Wicked­cam­per vans sure are wicked: cer­tainly used, not the nicest of the lot and most dis­play psy­codel­lic graf­fiti that makes you stand out very much any­where. This said they are usu­ally the cheap­est com­pany and the old­est in the sec­tor, mak­ing them a bench­mark for any pos­si­ble renter and do not require care­full dri­ving which comes in handy when road con­di­tions are not good:dents are ok.

Our wicked camper van

35 AUD worth of petrol and a 10AUD map later we merged into the high­way and headed north towards Noosa Heaads, but decided to pull out in Maroochi­dore because … well sim­ply because it seemed like a good idea. And it was. It has a very long beach with clean water and a nice walk­way along Moroo­boora, the town right by. What was even bet­ter was that we found out that in OZ (Aus­tralia) there are pub­lic show­ers (cold water only), toi­lets and elec­tric bar­be­cues in almost every town, mak­ing our camp­ing gas almost use­less. Plus you get to cook out­doors and don’t need to clean up after eat­ing (some­times you have to do so before though).

Mooroorooba is a some­what posh town with a nice beach and crys­tal blue water, and were it not for the strong cool wind it would have felt almost trop­i­cal. It was rel­a­tively easy to find a place where to sleep, fol­low­ing the well known camper van trav­eller rule: park the van in a quiet, sleepy neigh­bour­hood where cops don’t drive often and you should be OK. It is so nice to be able to eat and sleep almost any­where, wak­ing up in the beau­ti­ful spot of your choice and hav­ing all you need with you. Except the toi­let, which was not much fun when need­ing one in the chilly wee hours of the morning.

We decided to head inland our last night and even­tu­ally found our­selves in Kil­coy. Not for any rea­son in par­tic­u­lar, but on the map it appeared to be besides a lake and we guessed it would be nice.

Kil­coy Lakes

Arriv­ing late in the night we looked for a secluded place where to park the van and slept until early in the morn­ing, wak­ing up to a won­der­ful day. Fol­low­ing the best route we drove around a few lakes and mean­dered between gen­tle hills, enjoy­ing the great views and being on a con­stant lookaout for a pos­si­ble kan­ga­roo site­ing that never mate­ri­al­ized. Mak­ing sure we missed as lit­tle as pos­si­ble we made our way back to Bris­bane, where we spent one night at a hos­tel and got our free 5 day wicked camper rental after par­tic­i­pat­ing in a dis­cus­sion group they were hold­ing at the hos­tel. Go Wicked!

Road towards Brisbane