 20% incline chugging along at 20kmph with black smoke pouring out of the exhaust. Hmmm it seems that our poor old girl is not so keen on hills or mountains. Nevertheless the girl made it in one piece and we got some amazing views from the viewpoints along the way and paid a visit to the Mary Cairncross Park. This land was donated to be retained as rainforest and has the most lovely walks with amazing birds and adorable pademelons (little wallabies which live in the rainforest). We had a lovely walk with the sound of the cat bird, which incredibly sounded just like either a cat or a baby crying and if we hadn’t been told that these were what was making the noise, I would have spent my afternoon looking for abandoned children!

So our next day trip and we decided to confront the Glass House Mountains again, this time giving La Toya a break and going on foot. We did our research and decided that Mount Beerburrum whilst steep was properly paved and had a great viewing platform at the top which is used by the fire service to look for bush fires so we decided that we would confront our trekking demons and take it on. Tom Tom decided to have a laugh with us and punish La Toya by taking us on a ‘short cut’ through a forest on an unpaved road for 15 kilometers which unsurprisingly took twice as long as the motorway, thanks Tom Tom. So we made it eventually to the base of Beerburrum and set off for our massive 700 meter climb, ha ha! We had water, we had suncream, we even had a chocolate bar to reward ourselves with at the top, what I didn’t have was mosquito repellent. Literally 2 minutes into the walk we were surrounded by a cloud of hungry giant mosquitos. Given that it was the middle of the day and 35 degrees this confused me immensely but we pushed through squatting them by the dozen. I say we, Tim seemingly isn’t as flavoursome as I am as he was left alone whilst I was attacked for every angle. So the climb, we started strong and within about 5 minutes we were both doubled over drinking water huffing and puffing, it seems that our fitness levels may be at an all time low and climbing a mountain with a 45 degree incline in the midday sun may well not have been the best idea we ever had. I pushed on and left Tim lagging to shout back with some encouraging words of “I still can’t see the top, keep going” and “nope still nothing around this corner”. Eventually I made it to the point where I could see the top, but Tim was nowhere to be seen or heard, so I had the unenviable job of going back down to find him, thankfully I didn’t need to go far, it just seemed he was so exhausted he had lost the power of speech. He pushed on and got to the top, I was there with my camera and water and ready to hand out the celebratory snickers when I realised that Tim had turned a strange green colour and was using the viewpoint to keep himself upright, oh dear, this wasn’t quite the plan. When Tim finally composed himself he admitted that he was unsure whether he was going to throw up or soil himself. Note to self, do not climb mountains without training in the midday sun with Tim ever.

The views from the top of Mount Beerburrum were pretty spectacular and well worth seeing Tim close to collapse. The fire tower was manned so we went all the way to the top, we tried to make polite conversation with the man in the tower, but seemingly there is a reason that he has a job where he doesn’t come into contact with real people very often as he really didn’t have much to say.

So after a few photos we started the descent, back through the clouds of mosquitos to the safety of La Toya. Later that evening Tim counted the mosquito bites on the back and arms and it seemed that I fed the mountain population well that day with a grand total of 45 itchy red bites!

Enroute home we decided to stop by the Sunshine Coast university which apparently has a massive population of Kangaroos. We drove through the grounds and didn’t find any and just as we were about to leave I spotted them chilling in the children’s play park (I am still not sure why the university has a children’s play park?!) and there was the most gorgeous kangaroo family ever, mummy, baby and HUGE daddy all just chilling out around the swings, they didn’t really care at all that we went and joined them, daddy actually didn’t even move which made me quite happy as I am pretty sure if he had stood up he would have been as big as me and I would have been out of there like a shot.

So after another day working in the salvo, I must have proved myself as I was promoted to phone duty (well for 10 minutes whilst Lorelle had a cuppa), Tim continued his search for fun and amusing items and his highlight of the day was finding a signed Ant & Dec CD, rock and roll!

So it was time for another day trip, we were told by pretty much everyone we met that no trip to the sunshine coast is complete without a visit to Steve Irwins Australia Zoo. Having seen so many amazing animals in the wild I was reluctant to go to a Zoo but it had to be done and I have to confess that I wasn’t disappointed. The bird show was mind blowingly amazing with a complete choreographed routine with birds of every shape, size and colour darting around the stadium. The croc show was like watching an old episode of Crocodile hunter with the staff being chased around by huge crocs. The zoo had all the usual Aussie animals, Tasmanian devils, wombats, roos and wallabies and of course our favourite koalas. We were super excited to find a wombat being walked around on a lead which we were able to stroke. There was even an African section with giraffes and rhinos, which seems to slightly go against the Australia Zoo name?!

At the end of the day, there was one last place to visit, the animal hospital. I don’t think that either of us were prepared for this visit as within 10 minutes we were both emotionally drained and cryin
g at the sad looking sick koalas. There was actually a koala who had been operated on and was just being brought around which was the saddest sight I have ever seen, along with the little grey furry face who had the broken arm and turned around to give Tim the saddest look ever. Get well soon little furry faces, you are in good hands.

So our time with the lovely Lorelle was fast coming to an end, we had fed Moggy the vast majority of our dinners as who couldn’t resist that little face watching you cook and eat and had become experts at Yahtzee.

We had one last job to complete during our stay, and that was to take our annual Christmas card photo. Having been carrying around our costumes bought from op shops months in advance we had the house to ourselves and so got the stage set for the annual photo. We decided that sunbeds at the end of the pool would be perfect. What we didn’t take into account was the hot floor, the bells on my ankles which really hurt when trod on and the run from the camera to the sun beds with a 12 second timer. If anyone had been watching they would have been bent over double laughing at us. But eventually we did it, with burnt feet and at least 20 failed shots, we had the one. Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Farewell Lorelle and Moggy and thanks for having us, next stop Brisbane.