TwoToTango (Around Yeppoon)

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!