Today was the day the kids had been hanging out for weeks – we were off to Australia Zoo. We got there early and parked the cruiser under the big “Crikey” sign and next to the “Croc Cruiser”, read Croc Troopie. Once we’d parted with our hard earned and in the park proper, as expected there was a heap to see, including shows and demos to do all over the place! First on the list were the frisky Alligators, Iguanas, Aussie lizards and the mighty Komodo Dragon.
Because it was school holidays we were “lucky” enough to see the “Bindi” show (in the Crocoseum), which was herself and four other female dancers doing a heap of songs after wildlife. It was a little boring but the real young kids loved it, though to be fair she did a reasonable job of the songs – I’m sure I saw Lachlan tapping his foot! Straight after was the “Wildlife Warriors Show” which was really good. It started off with birds of all sorts (water birds, parrots, cockatoos) doing some amazing things. When it came time for the croc bit of the show Terri, Bindi and young Robert came out and joined in – it was bloody entertaining and six year old Robert even had the whole stadium on its feet singing the national anthem. That boy is certainly a chip off the old block, watch out as it won’t be long before he’s doing crazy stuff in front of cameras!
The arvo was spent checking out the Asian elephants, Tigers, Aussie furry critters and of course lunch. Did I mention the kids spent a looooong time in the souvenir shop working what “special” treasure they were gunna buy. The last thing we did was have a squiz at the amazing animal hospital that Steve built in memory of his mother.
Oz zoo is one big place but they are currently working on expanding it dramatically, Cheetahs, Rhinos, Giraffes and Lemurs are already on the property awaiting their new enclosures to be finished. It’s well worth a visit but if it keeps expanding one day might not be enough to see everything!
We were up early for our trip out to Lady Musgrave Island, it was a 8.30 departure from Seventeen Seventy (1770), the only port around here, which is situated on Round Hill Creek. The trip out was not that eventful except for Chantal bringing up her breakfast, very unusual as normally she is the only one that doesn’t suffer any form of motion sickness! Oh, we also saw a humpback whale breaching a number of times – they are one big animal. Lady Musgrave Island is unique on the barrier reef in that is a natural lagoon, i.e. has a natural entrance channel. Most other island lagoon entrances have needed the help of a couple of tonnes on dynamite to make them navigable. Once we were moored on the pontoon we didn’t waste any time getting into wetsuits and snorkelling gear and jumping in for a looksee. The water was calmer than the day we spent off Cairns but the water was considerably cooler. Also, this far south there aren’t any soft corals, only hard corals, which meant we came across different fish and corals. Soon after we went on a guided tour of the island which you can camp on if you book far enough ahead. Lachlan got to hold a sea cucumber, which was a lot softer than he thought it would be – can’t imagine eating them though! We fitted in lunch and a semi-submersible ride before hitting the water for another long snorkel. This time I chucked on my wetsuit top under theirs to keep myself a little warmer. Good patches of clear sky in the arvo ensured the colour of the coral was highlighted when snorkelling. Chantal got a little adventurous and did some dives, chasing some of the smaller fish. Just before we got out of the water they fed the fish, which was exciting after fish darting at great speed all around us. The ride back was a bit rougher, but that wasn’t an issue for me as I managed to nod off for half an hour or so. It was my turn to cook dinner, so it was pizzas all round from the only local takeaway food joint.
Leaving Agnes Water we drove south down a 4wd track that hugged the coastline and for a good part went through Deepwater NP. It was a picturesque sandy track most of the way and there were some nice camp spots in Deepwater NP itself. We ended up at Rules Beach which was nothing more than a couple of old houses with a beach access ramp next door. I suspect that this part of the coast will become more attractive to real estate agents in the near future. From there we took a secondary road closer to the coast going through Rosedale and ending up at Bundaberg. Our campsite for the night was a caravan park at Bargara, which was 12km out from Bundy right on the beach. They had a great non-powered camping area and we were surprised how quiet it was considering it was the start of the school holidays.
It started raining overnight and continued for most of the day, to be more accurate it pissed down all day. Lucky we had some indoor attractions on the “to do” list. First was “The Bundaberg Barrel” which is the tourist bit of the Bundy Ginger Beer Factory. We took in their info display and finished off with a taste test. Next on the list was the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, an Aussie icon. The reason we didn’t go here first was that we thought 9am was a little too early to be sampling some of Bundy’s finest rum! We had an informative tour around the distillery, some parts of it out in the open in the pouring rain. Finally we ended up at the bar, warming ourselves up with the complimentary samples. With a few souvenirs in tow we took the easy option and headed to the big M for lunch, bumping into a family we’d met at Agnes – funny how all kids want the same thing for lunch! The arvo was spent with Lachlan getting his noggin shaved (well cut) and checking out the Cooperage, a little business that makes port barrels as well as the occasional 75,000 litre vat at the distillery itself! The owner did his apprenticeship at the distillery before going out by himself. As we tucked ourselves into bed the rain was still quite steady.
We woke to light rain, but pleasingly it cleared and we had patches of sunshine which meant we packed up with everything virtually dry. Leaving we took a bit of a detour down to Elliot Heads, a quiet little beachside town with a nice caravan park, much what I suspect Bargara would have been 20 years or so ago. We took more back roads through sugar cane territory, many of them were underwater which made the drive slow but certainly interesting. We passed through Childers and finally got to Maryborough about midday. We got a few supplies there and then headed straight to Freshwater Campground which is in Great Sandy NP. The 16km drive in was spectacular going through big sections of rainforest (similar to Fraser Is as my memory recalls) – the track was sandy all the way but due to the recent rain it was quite firm, making it an easy drive with the trailer. Camp was setup quickly, lunch scoffed down and then we headed to the beach. Later Lachlan and I went back and chucked the lines in but with no luck. This part of Great Sandy NP is only a couple of hundred kms north of Brisbane and we were really surprised the campground was less than half full, especially considering it’s school holidays and the good facilities it offers. With awesome beaches, fishing, swimming, beach driving etc if this was near Melbourne it would have been loved to death by now.
Next morning was a lazy one. Once we finally got ourselves sorted we headed off and walked up to Freshwater Lake and as the name suggests contained fresh water, though until recently apparently it had dried up. After lunch we jumped into the car and headed 10km north up Teewah Beach to Double Island Point, which has an operational lighthouse perched on top. After a steep walk up to the lighthouse we were treated to four humpback whales frolicking just off the point, as well as a pod of dolphins and a couple of rays (Mantas we think). Back at the car we cut across the headland and jumped back onto Rainbow beach. From here all the way to Rainbow Beach the township is lined with tall cliffs of coloured sands, mostly of reddish/orange hues. With RB there is far less room for error with picking your tides as the high tide comes right up to the bottom of the cliff! There was one outcrop of rocks just before you get to the township and with the tide already well up we had to drive through the wash from the incoming waves to get around them. From the top of the beach at RB you could see across to Fraser Island – we would have loved to go there but with school holidays it would have been crazy over there. After some shopping and a coffee we headed back to camp via the inland route. Dinner that night to the kids delight was tuna dish!
Today we packed up, on the drive out stopping and doing a nice little walk through rainforest to Poona Lake, a pristine sand lake. Once back on the black stuff it was straight through to Gympie, a slight detour off the main hwy. Lachlan wanted to check out the KFC there as apparently it’s the only one that has one of the original rotating buckets! It was brought back to life after Hamish and Andy from Fox FM campaigned to get it spinning again, even flying up there to see it when it started working again. We were disappointed as it wasn’t spinning, apparently it broke down, the 2nd time since it was given a new lease of life. We still ended up having lunch there and getting a few shots of the stationary bucket, can’t tell if it’s moving or not with a still camera! Once back on the road we made another diversion, to Yandina to check out the Buderim Ginger Factory, which apart from tours sold a heap of stuff related to ginger as well as a heap of other exciting crafty stuff! Louise scored some fudge so she came away a happy lass. We finally jumped off the main hwy and headed to Landsborough, staying in a c-park out of town with great views right to the coast, Coloundra I guess. We’ll use this as a base, heading down to Australia Zoo tomorrow and some other day trips around the area after that.
Today it was back to school, though to the kids delight it was “Surf School”!
On a beautiful sunny day with the temp in the mid-twenties we did a 3 hour learn to surf crash course at Agnes Waters, apparently Oz’s most northerly surf beach – they even have a surf club. The surf to be honest was small, in fact at times you might see a bigger swell at Rosebud front beach, but it was sort of ideal for us beginners. First we learnt the basics on the sand, paddling, getting up and of course surfing etiquette. After that we hit the water, literally! It’s amazing how much easier it looks when someone else is doing it – also surprised how quickly you get out of breath constantly paddling to catch waves. The instructors kept saying paddle, paddle to catch a certain wave but most times Louise and I were too busy catching our breath from the last effort. After a while the kids got up quite frequently while let’s just say Louise and I weren’t born naturals. My excuse was that the many bronzed bikini clad backpackers in our class were far too distracting!
As they say “Pictures tell a thousand words” so I’ll leave you to check those out, the good, bad and ugly! Tomorrow we’re off to Lady Musgrave Island for a day of snorkelling on the reef.
From Fairbairn Dam we headed south passing through Springsure and later Rolleston where we had a quick break and headed off the main road. Another hour saw us at Takarakka Campground just out of Carnarvon NP, and also about 5km from the ranger head quarters (the start of most of the walks). Everything is looking very lush with lots of water lying around – apparently they’ve already had twice their annual rainfall here already and it’s only September. Carnarvon itself in one huge gorge, predominantly sandstone, not too unlike the Blue Mtns really, the difference being it’s a tad warmer up here during winter and there are remnant pockets of sun-tropical rainforest here. Once we had camp sorted we headed off and checked out the ranger info centre and did a walk up Mickey Creek and a smaller side gorge called Warrumbah Gorge, which the kids loved as it involved rock scrambling and climbing up the very narrow gorge. It was quite noticeable how much cooler it is in the smaller gorges which have virtually no direct sunlight – on a hot day these would be the places to hang out.
What an epic day! The kids worked out with all the side trips we walked appox 24km. The kids were great, there were bribes involved of course! As well as keeping them well fed with a heap of food, and that most important food group chocolate, they were promised a “Heaven” icecream if they got through the whole day without whinging. We also played a heap of games to help make the less interesting bits whiz past a little quicker. Chantal also countered every stepping stone on the 13 creek crossing we did to the top of the gorge, 517 in total. We walked pretty much straight to the top of the gorge only stopping at the “Art Gallery” and “Cathedral Cave”, both Aboriginal Art sites which were close to the main track. We came across a green tree snake, who high-tailed it once he saw a couple of noisy kids. We had lunch at Big Bend, the top of the main track which also had a pool deep enough for a dip – though the kids thought it was a tad nippy for a swim. On the way back we explored Boowinda Gorge and Ward’s Canyon both specky in their own right. Ward’s has the only stand of King Ferns in central & west QLD. These are huge ferns that need a continual supply of water otherwise they give up the ghost pretty quick. The last hour on the track was a real challenge to keep one little girl moving, many games were played to take her mind off the “sore legs and feet”. We even walked backwards at one stage because she thought it didn’t hurt as much. That night we all slept very soundly!
After our big day we’d planned a sleep in – this wasn’t to be as our neighbours decided to get up at some ungodly hour to go walking, and I’m taking before 6am here! Once up, the morning was spent chilling out, doing some maintenance stuff on the car and trailer, and more importantly the kids catching with their diaries. The arvo was spent doing a few of the smaller walks, Baloon Cave (another Aboriginal art site) and the Rock Pool where the kids had a swim with the turtles. Lachlan also climbed to the top of the big boulder there and jumped in.
We were up early to beat the heat. From the visitor centre we walked, scrambled and climbed up to Boolimba Bluff. The kids loved it as the climb had a heap of steps and a number of ladders. In fact our little Miss Numbers (Chantal) counted every step on the way back down and ended up with 915 ! The view from the top which is on top of the plateau was spectacular and we had it to ourselves. Once back down on the main track on the gorge floor we headed upstream to the Amphitheatre, an amazing chamber on a little side gorge. It was accessed via ladders and a small slit through the rock. There was a school group there and just as we were leaving they sang the national anthem, proving the acoustics were excellent. We headed back downstream and walked up another side gorge to the Moss Garden, where the water constantly seeps through the porous sandstone keeping a range of ferns, mosses and liverworts thriving all year long, with a great backdrop of a waterfall. It was quite noticeable how much cooler it was higher up in this small canyon compared to the relatively exposed main canyon. We had an hour slog back to the car which the kids enjoyed far more than two days before when they’d already walked seven odd hours. Again Miss Numbers worked out we’d done approx 14km of walking for the day. Back at camp we were inundated with two coach loads of high school kids, which meant sprinting to the showers before the hot water was consumed. Later we had a more pleasant encounter, catching up with a young family from Melbourne we’d met many weeks before at Wonga Beach, which is not too far north of Cairns. After dinner the rangers put on a slide show and spoke about the Gorge and the wider park. We also got to hear from the legendary Fred Conway, an indigenous ranger who has been at the park for ages is passionate about promoting and preserving the indigenous culture of the area.
Today after some goodbyes we made our way to Workman’s Beach (Agnes Waters), which is south of Gladstone. Agnes Waters is also close to 1770, apparently the first place Mr Cook landed in QLD. It ended up being over a 500km drive so we on the move pretty much all day only stopping for a shop at Biloela. We’ve got a nice little camp spot and lots of friendly mozzies to boot. Plan to spend a few days here not doing much, though apparently it’s Oz’s northern most surf beach – we had a quick look tonight and I have my doubts. Maybe we’ll just have to chuck in a line or two.
Fathers Day – we did end up getting some prawns, and it paid off as Lachlan caught two Grunter later at night. Apparently the trick is to peel the little blighters – fish these days are just too damn fussy! I couldn’t be buggered doing that and surprise, surprise I didn’t catch anything, mind you no one else on the beach did either. Lachlan’s head had a swelling issue that night as people were coming over and checking out what he’d caught, the gun fisherman he is! Being Father’s day I was privileged to be able to clean the said caught fish (while Louise was already in bed), oh how lucky I was!
Lachlan chucked the line out again in the morning, with Andrew his fishing mentor in the campsite next door. He managed to land another grunter, which again I was lucky enough to clean. Once packed up we drove south to Yeppoon and had some lunch on the foreshore. We setup camp about 5km to the south at The Causeway. In the arvo we went to Rossyln Bay Marina and met up with Simon Osinski and his parents Andy and Irena and checked out their catamaran “TwoToTango”. Simon took the kids out in the dingy and they rowed around the marina, hooking up an umbrella as a spinnaker on the downwind legs! We had takeaway pizza on the boat for dinner, which Simon was pretty rapt about as they don’t stop in at port very often.
Next day was a lazy one. We did a big shop in the morning and picked up Simon on the way back to camp. The kids played the rest of the day, fishing, having thong fights which ended up with two way up a tree which needed rescuing! We cooked up the four fish Lachlan caught at Carmila Beach for lunch. That night we again had take away on the boat, this time it was Chinese.
Come morning we packed up and dropped by to say goodbye to Simon and his parents. Overnight they’d had a change of plans – to get a better wind direction the following day they’d decided to head over to Great Keppel Island and asked if we wanted to join them, silly question really! Within minutes we had our gear together and purchased return ferry tickets. As we sailed pretty much into the wind there were no spinnaker sets, but it was a pleasant cruise across to GK Island lying in the trampolines at the front of the cat. It was a pleasant arvo spent checking out the island, swimming off the boat and doing not much at all really. Interestingly the big resort there is currently closed, waiting to be pulled down and replaced with a mutli-million dollar alternative! The ferry ride back was pretty smooth, much to Lachlan’s delight. Once on dry land we headed off immediately up to Byfield NP which is about 50km north of Yeppoon. By the time we got to the park proper it was getting dark. The park consists mostly of coastal heath growing on sand dunes. It was these sand dunes that ensured we had to stop and air down. It wasn’t much later that we came across one that was a real long climb with soft deep sand, and as I was still in high range as it got a little steeper we lost traction and came to a halt (in the dark it was bloody hard to get a feeling for how steep and long the climbs were). The kids were a tad concerned that’s where we’d be spending the night, as even in low range multiply attempts at getting further were no good. So we aired down even further, to about 16 psi on the car, and Louise and the kids tried to compact one of the softer deeper sand sections. Finally with the front locker also engaged the cruiser dragged itself to the top. From there to camp at Five Rocks campground it was an easy run as all the steeper sections were downhill. Once camp was setup it was a quick dinner and off to bed.
In the morning before brekky we had a short walk down to the beach and Five Rocks headland, one of the first beaches for a while that’s had some surf. It was back for some brekky and it was quite peaceful as we had the whole campground to ourselves. Mid morning we drove down onto Nine Mile Beach and drove all the way south to Water Park Point Headland and across the point to Corio Bay. On the way back we checked out the four official campsites off the beach, one of the entry points up was very interesting and would have been a real struggle if we had of had the trailer on. The kids travelled most of the way back on the side of the car, spotting a dead sea-turtle, and a snake on the beach that was hell bent of having a certain lizard for dinner – he got so close but could never quite seal the deal. We were very surprised (and disappointed) with the amount of rubbish washed up on what I’d consider a remote beach – most of it was plastics of many varieties, basically the crap that floats! This was one of the first places where the mozzies have been over friendly and they had heaps of friends. That night we had a visit from a little furry critter, a Brush-tailed phascogale to be exact (basically a little marsupial the size of a rat, but far cuter with a black dunny brush tail). He got inside our trailer through the kitchen section but couldn’t get himself out. I finally corralled him into a box and released back where all good furry critters should be – in the bush.
Next morning we headed out of the park which was far easier than the way in. All the steeper uphill sections had planking on them, a great idea which removed the issue of erosion – not sure why they didn’t do it on the hills in, maybe they want to keep under-prepared people out! As the tyre pressures were so low it took a while to air up, in fact the compressor cut out for a while due to overheating. We took a slight detour to the small hamlet of Byfield itself for a coffee. From there we headed to Rockhampton, stopping only at the info centre shortly. Just out of Rocky at a little joint called Gracemere we stopped for fuel and lunch. Then it was west to Blackwater (coal capital of QLD) where we decided there must be better spots to camp – the kids did manage a few shots in front of the huge buckets they use to dig the coal out. We ended up camping at Fairbairn Dam, which is about 20km south of Emerald. Lake Maraboon is the second largest man made water storage in QLD and people flock from everywhere to catch the stocked Barra. It was a nice spot and quiet, but at $50 a night for an unpowered site it’s the most we’ve paid for the least facilities – at that price the kids were expecting at least a water slide and jumping pillow!
Sadly the much anticipated Mission Beach market was a fizzler, due to heavy rain we had most of Sat and continued through all Sunday. We went out there but there were only a handful of stalls down from the expected hundred or so – we got soaked just in the 15 mins or so we had a look around. Chantal ticked off another of her big things around OZ with a Cassowary outside the main shopping centre. In fact she has done very well this week (see attached photos as evidence), with a big gumboot (Tully), big snake (can’t remember), big Spider (Townsville) and a big mango (Bowen). Thankfully even though we had a shiiiite load of rain it was still quite warm, a slight variation to what you guys are experiencing in Melb!
We had a very wet and dirty pack-up the next morning with sand and mud over everything. We were lucky enough to see a pair of Cassowaries just as we headed out of town. Due to the rain we then only stopped at Tully (apparently the town in OZ with the highest rainfall) to take a photo of the big gumboot; and later Ingham which has an amazing cemetery, with many ornate Italian mausoleums replacing the standard grave and headstone – no shortage of cash up here! We virtually drove right through to Townsville where we setup at the Rowes Bay caravan park, and best of all it was sunny. It was amazing how quickly everything dried out and with a brush down you wouldn’t have known everything had been filthy less than 8 hours before. The kids hit the pool within minutes of camp being setup and that was it pretty much for the day. Next day we caught up on some shopping and with a Bunnings and Annaconda in town I was more than happy – got some new tie down ropes for the trailer, the last lot were sandblasted until they were very frayed. Also got myself a new fishing rod, for Father’s Day of course. We cruised around town, ending up at the town lagoon, which is just a really big glorified pool that has filtered sea water running through it, minus the stingers and crocs to keep everyone happy. The kids gave it a spin and we got the thumbs up.
After that it was southwards again. We passed through one of the big cane growing areas, which includes Ayr, Bowen and Proserpine. Cane harvesting is in full swing, being the dry and the mills are madly harvesting and crushing to beat the first of the big rains predicted in Oct. We turned east at Proserpine and headed out to the quiet Conway Beach, which is within spitting distance of Airlie Beach which is considered the gateway to the Whitsundays. The kids loved Conway as it had a great pool with an even cooler water slide and two jumping pillows. It also had some very colourfully painted toilet blocks, in fact anything that could be painted in the park was a very bright colour. Next morning and we headed into Airlie Beach, spending the day wandering around town, including a swim at the lagoon and fisn’n’chips on the grass there. Of course with all the shops there we couldn’t help but leave with a few bags of goodies! The local toilets also were interesting, with some interesting pics carefully positioned in the mens (see photo). We later drove down to Shute Harbour which is where all the big boats come in and out for the Whitsunday Islands. Good Samartian deed for the day was helping an old couple retrieve the keys they had locked in their car.
We left Conway Beach relatively dry even after a decent amount of rain overnight. We passed through Mackay before stopped at Sarina for an early lunch. We had a tour through the Sugar Cane Shed, which is a miniature mill and info centre setup to show you how cane is grown, harvested and process. It was very informative and two hours went very quickly, the kids particularly enjoying the fairy floss at the end whilst Louise didn’t mind their alcoholic beverages. We didn’t get much further down the road and we setup camp at Carmilla Beach, with Charles and his big ears no where to be seen. It’s a free camp and we got a great spot right on the beach overlooking the water (when it’s there) – there is a huge tide and as it’s near a full moon I reckon the tide goes out over a km and probably around 3-4m in height. Again no swimming here due to Mr & Mrs Croc, shame as it’s so nice. Later that night we chucked our lines in but had no luck, so the new rod is still to prove itself.
We awoke today to beautiful weather, a stark contrast I hear to what hit VIC over the last 48 hours or so. As it is Fathers Day, rather than wake up naturally, our two darling children come storming onto our bed at 6.15am !@#$%^& It’s been a great Fathers Day, after a lazy breakfast we spent a couple of hours fishing, again with no luck though Lachlan scored a Grunter off a guy a couple of camps up. Just got to teach the boy to clean the slippery buggers, a task that was left to me – and it’s Father’s Day to boot, should be all feet up and a continuous stream of beers! Once the tide went out far enough we went for a long walk up the beach with the kids again collecting a heap of beach treasures, most of which will be forgotten once they end up in the car and they are stepped on time after time as they get in and out of the car! This arvo we have to head to the local servo to get some prawns as bait as Lachlan reckons that will solve his problem of not being able to catch any fish. Tomorrow we’ll head south to Rosslyn Bay, hoping to catch up with Simon Osinski (one of Lachlan’s classmates) who is sailing with his parents for 5 months along the east coast of OZ – lucky boy.
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