Advertisement
Published: November 2nd 2013
Sunday 27
th A short drive today from Airlie Beach of about 80 miles to Cape Hillsborough National Park and our site is right on the beach. We park our camper on the edge of the site next to the beach.
The beach is another fantastic stretch of sand and there’s not a soul on it.
As we go to check out the site’s facilities we bump into two kangaroos sun bathing next to the shower block! Christine’s greatest hopes for our stay have come true. She snaps away with our camera.
We decide to go for a walk along the coastal path of about 3 K and climb Twin Beach lookout within the National Park and then come back down onto the beach. We have been told that the walk back along the beach is only possible up to 2 hours before high tide. We have plenty of time to complete the walk and are shocked to find our route nearly cut off. We have to climb over huge rocks as the tide rushes in and then paddle the final bit.
We decide to go for our late afternoon swim and whilst sunbathing a group of
wallabies start grazing on the grass adjoining the pool ! Christine can’t take enough photos !
Later we get talking to an Aussie couple. He shows me his new 4 x 4 and tells me all about it. I nod at the appropriate times, he’s not to know I know nothing about engines ! He’s so impressed with my knowledge that he gives me a beer ! The first thing any Australian has given us in 4 weeks.
Late at night we go over to the shower block and are frighten by a animal running around, it’s a bandicoot.
Monday 28
th We wake at 5.30 to see the kangaroos and wallabies come onto the beach, but are too late ! They’ve been and gone. So we go back to bed until 8.
We decide to have a lazy morning and take a stroll along the empty beach and walk across the causeway at low tide to the nearby island. It gives us a good view of our beach but there’s not much else to see.
We spend the rest of the morning around the pool.
After lunch we take a short drive out
to Haliday Bay and have a look around. It’s fairy nice but spoilt a by a steel post and net swimming area to protect against jelly fish.
Then it’s back to the pool.
Late evening at the camp kitchen we see the bandicoot again and he comes over and poses for a photo. They’re very soft and furry.
Tuesday 29th
A drive of about 70 miles today to Eungella National Park. The last 3 miles were straight up and with hair pin bends ! really scary. It was made worse when the idiot in the car in front was going too slowly and we nearly stalled. We are pleased to reach the top !
We park the van and go for a walk along the river as the place is special for sighting of platypus. There are none to be seen.
We go back to the van and have lunch and then go for a longer walk through the forest and alongside the river. The forest walk is really nice and comes out at a clearing by the river. We sit quietly and after 10 mins or so we see one ! We sit
for about 30 minutes watching the little creature swim back and forth catching crustations.
We decide afterwards to drive on and by late afternoon and 50 miles we stop for the night in Sarina, a one horse town ! possibly not even one.
We have a walk along main street, if you can call it that, and see a pub advertising an evening meal at a good price. Christine won't go in as there's not a woman to be seen. Pubs it would appear are still men only in Oz.
Wednesday 30th
After stocking up with supplies I set the satnav and realise I'm in for a long drive when the satnav says the first turning is 178 miles down the road !
The drive is through open open fields of sugar cane and cattle country, not much to see and pretty boring. There's a very strong wind and the camper has suspension like a mattress and bounces all over the road. The wind sways us from side to side like jelly ! It's a very unpleasant drive. If that wasn't enough we see the remains of lots of kangeroos on the road side where
they have jumped out and tried to head butt the traffic !
We arrive at Keppel Bay by late afternoon and book in on a nice site across the road from the beach. The site has palm trees all around the pitches. It's a lovely stretch of shoreline and looks out at Great Keppel Island. The wind whips up the sea into fierce waves.
One of the staff tells us of a nearby restaurant that does good food and we trot off to have a look, thinking we might treat ourselves after such a boring day. We find that it closes at 7.30 !
We go back and have our daily swim, but I'm not getting any better at it !
Thursday 31st
First a short drive to Emu Park. It's a small town and there are no Emus but there is a park. It's dedicated to Captain Cook, who named Keppel Bay, and there's a concrete sculpture called the Singing Ship and it whistles with the wind and makes quite a nice melodious sound. Being concrete it looks better from a distance !
Our next stop is to be Mount Archer but although
we see it, we drive passed as somehow we're on the wrong road. Never mind !
We arrive at our destination for the day Rockhampton about half an later. We roll up at our chosen site, take a look and drive out again. Not impressed.
We decide on a site beside the Fitzroy river which is much nicer and only 15 mins walk from the city centre. There are signs on the site warning of river crocodiles.
We walk into the city and along the river frontage are many original pioneer buildings from the 1890's. They're in fairly good condition and have plaques documenting the owners through the ages. The Criterion Hotel has many very old photos of past owners and events.
We then hop on a bus to take us to the Botanical Gardens. It's an exciting ride as I'm sure the drivers are running a competition to see who can throw most passengers off their seats at roundabouts. We grimly hold tight and spoil his score !
The Gardens are well laid out and have some nice trees etc but it's not large park. Attached is a small zoo and one of the
Koalas persuades Christine to pose with him for a souvenier photo.
The ride back is more sedate with a mature driver. Clearly he can't cope with the G forces.
It's Halloween tonight and we've decided to treat ourselves to a meal out. We can't hang about though as the restaurant closes at 9 ! Rockhampton is the beef capital of Queensland and steak is on the menu everywhere. I have a lovely steak and Christine sticks to the lamb but it's all fast service and we're out within the hour! So much for our night out.
Friday 1st
A short drive this morning to Dreamtime, an aboriginal cultural centre and we get a guided tour by an aboriginal. He tells us personal stories and explains the meaning of paintings and stories. It's all quite interesting for a while but he does go on ! We then have more stories from a female guide, it all gets a bit much.
He then takes us out for a boomarang demonstration but he's not that good. He gives us all a go just to prove how difficult it is ! None of us are any better.
Finally
he tells us about the didgeridoo and then plays it. Boy can he make it sing ! Luckily he doesn't ask us to have a go.
We then take a short drive up the road to the Heritage Museum. It's full of replica buildings through the ages. They're not that old starting in 1890 but are very interesting. One very small timber cottage had no electric, water or gas and was lived in until 2009.
We stop off at a drive through bottle shop, like an off licence, to top up our wine supply. We buy a 5 L box and because it was over 4 L we have to sign a register for it. Unlike the chap behind who buys 48 cans of beer and just leaves ! We just can't understand their licencing laws here.
Saturday 2nd
This morning a short drive of about 30 miles to Mount Morgan. A township who's fame is that it built up around the richest gold mine in the world 130 years ago. We take a tour which is run by a retired chap and his daughter. He drives the mini bus and she gives the commentary. We
aren't expecting much !
He drives around the township stopping outside of most of the old buildings and she gives us a brief history of them. We then go up to the town dam and finally onto the old mine. We go inside the main building and drive around the site seeing the remains of equipment.
The mine had originally been traditionally tunneled and then open cast mining took over. It was a huge hole and over 1000 feet deep.They give us lots of figures about extraction and it was incredible. This had been a BIG mine.
We then go up to see the hole now it has been filled with water and again the size is just huge and this is tiny compared to the mining that is now going on in Killgaree in Western Australia.
Unfortunately part of the tour has now been cancelled as the caves containing dinosaur foot prints have been closed due to Health & Safety reasons.
The tour was tremendous and the team couldn't have been more knowledgeable. Well worth seeing.
After a quick bite of lunch we drive round to the Railway Museum. It's a real culture
day !
The museum is quite interesting and explains all about the rack and pinion train built to service the mine.
We leave early afternoon for a 90 mile drive to our stop for the night. It's a bit hairy as the wind's really strong and we sway about quite a bit. With much relief we arrive at Lake Awoonga. Our site is at the waters edge and although a bit scruffy it's fine. It attracts hunting and fishing types and some have come straight out of the film Deliverance ! It'll be fine, but I'm keeping out of the woods !
We take a walk along the lake edge and watch the sunset. It's a really lovely location.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.216s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 17; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0815s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
M & K
non-member comment
Piccies
Love the pictures of the laid back wallabies and koalas, they are clearly very chilled out - will some of it rub off on Steve we wonder!