2011 Trip: North from Maroochydore

About one day into our 10 days or so at Maroochy Palms CP it started to rain, and didn't stop. We took our van to Bushtracker on Monday 22nd and returned to a cabin in the Caravan Park. Rain, rain, rain.

During our 4 days in the cabin, trying to avoid cabin fever, we went to the movies and saw Red Dog. This is about a red cloud kelpie that became legendary in the town of Dampier in north west Western Australia in the '70s. It was OK. Robyn used to have a red cloud kelpie so, at the end, the tears were flowing and the tissues were scrunching.

We also drove down to HEMA Maps south of Brisbane and had our Hema Navigator updated. It now has Ezi-Ozi, a version of Ozi-Explorer that is more user friendly, and iGO, a street navigator replacing the virtually useless Route 66. I'm very impressed with iGO. Hema have installed all the Camps 6 places with a great interface. The upgrade cost a couple of dollars but it's excellent.

During this break, Ken & Lyn flew home while their van was in for a bit of warranty work. They will catch up to us in Cairns in mid-September.

Friday 26th August:
We picked our van up in between showers. All the insurance repairs were done very well. A couple of minor warranty things were attended to and I had an extra solar panel installed and a storage tube through the rear of the van.

I've ordered on of these squeezebox ladders from TXP (http://www.txp.com.au/shop/home.php  ) and it will be waiting in Cairns for us. It will fit nicely into the storage tube. It will be the 5 step version.

Heading north up the Bruce Highway we pulled into the Six Mile Creek Rest Area (QLD148 in CAW6) just south of Gympie. We had lunch here and transferred stuff back into the van from the Cruiser. We didn't want to stay overnight here so we took the road out towards Tin Can Bay to try Standown Park (QLD141 in CAW6), half way along the road. What a great spot. It's a caravan park (sort of) with power and water and a very pleasant happy hour. It was still raining, bucketing down actually, so I didn't take any photos. Standown Park specially caters to Armed Services veterans, which is great to see. I proudly recited my Service Number from my days as a Cadet Aircrew (failed) in the RAAF and parked up. Coincidentally, all my fellow members from Number 78 RAAF Pilots Course are having a reunion in Perth in September, but we will be in Cairns.

Saturday 27th August:
Continuing north through Maryborough, Childers and Bundaberg. We had a look at a couple of the rest stops west of Bundy but they were not appealing so we went on to GinGin and stayed at the Showgrounds (QLD119 in CAW6). Now showgrounds are a real mixed bag. They can be great, and GinGin Showgrounds were in excellent condition, but, perhaps paraphrasing John West's well known sales slogan will explain it best:

It's the customers that caravan parks reject, that make showgrounds the worst.

Sunday 28th August:
Northwards, ever northwards. Last year on our trip with Steve & Glenda we stayed at the Calliope River Rest Area (QLD105 in CAW6) on the north bank. This year I wanted to try the south bank. Before we left home I got the lat & long of the road entry off Google Earth and put it in our navigator. It was spot on.

It was still wet but the rain held off long enough for me to take some photos.

You can see the north bank in the background with the line of vans parked up. It's a very popular place.

This concrete causeway is the old Bruce Highway and is now closed off. We had a pleasant chat with the owners of two other Bushtrackers there and left in the morning.

Monday 29th August:
Continuing north through Rockhampton we passed several places I recognised from last year. Tonight we stayed at St Lawrence (QLD89 in CAW6). Excellent place. It was slightly waterlogged and one of the other people there told us they had 40mm last night in half an hour. This photo was taken in the afternoon.

That night I reckon we had at least another 40mm. Probably more because it bucketed down for most of the night. It was the heaviest rain we had ever experienced in the van. No leaks, fortunately.

Tuesday 30th August:
North through Mackay and Proserpine to Bowen. Last year we parked up near the fishing harbour for lunch. It was a nice spot so this time we booked into a CP for 3 nights. It was the Tropical Beach CP (http://www.tropicalbeachcaravanparkbowen.com.au/ ) and was pretty good.

They have a happy hour each afternoon and we met a lot of people who book a site there each year for 3 months. These waterfront sites are particulary sought after. The wind is at their backs and they can enjoy the view every day.

While at Bowen we drove down to Airlie Beach. Very nice, but really yuppified. We were now starting to see the damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Yasi earlier this year. More was to come. And in a shock move, Robyn declared an end to real books made of paper and we bought a Kindle at the local Woolies supermarket.

Friday 2nd September:
We drove through Home Hill and refueled at Townsville. Heading north we seeing more and more damage from Yasi. Trees down, snapped off. Debris way above the ground.

Tonight we stayed at Bushy Parker Park (QLD36 in CAW 6) at Rollingstone. A nice place. We were next to a gent who let me have a good look over his Chev Silverado, hhmmmmm.

The next day we would be passing through Cardwell, and I was begininng to dread what we would see.

2011 Trip: Longreach to the Sunshine Coast

Friday 12th August
We left Longreach after the performance at the Stockman's Hall of Fame and headed east, bouncing all the way. Through Ilfracombe and into Barcaldine.

It's entertaining driving through QLD, trying to work out how to pronounce all the place names. I'm usually wrong. I reckon all the letters of several alphabets were tipped into a hat and picked out randomly. (All in fun, I know WA is well endowed with weird names too.)

Take Barcaldine, our coffee stop this morning. I was happily pronouncing it barkle-dyne, when I learned that it is actually pronounced bar-CALL-d'n.

The best thing about Barcaldine is that the main street has FIVE pubs, one after another. Now that's a great town!!

We turned south east and headed into Lloyd Jones Weir to stay overnight (QLD Camp 346 in CAW 6).

Saturday 13th August
Continuing our bouncing way down the Landsborough Highway we had a look at Blackall and then stopped at Tambo for lunch. Here we bought a couple of Tambo Teddy Bears. http://www.tamboteddies.com.au/

One for Robyn and one for little Izaak back home. Our other 2 grandsons are a little past the teddy bear stage and we will have to rack our brains for something for them before we get home.

Continuing on the Charleville we booked into the Bailey Bar Caravan Park http://www.charlevillebaileybar.com.au/ for 2 nights. Tonight we went to the Cosmos Centre http://www.cosmoscentre.com/ which was pretty good. We looked at Saturn through a telescope. The rings were clearly visible and even a couple of its moons were too.

Sunday night we enjoyed a camp oven group meal at the caravan park which was just superb. Irish stew, mashed potato, apple crumble and custard. Yummo.

It was here, during the day, that I got an email from Wayne & Lesley Gardiner. I knew they were somewhere in QLD. Wayne said that they were going to be in Charleville on Tuesday. Tomorrow was Monday and we were heading east. That left Monday night.

So I rang Wayne and said that we intended to spend Monday night at Wallumbilla showgrounds (QLD Camp 646 in CAW 6). He said that they had planned the same place. Amazing!!

Wayne and I worked in ATC at Perth airport for 25 years or so and both left in 1994. He went to instruct at the ATC college in Melbourne and I went to the short-lived one in Brisbane. He applied for, and got, the Dick Smith shop in Albany and, with his encouragement, we applied for and got the DSE shop in Mandurah. We both sold out at similar times and they now live in Busselton.

And here we are in country QLD enjoying their company. Just incredible.

On Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes and continued eastward. Wayne & Lesley were heading west on their way home.

At Dalby we turned north east to Cooyar and camped at the Swinging Bridge Park behind the Cooyar Pub (QLD Camp 480 in CAW 6). What a nice spot.

Wednesday 17th August
We drove through Yarraman and Blackbutt to Kilcoy. The drive through the hills near Blackbutt was interesting. Apparently half the mountain had fallen away during the floods and there were huge roadworks happening. There was only a single lane and everyone either went up, or down, but not both at the same time.

Lunch was spent at Kilcoy. Robyn and I had stayed at Memorial Park a couple of times in the past but this time we continued down the hill into Caboolture. We had intended to stay at the Caboolture Showgrounds but there weren't any sites, at this stage, that had both power and water. We went over to the Caboolture Caravan park and drove in, and drove out, as quickly as we could. A ghetto, I'm sorry to say.

Ken & Lyn went back to the Showgrounds and by this time a vacancy with power and water existed so they stayed there. It's close to Spinifex where they need to get a couple of things looked at this coming week.

I rang Maroochy Palms caravan park where we have a cabin booked next week while our van is at Bushtracker. They allocated us a grass site down near the lake, almost apologising. But what a great site. Just beautiful.

Next Monday we take our van to BT and come back here to a cabin while a few repairs and modifications are made to the van.

Last night, Friday, we caught up with our friends Gordon and Narelle Hayes up at Peregian Beach and enjoyed a meal with them.

A comfortable 10 days or so in Maroochydore. Life is good.

2011 Trip: Winton and Longreach

Sunday 7th August
This morning we left Mt Isa heading through Cloncurry. After a brief coffee stop we turned right onto the Landsborough Highway. This proved to be a bitumen goat track all the way through to Dalby. What a shocker.

At Winton we camped overnight at the Long Waterhole (QLD Camp 361 in CAW 6). This was quite nice, if a little dry. It's man made and the south side was pretty full with other vans so we drove over the levy bank to the north side. Much quieter.

The next morning we re-located to the back of the North Gregory Hotel. A $10 note at registration time with the publican was handed back at the bar later that afternoon and spent on beer. How civilised.

We spent an enjoyable few hours at the Matilda Centre (http://www.matildacentre.com.au/). The history of the song, Waltzing Matilda, is interesting and the Nth Gregory Hotel played a part. So did a brass band in Victoria.

Tuesday 9th August
We drove through Longreach to set up at the Ilfracombe caravan park, 25 kms east. This park is very pleasant, not cramped and has a good Happy Hour each evening.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (the morning of our departure eastwards) we went into Longreach and visited various places including the Qantas Centre. Winton and Longreach both claim Qantas as their own and Longreach has a terrific Qantas Founders' Museum.
http://www.qfom.com.au/
It has a Boeing 747 and a 707 0n display. We went through both, and Robyn had the obligatory engine and cockpit photos taken.

One of the best things we did in Longreach was go to the LSODE, the Longreach School of Distance Education, or School of the Air (http://longreacsde.eq.edu.au/wcms/). What a fascinating tour, conducted by a staff member who obviously loves her work. This facility, one of a few around the country, provides lessons to kids who live in remote parts of QLD. It used to be done with HF radios. These are still part of a backup system but now it is primarily by computers and some very clever software.

What a group of dedicated educators. We all came away very, very impressed. Highly recommended when you visit Longreach.

We also visited the Stockman's Hall of Fame (http://www.outbackheritage.com.au/) and enjoyed a live one-man, several bullocks, show out the back. Some of his jokes were a bit corny but I am one of those people who likes corny jokes. It was a good show.

There is an authentic Cobb & Co coach available for rides and we were up on the back seat, facing backwards. It could do with a suspension upgrade, believe me.
We were taken out to the town Common where the horses were allowed a gallop. I would rather have faced forwards, I think. Then we did a trot up and down the main street of Longreach. Great advertising.

Later, on Thursday evening we went out to the Thomson River for a cruise, dinner and a bush poet recital. All pretty good.

The Cobb coach and river cruise were put on by Kinnon & Co (http://www.kinnonandco.com.au/). The Kinnon family had to diversify into tourism in order to keep the family cattle properties afloat and are doing a pretty good job. They all take part, including the kids, and provide a very entertaining day out.

The three towns we visited this week were interesting. Cloncurry is an iconic outback name but is withering on the vine a little, unfortunately. Winton was nice. Plenty of activity and things to see. Longreach was very enjoyable. A bigger place with a lot on offer for visitors.

2011 Trip: Into Queensland at Camooweal and then Mt Isa

4th August
I always feel good when we cross into Queensland. I just feel sort of at home. I reckon QLD and WA are very similar.

This afternoon we camped at Camooweal Billabong (QLD Camp 315 in CAW 6). This is on the Georgina River just on the western outskirts of Camooweal.

There was quite a bit of birdlife there, including some very graceful Brolgas.

This is a very popular free-camp site and there were plenty of vans there when we arrived. All the good spots were taken but many travellers left in the morning and, if we had been staying longer we would have moved into one of them.

As it was we drove into town and got in line at the BP servo ahead of 43, that's right 43 !!, Army vehicles all wanting diesel. There was a steady stream of army vehicles, low loaders with tanks etc, heading back to their base in Darwin from a couple of months in Townsville.

With full fuel tanks we continued eastwards.

5th August
This afternoon we entered Mt Isa. We haven't been here before. We booked into the Big 4 Argylla Tourist Park. It was nice. Here we bumped into Lyall and Trish, owners of a Spinifex van I had communicated with several months earlier and Ken & Lyn had met them at the Spinifex factory. It was a pleasant afternoon talking vans with them. We passed on greetings from Dave & Shell because I knew they would want us to.

Robyn and I drove up to a lookout and behind us was this house sitting on this flat top hill. What a view. It was for sale too.

We also drove out to Lake Moondarra. What a beautiful spot. We should have come out here for a picnic lunch. It was delightful.

There was also a very nice picnic area at the back of the lake as well.

We went on the Hard Times mine tour which was well done. This is a specially created underground mine specifically for tourists. The strange thing is some bright spark decided to ban tourists from taking cameras but they take our photo and try to sell us a paper copy for $10. Who on earth lugs around paper copies these days? Why not put the price of the tour up by $5 and allow us to take our own photos?

I wasn't expecting to enjoy Mt Isa, but we did. It's a nice place.

2011 trip: Darwin and Kakadu

28th July
We arrived in Darwin and stayed at the Big 4 Caravan Park in Howard Springs for four nights.

Darwin seems to have everything. Plenty of heavy and light industry. Shops all over the place. I went to ARB and bought a Bushranger rubbish bag that sits over one of the spare wheels on the van and went to Enzed and had the end of the hose on the air compressor changed to make it easier to use.

Both places were very helpful.

The Big 4 CP was nice. We were put down the back in an area that had larger sites. Thank goodness. The sites at the front of the park were pretty tight.

We had a Whizz-Bang behind us and I had to educate them about minimising the use of their sliding door in the middle of the night when they had to trot off to the facilities.

We went to the Mindil Markets on Thursday night. It was pretty good. We are still bemused by the number of people lining up at the beach to take photos of the sun setting over the water. It's an everyday sight for West Aussies.

Tours were mostly booked out and we had to wait until Sunday before we could get on a light aircraft and go for a flight over Kakadu. This was in a Cessna 210 and we were the only passengers.

It was a little smokey but the scenery was excellent.

This is Ranger Uranium Mine near Jabiru.

We landed at Cooinda and went on the Yellow Waters boat trip. This is a billabong on a tributary of South Alligator River. It was pretty good and we got close to a couple of salties.

 

We flew back to Darwin and arrived home late afternoon.

While Robyn and I did this flight, Ken went on a barramundi fishing trip. Lyn was going to go but backed out when she found that the boat didn't have any shelter or toilet facilities. If you had to go you were expected to hang your nether regions over the edge like everyone else. Just a bit too blokey. A completely understandable decision.

1st August

We left Darwin and drove out to Jabiru on the Arnhem Highway. Ken and Lyn had a helicopter flight booked here and saw much the same as we saw yesterday (another Robinson... yikes!!). I'm glad we did the airborne tour. The view of the surrounding countryside from the Arnhem Highway is non-existant. Just boring bushy trees.

We stayed at the caravan park at Cooinda Lodge which was nice. If you go there, go down to the new section at the back of the park. Better grass, roomy sites with power and water. Excellent.

2nd August

We rejoined the Stuart Highway at Pine Creek and headed south, through Katherine and overnighted at Bitter Springs near Mataranka. We all walked down to the thermal springs and jumped in. Beautiful warm water. Fresh water too, no bouyancy.

3rd August

Continuing south we stopped at Daly Waters for fuel. We passed through here last year on the way from Cape Crawford to Top Springs.

Tonight we stayed at Banka Banka Station (NT Camp 91 in CAW 6). I came away with mixed feelings about the place so the less said the better. 

4th August

At Three Ways Roadhouse we refueled and turned left to head east to Queensland along the Barkly Highway. We stopped and had a look at the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse but didn't need any fuel. We camped out the back last year before heading up to Cape Crawford.

At the end of a long day's drive we crossed the border into Queensland.