Wednesday October 25, 2017
We started today with a trip to The Qld National Parks Office. Decision – 3 day hike from Tewantin towards Rainbow Beach on the Cooloola Great Walk. Day 1 – 21km. Tewantin to Brahminy Camp. This was by ferry, 2.4km road and 18 in the bush, with some on the beach as well. We saw fantails and a rocket frog. We were just talking about whether the tracks we had seen in the sand were snakes or lizards. I was leading and was lucky DB was looking further ahead as I hadn’t seen the scariest of all wildlife, a 6 foot eastern brown snake sunning itself in the middle of the track. Lesson learned – you have to look further afield than your immediate footfall area. We stopped and watched, it looked over at us and then slithered away. A scary reminder about hiking this late in the year. DB then led for the rest of the day. The vegetation was a little uninteresting except for grass trees and some banksia. We made it to Brahminy Campsite just in time for sunset which was beautiful.  It was a big day 21km 5:50 hike with full packs. We setup with the mozzies our only company for the night. After getting organised we decided the new tent will be the lightest one possible and more than likely a 3 man so we can fit our packs inside.

Thursday October 26, 2017
Well, after a very disturbed sleep in our solitary camp site Brahminy Walkers Camp, we had a couple of decisions to make. Pack up and head home due to the wild storms predicted or head off for a day walk and come back to the same spot. We decided we had the worst night sleep due to lack of pillows, cold and new sleeping mat, the weather was to be ghastly, and our snake encounter we decided we would head back. Cutting our adventure by a day. Disappointing but probably the safest option. So after a quiet breakfast, and an attempt to see the sunrise as we had been awake since 4am, we packed up and were on our way. 20km to go, temperature forecast 33’. Destination Tewantin. We trekked the first 6km through the bush and then headed the next 8km on the beach, stopping for a swim when required. It was hot, hot, hot. At the 14km mark it was time to make another decision – bush, beach or road. We decided road as we had been walking on the beach for at least 2 hours, the bush was a bit risky – so after an ice block and refilling our water off we went. Not the 2nd day hike we planned but preferred to be safe.