“Shocking” Teewah Beach van camping | Double Island Point

We head back to one of our ‪@nextleveloz‬ favourite van beach camping spots on magnificent Teewah Beach in our Land Rover Defender and Zone RV van. We beach drive to Double Island Point, walk up to the Double Island Point Light Station and have lunch and a swim at the stunning Double Island Point lagoon. And for the first time we almost got bogged.
While we were there we have several violent thunder storms and the lightning gets uncomfortably close. But does it spoil the week?
Check out the magnificent vistas, the sea turtles and we even fleetingly spot a massive Eagle Ray. And to break the time, we watch RAAF super hornet jets speeding down the coast.
We also share the best time to visit Teewah - spoiler alert - do it during the week days!
We're David and Paula and like many people we've worked hard for 40 years. so we took a gap year from work and did a Big Lap of Australia, which changed our life and outlook. Join us as we work out the balance and the next chapters of our future and travel and options. How much more big travel in our van and how many other bucket list items can we fit in? We don't know but let's find out.
And we're happy to share our experiences, what goes right, what goes wrong, tips, hacks, mods and the stunning places around our great country.
We aren't influencers or professional content creators, we don't have sponsors and 100% of our KZbin ad revenue goes to charity.
We're David and Paula @nextleveloz
We'd love your comments, questions and tips.
We hope you will like and subscribe and we look forward to sharing our adventures around this magnificent country and from time to time around the world.
#lapofaustralia #vanlife #caravanaustralia #newdefender #landroverdefender110 #zonerv #travel #travelvlog #australiatravel #caravanningaustralia
Teewah and Cooloola Coast Camping:
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Cooloola and Inskip Entry Map:
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Teewah Camp Zone Map: parks.des.qld....
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[@richardbrookhouse7782]

Thanks David and Paula … always such useful information and the quality of your videos keep getting better

[@nextleveloz]

@@richardbrookhouse7782 Thanks again for watching. It’s a special place so the scenery and the weather does most of the work! Are you guys on the road now? cheers David and Paula

[@jerryfrench2981]

Paradise. :)

[@nextleveloz]

@@jerryfrench2981 It really is a lovely area. The reality checks are - avoid the weekends and holidays (madness) and between ferry, vehicle permits and camp fees the costs are getting up a bit, you have to be totally self contained and you can’t have fires - but for all that, it’s a stunning place and from Sunday night to Friday lunch time for 3/4 of the year - as you say. Paradise.

[@glmaguire]

Great to see you back in the van. Great vid too

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks so much for watching and the lovely feedback. Much appreciated. All the best.

[@seandolkens4021]

Wonderful episode and great to see you both back out in the Van. I’m now inspired to do Teewah Beach (during the week) soon.

[@nextleveloz]

Give it a burl Sean. Great location and you can have a great balance between chilling and a few drives and things to do also. Yes, we’d suggest sticking to the weekdays and avoiding holidays if you can. Cheers

[@robyndehavilland1609]

Wow the storms looked epic, added a bit of unplanned excitement 😂. Pretty piece of coastline, the East Coast is so different to the West isn’t it.

[@nextleveloz]

Yes it was better than TV 🤣. The whole south east got battered over several days and we thought most of it would be south and south west of us - but true to form it found us . Yes the coasts are different. NSW and Vic are very different again as they don’t have the same long open stretches of beach thay Qld and WA have. And keep in mind an hour or two north of where we were and you start to hit the southern reaches of the GBR so not much surf north of there. Beach driving is different as well. Except for the entries and the cross tracks Teewah is pretty firm at low tide. Mind you each has their particularly notable and stunning places. Thanks again for watching amd taking the time to comment - it’s always appreciated.

[@user-pp6kw6yl6z]

Great video as usual. Keep up the great work. Teewah is just about my favourite place of all, even with the crowds these days. Bushman is what I use. At different times of the year I've had march flies on me as soon as I've opened the car door! I actively try to avoid contacting the car plastic/leather etc when I've got bushman on as i believe the DEET can damage it.

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks for watching and the great feedback. It helps a lot thanks. Teewah during the week is brilliant. I’m not sure we can put up with the noise and crowds on the weekend and having people on top of you. In fairness most people are just trying to enjoy it , but the beauty of the place for us is that it’s not so crowded . I hadn’t thought about the deet damaging seats but we always try to keep the creams and chemicals off them anyway - thankfully the neoprene seat covers have taken most of the beating for the seats i’ve the worst coupe of years. We found the march flies were pretty determined. Off and Rid helped a bit. All the best and thanks again. Safe travels.

[@neilzantuck197]

Great spot, we camped not far from there earlier this year

[@nextleveloz]

Yes, it’s a great spot. we jagged the same spot we had last time we were up which was over 2 years ago when we did our Zone Base Shakeout to Teewah and Fraser/K’Gari. Heaps of good locations along the camping zones. We think zones 2 and 3 have the better sites with full views of the beach which are great unless there is a full on easterly on shore wind - although we had north Easter’s and easterlies last time and tucked 50m further behind the dune and a tree and faced the awning inland - still great. All the best and thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.

[@grahames9228]

That's a great part of Queensland. Glad you enjoyed the short break and came out unscathed from the storms.

[@nextleveloz]

Yes indeed. Teewah is a special spot. The storms were intense but thankfully more noise and bluster than damage in the end, thankfully. Quite the lightshow! Thanks for your ongoing interest and comments, it’s always appreciated. cheers

[@PeterRowe-ip7ow]

Great to see you guys out in the van again. This vid brings back some great memories of Teewah camping in my younger days but now a lot older (and not as flexible) we enjoy our camping now in a caravan, spending a lot of time up the road at Rainbow. Thanks for the fantastic scenery shots, enjoy your time out and about.

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks for watching as always and the lovely comment. Yes, van camping is easier on the bones. Yes Teewah, Double Island Point and Rainbow are terrific locations. Between the scenery and the weather we thought we’d let the pictures do a bit more of the talking on this one. We love it. Thanks again for watching.

[@PeterRowe-ip7ow]

@@nextleveloz have you ever thought about going across to Moreton? I’m sure the footage would be sensational but maybe the rig would be too big?

[@Chance_It_Oz]

Good to see you back David and Paula.

[@nextleveloz]

Thank you. Thanks for watching. It’s a terrific place among so many terrific places around the country. Safe travels and how we see you out there some time. cheers

[@Karen_richwillo]

That’s a lot of traffic on that beach - crazy! I just wander how the beaches/isolated areas and, the creatures that live in these areas how it will all survive with so much traffic. Anyway great photography and those storms 😮.

[@nextleveloz]

@@Karen_richwillo Yes, best to avoid weekends and holiday periods. It’s very quiet during the week and most of the year. People are asked not to camp on the dunes and care should be taken say in turtle nesting season. And for that matter you always have to take care that kids don’t run across the beach. Always a few that spoil it. Most people try to do the right thing I think. The parks service and police maintain a high profile and tbh the camp area we were at was much cleaner this time around - still a bit of unfortunate litter. Fires are banned as well which might deter a few people. It’s a beautiful area and for many it’s a favourite, We’d just prefer to avoid those busy periods. The storms were pretty spectacular and I didn’t get several other close and prominent lightning bolts unfortunately . Thanks for the feedback and the comment - and for watching of course.

[@Karen_richwillo]

@ thank you for a great response. Great information. Thank you.

[@alexandermay1196]

I really enjoyed the content you put out guys, keep them coming.

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks for watching. And glad you enjoy it, we try to make it as good as we can noting we aren’t professional influencers. We prefer the travel adventure stuff most, but we do get a fair demand for the equipment / planning stuff also. All the best and thanks again. Cheers

[@dianaraasch7935]

Great video as usual

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks for watching. And the feedback. This one had a bit more scenery rather than VLOG piece to camera stuff - wasn’t sure how people might feel about that, but it is a beautiful place. All the best and thank you again.

[@dotwillcoxson5352]

Great video and very enjoyable background music. Some young caravan KZbinrs play such loud metallic music. Doesn't suit us oldies (80 and 78). Thank you and Happy New Year 🎉

[@nextleveloz]

Thanks for watching and the lovely feedback. We try to find the music that suits the mood and the moment. It's such a personal thing isn't it? We sit somewhere in between, but not so much into the doof-doof or head banging music. HNY to you guys also and safe travels.

[@jacquiyoung8703]

Storms in a caravan can be quite something!

[@nextleveloz]

Yes indeed ❤️. There’s not a lot between you and nature in a van - but heaps better than a tent ! 😉🤣. We’ve been in a few interesting storms / gales/ : unseasonal wert seasons and even some hail in all sorts of places. Thanks for watching. All the best.

[@michaeldallimore8590]

Hello David and Paula. Good to see you out in the van again. How do you identify the camping area that you booked? Are they numbered? I hate march flies and react badly to them. I use maximum percentage DEET in Bushman tropical or RID Tropical myself. What was the BBQ mat you were using when cooking the sausages. Thanks for another informative video.

[@nextleveloz]

Hi Michael, thanks for your ongoing support and feedback - its very much appreciated. Teewah is broken into 7 “open” camp zones with unallocated sites in each zone.. The parks service set a cap of a total number of bookings per zone but there are no allocated sites. The zones vary in length broken by protected no camp sections - mainly where sand blows or land slips represent risks or areas requiring protection from erosion. You can camp anywhere along that stretch from the dunes back, but they ask you not to camp “on” top of the dunes. So you book the number of nights in your preferred zone. The Queensland parks site give a bit of a description of each zone to help people choose and its always worth doing a google maps/ google earth look at the areas to check out some options. Generally people do a bit of a drive around to see what’s the best available spot. In our case we have been on the beach a few times so we think zones 2 and 3 give the best general options and they are larger sections so more chance of finding a good unoccupied spot. As it worked out we had stayed in pretty much the same location a couple of years ago so we shot for that and hoped it was free and it was. (I wonder if my crashed first drone is still in a tree on the large dune/ hill behind? lol). With starlink now, provided you’ve checked to ensure plenty of free places under the cap, you can head up with a vehicle permit, identify a site that suits and then sign in to the website , book and pay. The rangers are reasonably visible and do patrol the area so if you are setting up before paying its worth doing it reasonably timely. We aren’t fans of DEET but getting nasty bites is worse - I got blasted by midges on the Fraser Coast and it was so irritating that ensuring we limit bug bits is the priority. On this trip I had success with Off and Rid. The BBQ hotplate liner came from Bunnings I think. It’s been great for keeping the Weber relatively clean and easy to maintain. The liner gets messy off course but you can easily wipe the worst off before having to wash it and we use a spray on cleaner to reduce water usage. Thanks again for watching and yet again for some great questions. Cheers

[@michaeldallimore8590]

@@nextleveloz Thanks David I had no idea those BBQ liners existed. I see that my local big hardware store has a range of them. They all seem to be made from PTFE so I will take a look into whether that is a healthy material to be cooking on but they will certainly save a lot of cleaning.

[@aarontupper4427]

Try 50/50 spray bottle mix of Dettol and baby oil to keep the march flies away. Worked well at Fraser last year 👍

[@nextleveloz]

Wow, great tip. Just googled it as well and seems to be a recurring old school DIY repellant. Will definately give that a go and see how it goes. Thanks for watching and sharing the tip. Safe travels.

[@peterbullen3347]

I dive at Wolf Rock, off DI Point, occasionally, great site, lots of rays and grey nurse sharks, we live in a wonderful part of the world

[@nextleveloz]

@@peterbullen3347 There was a couple of what looked like Eagle Rays and several turtles around the Point, so Wolf Rocks would be great.

[@Sansui313]

great vid guys looks beautiful, what drive mode do you set the Defender and what drone do you use David?

[@nextleveloz]

Hi mate, thanks for watching again and the great feedback. Much appreciated. I was in Low range sand mode for the beach entry and high range for the main part of the beach. TBH Auto would be fine for the firmer sand long drive, but I’d always select sand mode even in high for the parts where you cross the dunes or leisha track just to make sure. It’s a good beach for easy beach driving though and only the Leisha track and the cutting beach entry test people when it’s been dry and hot. The drone is a DJI mini 3 pro. Does a great job for most stuff and is very light and compact. But it can get blown around if the wind gets up above mid 20k’s and it’s max speed means it isn’t ideal for longer tracking shots. But we prefer to use the drone not like a flight simulator but for landscape perspective. Each to their own of course. The only caution on drones is there are more and more restrictions and some operators aren’t as mindful as they should be about other people and the rules. Thanks again for watching. Safe travels.

[@Sansui313]

@@nextleveloz cheers mate..

[@peterbullen3347]

Hi guys, do you also lower pressures on the van tyres? I've done that crossing many times but never with my van... I only have old Discovery 3, not a mighty Defender :)

[@nextleveloz]

Hi Peter. Yes. We generally run the van at the same as the front wheels on the car. Just to keep the weight on the sand spread across more surface. The crossing was a bit chopped up and as you saw there was a bit of drop off the reinforced track onto the sand. Even though I picked up what looked like a firm set of tracks to stay in there was a softer spot and I needed a bit more momentum that line off the reinforced track didn’t provide for. I should have come around wider. The rig slowed and the Defender pulled it out before it went too deep so it looked and felt sloppier than it needed to be. TBH most cars, even towing, shouldn’t be too troubled in those conditions at Teewah. On hot summer days and higher tides - especially at the end of weekend it can get drier, more chopped and softer at the cutting. The key with Teewah most of the time especially towing is don’t flirt with the higher dry sand - so use the 2-3 hour window either side of low tide.