Cooloola National Park – Teewah Beach, Queens Birthday weekend 07

With the camper trailer packed friday night and only the esky to be loaded into the car saturday morning we were set for a 3:15 AM wake up and 4:00 AM departure from Brisbane to Teewah beach.

As luck would have it on any well planed camping trip winter which had been noticeable by its absence so far this year had decided to arrive with strong westerly winds and single figure temperatures.

We did our camp site booking over the Internet and thought the weather had scared many campers away with some 1600 camper positions still available.

After a strong cup of coffee we departed just before 4:00 AM for the run up the Bruce highway to Noosa and the barge across the Noosa river to Teewah beach. At 4:00 AM in the morning the highway was quite and we made quick time to be at the barge at 5:30 AM and forth in line waiting for the barge service to start. The only highlight on the trip up was a lone hare caught in the middle a roundabout as we turned off the Bruce highway.

It was still dark when we arrived at number 2 beach cutting at Noosa North shore and with spotlights on we found that number 2 cutting was running with water out to the beach. A quick inspection of the water flowing out showed that it was only a few inches deep now compared to a few days earlier where it looked to have been 1 or more. The sand in the creek felt firm and we only needed to go 10 yards before we could exit the creek. I had already let my tiers down (car and camper) while waiting for the barge so it was time to hit the beach.

Twilight had arrived and low tide allowed for easy driving up Teewah beach to find a camping spot. There were already plenty of campers on the beach but good camp sites could still be found. We picked out a nice grass camp site and unhitched the camper trailer.

Our camp site starting to take shape with camper trailer open and annex attached. The next thing was to cook breakie and make a nice hot cuppa coffee.

The high sand dunes protected us from the strong westerly winds and made the ocean close inshore smooth and glassy, blowing the spray from waves back out to sea.

Looking south from Double Island point.

Double Island point.

Rock fishing from Double Island point.

Some surfers at Double Island point.

Leisha track behind Double Island point is open but access to Rainbow beach from Leisha track is only passable at dead low tide with no northerly winds blowing. You will still have to drive through some wave wash to get around fallen trees. The only other way to get to Rainbow beach is via Freshwater.

A new section of freshwater road was going too be opened on Tuesday 12 according to information on QLD EPA web site.

Cooloola Northern, Great Sandy National Park - Cooloola conditions report.

http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/park/index.cgi?parkid=66

Looking from Leisha track north to Rainbow beach.