It was very dark when we rolled into Dunks Island View caravan park, luckily, we had booked in advance.

Located at Wongaling Beach, a wonderfully remote stretch of sand we enjoyed a day and a bit of not much, other than runs up to North Mission Beach and beach olympics on the sand.

Sadly we couldn’t swim in the sea due to no stinger nets, but did enjoy a splash about in the campsite pool. As we were leaving, we stopped to have breakfast with a view of South Mission bBeach, the closest in feel to Summer Bay (of Home and Away fame, actually shot north of Sydney).

The drive down the pacific coast road, A1 or the Bruce Highway, took us through sugar cane country and various fruit growing areas.

Our favourite was the mango region of Bowen, passing the giant mango sculpture – one of many giant food items found along the road: it became a bit of an obsession to drive past them and take a snap.

We stopped at Ayr skatepark for lunch, where Tom first realised a post lunch nap in the camper was much needed, whilst I enjoyed a coffee supervising the girls in a playground. This happened on repeat all the way down the coast.

We made it to Airlie Beach by mid-afternoon. We had decided to stay at a Big 4 campsite for three nights as it had incredible kids’ activities, jumping pillows, a water park, free pancakes for breakfast and so on. It was a great decision, we played tennis, relaxed and Molly was quick to make friends with Australian girl Sienna and her older sister Lily.

We ended up have a bbq dinner with them and their parents Jo and Mel. The family were from Port Macquarie but living on the road, an inspiration when it came to home schooling. The girls put on a rather impressive glow stick performance!

The reason for taking our time in Airlie Beach was to spend a whole day out at the Whitsundays on a sailing boat. We picked Providence 5, a replica of the Grand Banks fishing schooners built from North Queensland timber. Old hack Captain Steve (recent Dad) and new boy deckhand Isaac (Kiwi chef) took good care of us on their beautiful vessel.

We started out with a snorkel around Dumbbell Island with coral and various fish on display beneath the surface. We all had trendy stinger-suits on, but the girls still found the water cold.

Next stop was a longer one, to experience Whitehaven Beach. Walking up to the lookout point and then spending time exploring the incredible white expanses of sand, surprised by the millions of crabs.

The super fine sand is supposedly good for cleaning jewellery and has nutritional benefits for your hair, so Molly and I rubbed lots in and gave our rings a polish!

Sadly, the wind never picked up enough to launch the sails, but it was still a wonderful day out on the water. We made friends with a Dutch family also traveling the world with their two daughters. We rounded it off by a seafood dinner at the Deck in Airlie Beach.

Next day was a long drive to the Capricorn Caves, again finding a playground picnic lunch stop at Clairview to learn about Dugongs.

We were practically the only ones at our campsite and enjoyed the first morning tour of the cave complex by informative guide Crispin. A highlight was listening to Pentatonix’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in pitch blackness, in a space called the cathedral. We also saw a lot of bats and learnt about the ever-evolving story of the caves.

After yet another amazing playground lunch stop, this time at Miriam Vale, we arrived at Hervey Bay, our campsite right on the beach.

We loved watching the junior lifesaving competitions out on a weekend morning, Tom even spotted a dragon boat team out practicing and I had a great run round point Vernon.

We took the girls up to Sandy White park and Molly went down the water slides hundreds of times. The neighbouring playground had terrifyingly high slides and climbing nets to reach them and public foosball tables.

It was at Noosa that we really felt how hard it was to park the campervan in certain car parks – making do with a picnic at Noosa Heads lookout rather than in the main town, which was actually probably a better option.

We had arrived at the Sunshine Coast, with an idyllic afternoon on Coolum Beach where the girls enjoyed a spot of rock climbing and Tom perfected his sandcastle skills.

We drove on to where we were staying, at Cotton Tree in Maroochydore. We were very amused to find a MoJo café just across from our campsite! The owner was kind enough to give us some t-shirts.

A windy day gave us the chance for a run round the split to Mooloolaba where we also had delicious fish and chips and a vinyassa yoga class at Union Yoga Collective for me.

Most special of all was lunch with Dragon boat buddy Fran at her local fave café Hungry Eats in Buderim. The girls love the kangaroos and Aussie cork hats she gave them!

Our final night in the camper took us to Toowoomba, Queensland’s largest inland city, appealing due to its many jacaranda trees. The reason we went was to take up an offer by a supplier Tom knew from Dubai, Malcolm from Mort & Co.

He collected us from our campsite and took us on a fascinating tour of the farmlot, home to 74,000 cows. We could spot the difference between the lush black coats of the waggu, there for 365 days, and the mixed breed Angus who have 100 days. It was interesting to learn about the grain and manure side businesses.

We met more of the team back at their impressive head office, formerly a hotel and recently stylishly done up. We spent most of our time in a smart kitchen and dining area with a beer tap, being treated to a delicious dinner of some of their best cuts of beef. Luckily MoJo are big fans of steak!