Road tripping on the Sunshine Coast is easy with a wide variety of places to visit. For our road trip I chose; somewhere to swim, somewhere with a view, and two cute towns to wander through and grab a bite to eat. You could easy make a day of food and wine/beer tasting if you prefer.
We started by doing something super touristy and a bit cringe, The Big Pineapple! This is found just off the Bruce Highway at Wildlife HQ Zoo. The girls wondered what I was thinking taking them to a pineapple, but enjoyed the photo opportunity nonetheless.
From here we headed to Kondalilla Falls. Found just outside of Montville, this subtropical nature reserve was the highlight of my day. We walked the 1.4km track (2.8km round trip) through the forest enjoying the sounds of the birds and cicadas, glimpses of the beautiful valley and the odd squeal of joy from the water hole below. Although shaded throughout the walk, the warmth of the day caused us to work up a sweat.
When we broke through the clearing, the water hole looked amazing and inviting (to sweaty me at least). The girls took some convincing and I must admit it was very cold in comparison to the Sunshine Coast beaches. Refreshing is the word that comes to mind. As you can see, the temperature wasn’t stopping anyone.
Knowing that it was going to be a tough climb back to the carpark, we opted not to carry on to the main falls view point. I think it was an extra 400-500m (which doesn’t sound much but it was a steep looking staircase!)
Being school holidays, everywhere we went on this trip was busy, and the Hinterland was no exception. We had jagged a carpark right at the start of the walking track at Kondalilla but weren’t so lucky as we passed back through Montville. The cute cafe and shop lined streets were packed and we had to be satisfied with observing it all from the car.
Gerrard’s Lookout was our next stop. The photos do little justice to the breathtaking view across the hinterland and out to the ocean. The weather looked menacing, but nothing eventuated and we enjoyed a FaceTime call to Mr Travel Bee, pointing things out to him including the two paragliders circling above.
We did manage to get a carpark in Maleny the next town along the tourist drive. Evidently that was because we had arrived as most shops were closing (3pm on a Saturday!) but managed to grab a snack from the bakery and Miss 15 picked up a bargain dress in the op shop! I think Montville would have been a better stop but obviously so did everyone else!
I found driving around the area easy. The highways and motorways on the Sunshine Coast flow well and generally the drivers are more courteous than in WA. They at least know how to merge!!!
Thank goodness for Google maps though. I have no idea how we travelled before this essential tool!
TTB
The Travel Bee 