Home Sweet Home

03/07/13 - Broadwater Stopover Touris Park

 

We were lucky to arrived to Gold Cost after all the crazy weather. We were even able to go for a walk on the Surfers Paradise beach.

 

 

 

 

 

Lidia was happy to find the Miami beach but it was nothing special.

 

 

We stopped for a lunch and this was our view. The whole Surface Paradise looked like city in the clouds/ the flying city.

 

And after more driving along the Gold Cost  just like that we were in NSW!

04/07/13 - Kempsey Showgrounds

 

 

It was another sunny day so we stopped at the Emerald Beach and went for a walk  on the Costal Walk (well just a little part of it).

There were some "local" kangaroos sunbathing on hills and Lidia collected some more shells.   

 

After that we went to see the Big Banana and had a little wonder around Coffs Harbour

 

 

 

 

05/07/13 - Home Sweet Home

 

It's nice to be home and it's nice to be able to cuddle our puppies again.

 

 

Brisbane

 

Pomona Showground - 30/06/13

 

We were on our way to Hervey Bay when the weather start getting worst. As the town has a lot of outside activities to offer we went just for a quick drive/walk around the shore.

 

The lady in the information centre told us the on this day Maryborough town is having a big parade for Mary Poppins so we decided to check this out. The reason why they have this parade is that the author of Mary Poppins, P.L.Travers was born in Maryborough QLD. The funny thing is she left this town when she was 9mths old.

The parade was fun and even the weather was not to bad so we spent some time just walking around the town. We decided to have a wood-fired pizza for lunch and the waiting was so long that Lidia went to get a German sausage as a pre-lunch.

 

 

Carbrook Caravan Park (Brisbane) 01/07/13 - 02/07/13

When we get to Noosa Heads we were lucky cos the sun was out after all night of raining. We went for a nice long walk in the National Park which is by the shore. We didn't spot any dolphins but just plenty of  surfers. 

 

 

After than we drove down on the Sunshine Cost road but unfortunately it was raining and we couldn't enjoy the place as much as we should. We didn't see so much rain in months.

The next morning it was cloudy but no more rain, which was good as we went to explore Brisbane. We thought that it would be easier to get to Brisbane by public transport. It was easier but quite expansive as well, $9.50 pp one way on the bus!! As the bus fare was valid for 2hrs and cover any other public transport we decided to get on the ferry and see Brisbane from the river. It was a quite a pleasant trip. After than we went for a little walk around the town and the famous South Bank, where they have a "London" eye and the town beach.

Apple Creek

27/06/13 - 28/06/13 Agnes Water - The Bradley Wolf Breave Heart Retreat

 

 

We finally hit Rockhampton, and visited the (free) zoo in the Botanic Gardens.  The wild birds joined us at the table for lunch and ate our pie crusts.

 

The wombats were rolling around like dogs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rockhampton is known as the beef capital of Australia, so we thought we should sample the beef.  We got some bone in rib fillets (viking steaks) and some american ribs.  I do have to say that they were nice, but not super.  We know where to go for better ones..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lidia found this place a little out of town but cheap, nice and the owners were very friendly, and we even had our own guard dog.  She was pating this dog, playing with it every chance she had.  In the morning it came to wake us up.

 

We arrived late afternoon the first night, so decided to stay 2 nights, just to spend the entire next day tripping around.

 

 

 

Next day, we went into Agnes Water, and drove into the town called "1770" (was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770, and somehow this is what the towns name still is).  Really just a bunch of nice beaches and walks.  We took a 4wd track along the beach and visited some rocks and camping areas which were really nice, but too cold for swimming.  After then we went into Eurimbula National Park which was a waste of time.

 29/06/13- Apple Creek Creek Rest Area

We drove to Bundaberg and did a tour of the rum distillery there.  Went to the ginger beer barrel aswell, but we didn't do the tour there - instead we just took a 6 pack of samplers with us.

A bit more driving took us to a free camp, which had a nice freindly bunch of people, and we shared a camp fire and some travel stories

Yeppoon

24/06/13 St Lawrence

 A lot of driving but nothing exiting to report. The free camping area was quite nice, big and busy. We could even have a hot shower ($1.00 per 3min).

 

25/06/13 - Yeppoon

On the way to Rockhampton we saw some funny signs. Our favourite was : "Still a long way to go kids".

We decided to visit Yeppoon and this was a first city where we had to call more than 2 or 3 caravanning places before we could find a place to stay. We really wanted to camp at the Byfield National Park but they have some problems with computer and couldn't tell us if there are any free spots or not. So we book a place in Yeppoon and went for a drive to the NP. We drove to the Water Park Creek and  after than to the Little Five Rock Beach .

 

 

The first part  of the road to the beach was easy but after than we had to let our tyres down and  4WD the rest of the trip.

 

 

 

 

But it was worth it. It was a lovely little beach.

 

We found some interesting patterns on the sand made by crabs and sand-worms, little waterfalls and even wetland

 

 

 

 

Graham spotted some free oysters on the rocks and had a little snack. He took a picture of it in case we had to go to the hospital and show them what he had.

 

26/06/13 - Yeppoon

 

As we had no time left yesterday to see any of local beaches in Yeppoon and around, we decided to stay for one more day. There are couple of nice lookouts and walks around the town. As you can see you can enjoy the view from the lookout from different position.

One of the beach was made of those tiny shells....

We went for a drive around Emu Park to see the Singing Ship  which was built in honour of Captain Cook and his visit to the region in the 1770.

 

We had a cravings for pizza from yesterday so we went to Eagle Boys and got one for lunch. Pizza and beer on the beach, oh yeah!

 

In the afternoon we went for one more walk on the beach not to far from where we are staying and came across some different parrots.

 Graham was trying to find some more free oysters but instead we found a green turtle stacked in the shallow rock pool. It didn't look happy or comfortable in this pool so Graham rescued it by moving it back to the ocean.

 

Graham the turtle hero!

 

Eungella National Park

20/6/2013 Paluma National Park

 

We stopped at Frosty Mango, for a morning smoothie, then drove for a while longer into Big Chrystal creek in the Paluma national park.  We dropped of the caravan, then headed into the national park, on roads that caravans were not allowed to be taken.  The caravan could easily get there, its just another instance of conservative measures.. Anyway, the rainforestwas nice to walk through, we had lunch at the dam then tried to spot some platypus - unsuccessfully.

The twisty road and bridges were built in the 1930s during the depression.  The men were paid 2 Bob per day.  The rocks were cut from the local mountains, using hand drills and explosives, and laid in place by hand.  The rainforest was cleared using picks and shovels for the road construction.

 

21/6/2013 Funny Dunny

 

We headed south from Paluma into Townsville.  Took a walk through the city and along the Strand. We then drove for the rest of the day.  We were going to stop at a free camp in Home Hill, but when we got there is was packed. It wasn't that nice anyway - really just parking in a back street, so we drove a bit further to Funny Dunny.  The toilet is a little unusual, but nothing outrageous. Somehow we missed taking a photo.  This appears to be a favourite fishing place for locals.

 

 

 

22/6/2013 Eungella National Park

 

We stopped into Bowen on the was south, but it was a bit windy and cold(ish) that made swimming there not so appealing.  We were told that Eungella National Park is one that we shouldn't miss, so we headed for there.  Its a little out of the way, but we decided to head there.  We found a nice shady site at Pioneer Valley Showgrounds, where powered sites were just $20.  It also made a central location to set up base camp, and avoided extra driving with the van.

 

We went for a drive to Finch Hatton Gorge, and the scenery was amazing.  Even the sugar cane looked good, and the seed heads looked so soft and fluffy.

 

 

When we arrived, we walked along the rainforest tracks to the "Wheel of Fire" waterfalls, which were not quite up to show, but still had some pretty waterfalls along the way.

 

 

We stayed out until dark trying to find a platypus, but there were none to be seen.  Some people showed as were they saw one that afternoon, but was long gone.

 



23/6/2013 Eungella National Park (day 2)

We ran out of time to visit all of the places, so decided to stay at the showgrounds another night (its a perfect place to call base camp).  We had a really lazy morning.  Lidia did some washing and I did some stuff.  We had lunch, then left for our platypus hunt.

Last time, we ran out of energy as it was getting dark, so with torches (and my shooting spotlight) loaded, we were set.  We planned just to take a look around during the day, and go hunting for them in the night.  We found some amazing lookouts.


Lidia thought she would try a Tarzan swing, only moments later the whole vine came crashing down, followed about 10 seconds later by a number of tree branches, then later still, a pile of leaves and stuff... In Australia, we learnt not to swing before testing weight by age 10 - Its still funny though

We had some amazing walks through the rainforest again, with awesome trees, and things you just don't see normally.

 

 

So now down to business.. We found the spot.  It even had a sign

We watched ....

 

And watched

 

 

And we were successful.  A total count of 4 different ones (possible 5).  They were coming to the surface and floating around for a few seconds, then disappearing into the water.  The water wasn't so clear, so you could only see them down about 1 meter under but we watched them in a couple of pools for about 1 hour. Photos were difficult in the low light, but Graham nailed one..