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Published: July 15th 2013
Tom & Barb's - Toogoom
we spent a bit of time on that verandah!Fraser Coast and Wide Bay Region > Northern Rivers (NSW)…..
……Or, this Blog could also be called 'Christmas 2012 with Good Friends'…
Childers (see last Blog also for more on this town and region) is a wonderful town with lots to see and do, a lively, energetic town full of seasonal workers and offering a great lifestyle in a great spot. We were heading back to the Troll and Trakkie to continue on when we spotted some friends from Kyneton (Vic) having a coffee at the Bakery and stopped to have lunch with them. They had come up for the weekend to look for somewhere to live! They liked the area so much they were going to move up here, it would definitely be warmer in winter than Kyneton!
Our next stop was with Tom & Barb at Toogoom, near Hervey Bay. Turning off at Torbanlea we did not have far to go before pulling into our friends driveway. Tom and Barb were the friends from Tumbling Waters (near Darwin) that we travelled to the Tiwi Islands and Kakadu with, so we had not seen them for a few months and had a lot to catch up on
Toogoom - campsite
...well actually Tom & Barb's front yard! and hey…it is only a couple of weeks to the Festive Season so we had to celebrate that as well! We had a wonderful time with Tom & Barb, fabulous hosts and Tom is dynamite on the BBQ cooking up feasts to feed a cast of thousands, mind you Tom can eat for about ten people! Over the couple of weeks we were camped in their front yard we all got back into the tourist mode and did quite a few trips around the area including Burrum Heads, and all the beach spots between there and Hervey Bay. With Christmas coming on it was getting very busy, in fact packed, all the parks were full of families and we started to think about how we would manage travelling on South down the coast, an area that traditionally is booked out years in advance over the summer school holidays.
After a great ‘party time’ with Tom & Barb we had to move on, we had a ‘date’ with Kiwi Ben in Maroochydore. As Tom & Barb set off for Christmas with family down south, we headed across to Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach, gateway to Fraser Island. As we
went through Maryborough we called into Johnno’s Camper Trailers to see if we could catch up with Craig McGown, (of Johnno’s Camper Trailer ‘fame’ and more recently involved in 4WD Touring Magazine), unfortunately he was off on one of his jaunts for the magazine so we missed him. We had been to Fraser Island on previous trips and knew this area relatively well, but it was great to visit again and see how it had changed. Although the Xmas crowds were swelling these small towns to bursting, and there appeared to have been significant growth in retirees moving to the area, it is still a great piece of coast with some fantastic beaches and camping spots, high rise has not killed this area…yet!
Next was Gympie and then across to Noosa Heads to follow the coast road down to Maroochydore. Gympie is an amazing town built on the sides of steep hills with the main street in a valley, beautiful old heritage wooden buildings line many of these steep streets. Home to the Gympie Muster, a huge country music festival, which will have to be put on our ‘to do list’, this town has a propensity to flood during
Barb & Trish
....great times! the wet season (and it did again in Jan 2013) which must put a lot of stress on the shop owners…but they stay there! Gympie is a great town to explore, just make sure you drop the van off somewhere before you take to the streets of the CBD. Next was Noosa…Hmmm… once (many years ago) a fabulous seaside holiday spot with great surf. Today, (my opinion only), overcrowded, overpriced, teeming with people, and dare I say it, the most northern suburb of Brisbane! Yes, it is an experience, but not one we are fond of, particularly when you consider where we have come from on this trip. Noosa makes Cairns look laid back and uncrowded…now that is a statement!
We headed on to Maroochydore where we were to catch up with Kiwi Ben for a few days which we were looking forward to. I remember this area well from years gone by and each time we come back it is bigger, this time much bigger I felt, with high rise buildings now meeting the beaches. It is still a magnificent coastline with some amazing beaches. With direct access into Brisbane CBD via the freeways it really is just
Noosa....
...Hmm few too many people for our liking, but a very popular place which we can understand. part of Greater Brisbane with housing estates all the way down the coast. Maroochydore was bustling, it is a big city now, and caters for everyone in a holiday atmosphere. Plenty to see and do here for a family holiday by the beach but for intrepid ‘outback/remote’ travellers such as ourselves we might as well have been back on the Costa Del Sol with the masses, but, we were here to meet up with an old friend (emphasis on ‘old’ !). We had a fantastic time with Ben, catching up on travelling stories as well as past times together, with a bottle (or two) of Mount Gay Rum never far away (Trish was very tolerant! She likes him).
All too soon it was time for us to make tracks to Grafton for Christmas with some very good friends, Steve & Libby. Travelling as close to the coast as possible once we cleared Brisbane and the southern suburbs of the Gold Coast we went to Kingscliff and on down through Cabarita beach, Hastings Point and Pottsville. Yes, you could argue that these beaches are just part of Coolangatta, but they still retain some semblance of the original beachside villages that
Kiwi Ben, in a familiar pose, guitar in hand.
Trish will tell you (if you ask) that this was our 3rd bottle of rum for the day! No way, not possible! they were and the beaches are magnificent. We have entered the Northern Rivers Region of NSW now and this is probably one of our favourite parts of Australia, the countryside is spectacular, with a dramatic backdrop of the Great Divide covered in subtropical vegetation, the amazing rivers that flow from the mountains to the sea, the Clarence and Macleay Rivers in particular, and then there are the beaches! In my humble opinion some of the best beaches in Australia lie along this stretch of coastline. Unfortunately a lot of other people recognise this too, so during holiday periods most of these beachside towns are bursting. We had a couple of nights just out of Byron Bay (to avoid the masses) just for the experience; it has not changed a lot, just become busier and probably more expensive, but the beaches are still magical. It is a town with an identity crisis, in one corner, surfers, backpackers, grog and drugs and 1 star dwellings (still worth a small fortune I might add), and in the other, wealthy elitist professional people, wealthy overseas visitors including film stars, wealthy business people and multi-million dollar properties…there is not a lot of middle ground here
which makes for an interesting streetscape.
We are now on the cusp of the festive season and it was time to move on to Steve & Libby’s at Seelands just out of Grafton and right on the Clarence River, a truly beautiful property. First job after setting up was go to town and get all the provisions we needed for Christmas, ham, fresh seafood, wine, Bundy…all the important stuff! We had a wonderful Christmas with great company and too much food but it was all good. Although I knew the area quite well Steve & Libby took us to some fabulous places I had not been to before, Red Rock and Wooli stand out as amazing gems on the coast which would be great to visit and stay at outside of the holiday season. Whilst here we took the opportunity to visit an old friend from Cootamundra days who now lives at Yamba, a fabulous spot popular with retirees and holiday makers alike, that sits at the mouth of the Clarence, with more great beaches. This is a good town that bustles during the holiday season and has its own ‘life’ outside of tourism; Yamba is also a good
Steve & Mike
..nice pic mate, I like it! place to get fresh prawns and fish from the trawlers based in the Clarence. Maclean, a town 15 klm upstream and just off the Pacific Highway is another town to pick up great fresh seafood and a town worthy of a stop in its own right. A history that centres on the River and ‘once’ port facility, some great old buildings and a picturesque main shopping street with a couple of good coffee shops, make this a great little town!
We spent two fantastic weeks with Steve & Libby, we talked, laughed, drank, ate and visited some fabulous places in and around Grafton, but a Son and soon to be new Daughter in Law Penny, were calling so we packed up and headed back to Victoria to look for our new base and next stage in our life.
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Matt
non-member comment
Good to see the blogs still coming!
Good fun reading this one, would've been fun meeting up with all those people. Where is 'Kiwi Bin' now?