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Married for life. Live to Love. Love to Travel. Greece is a recent favourite. Lived 60 years in Townsville. 10 years on the Sunshine Coast. Hello, I'm Jan.

Currently travelling Australia. My husband Marty and I have been living and travelling together for over thirty years. We were both born in Townsville, North Queensland but recently shifted to Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.. Budget Travel Talk blog is currently focussed on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, dog friendly Cafes and accommodation. Exploring the Noosa Hinterland and staying with Airbnb. If you love a good backstory carry a n reading. In 1980 after 9 months in the U.K., Europe and Bali, we landed in Perth, Western Australia. Out of necessity we both got jobs and subsequently hatched a plan to buy a campervan. After two years of exploring everywhere within a week-end’s radius of Perth, we said goodbye to our West Australian lifestyle and headed north to the cultural melting pot of Broome. From there we headed east across the top of Australia on the final leg home to Townsville. Our child rearing years saw us waterskiing on Lake Tinaroo, chilling on Magnetic Island and snorkelling on coral reefs. Fast forward to 2008, our first trip out of the country in twenty-eight years was a campervan trip around the south island of New Zealand and once more we were hooked on travel. A three month trip in 2010 saw us dodging bullets in Bangkok, volcanic ash cloud in Italy and arriving in New York the day before the Times Square bombing attempt. In April 2011 we spent a month travelling in Vietnam. Love it or hate it Vietnam is the ultimate budget traveller’s destination. House-sitting is perfect for us and 2 weeks in the hills near Granada, Spain was a wonderful introduction. Just returned from 10 weeks in Europe July 2015. Read about it on the blog. The best surprise was finding Trebinje in BiH. Welcome to Budget Travel Talk
Jan

12/11/2026

A very windy yet magical spot with beautiful fish in the Aquarium.

09/11/2026

Our Review on Horizon Free Camp where we stayed overnight between Quobba and Monkey Mia WA.

Very Quiet
Us and one other van
Yellow bins with lids
Large round flat gravel site in the middle with wide graded access roads from both ends
Pretty with wild flowers
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05/11/2026

Carnarvon Hotel on Olivia Terrace gained our custom for dinner tonight.

Two reasons.
No. 1 it was recommended by no other than Jen of ‘Kel Jen and Atti’ fame.
No. 2 was it’s dog friendly in the b**r garden. Lots of dog bowls and signs saying ask at the bar for fresh water for your dog.

They also played great music, had very friendly pooch loving staff plus cold Black Fish stubbies (and on tap).

The food was typical pub grub which arrived promptly.

Afterwards we went for a stroll along the waterfront where I took some photos for you.🙂

04/11/2026

Come for a sunset walk with me. It’s at 14 Mile, Warroora Station on the Ningaloo coast.

02/11/2026

Our Review of Ningaloo Coral Bay Bayview

⛺️Powered Site 5 nights End of October.$75/night.

🌳Pleasantly surprised by a grassed and treed park in a prominent position in the small seaside village that is Coral Bay.

💦We knew there would be no water hook up as the taps supply very hot bore water. We were positioned between two drinking water outlets situated outside Amenity Blocks where we could refill drinking water containers.

🦜Lots of Zebra finches flitting around the trees.

💦$6 washing machines.

🍕Reef Cafe on site. loved it.

🍻Bills Bar looked great.

🧑‍🍳Foodworks and shops a short stroll away.

🚻Hot Showers. Clean Amenities.

Our stay was very peaceful and enjoyable but can imagine Coral Bay and the Park itself would be hectic in peak season.

02/11/2026

Our review on Yardie Homestead Wilderness Park. Exmouth Peninsula. W.A.

Powered Site. 5 nights. $70/night plus $50 refundable dog deposit.

Our experience here a few weeks ago was good. We had read poor reviews but decided to try for ourselves and are glad we did.

🙂Staff were helpful and friendly.

🐕 Our dog was looked after by (staff) Sharon while we explored the Cape Range NP ($120/day) I’m not sure she was fussed if we returned or not!

🔌The limited power wasn’t a worry for us.

🚻Amenities are old but clean enough.

💦The 3 Washing Machines worked well.

🏊🏻‍♀️ The pool looked lovely but it was too windy for us to want to swim.

👯‍♂️We had a peaceful stay and met some nice fellow campers.

🥇Handy position for people travelling with dogs, to access the NP. Dogs can stay at Yardie but not enter NP.

🚤Tantabiddi Boat Ramp is 5 km away.

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Coolum Beach, QLD
4573

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https://budgettraveltalk.com/

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