Blutos after the fourth week.

Following on from my previous summaries of the experience of driving my new Seltos for the first couple of weeks, I thought I would add a few things I've experienced in the fourth week. As a reminder my car is :- Kia Seltos PE GT-Line AWD 2023, 1.6 l turbo, 8 speed automatic, Neptune Blue.

First off, economy. Another week with similar driving trends using the Eco mode and refueling with  ULP91. A trip to the Gold Coast from the Sunshine Coast and then back again. Also including a trip up into the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and some short around town driving. All up about 540 Km with about 100 Km range left according to the computer. After refueling the calculated economy was 7.1 l/100 Km and better than 7.7 l/100 Km last week. I am unsure why it was 0.6 l/100 km better this week as I don't think I did anything different. 

Wireless CarPlay Adapter - Not long after I purchased the car I decided that the lack of wireless CarPlay needed to be remedied. I noticed a roughly half price deal with free shipping for a CarLinkit CPC200-2AIR 5.0 Wireless Android Auto Apple Carplay Kit from an online store and and ordered it for around $70, down from $140 or so. (https://www.lightinthebox.com/en/p/carlinkit-5-0-carplay-android-auto-wireless-adapter-portable-dongle-for-oem-car-radio-with-wired-carplay-android-auto-2023-newest-cpc200-2air_p9543179.html?prm=1.5.1.1)  Reviews I had seen on CarLinKit gear suggested it was an ok brand. It arrived through the week so I installed it, very easy, just a matter of plugging it into the CarPlay USBA port on the Seltos, letting it power up and then connecting to it via Bluetooth from my iPhone 13 Pro. It works just the same as the wired CarPlay connection with the screen responsiveness being about the same. The only minor glitch with it is that the logo on the device is actually a light which indicates the various stages of connection. Unfortunately when the phone is connected this is a fairly bright flashing green light which is quite distracting when driving at night. The simple solution is to leave it face down in the Centre console. When I get into the car it seems to take about 20-25 secs before the phone screen shows up on the car display. But this isn't too much of a problem as it usually takes me that amount time to get the car out of the garage, make sure the garage door is closed, put my seat belt on and generally get ready to drive off. The phone can now sit on the wireless charging pad to keep it charged up while driving. The phone got a little warm during a two hour trip but nothing close to causing it any problems. So all up I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure I would pay the full price for it as there seem to be reasonably rated products on Amazon for roughly $80-$90. 

Tyre Pressures - I got out my trusty old tyre pressure gauge that I use when I go beach driving in my 4WD Ute camper and checked the Seltos's tyre pressure after 24 hr of sitting in the garage, so as cold as they were going to get in a SEQ winter. The pressures were all around 31-32 psi, then I checked using the built in TPMS in the car and it showed they were at 32-33 psi, which is close enough for me. The recommended cold pressures are 33 psi for a lightly laden Seltos (according to the tyre placard on the drivers door sill). After an hour of highway driving at 100-110 kph the pressure rose to 35-36 psi and stayed there. This seems about right and what I would expect. 

Miscellaneous - The Auto Hold handbrake function only works in Drive not reverse. Tried it when reversing out of a slightly steep car park and found it wouldn't engage. I drive quite a bit at night at the moment and have the dash lights as low as I can get them and this seems to work quite nicely, except for the little red and blue coloured arrows that set the temperature for the interior. These are almost invisible at these light levels, now I know where they are I can adjust the temperature without needing to see them. 

My Seltos is booked in for its 3000 Km checkup next week and by the time I drop it into the dealer it will have done about 2600 kms. All seems good so far and no issues to report to them. Hopefully all the future services are similarly boring. 

Bye Jeff.

Sent from my iPad

Blutos after the third week.

Following on from my previous summaries of the experience of driving my new Seltos for the first couple of weeks, I thought I would add a few things I've experienced in the third week. As a reminder my car is :- Kia Seltos PE GT-Line AWD 2023, 1.6 l turbo, 8 speed automatic, Neptune Blue.

This week I got the Seltos very dirty. I was wanting to try out the Centre Diff Lock button and see what it did. I found a gravel road out the back of Caloundra and went for a little drive, the gravel turned into a dirt track with potholes so I clicked the Centre diff lock button and continued. The potholes were pretty full of water from recent rain and then it started to get muddy. It was at this stage that I decided that a modicum of discretion was in order so rather than playing around in the mud as there was no one about and I wasn't carrying any sort of recovery equipment, I did a quick multi-point turn trying to stay on the track as much as possible so as not to encounter any unseen muddy areas and headed back to civilization. At no stage was I really experiencing any problems with the Seltos, it was handling it quite well, the extra bit of clearance being nice and the tyres and drive system were gripping quite well. I've had a lot of experience driving a 4WD as my other car is a "Proper" 4WD which I use for camping, beach driving and outback touring but I wasn't prepared to risk the new car. I need to find a nice dry track with moderately testing wombat holes to see how the Centre diff lock goes managing different tyres lifting off the ground and reducing traction and forward progress. 

Fuel Economy - Once again no surprises this weeks fuel economy is coming in at 7.7 l/100 Km for close to 500 Km with still more than 100 Km showing on the fuel gauge. This brings the car up to about 1500 Km and half way to the 3000 Km first service and checkup. So I've booked it in for a few weeks time since there is a bit of lag in ringing up and getting booked in. 

After leaving the car in the sun for about three hours on hotish SEQ winter day I returned to a very warm car. I used the seat cooler for the first time and it was great. Used on low for about 15 min until the car cooled down then didn't need it anymore. This will be great on the hot summer days. 

I played around with the Auto hand brake function and it seemed to work quite well. As soon as you start to accelerate it takes the hand brake off and puts it on once you are stopped again. The light shows green when it is braking and white/grey when not braking. I did notice that it doesn't feel quite right when parking as I was expecting it to creep a little bit as you take your foot off the brake. Not sure I'll use this feature but it does seem to work as advertised. 

Played with the sunroof and worked out how to fully open it as well as just tilt it. Nice on a sunny winter day if the sun isn't shining directly in. After tilting it I thought that it didn't close properly but it did. 

All up I'm still really enjoying driving the car and still liking how quiet and smooth it is.

Bye Jeff.

Sent from my iPad

Blutos after the second week.

The Second week. 

 Following on from my summary of the experience of driving my new Seltos for the first week, I thought I would add a few things I've experienced in the second week. As a reminder my car is :- Kia Seltos PE GT-Line AWD 2023, 1.6 l turbo, 8 speed automatic, Neptune Blue.

Fuel Economy 

Essentially the economy ended up very close to what I saw in the first week with just over another 500 Km driven and about 100 Km remaining according to the car computer. The fuel was ULP91 and I  left the car in Eco mode. The car computer said the economy was 7.5 l/100 Km and after refueling I calculated it to be 7.8 l/100 Km, compared to a figure of 7.6 l/100 Km after the previous weeks refuel. 

Very similar driving except I added a nearly 100 Km road trip to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland around Maleny. For the past 15 years or so I have owned and driven diesel cars (Pajero, Bt-50 and i30 diesel) and the extra torque from the diesel engine means they generally handle hills pretty well so I was unsure how the Seltos would perform in the steeper terrain. In fact it did quite well, simply changing down a gear and not struggling at all on the steep sections. It was quite fun to drive in some of the tight, twisty sections. I'm still really impressed with the quiet ride and smooth handling of the Seltos. 

Speedo Calibration 

In a series of unscientific tests I used both my iPhone and iPad and their built in GPS systems to check whether the figure reported by the car's speedo is close to accurate. I was pretty surprised to find that at all the speeds I checked 50, 60, 80, 90, 100, 110 kph the car speedo was different to the GPS speed by 2 kph. For example if the car Speedo showed 100 kph then the GPS showed 98 kph and if the car speedo showed 50 kph then the GPS showed 48 kph. This is very different to what I was used to with my previous cars where the difference always seemed to be a percentage of the speed. For example in the Pajero if the car speedo showed 100 kph then the GPS showed roughly 94 kph, a difference of 6% then when the car speedo showed 50 kph the GPS showed 47 kph. So a constant percentage in the older car whereas the Seltos shows a constant amount which is 2 kph. I guess this has to do with the digital display system for the Speedo. Note this is on the GT-Line with 18" tyres it may be different on the models with smaller tyres. 

Miscellaneous 

A couple of times when I was connecting my iPhone via the wired CarPlay the music would switch from the Bluetooth connection to the CarPlay connection and it sounded much deeper and fuller. I am not anywhere close to being an audiophile and really don't generally notice these things but the music did sound much better using CarPlay. I suspect this may be due to the amount of compression needed to get the music transmitted over Bluetooth.

I also used the sunroof (just opening the cover) a little bit but I'm still getting used to it. Having that extra image of the sky in the corner of my vision was a little distracting at first but I think I got used to it.  Maybe next week I'll actually open up the sunroof and see how windy it is. 

Bye Jeff.

Sent from my iPad

New Kia Seltos after a week

Just thought I would jot down a few experiences of owning and driving my new Seltos for about a week or so now. I haven't had a chance to try everything out yet but hopefully you can get a feeling for the car and what it's like to own and drive. 

Kia Seltos PE GT-Line AWD 2023, 1.6 l turbo, 8 speed automatic, Neptune Blue.

I picked the car up from the dealer about a week ago and after signing the paperwork and handling over the keys to my trade in, the salesman spent about 10 min giving me a rundown on using the car and some of the features. Then after confirming my insurance I headed off to drive home. 

The very first impression I had was that this car was quiet. Virtually no engine noise and at around town speeds the tyre and wind noise were minimal. Once warmed up the automatic is extremely smooth shifting and I can't tell when it changes gear. I generally try to be a fairly smooth driver so I'm not really into fast acceleration and the Seltos took off from the traffic lights very nicely and you don't really notice the turbo. However, if you do want to accelerate quickly then it can do that as well. 

Highway Driving - I did about 380 Km of highway driving (Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast and back) in normal mode, on the first tank of fuel, which was provided by the dealer, I'm assuming it was ULP91 but could have been E10 if they were being cheap. 😊

The car computer reported the fuel economy for this to be 6.3 l/100 Km which is pretty good. It cruises on the highway at 100 and 110 kph very nicely and the Lane Keeping and Adaptive Cruise Control both work pretty well. You can feel the steering wheel keeping you within the lane if you stray too close to one of the white lines. It was still very quiet with minimal tyre and wind noise. 

Media Centre - This is the first time I've had a car with Apple CarPlay and using an Apple USB to lightning cable worked perfectly to connect my iPhone 13Pro. I found I really only used this when going on a longer drive, otherwise I simply rely on Bluetooth to play music and podcasts for shorter trips as my phone can stay in my pocket. It really doesn't make a lot of sense having a wireless charger then requiring a wired connection for Apple CarPlay as the wired connection will charge the phone. Getting the phone in the right spot to enable the wireless charging took me awhile to work out as you need to have the car on and both front doors closed. As I had been experimenting with a few things I had one of the doors open and initially couldn't get the wireless charging to work. 

I played around with positioning where the sound comes from and set it for roughly the drivers seat but found I could really only hear anything from the front speakers. So I reset it to the default position in the middle of the car and I sounds much better with sound coming from around the whole car. 

I thought the mood lighting was going to be a fairly wanky feature but it is fairly subtle and quite soothing when driving at night. 

Cruise Control - As I said earlier the Adaptive Cruise Control works well in the traffic on the highway. On long hills e.g. coming down the Gateway Motorway Bridge the car sticks pretty much to the set speed maybe 1 kph over but no more. On short sharp hills around town it is more prone to going over the set speed by 3-4 kph but not more than that. Seems to be that the car speeds up to get up the hill then takes a bit to realize it is then going downhill and needs to slow down. I think the most I saw was 4 kph over the set speed. 

Fuel Economy - Refuelled after nearly a week with 467 km on the Odometer and the car computer showing approximately 147 km of driving still to go with an economy of 8.3 l/100km. This included about 380 km of highway driving (economy shown as 6.3 l/100km), the rest around town, all done using the Normal mode. When I did the fuel economy calculation using the actual number of litres used for the km travelled I was surprised that it was less than the reported figure and came in at 7.6 l/100km. I'm unsure what grade of fuel the dealer used but I have used ULP91, so I'll see how that goes. This second tank of fuel I'll also leave the car in Eco mode to see if it makes any difference.

Seats - The seats are quite comfortable and adjustable. I haven't had a chance to try the cooling seat functionality as it's winter in South East Qld. Also, I haven't needed the seat warming functionality as it's winter in South East Qld. 😊 The seat moving to make it easier to get in and out is something I've not experienced before and it is quite nice. One of the reasons I changed to a small SUV from my old i30 is because my knees are getting old and creaky and the i30 was too low to the ground to get in and out of easily. 

Kia Connect - According to the brochures and advertising I get 7 years of Kia Connect service. I created an account through the app relatively easily but then had trouble linking it to my car. I was trying to do this while the car was in the garage and I kept getting a car has unstable signal error message. I remembered seeing a post somewhere that Connect uses Optus's mobile network so a day or so later I tried to connect while out and about and had no trouble. So the car is now recognized and linked to the phone app. It reports I am covered until 2030. Not sure I'll need this but maybe nice to have. One quibble, on the Home Screen for the car it shows an image of a Seltos but it is a Pluton Blue colour not the Neptune Blue colour it actually is. I can't find a preference to change this. 

Intelligent Speed Limit Assist - Whoever named this feature must have done so with a large dose of irony, as it is so not fit for purpose as to be almost comical. The camera and computer software that performs this task really struggles. In addition to having problems with school zones out of hours, it also occasionally picks up the speed signs on slip roads next to the highway, has trouble with road works signs  and every so often simply ignores the quite visible speed sign. The salesman said that Kia Australia were aware of the problems and were working on a fix, this can't come soon enough. Something this annoying has to be correct 100% of the time or it causes more problems than it is trying to solve. In the meantime I guess I just have to manually switch it off each time I go for a drive. 

Miscellaneous - There is no hard copy of the manual. I downloaded a pdf onto my iPad and found that works pretty well as it is easy to search. To get my car in the garage I have to reverse down the driveway and then a tricky angled reverse into the garage. All the parking sensors get a good work out during this process. The reverse camera is pretty good as are the mirrors for these close encounters but I would like to have a top down view utilizing the existing cameras in the car. I really appreciate having a full sized spare tyre, especially for out of town trips. There is quite a bit of room around the spare tyre for storage. I currently have a battery jump starter pack and a small tool roll and will eventually fit a small first kit as well as a few other sundry bits and pieces. 

All up I'm very pleased with this car as it's one of the easiest to drive and most comfortable cars I've owned. 

Bye Jeff.

Sent from my iPad

Mount Moffatt Easter trip, day 3 and 4



Got up reasonably early and the wind meant that it was a little chilly so we had a bit of a breakfast campfire. Had some coffee and cooked some bacon and eggs in a wrap for brekky. Got cleaned up and changed and headed off for a drive around nine am. We drove back almost to the entrance to the park to do the longish (roughly 6 Km) walk around the Looking Glass, The Tombs and the Chimneys. I took it relatively slow and flew the drone a few times. Even gave it a test to see if it could navigate through the lightly forested path and follow me. It performed fine and in bypass mode was able to go around trees and keep following me without any input from the controller. We paused at the aboriginal art site and rested in the shade. 

Then finished the walk back past the Chimneys and back to the car park. 

On the drive back to camp we took a different track and looped past the information Centre and Rangers buildings. The others headed back to camp and I continued on to look at the West Branch campsite. It's a quite nice open grassy area with space for quite a few campers. Then on the way back I took a side track down to the Incineration Site where some of the local bushrangers/criminals had burned a policeman's body to hide the evidence of his death. This track was much more interesting to drive than the main roads through the park. Then back to camp for a late lunch followed by a very lazy afternoon around camp. Then more nibbles around the camp fire, I ate too many nibbles and didn't feel like dinner, so we kept sitting around the fire for awhile. 

I got the tripod out as the galactic Centre of the Milky Way was visible in the sky as the nearly full moon had yet to rise. 

Then back to the fire where Josh and I continued chatting after the others had wandered off to bed. Finally, we crashed a bit after nine pm. 

Another early morning, although the wind had dropped off so it wasn't as chilly. Had coffee and another bacon and eggs roll and then did a leisurely pack up. There had been no dew overnight so the gazebo was nice and dry to pack away. Nik and Lukas wanted to get back home early so they headed off about six thirty am. The rest of us were ready to go a little after eight thirty am. After driving out of the park we took a different, slightly shorter route back to Injune. The road initially was a little narrower than the main road in but it ended being a more interesting drive. Kemsley needed some diesel in Injune whereas as Josh and I both with long range fuel tanks and were fine to get back to Roma. While he refueled I got caught up on what had happened in the world over the last few days when we had no internet. Then an easy run into Roma, where we all refueled at the United on the east side of town and had some lunch. Then it was a long haul back home. The others stopped for a toilet break a bit before Dalby but as I was heading to Caloundra rather the Gold Coast I continued on to Dalby and the headed north east out towards Yarraman, where I had a quick toilet and the drink stop. Then onto Kilcoy, Peachester, Beerwah, Landsborough and then the final drive into Caloundra. 

All up it was thoroughly enjoyable long weekend, the weather was perfect, there was lots to see in the park and the camp fires were wonderful. 

Bye Jeff.

Mount Moffatt Easter trip, day 1 and 2



Got up with the alarm at 5am and did the final packing of the car and headed off around 5:30 am. A nice easy drive up to meet the others at the Ampol at Blacksoil, along with about 40,000,000 bikers heading off on an Easter ride. Had a quick coffee and bacon and egg roll and when Kemsley and Lise, Josh, and Nik and Lukas arrived and refreshed themselves we started driving west. We had a reasonably easy drive except for a couple of clumps of caravans which seem to need to travel very close together, not leaving sufficient safe space for people overtaking. We refueled in Roma and had some lunch in the Park on the north side of the town. Then it was another nice easy drive to Injune where Nik had to refuel his Jimny and also, fill up a couple of jerry cans of unleaded fuel as he only has a pretty small fuel tank. Then we headed off to the national park via the back roads, a bit over half the 150 or so Km was via gravel/dirt roads some of which were in the process of being graded and upgraded. Then we made our way up to the Rotary Shelter Shed campground where we had managed to book all the camp sites for our group. We set up camp with a nice lookout to the North and watched the sun set with a cold drink and a campfire. 

It was then an early night in bed as we had been driving all day. 

We woke to beautiful clear blue skies with a cool north easterly breeze. After breakfast and a chat we went out for a drive to explore the park. First off was a short walk in to Lots Wife and then a slightly longer walk to Kookaburra Cave to view the aboriginal art work. 

Then onto Marlong Arch for another relatively short walk. 

After all this exercise we headed back to camp and had some lunch. After a chat we decided to go for a drive up to the Top Shelter Shed lookout to see if it would be a nice spot to view the sunset. It was indeed a nice spot, and we continued on this track out to the Mahogany Forest and then onto the end of the track at the Head of Carnarvon Creek. There was a muddy patch or two along the way. After that we headed back to camp and whiled away a few hours before gathering up the drinks and nibbles and headed up to the Top Shelter Shed to view the sunset. It was a very pleasant way to watch the sun go down. 

Then back to camp for dinner and a chat around the camp fire. And finally off to bed with a coolish wind blowing. The night sky was spectacular until the full moon came out and washed out the stars. 

Bye Jeff.

Nights camping with various cars

Over the last week or so, in my abundant spare time, I started going through all the photos I have taken since I got my first 4WD, the venerable old Suzuki Grand Vitarra back at the start of 2004. I've compiled a spreadsheet of all the day and camping trips I've done using the Suzuki, then the NS Short Wheel Base Pajero and finally the BT-50 and camper. In its roughly four years of active life the Suzuki was out camping 12.5% of the time (171 nights), this includes my three and a half month long service leave trip around Australia in 2005. I predominantly used the OzTent RV-2 with the Suzuki. 

Then came the NS Short Wheel Based Pajero, simply known as the Paj. I got way more adventurous with the places I could go when driving the Paj as it had more clearance and was simply a better 4WD than the Suzuki. It was out camping 9.1% (282 nights) of its roughly 8.5 year life. I had a multitude of possible ways of sleeping when camping with the Paj. The aforementioned OzTent, a pop up tent under the awning, a stretcher and swag also under the awning and finally a Coleman Instant Up tent. 

More recently, I have refined my camping setup with the Mazda BT-50, commonly known as Blute, and a Rhino Slide on camper. I have been using this setup for about 6.5 years. In that time I have been camping in Blute 14.9% of the time (355 nights), about 4.5 of those years I have been retired. The camper on the back of the Ute is by far the best camping setup I've used as it's extremely quick to setup and pack up, so it's perfectly suited to long trips where I'm moving every day. If I'm staying in one place for awhile I use a gazebo that not only provides shelter from sun and rain and March flies but also marks my camp site so I can drive around and have my spot to come back to. 

Blute has a few years of life left in it yet so my next travel and camping setup is being contemplated but nothing is decided yet. Just don't mention to Blute that I am thinking of eventually retiring it. 😊

NOTE.

- For comparison a normal job in Australia has four weeks of holiday leave per year, so if you were to use all those holidays camping every year that would be about 7.7%

- this also doesn't include trips where I have have helped other people transporting cars around and any overseas trips like a conference in Scotland and a trip to Antarctica.

Bye Jeff.

Sent from my iPad

Teewah beach March Trip, Day 2



Got out of bed about six thirty am. The wind had dropped right off, so the March flies were starting to swarm. Made some coffee then got the drone out for awhile to make use of the lack of wind. Did three flights with a fresh battery each time. First was a general fly around the camp taking some photos and videos.

 The bloody March flies make it hard to control the drone smoothly while taking videos. Then I did a hyperlapse flying up the beach to show the waves moving. Finally, Greg had seen some sort movement out to sea so I sent the drone out for a look. Didn't see anything but I got the drone out a bit over three Km and looking back the shore seems a long way away. 

Flew it back over the land and was flying it back to camp when I got a five minute battery warning so it's probably good I didn't push it further than the three Km. After brekky I pottered around camp for awhile waiting for the tide to go out. Took a few bird and reptile photos. 

 Then drove up to Double Island Point and went for a walk up to the lighthouse. Beautiful sunny day and that walk up the hill was hard work. Saw some turtles around the rocks but I didn't have the big zoom lens to take any decent photos. Got to the top and took a few photos then sat down to rest up for the walk back down and caught up with some emails and internet stuff. Then I walked back down, which is easier on the lungs but harder on the knees. Drove across the Leisha Track and found a nice shady spot out near the point to set up for a few hours of relaxing. Made some lunch and did some reading. Packed up and drove back to camp. Then spent awhile downloading images and videos from various cameras onto my MacBook Pro and freeing up space on the camera for more photos. Pottered around camp for awhile and read and may have even had an afternoon snooze. Then chatted to everyone for awhile over drinks before cooking up a steak and some veggies for dinner. Cleaned up and had a cuppa tea then had a game of cards and a chat before heading off to bed. More ocean noises that I never get tired of lulled me to sleep. 

Bye Jeff.

Teewah Beach March trip, Day 1



It was dad's 88th birthday so I fought with the M1 traffic and drove up to Caloundra to see mum and him for his birthday. Had some quite nice fish and chips for lunch and when he went for his afternoon nap I headed off back to the highway. Got in the wrong lane and had to turn north instead of south, 😊 so I just continued on and headed up to Cooroy and then  Tewantin and finally across the Noosa river on the car ferry. Stopped at the third cutting and dropped the tyre pressures down to 18 psi. Engaged 4WD this time and easily drove out through the rather soft sand. Just down the beach I saw a familiar looking Jayco pop top caravan, so I pulled up and had a chat to my brother and his wife. He can't/won't confirm getting bogged in the soft sand nor would he confirm getting towed out by a Hummer, unfortunately there was no photographic evidence of any of these alleged proceedings. 😊 I followed him down the beach which was nice and firm as it was close to low tide. At the north end of Zone 2 we found their friends and pulled in and setup camp for a couple of days. 

It was a full moon so I took some photos after heating up some chicken curry for dinner. 

We then had a friendly game of cards and chatted for awhile before heading off to bed with the sound of the surf lulling me to sleep. 

Bye Jeff.

Ballina & Northern NSW Beaches



Decided to take a little day trip down to explore some of the northern NSW beaches. Threw a few things in Blute and headed south. Lost an hour of my life going over the border, traffic nice and easy. Got off at the second Ballina exit and drove down to the car ferry across the river. $7 each way but it saves a long drive down the highway and back. Then over the river turned left and headed down to the mouth of the river. Parked up and wandered out to the end of the rock wall and back, about 3.5 Km all up. Took some photos and had a look around.

 Then back to the ferry and across to the main bit of Ballina, drove through the Main Street and onto the car park near the lighthouse, stopped and took a few photos. Then drove to the next little beach, Shelly beach, parked there and got a take away burger and chips from the restaurant there, a bit pricey but very nice. Also an iced latte. Sat down by the beach to eat lunch and watch the waves. 

After lunch drove north following the coast and stopped In To look at a few little beaches and to walk around and take some photos. Also had a quick swim to cool off as it was fairly humid.  Then onto Lennox Head where I stopped at the lookout just to the south of Lennox Head and watched a guy learning to fly a sail-type hang glider, he failed dismally. 

Then I walked up and over the headland taking more photos as I went. 

Was a bit tired when I got back to the car and drove down through Lennox Head, I was going to get a coffee at the cafe at the surf club but it was closed. I was then going to drive up through Broken Head and then onto Byron Bay and go and look at the lighthouse but I didn't want to deal with the people and the traffic and the parking so I just headed back to the M1 and headed north to home.

Bye Jeff.

Teewah Beach Camping Day 5



Woke up about five am for sunrise and there was some spectacular colours. Took a few photos and then went back to bed for awhile. 

Got up awhile later for some coffee and then made some bacon and eggs for brekky. The day was so calm, not a breathe of wind around so I got the drone out again and sent it out for another flight.

 Then I started the slow and boring task of packing everything up so I could head off home. There had been several hours of sun by this time time so the gazebo and toilet tent had dried off nicely. I had trouble with the toilet tent which is supposed to fold up flat after a few twists but I couldn't seem to get just the right twists, but I got it flat enough to stuff into the storage section in the camper and I'll sort it out when I get home and can watch a YouTube video or two on how to do it properly. Then with everything packed and me a sweaty mess I went for a quick swim to cool off, very pleasant. Back to the car where I got changed and ready to head off down the beach until I realized I'd misplaced the car keys. After about fine minutes of frenzied searching I remembered where I had put them when I went for the swim and all was good in the world again. It was about three hours after high tide so the run down the beach was pretty easy, but the exit at the third cutting was a little tricky as a car and caravan where stuck on the exit coming onto the beach. I had to maneuver around them losing my run up and coming to a stop in the soft sand. However, a quick reverse and then a little more acceleration and I was up and out. I pumped the tyres up to highway pressure and headed down to the Noosa river where I stopped off for some lunch. I kept going south down to Coolum where I stopped at one of the lookouts for a cold drink and to finish off my blog post for this trip. 

From here I'll drop into to see mum and dad in Caloundra on my way home. All up a very pleasurable way to spend the last five or so days. 

Bye Jeff.

Teewah Beach Camping Day 4



Woke up about six am and after the overnight storms had gone past, the wind has changed to a south easterly. Had some coffee and then made some bacon and eggs for brekky. With the wind change it seems like there are not nearly as many March flies about. Read for awhile until the tide dropped a bit more then drove up to Double Island point for a look. No climbing up to the lighthouse today. 

Then back to the Leisha Track and across to the other side of the point. I drove out to the end and found a shady spot to set up for a few hours. 

Had morning tea and then caught up on some internet stuff. Not sure what is happening with the weather, the radar suggests I may get rain this arvo before it clears for tomorrow which is when I pack up to head home. Then made some lunch and finally headed back to camp for a lazy arvo. It had started raining by the time I got back to camp so I settled in for an afternoon of reading. In between showers I pottered around camp tidying up and then about four pm the weather cleared up so I went for a walk on the beach. Lots more campers have appeared but there's still plenty of room for everyone and I can't see another camp from my camp site. The wind had dropped off a bit so I got the drone out and had a fly around, taking some photos and videos. 

As it was getting dark I cooked up some dinner, steak and salad and then the showers came back, nothing too heavy but enough to make you wet. After cleaning up from dinner I settled into some reading under the gazebo watching the waves as the last of the sunlight faded away. Then an early night in bed with the sound of rain on the camper roof competing with the sound of waves to see which can put me to sleep the fastest. 

Bye Jeff.

Teewah Beach Camping Day 3



Got up and had coffee with the March flies about 6 am. Had a hearty breakfast of baked beans before settling in to read for awhile until the tide went out a bit. Then after a morning swim I headed north to the Freshwater track dropping my rubbish off at the bins as I went past. The track was its usual condition a bit rough and bumpy but not challenging in any way. I thought it may have been more cut up as I suspect it may have seen more traffic since you can't drive down the beach to Rainbow Beach at the moment. Got back to the main road and put some more air in the tyres for some bitumen driving. I headed down to Searys Creek day use area and walked down to creek.

 Had a quick swim in the fresh water to wash all the salt off from my recent ocean swims. It was coolish but very refreshing. Then I drove into Rainbow Beach and had a coffee and a sausage roll at  the bakery in town. Caught up on some internet things and went for a walk around town.

 I had an early lunch at one of the cafes. The seafood basket was very nice. Walked around a bit more and headed back to the car and out of town and towards camp. It started raining while I was on the Freshwater track and the wet sand was a lot different to drive on, not to mention the gloomy outlook in the middle of the forest. When I got out onto the beach the shower had passed by and was heading south with blue skies above me. I got back to camp and settled in for another lazy afternoon of reading, snoozing and downloading photos to the computer. Then a storm came through and dumped a fair bit of rain but I was nice and dry in the camper. After the rain I went for a stroll along the beach, it was very pleasant as it had cooled down a bit. 

Just had some nibbles for dinner as I had eaten too much food in Rainbow Beach. As it got dark the March flies disappeared but the mozzies came out with a vengeance. I got the Bushmans out and that worked pretty well. Then spent an hour or so trying to take some long exposure photos of an erratic lightning storm far out to sea and failing dismally. 

Then I had to go to bed smelling of DEET. 

Bye Jeff.