Tues, 15th to Wed, 16th Nov - Ballina

Leaving Somerset quite early, we drove for about 200kms through some of the most beautiful countryside to Ballina via Beaudesert and Lismore.  We left Beaudesert after re-fuelling and decided to head roughly 30kms to Rathdowney to have some lunch.  Well, somewhere along the line our Tom Tom had us turn off the main road and took us along a very narrow, winding road through the ranges.  Thanks to Tom we didn't end up going anywhere near Rathdowney so lunch didn't happen as we'd planned.  The road was quite treacherous, very hilly, single lane for a lot of the way and sprinkled with blind corners that unexpectedly dropped down onto single lane bridges.  One of these bridges had workmen on it and they had to breathe in and move their equipment to give us room to cross.

At one point we were going up a 19 degree hill for a distance of 1.3kms. By the time we reached the top we were in first gear and the poor old Navara was getting a bit hot.  We did make it OK, but it was becoming a bit worrying towards the top.  At one point Rick was thinking we might have to get a farmer to pull the van up the hill behind his tractor.  The last stretch of the road was called 'The Risk' and at the end of it, near the NSW border, there was a notice suggesting we might like to put a donation in the box to assist with upgrading the road.  The box was located on an uphill slope and there was no way we were going to stop to do that and lose our momentum.  We should have arrived at Ballina by mid afternoon, but due to the slow roads, didn't end up getting there until 5pm - we were glad to have arrived at all!!  We checked into a nice caravan park very close to the beach and had a well deserved beer and wine.

On Wednesday we decided to drive about 30kms north along the coast road to Byron Bay to have a look around. The beaches in this area are beautiful and more like what we thought we would see in Queensland.  Byron Bay was what we expected and we were glad we didn't bother trying to tow the van around there or find somewhere to stay.  We then headed inland a way to Bangalow.  The country was very pretty and lovely and green.  We couldn't get over how cheap real estate is around this area and earlier Rick had spotted a nice duplex in Tweed Heads for sale in a brochure.  We decided to drive up to Tweed Heads to have a look at it.  It backed onto an inlet but had a busy road at the front which didn't appeal to us. We headed back to Ballina where it had become very windy.  Thank goodness one of our neighbours had kindly put out awning away for us when the wind came up, so it didn't get damaged.

Move over guys ...

Beautiful countryside

Some of the scenery and roller coaster hills

Not likely ...

Our Ballina campsite

One of the beaches near Ballina

The beach close to Byron Bay town centre

An unusual tunnel on the way to Tweed Heads

Mon, 14th Nov - Somerset Dam

We left Coolum early and headed inland.  We thought we would get away from the hectic lifestyle and noise for a while.  We weren't sure where we would go but ended up driving about 120kms to a very pretty place called Somerset Dam.

Somerset Dam is a huge body of water and we had to drive around a good part of it before arriving at a $12/night camp site at the southern end. Going inland wasn't a really good idea however, as the temperature kept rising and ended up being close to 40 degrees by late in the afternoon.  We didn't have power for air conditioning and unfortunately we weren't able to get down to the dam to swim.  Some fellow campers told us it had been a similar temperature the day before and the prediction was for more hot weather on the way.  We made sure we kept as cool as possible during the afternoon and decided that we would head back toward the coast the following day.

Our campsite at Somerset Dam

Mon, 7th to Sun, 13th Nov - Coolum

On Monday we drove 100kms to a park at Noosa.  We decided we didn't like the location of the park and found Noosa to be very busy.  We continued on a bit further to Coolum and found a park right on the beach and across the road from restaurants and shops.  The beach here has nice sand and lovely clean waves so we booked in for a week. We found out pretty quickly that this park was pretty noisy during the night.  A couple of the shops across the road were being refurbished and the workmen started at 6:30am! Plus the McDonalds restaurant across the road is open 24 hours a day and it seemed that the supply trucks arrived early hours of the morning and left their motors idling for hours.

Next morning we went for a drive around Noosa Heads and Noosaville and couldn't get over how many high-rise apartments there are.  We had a nice lunch overlooking the water at Sunshine Beach, just a short distance out of Noosa and on our way back to the van.  When we got back to Coolum we drove around the hills just behind the beach area and looked at the beautiful (and very expensive) homes.  There is a lot real estate for sale, but this area is very exclusive. In the afternoon I walked the beach and Rick washed the Navara.

On Wednesday we went for a drive further south through Maroochydore and on to Caloundra.  We had a nice lunch while we were out and on our return I wandered through the shops.  Later in the day Rick had another swim while I walked along the beach.  In the evening we went out for a very enjoyable Italian meal just up the street. On Thursday we drove around the Hinterland and visited both the Ginger Factory and the Nut Factory at Yandina.  We couldn't help ourselves and bought some macadamias and had ginger scones for lunch.  Several places along the drive, we stopped at lookouts from which we could see for miles.

Friday was a quiet day.  I had a hair appointment in the morning, so Rick took the opportunity to drive to Maroochydore looking around the car dealerships.  Rick swam again in the afternoon after we had lunch at the local bakery.  In the evening we went down the street again for a nice Thai meal. Saturday was quite hot so we both had a swim in the morning.  We had a quiet afternoon while Rick watched the car races on TV.

Sunday was our family catch-up day.  We drove to Maloolaba and had an enjoyable lunch overlooking the water with close members of the family.

Noosa River

An overview of the layout of Noosa

The big pelican

Looking down over Coolum Beach and surrounds

One of the many beautiful lookouts

Boats at Maloolaba

Fri, 4th to Sun, 6th Nov - Tin Can Bay

The wind finally died down and we woke to a beautiful day ... what a shame we had programmed to leave Hervey Bay and continue south. We drove about 30kms to Maryborough and decided to have a look around this lovely town.  We went into the visitors' centre just in time to catch a one hour bus tour of the town leaving at 10am.  Maryborough has many beautiful old buildings and queenslander homes and the tour also took us past where a lot of Queensland's trains are manufactured.  We also learned on the tour about Helen Lyndon Goff who was born in Maryborough in 1899 and adopted P. L. Travers as her literary by-line.  P.L Travers was the creator of the character Mary Poppins.


After the tour we drove about another 90kms to a roadhouse about 20kms from Gympie, now owned by one of Rick's old school-mates.  From there we drove to Tin Can Bay and checked into the Top Tourist Caravan Park there.


Saturday was another sunny and warm day.  We went for a 30km drive to Inskip Point where we heard there was an excellent low-cost camping area.  Inskip Point is the closest point for catching a ferry to Fraser Island.  Being a weekend, the whole area was packed with campers and we discovered it was really far too sandy for us to risk taking in our van.  On the way back, we stopped in at Rainbow Beach and had a nice lunch at the Surf Life Saving Club.  In the afternoon we went to the boatramp back at Tin Can Bay and fished for a couple of hours.  We didn't have any luck in catching anything, but it was a nice way to spend a few hours.  In the evening Rick caught up with his school-mate again.

On Sunday morning we caught up with the grocery shopping again.  When we returned, we found the concrete slab at our site absolutely covered with duck poo!  The ducklings are very cute, especially when the whole family was having a drink from our leaking tap.  We fished again in the afternoon on Snapper Creek, but once again had to settle for spaghetti on toast for dinner.

Tin Can Bay

Our campsite at Tin Can Bay

Looking down onto Rainbow Beach from the Surf Life Saving Club

The cute duck family having a drink from our leaking tap

Wed, 2nd to Thurs, 3rd Nov - Hervey Bay

On Wednesday we drove roughly 130kms to Hervey Bay, calling into Burrum Heads for a look along the way.  We were tempted to stay at Burrum Heads but it is 33kms from Hervey Bay and we wanted to be a bit closer.  We continued on and once again we were glad to get out of the car, get off the bad roads and away from the terrible drivers.  We checked into a caravan park right on the water, with shops and restaurants just across the road.  The parks are getting expensive now ... this one was $39 a night.

We drove around the headland in the afternoon and had a look at the marina area.  In the evening we walked across the road and had a really nice Thai meal with great service.  By the time we walked back to the van the wind had come up and was quite unpleasant.

Thursday morning we woke to a sunny but still very windy morning.  Rick had to get up at about 2am to put our awning away as it was making so much noise in the wind that it was keeping us awake.  We had a quiet morning and after lunch drove a bit further down the beach front.  We came to a pier that was 850metres long.  We decided even though it was really windy we would walk to the end.  As we came close to the end we realised a young fellow was pulling in what appeared to be a decent sized fish.  By the time we got there another fellow used a gaff to help pull the fish in ... what a beauty!  The young fellow then pointed to a giant trevally caught earlier that he had attached by 'D' shackle to a piece of rope and dropped over the side to keep fresh. We took our time walking back to the shore where we had an ice cream and looked in the real estate windows.  We are finding real estate is quite inexpensive up here.

The foreshore at Hervey Bay

Our site right on the beach

Looking back to the shore from the end of the pier

That's a fish!!!

Looking down at the Giant Trevally caught earlier ... another big fish!!

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