Gold Coast to Emerald

After enjoying the hustle and bustle of the Gold Coast it was back inland to the Burnett Hwy and to a quiet rest stop for the night. There are plenty of great rest stops along the inland roads and it's a good money saver!

After 440 kms we arrive in Ban Ban Springs, a small rest stop with some toilets and a service station across the road, that's about it.

Don't think it's drink worthy....

It is a fairly noisy rest stop as it's just on the side of the highway.

Not a bad view for a rest stop.

On the road again heading north but not really sure where our next stop will be.....

Passing through citrus country.

There are lots of great little towns in between to stop at.

We drove for ages and finally decided to stop in Emerald, only because we read there was a giant Van Gogh painting there, we also heard there was a nice caravan park about 17 kms out of town at Lake Maraboon. 

We pulled in around 5 pm after driving about 600 kms, the park looked full, and it's not even peak season! 

Brenton jinxed us when we pulled in and said "Imagine it's full after a long day like this", sure enough it was full, but the lovely park managers offered us a 'garden suite', a spot right in front of their house, we were wrapped and it was a good spot out of the way, they went over and above to help us out, so friendly!

Our garden suite.

We stayed a couple of days, we were sick of driving and just wanted to take in the scenery, the first night we got a bit worried when we heard the bushes rustling out the front of the van, it sounded like something big was hiding in there........

Turns out it was this little fella:

He was so cute!! Our first echidna! 

Sure enough he was back every night eating all the ants and bugs for us, such a good pet.

Hiding....'I swear I'm just a prickly rock'

Lake Maraboon is huge, we didn't swim because the water had high levels of blue-green algae, not very inviting, lucky the park had a pool because we had some great swimming weather!

Views around Lake Maraboon:

Turns out everyone decided to leave the day after we got there.

The caravan park is great, there is even a small restaurant with a buffet, a first at caravan parks so far.

Driving over the dam to get into town:

After we passed the Dam it was off to see the giant Van Gogh painting!! 

Now we have seen the big Koala and the big Van Gough, oh how much this country has to offer!!

It was pretty impressive!

After all the excitement of the giant painting and collecting a few groceries it was back to Lake Maraboon for one more night.

Then back on the road again.