After overnighting in Maryborough and getting to spend time with some of the hobo’s who choose to live in the local carpark, and who, by the way were both interesting and entertaining I resumed my terk southbound on “the Bruce”.

I was aware I was about to re-enter my known World. Prior to this trip, other than a fly-in fly-out family holiday to Port Douglas 13 years ago, I had spent the last two months in virgin territory.

I had mixed feelings as I started seeing familiar names and places which bought back many happy memories of days past, but there was also a tinge of disappointment that came with the sense that to an extent the adventure was over for a while. However, it didn’t take long to realise this wasn’t the case and that travelling alone in a van was a very different to my other visits here.

While I’d originally intended to visit our lighthouses in geographical sequence I realised now that I was going to have to make a few adjustments because the rendezvous with my unknown new friend, Lloyd had been delayed until 11/11 due to his work commitments. Lloyd is a Master Mariner and captain of a ship that traverses Bass Strait although he lives on the Sunshine Coast and commutes on a monthly rotation. Lloyd is very familiar with this part of the coast and was going to be my guide to visit Sandy Cape and Double Island Point lighthouses. Lloyd is a man of many talents and worthy of his own blog – see “Adventures with Captain Lloyd”!

As I had a few days to wait I decided to continue south and visit the more accessible lighthouses on my way down to Brisbane and return to the Coolum when Lloyd was back.

Remembering that a lady named Maggie from Mooloolaba had contacted me after my interview with Macca on “Australia All Over” to advise that her partner Colin had worked with AMSA for 25 years and we agreed to meet when I was in their neighbourhood.

Without realising it my visit to the Point Cartwright lighthouse coincided with Melbourne Cup day and very kindly Maggie and Colin invited me to join them at the Alexandria Head SLSC for a Cup lunch. Once again my skill as a punter came to the fore and I’m sure my donation to the surf club was appreciated! Notwithstanding my usual lack of success on the horses we had an enjoyable lunch and Colin was able to give me some interesting background on a number of lighthouses he worked on. More evidence of how strangers can become friends when you put yourself out there!

Lunch took precedence over lighthouses and I decided to overnight at Dicky’s Beach which is next to Moffat Beach where we’d enjoyed a couple of October school holidays five or six years ago. I’d always wondered who Dicky was but discovered it was the name of a ship that was wrecked on this beach in 1893 so there was some vague lighthouse logic to it after all. Next to Noosa this is my favourite part of the Sunshine Coast.

The next day I visited the old and new Caloundra lighthouses which are curiously set back from the coast and overshadowed by high rise apartments, not a good look for a lighthouse! Once I found them it was a quick stop and on to Brisbane to tick off a couple of the exhibits at the Queensland Maritime Museum, namely the Carpentaria Lightship and the old Bulwer Island lighthouse before catching up with some old friends who moved to Brisbane about fifteen years ago.

Mary is one of my wife’s closest friends and the remarkable thing is that twenty two years ago she, another best friend Sara and my wife, Marianne, all gave birth within a day of each other, in the case of Sara and Marianne it was to their first born, two boys who arrived within hours of each other and Mary’s little girl beating them by a day! We celebrated a number of joint birthdays before Mary and her husband Jerry and their three kids moved to Brisbane. I should also mention that Jerry is a terrific guy…for an Irishman!

Anyway, it was great to catch up again after too many years and not surprisingly we drank too much. Unfortunately, Mary wasn’t feeling well which probably spared her a few neurons, but she wasn’t going to get off that lightly as I will be revisiting when I pass through Brisbane again in a week or two!

The following day I visit the restored Cleveland Point lighthouse and was planning on going to the Point Lookout light on North Stradbroke Island but when I did some d’d it looked to be a very boring concrete box with a light on top and the fact the car ferry fare to get there was $260 made the decision to pass easy!

While in Brisbane I also took the opportunity to visit another friend I hadn’t seen for about forty years. Rob is the son of one of my father’s best friends from his university days who happened to come from Broken Hill, or as Priscilla has taught us to say “Broken Heel”. I remember us visiting them at the Hill back in 1967 and Max was without doubt one of the funniest people I ever met. Rob was a boarder at high school in Sydney and use to stay with us at weekends and I’ve never forgiven him for introducing me to the game of golf.

Hoping to escape the Friday afternoon exodus from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast I left Rob’s at 2.30pm but even this was too late. I spent the next two hours gridlocked in Brisbane before reaching the freeway north and cranking up the speed to about 40kph. I’m sure they put those 110kph speed limit signs there just to annoy Friday afternoon escapees!

Finally, after about three and a half hours I reached my destination, a lookout on Mountain View Rd at Maleny with an incredible vista over the Glasshouse Mountains that I’d remembered from a past visit. Immediately my traffic angst fell away and it was time for a soothing vodka tonic – I felt like I was in heaven and at risk of getting pinged by the local ranger I decided to spend the night there. As it turned out, a good choice!

The following day I was in good shape to meet Lloyd and his lovely partner Shelly, but that’s another story!