Mon, 31st October to Tues, 1st Nov - Burnett Heads

We packed up and left Agnes Water by 9:30am, and drove into Tyrepower in Bundaberg.  The trip was awful due to bad roads and even worse drivers.  We booked the Navara in for 8:30am the following morning and headed off to look for somewhere suitable to stay.  Bundaberg is inland so we headed about 12kms to Burnett Heads which is on the coast.

We found a park near the marina and checked in for two nights.  Our site had some nice shrubs between our awning and the empty site next door.  I commented to Rick about how nice and private our site was.  Within ten minutes some workmen came along with chainsaws and cut the shrubs down to only 2 feet high ... so much for privacy!!  The park owner commented later that they had really cut the shrubs too short ... he said he had asked for them to be trimmed down to his head height so he could reach the tops. The wind really started to blow later in the afternoon and those shrubs would have given us a bit of a wind-break.  Never mind ... we put up with the wind and walked up the street to have a look around.  We didn't find anything much, just a supermarket and pub. We had now been on the road for about 8 and a half months and had covered around 28,000kms.

On Tuesday we got up early and drove into Bundaberg.  Rick dropped me off at a shopping centre while he went on to Tyrepower.  After the tyres had been fitted and Rick had picked me up, we had lunch and then went for a drive around.  We drove through Coral Cove, Burgara and Innes Park where there were some beautiful big homes right on the beach.  The beaches are very rocky but quite pretty.  We continued on to Elliott Heads where we parked and watched the wind surfers while we listened to the Melbourne Cup.

The beach at Elliott Heads

Windsurfers at Elliott Heads

Fri, 28th to Sun, 30th October - Agnes Water

It rained during Thursday night and we woke to an overcast and cooler day on Friday.  We drove approximately 120kms to a place called Seventeen Seventy which is right on the coast about 500kms north of Brisbane and almost exactly half way between Gladstone and Bundaberg.  We had a look at a caravan park there which was very busy and decided to head back a few kilometres to Agnes Water which is another lovely spot right on the water.  The park here was busy too, but had a better 'feel' about it and we were lucky enough to secure one of only three sites that were left.  Shortly after getting set up, a young Japanese couple pulled into the vacant site alongside of us.  We spent the next half an hour being amused watching them trying to figure out how to set up their brand new little tent ... they obviously had no idea!  Eventually, it all got the better of the Wrecker and he (along with another camper) decided to give them a hand.  After free camping with only the water in our tanks for four days I had some serious washing to catch up on during the afternoon, but we found time for a beach walk later in the day.

We had a resonable night's sleep on Saturday night although Rick said he heard shouting in the street at about 4am.  Agnes Water is a really popular tourist destination and we were surrounded by resorts and holiday rental homes.  We also had a lovely park area next to us which seemed to be popular with young people at night. The day before we left Calliope River, I pointed out to Rick that one of the rear tyres on the Navara didn't have much tread left on the inside edge.  Rick had a close look at the tyres and decided that we would need to purchase four new ones right away.  He made some phone calls and it looked like we would need to stay at Agnes Water until Monday as it looked like we would probably be able to have new tyres fitted in Bundaberg on Tuesday. Once that was organised we had a bit of a drive around to get our bearings and found a seafood shop where we bought some prawns for lunch and some fresh Atlantic Salmon for dinner.  Later in the day we walked on the beach to cool ourselves down a bit.

On Sunday morning we thought we would go down to the beach early for a swim.  When we got there we were shocked to see the brown water and greenish/yellow froth and slime everywhere.  We were informed it was coral spawn and advised to swim much further down the beach where the water was clearer.  We walked a long way down the beach in the burning hot sand but decided the water there was still too yucky to swim in.  We decided not to walk back over the hot sand, so we headed over the dunes and walked back through the small township of Agnes Water.  Once we cooled down again we went for a drive to the nearby settlement of 1770 Beach, driving past some of the new housing and resort developments along the way.  We drove up to the 1770 Lookout which looks down over Bustard Bay ... so named by Captain James Cook after shooting and eating a very tasty bird that looked very much like a Bustard.

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the calm waters of Bustard Bay and then walked the boardwalk along the foreshore.  Once again, we then headed back to the van for a relaxing afternoon.

The beach in front of the Agnes Water Caravan Park

Yucky coloured water

Disgusting coral spawn foam at the water's edge

It looked like uncooked meringue

Looking back towards the caravan park

Some of the scenery from the 1770 Lookout

Another view from the Lookout

The dark patches in the water is coral spawn

Mon, 24th to Thurs, 27th October - Calliope River

We had a pleasant stay at Emu Park, but we left on Monday and drove 30kms through Rockhampton and a further 100kms on to a free camp at Calliope (pronounced Cal-i-o-pee) River.  Calliope River is located about 25kms inland from Gladstone.  There were still warnings this far south and inland about crocodiles.  It was a beautiful day and we leisurely set up camp.  More travellers arrived during the afternoon and we ended up with a motorhome in front of us ... it was the motorhome that Rick helped out of the sand bog back at Carmila Beach.

On the Tuesday morning the motorhome in front of us moved to the other side of the river as they felt there would be less mosquitos over there ... fortunately we hadn't had a problem with them ourselves.  After brekky we walked across the closed bridge over the river to the Calliope Historical Village and spent a couple of hours wandering around.  We had lunch there before heading back to the van for a quiet afternoon of reading.  I fished for a while later in the afternoon with no luck.  We had been advised not to eat anything we caught anyway as there is a disease called Red Spot in a lot of the fish around the Gladstone area.

On Wednesday (day 250 of our trip) we drove a short distance (6kms) into the township of Calliope ... we didn't realise how close it was and how big it was.  We found the toilet dump point easily and drove around for a bit of a look.  We left Calliope and headed 25kms into Gladstone to see what was there.  Gladstone is a large 'go-ahead' town and very industrial.  We had a look around at the Marina which is the departure point for Heron and outer reef islands and then drove to the Auckland Hill Lookout.  Gladstone's major export is coal, but includes Calcite, scrap metal, Magnesia, Grain, Containers and general cargo.  Calcite is a high quality limestone which when crushed is a pure white product.  It is stockpiled ready to ship to Geelong, Victoria where it is used as a filter in plastics, paper glossing and toothpaste. We looked around for somewhere nice to have lunch on the waterfront, however we didn't find anything enticing so we settled for a shopping centre hot-dog.  We shopped (again) and then headed back to van on the river.  On the way back we spotted a rather quirky letterbox and couldn't resist taking a photo.  I fished for a while on our return and managed to land a nice 30cm Bream.  Sadly, it appeared that he had the dreaded 'Red-Spot' disease, so he was quickly sent to Fish Heaven.  Very soon after that I landed a larger Cat Fish ... a bit of fun for the afternoon. Thursday was spent very quietly ... just reading and relaxing in the sun.

The view of the Calliope River from our van

Looking back toward our van from the other side of the river

The closed bridge across the river to the Historical Village

Water rushing down toward the ocean

The Historical Village run totally by volunteers

There were four of these cute little guys in one of the historical buildings

Panorama of the Gladstone wharf area showing a heap of Calcite in the foreground

Ned's guarding the mail in the letterbox

Thurs, 20th to Sun, 23rd October - Emu Park

Thursday was Mum's birthday, so we gave her a call as we were driving out of Carmila Beach.  Phone reception wasn't good so we made it a quick one. We drove about 200kms to Yeppoon where we did our 'never-ending' food shopping.  We then continued on a further 30kms to Emu Park which is a quieter little township located on the beach.  We checked into the caravan park just as it started raining and spent the afternoon catching up with some chores.  We had a lovely site ... just a grassy park area between the back of our van and the beach.

Friday was another overcast and cool day.  We drove back into Yeppoon via Rosslyn Bay which is where cruises depart for Great Keppel Island.  We spent quite a bit of time with the local JP having some documents signed before visiting the Telstra shop.  My LG phone had decided to start switching itself off at random times, so it was time to update.  We took on a new iPhone 4S, hoping that we would be able to figure out how to use it, haha!!  After lunch, we headed back to the park and Rick spent the afternoon washing our very dirty vehicle.  Saturday was overcast again, although a bit warmer.  Rick washed the van and I went for a walk to the nearby shopping centre to have a look.  We spent a quiet afternoon watching the V8 car races.  When the races finished, we went for a bit of a drive around to look at the sights.  We discovered that Emu Park is a bit bigger than we first thought.

On Sunday morning I learned from the lady cleaning the amenities that some kids had come into the park during the night and stolen a lot of things - mainly grog and cigarettes.  They also pinched a ball of wool from one van and ran around the park wrapping it around everything they could.  The lady in the van next to us disturbed them trying to take one of her little children's trikes from their annexe.  We were lucky not to lose anything and we didn't hear anything during the night.  Once again, Rick sat and watched the car races for most of Sunday afternoon while I spent some time learning how to use the iPhone.  When the races finished, we went for another short drive around.  On a hill not very far from the park is what they call the 'Singing Ship'.  It is in honour of Captain Cook who discovered Keppel Bay in May, 1770.  The 'ship' features several tubes which sing with the movement of the wind through them.

Our site with the park and beach in the background

Looking down over part of Emu Park from a new estate

The 'Singing Ship'

View across to the islands from the 'Singing Ship'

Tues, 18th to Wed, 19th October - Carmila Beach

Tuesday was overcast and quite a bit cooler.  We drove 40kms to McKay and drove around looking for a suitable caravan park.  The parks were all full and didn't seem very nice, so after looking at three different ones we decided to keep going.  McKay appeared to be a very busy and 'go-ahead' place.  On the southern side of the town we stopped at a caravan accessory shop and purchased two more LED reading light globes.  LEDs use much less power than normal globes which is important when you are relying on your batteries.

We continued on, looking for a nice place to have some lunch.  No such luck ... the best we could find was a small shopping centre in a place called Salina.  We ordered hot dogs from a lady in her mid sixties who had no idea on how to make them.  It soon became evident that she was heating the hot dog frankfurts in a lovely yellow 1 litre ice cream tub!!  We explained nicely to her that it wasn't the best thing to do and she looked quite amazed.  Oh well, the hotdogs weren't bad after all.

We had our lunch and continued on to a free camp at Carmila Beach.  By the time we arrived it was windy and quite wet and only 22 degrees.  We managed to find a spot overlooking the water that wasn't too sandy and spent a couple of hours playing games while the rain eased up.  A short time later a smallish Winnebago pulled in not far from us and became bogged in the sand.  Rick found some small iron sheets and helped free the older fellow and his wife who then parked behind us.  We all settled down and not long after a small campervan became bogged in exactly the same spot as the Winnebaga.  This time the older fellow from the Winnebago also helped Rick to rescue the young couple of backpackers.

It remained windy all night, but we slept well and woke on Wednesday to another overcast and windy day.  We spent all day reading and playing games as our fuel consumption is horrendous when towing in the wind.  We figured we would wait out the awful weather.  

The tide out at Carmila Beach

Our camp site with the ocean in the background

Mon,17th October - Seaforth

We left Bowen behind and headed towards Airlie Beach ... a place we both wanted to visit. We were back into cane country and followed one of the big cane hauling trucks for a while. We arrived at Airlie Beach and were immediately caught in a major traffic jam.  There were roadworks and 'stop/go' people on the main road leading into Airlie Beach.  We ended up driving through the town and back out again as it looked way too busy and 'touristy' for our liking.  You can usually tell pretty quickly whether a town will be easy to get around in with a big van and whether you will enjoy the atmosphere.  We were glad we didn't try to stay as we heard the next day that a huge cruise liner with 2000 people on board was due to dock there.

We drove another 50ks or so in the intermittent rain to a place called St Helens Beach.  We investigated the Council van park there and decided that it wasn't very nice.  We continued to Seaforth, roughly 40kms north of McKay.  We checked out the Council van park on the beach there and it was much nicer, offering water and grassy areas as well as clean and tidy amenities.  We stayed hooked up to the vehicle as we were only going to spend one night here.  A bit later the wind blew up and became very unpleasant.  As we were located under a couple of big gum trees, we decided to move to another area in the park in case a dead limb came down on top of us.  We hadn't been there very long and the heavy rain started.  We were in a lower area of the park and the water came about 4" up the wheels of the vehicles, before easing off again ... thank goodness! 

We got talking to the caretaker of the park who explained the enclosure on the beach was for swimming.  He told a story of a couple of enterprising young fellows who cut a hole in the side of the enclosure and replaced it with a gate that they could open and close.  During high tide they would burley the inside of the enclosure and leave the gate open.  Later they would swim out and close the gate and wait for the tide to go out so they could collect whatever fish were silly enough to swim in after the burley.  Apparently it wasn't long though before the guys were caught and fined for their efforts.

Cane hauling truck with cane mill in the distance

Looking down onto the Airlie Beach Marina while waiting in the traffic jam

Our camp at Seaforth (note the high water mark on the yellow wheel chock)

A lone fisherman on the beach

The swimming enclosure

 

Sat, 15th to Sun, 16th October - Bowen

We drove about 100kms from Funny Dunny to Bowen, another quite large town and booked into a Big 4 park right on the beachfront for two nights.  While setting up Mr(s) Wrecker managed to break the small safety catch on the shower screen.  Luckily for her, Mr Wrecker was able to restore it just like new after purchasing a new catch.

We drove around a bit to get our bearings and look at a couple of beaches, then bought ourselves a kilo of prawns for lunch.  It was really windy and extremely hot, so we didn't venture out a great deal and Rick had a swim in the pool.  Besides, everything closed up at midday.

You may remember that Bowen was the location where the movie 'Australia' was filmed.  There isn't anything left on the site that was set up to resemble Darwin.

On Sunday it was awfully hot and humid again, but at least the wind had died down a bit.  There were markets on the parkland next door to the van park, so we went and had a look.  We didn't stay long as it was way too hot.

After lunch we went for another drive and ended up at Flagstaff Hill lookout.  We left there and went out to the Visitors Centre, but found there wasn't really a great deal to do around Bowen.  We decided to give the local museum a miss as we've seen so many recently.

Our tight little site at the Queens Beach Big 4 Park

Horseshoe Bay is one of the nicest beaches we have seen so far in Queensland

Looking down onto Bowen from Flagstaff Hill

Looking in the other direction toward some of the islands in the area

Fri, 14th October - Funny Dunny

We left Charters Towers on Friday and took a longer and more scenic route back to Townsville via the Herveys Range Development Road.  We didn't stay in Townsville this time, but continued on down the coast.

We drove into Ayr and caught up with grocery shopping and also bought a new camp chair and small table.  A but further south of Ayr we turned off the highway for 15kms to head toward the coast and into a $5/night camp called 'Funny Dunny'.  We're not sure where the name came from as the dunny wasn't very funny at all ... in fact it was 'orrible.  Fortunately, we have our own on board.  At least it was a bit cooler than at Charters Towers, but still quite muggy all the same.  We walked the short distance to the beach and found it was a bit disappointing, as a lot of the beaches in Queensland have been.  We returned to the van and played a few games.

Fires on the hills just south of Townsville

Our camsite at 'Funny Dunny'

Looking down the beach

Wed 12th to Thurs 14th October - Charters Towers

On Wednesday we travelled 130kms to Charters Towers.  We would need to return to Townsville before heading south again but felt that the visit to Charters Towers would make the back-track worthwhile.  It was a 38 degree day when we arrived so we set up quickly and turned the air-conditioner on as soon as possible.

Charters Towers is an old gold mining town with a current population of 9,000.  In its heyday it had 30,000 people, 11 crushing mills, 65 hotels and one of the very first regional Stock Exchanges in Australia.  The peak goldrush era ended in 1900 and had totally finished by the end of WWII.

Once we were set up and had cooled down a bit, we went for a drive to the Towers Hill lookout.  Due to many fires around the area, visibility was poor, but we could make out the main township in the distance.  There are some 30 odd WWII bunkers located around Towers Hill that were used for storing fuel, etc.

We left the lookout and headed for the main street (Gill Street).  There are beautiful old buildings all along Gill street.  The original Post Office was built within 6 months of gold being discovered by an Aboriginal horse boy named Jupiter, in December 1871.  The current building was established in 1892, with the clock tower being erected in 1898.  Target has taken over one of the old buildings that has a walkway between the front of the shop and its totally separate glass display cabinets. Between these cabinets and the street is the main footpath.  Sadly, Target doesn't seem to make use of these display cabinets and their elaborate shelving. Charters Towers had its own stock exchange that opened in 1890 and it had three calls a day during the peak goldrush era.  It was originally built as the Royal Arcade in 1888 and today houses shops and a museum.

On Thursday (after a very good night's sleep) we toured the Venus Gold Battery which is the largest surviving battery relic in Australia and oldest surviving battery in Queensland.  Constructed in 1872, it was a public or custom mill in the heyday and became a State Battery in 1919 to provide ore crushing facilities for small miners long after other mills had closed.  It ceased commercial operations in 1973 after a century of service. When we went back inside the Battery, we were greeted with two showers of water on which a movie was shown.  After lunch we drove out to the Burdekin Weir which is the town's water supply.  The Burdekin River is the 4th largest in Australia by volume flow.  The water is pumped from the weir to the reservoir on Towers Hill.  We then went back to the van and the comfort of the air conditioner as it was another 38 degree day.

The view of Charters Towers from the Towers Hill Lookout.

A couple of the bunkers on the drive back down from the lookout

The Post Office building

The front of the building Target has taken over

The Charters Towers Stock Exchange building

Looking down the main street (Gill Street)

The Venus Gold Battery

The weighbridge in the foreground and the mill at rear

Buckets for moving ore up to the next level

Note the heavy belts

The rear of the battery showing the original chimney and Rick talking to our Tour Guide

Water dripping from two tubes with a movie being projected onto the droplets

This was where the gold was melted down and assayed

Burdekin Weir

Take note of the flood level markers

Looking down the Burdekin River (note the lean on the trees)