Hervey Bay to Barcaldine

On leaving Hervey Bay we headed for the Discovery Coast and the small towns of Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Waters. 1770 is a historical town with a monument where Captain Cook landed for the first time in QLD and the second time in Oz. On the way there we stopped at Childers to see the heritage buildings, art gallery and memorial of the backpackers' fire, and purchasing something for morning tea from the local bakery. We positioned ourselves at a lovely caravan park in Agnes Waters for a couple of nights, and during the day went about exploring the area, we backed tracked all the way to Gin Gin to look at the Mystery Craters – an unusual natural rock formation. Their location, origin and unique mixture have baffled international geologists, and still remain a world proclaimed unsolved mystery. Then on to Rum Town-Bundaberg home of 'Bundy' rum where we took a tour of the distillery. It was wonderful to stand in the open doorway of the bond store to take in the aroma of the contents of the big wooden vats, and at the end of the tour we enjoyed a couple of drinks before going to the big barrel to find out the history of ginger beer, interesting but not as good as the distillery. We purchased a bundy liqueur only available at the distillery. It has already been useful toward off the cold of western QLD.

We left Agnes Waters for Rockhampton – taking in some of the sights, Capricorn caves, including the underground cathedral where regular operatic concerts as well as weddings are held, and heritage village.

Saturday we took a trip to explore the islands of Keppel Bay with Freedom Fast Cats. This was a full day cruise out to one of the many reefs on the Great Barrier Reef in a glass bottom boat in search of coral and tropical fish. While this was amazing and we got to see a lot of fish, coral and a small turtle, it was nothing compared to what we were to experience. After a BBQ lunch as we were taken through the finer points of snorkeling in the shallow fringing reefs surrounding Great Keppel Island and then we were kitted up with goggles flippers and snorkel, off loaded into a small rubber dingy and let loose into the crystal clear waters. We saw pristine coral and vast, abundant marine life, many different varieties of tropical fish, hard and soft coral, and one small friendly turtle. This was the first time we have ever tried this and for over an hour we had an absolute amazing time. On the way back we zoom netted out of the back of the boat. Naturally Marty just had to get to the bottom of the net where the impact is greaest.

Sunday had us packing up again but this time we went west to Emerald. After a morning tea break at a typical bush pub at Westwood and a stop to look at the Leichhardt "DIG" tree at Comet we duly arrived. The impact of the recent floods in Emerald was immediately apparent with some shops still closed to repair the damage. We have had a lot of connections problem mainly interfacing between our mobiles and computers and the sheltered workshop (help line) of our service provider was not helpful so we spent the day at a techo store in town. On Tuesday we visited the showpiece of Emerald, the Big Easel, which is basically a giant replica of Van Gogh's work "Sunflowers", which highlights Emerald's history as a large producer of sunflowers. We also followed the Mosiac path in town and then went fossicking for the first time at the nearby town of Sapphire. Sue found a sapphire that might be big enuff to put in a pendant at some stage. Marty found dirt. Then we went on a tour of a working underground sapphire mine in Rubyvale. The weather is certainly different out west and any need for a midnight ablute means the goolies are subjected to extreme cold which is not uplifting.

Wednesday 11 May saw us head further west to Barcaldine via the very little town of Alpha. We looked at the 27murals that are the town's unique identifier. The lady in the Information Centre was a source of much fun. She told us she was happy to get such intelligent visitors. We thought this might be a sly dig at the ACT number plates but she informed us that our enthusiasm for the mud maps of the area was not matched by a previous visitor who didn't want to look at them as she didn't have a four wheel drive and therefore would not be driving in mud. The same lady when chipped that the she was a dust puffer (bum close to the ground) said she might be short but could still stand on a piece of paper and kick a duck up the bum. Sounds like my colleague Anne Mac and is a story that will inevitably be told ad infinitum in the future.

Queensland’s Fraser Coast

Well we finally left the Gold/Sunshine Coast for the on Thursday 28 April.

We joined our friends Janice and Terry Byrne at the Windmill Caravan Park at Hervey Bay.

Windmill is a small park, about 45 sites, a little back from the beach and this suits us perfectly.

Some of the activities we have done since arriving include:

Riding bikes along the Hervey Bay Esplanade, and then down the Urangan Pier.

A seafood banquet at the Marina watching the royal wedding, although Marty was most reluctant about the wedding but couldn't find a footy game to watch in lieu.

The next morning we set off early down to River Heads for the first morning barge across the Great Sandy Strait to world heritage listed Fraser Island for an unforgettable day of self drive 4WD on sand tracks.

Some of the sights that we saw on the Island were:

Lake McKenzie with its pure white sand and the fresh water and its shade of light blue,

Wanggoolba Creek at Central Station where you walk from an open, sunny picnic area into dark, lush rainforest wilderness with tall straight trees and lichen-covered logs and with water in the creek which is so clear and calm, and with the sandy creek bed it is hard to see the water.

Seventy Five Mile Beach with its smorgasbord of attractions along the way, the 'Maheno' wreck, the Pinnacles, and a spectacular coloured sand formations, the Cathedrals.

Waddy Point stopping to look at Stonetool Sandblow, before heading back to Kingfisher Bay and the 40 minute barge ride back to the mainland.

One of the frew things that we did not see were dingos, but we did hear them

In total we did 115 Kiometers in the Byrne car with Terry doing most of the driving except for some four wheel track and beach driving lessons under the guidance of road safety officer Terry.

Well after years of dreaming, planning, and talking about it, we have finally left.

With all our leave approved, and with, we hope, everything else all sorted out, paid up and taken care of, Marty and I left home on Friday 15 April.

The first stop was the Taree show grounds where we were the only campers. Lovely, nice and quiet and lots of room. A good night's sleep was followed by a very early start as the good folk of Taree run markets from the show ground and started setting up from 5 am.

The next night was at Broadwater just south of Ballina. A lovely caravan park adjacent to a koala sanctuary which provide a lovely walk. Thoughtful staff who gave us a perfect camping spot and we didn't have to unhitch. Just before we left Canberra a work colleague of Marty's, Anne, gave us a couple of farewell gifts which were handy this night. Firstly our planned meal did not quite defrost as expected so we used Mrs Mac's curry instead. Her other gift was a lantern holder and I found out that it will support the weight of a short fat bald over-active husband, sort of a bush time out device for me.

We travelled up the east coast to the Gold Coast where we have been able to visit and spend some time with family and friends over the extended Easter holiday period.

We took our trailer up to DSS on the Sunshine Coast to have the electrics in the trailer updated and then with that all done we headed back down to the Gold Coast.

We stayed a couple of nights with our friends Janice and Terry at North Arm. Terry drove us around to show us the sights on the Sunshine Coast region stopping for coffee at Mapleton, shopping at Maleny and lunching at Kenilworth before returning to North Arm to change so we could go out for dinner that evening. We have had a lot of rain, so much so, that while getting ready a large tree on Terry's property could stand no more and down it came with a large thud bring down the power lines with it across the drive way. So a long time later with the help of the local fire authority, electricity company, and a chain saw, we were able to get out, but we decided a night out was to be no more so it ended up with a candlelight Thai takeaway dinner at home.

Back down on the Gold Coast for Easter, we enjoyed a picnic with my brother Eddie, his wife Carol and their boys and their families at Natural Bridge.

On Saturday we visited our friends who were spending the Easter break at Binna Burra in the Lamington National Park.

Both of these places were just wonderful and we enjoyed a couple of short bush walks through the rainforests, but nothing too strenuous, just enough to walk off lunch.

Sunday was my oldest nephews birthday and he cooked us all a lovely Sunday roast, it was good to spend a bit more time them all again.

Monday saw Marty and I off to visit my Uncle Jim up at Burpengary.

With the Queensland school holidays over we are going to head off, again this time up to Hervey Bay until next week.

 

 

And so the plan began

And so the plan began.

 

With Christmas and New Year over for another year and our small Toyota corolla packed up to the hilt with tent and all other camping gear we made our way down the Clyde Mountain for our annual camping holiday on the NSW South Coast. 

There was just the two of us in the car and we did not have any radio reception, so we had nothing else to do but to talk to each other, this is when Marty first came up with the idea of a camping trip that would last for 12 months and take us around Australia.

And so the dream began, but we would need to upgrade our camping equipment to something a little more fitting and comfortable for the task.

After a good look around we settled on and acquire our complete campsite camper trailer (CT).  We also had to get a new car that would tow the CT.

In the last two and a half years we have managed to get out and about with the CT either on our own or with family and friends to some nearby destinations to investigate how everything is going to work.  This also involved going a doing a introductory level CT driving course to find out the operation of a four wheel drive vehicle and vehicle recovery techniques. In addition to this we learnt how to tow our CT on unsealed surfaces and over 4WD terrain. Trailer maintenance and daily checks.

2011 is to be our year so we have returned to work after the Christmas period and are trying to stay focused on what we are being paid to do, but ever more important things are being a bit of a distraction, check that we have to make sure that our leave from work is approved 

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