Friday
Well we departed Albury at 0800h and hit the road. In short it was a boring painful drive made worse by some rain and incompetent drivers on the freeway between Sydney and Newcastle. Arriving at Dungog just before 1800h we spent the night enjoying the company of my father and aunty as well as a few cousins.
The road out to Dungog would have to be one of the worst roads I’ve ever travelled on. It’s got me stuffed how there hasn’t been any major fatalities out there, especially when it’s wet. I’d honestly prefer it was gravel, at least then I could trust the road rather than not have a clue what was coming next!
Saturday
The weather report was all bad news. The original plan was to set up camp just north of Coffs Harbour in the Yuragir National Park (Red Rock) however 20mm of rain put paid to that, especially with another 20mm forecast for Sunday. So we left Dungog just after 0900h and headed out towards the highway. The road was quite windy and hilly, which made it quite enjoyable.
Not quite as enjoyable at the moment is the way the old Landy is handling and braking. A couple of times now I’ve felt like I wouldn’t pull it up in time (I obviously have) but I’m most certainly going to require a rebuild on the braking system when I get to Townsville. With regards to its handling, it’s wandering a little and generally feels vague. I have parts in the car at the moment to rebuild the ball joints, replace the bushes and a new steering box. Hopefully that’ll fix that problem. Lastly it had its last tyre replacement back in 2006; that’s 5 years on a set of muddies so that’ll be a big purchase coming up.
Talking of vehicles, the Prado gave us a scare today. Coming in to the fuel station it shut down on the missus. Everytime I started it, it would stall unless I kept revs up to it. I fuelled it up and changed it over to LPG to see if it was a petrol problem, but the issue kept happening. A check of the air system showed no problems, and the battery checked out alright. The vehicle came right about 5km’s up the road, and there’s been no issue since. Mmmmmmm
Anyway we arrived in Queensland and booked into the caravan park at Biggera Waters for a couple of nights. We are now going to take a look at Australia Zoo on Monday and the plan is to spend Monday & Tuesday night on the Cooloola Coast (so bypassing Bribie Is) dependant on weather.
Good news was we got to catch up with Mitch’s sister. The kids haven’t seen her for nearly 3 years, and she hadn’t met the newest edition to our family (Ethan) so it meant for some exciting times. A few drinks were consumed whilst catching up.
No pics yet as it’s been 2 days of rain and highway driving. Hopefully the trip report will start for real from here on in.
Sunday
Awoke and crawled out of bed slowly tackling the new day. The kids were excited about all the fun they could have in the caravan park, so we booked Ben and Jess into the ‘treasure hunt’ which kicked off at 0900h. Jake stayed with me whilst I caught up on ‘admin’ and Mitch and Ethan went shopping. Didn’t see them until after 1500h…..
Ben met a new friend so they were inseperable for the day basically. I brought some lunch for the kids and I, and Jess disappeared of for the afternoon activity – painting. The boys and I had a game of mini golf before they tackled the ‘go-karts’ (pedal powered) that are available for hire.
When Mitch got back the kids and her went to the heated pool/spa – bit fancy I reckon! I managed to get across to the supermarket and get the shopping done for the rest of the trip. This was followed by dinner and sorting out the shopping etc ready for our early departure in the morning.
Talking of which, I splurged out and booked the tickets for Australia Zoo. It is a 5 hour personal tour for the whole family that kicks off at 0900h, so we’ll be leaving nice and early. This will be followed by a run along Cooloola to set up camp for the night. I just hope it all goes as good as it sounds!
Monday
We slept in! Nearly 45 minutes, so we left at 0745h instead of 0700h and it ended up with us regretting it. As per normal, when you start late you can never catch it up, and today was no different. There was a lot of roadworks between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and all of it ended up with us arriving at Australia Zoo at 1000h instead of 0900h. Oh well, not worth worrying about something you can’t change.
I had decided to surprise Mitch and the kids and splurge out on a ‘kiddies tour’. It is a little bit more expensive (read $700) but well worth every cent. Gina was our guide for the day and young Jacob made sure she earnt every cent, the poor bugger!
In short the pics will tell the story, but we had the time of our life, we really did. We had baulked at visiting a few times due to the cost, but I am really glad that we took the opportunity to visit whilst we could.
Departing just after 1500h, I couldn’t make up the time enough to catch the NPWS office before it closed – that’d be the late start coming back to bite us. So we filled up at Tewantin and caught the ferry across the river.
With the beach now closed to vehicles until the 3rd cutting, it was an easy quick run to the caravan park, where we grabbed the required permits for the night. A quick ‘airing down’ of the tyres on bth vehicles and the trailer was followed by a run up the beach to the camping area.
By the time we got there it had turned dark. Mitch dived in and out of the camping areas with the Prado and found a great spot quickly enough. With 2 vehicles there are plenty of lights to set up in the dark!
Not long after we were set up, dinner was cooked, kids fed and in bed and we relaxed by a full moon with a couple of rums. A great end to a very full day that was well worth the cost and effort!
Tuesday
We awoke to a brilliant view. I really should of taken photos, but lying in bed enjoying the sun rising over the water was just too good to spoil. All I can say is come and try it yourself; it’ll be well worth the effort.
This morning we managed to get a lot of small jobs done, and sort out the trailer and vehicles as we wanted them. Departing at 1030h the original plan was to head to Deepwater N.P and set up camp.
We travelled up the beach seeing a few nudists along the way (thankfully not all ugly – it is a nudist beach BTW?) and turned off at Freshwater. The run to the main road was slow, but in good condition.
A quick ‘pump-up’ of the tyres resulted in us hitting the bitumen roads to make up some time. We stopped at Childers to make some ham + cheese sandwiches followed by a short skip across the Bundaberg.
This was where my plans went out the window. We were going to stop at Katie’s (good friend of ours) mothers place for a cuppa. Next thing I know I’m half drunk on Bundy, dinners been cooked and the trailer is set up. How good is hospitality in Australia still with some people!
There ends another great day, with more great travels to still continue. Reality is we’re not much past half way on a great journey.
Wednesday
The three eldest kids slept inside, so it was only the little one to contend with. However that still equalled no sleep-in. I packed up the trailer quickly and devoured a hot breakfast of sausages, bacon & eggs. The hospitality we were shown was absolutely incredible!
We hit the road having to catch up a few km’s due to the shorter day yesterday. The run from Bundaberg to Rockhampton was fairly windy – we’ve been coping it since we left Cooloola and it doesn’t seem to be easing. I spent a lot of today in fourth gear to maintain 100km/h unless I was going downhill. It didn’t help fuel economy that’s for sure.
We turned of towards Yeppoon and completed the 31km’s in short time. Talk about a beautiful coastline, it is spectacular. The days have been really kind to us this trip compared to 2008 when it did nothing but rain.
A quick stop at the Information Centre and we went to check out some caravan parks with a view to stay the night. However what we found didn’t really appeal to us at all, so we headed of to the General Store at Byfield where we grabbed a permit to camp for the night.
The start of the run out was easy enough, but soon we came to a warning sign telling us to drop tyre pressures as there were sand dunes ahead. I dropped down to 20psi all round and headed off. I made the mistake of staying in high range and was caught out on the first major dune.
The dune has been cut up (most likely by people running high pressures) and it works out to be exactly on my wheel base – so the bouncing killed all of our momentum. I dropped it into low range but ended up having to resort to the rear diff lock to get out of
there. Be stuffed if a Toyota (and my missus to boot) was going to have the pleasure of recovering me!
Continuing on we found that they are using timber chained together for a lot of dunes to prevent wear and tear. It works quite well from what we observed. Arriving at Five Rocks Campground we got quite a shock. We had been advised that it was perfect for the camping trailer to spend the night, but what we found was anything but that.
The areas are bollarded off and what you are left with is ‘wooden slats’ so to speak to set up on. That really isn’t practical for a soft-floor camping trailer and nor where we going to try. So we headed on to 9 Mile Beach to find the most glorious views hidden away from the hordes at Yeppoon.
Settling on a spot called Casuarina we set up before cooking a nice quick dinner due to it being late. We were all in bed by 1930h in the middle of nowhere by ourselves. Glad the caravan park idea didn’t work out.
BTW – it’s a 2 hour detour from the Bruce Highway one way, but it’s well worth every bit of it. Great scenery ranging from ‘near rainforest’ to sand dunes and finally that spectacular beach, and it’s a little bit of a challenge as well to make it fun.
Thursday
We laid in bed and watched the sun rise over the ocean all without having to move a muscle. I could handle this more permanently, that’s for sure. Eventually the kids persuaded us to get up, so we sent them down to the beach for a play whilst we fixed breakfast.
After breakfast we did the normal ritual of packing up, checking over the vehicles and then slowly heading of. We really didn’t want to leave, but we had a few km’s to do so there wasn’t much choice. However this place is in our memories for future endeavours.
The run out was much of the same as yesterday. Fun in places and a little challenging, but the old girl pulled the trailer without an issue. The Prado was doing alright as well, and I think that Mitch is enjoying being able to drive it off-road more than she is used to (I normally drive and she takes the photos).
There is an inland route that you can take over the sand dunes, but in short I wasn’t there to play and I really didn’t want to take any risks with a few days travel still to come. Eventually we made it back out past the creek with the crocodile warning and stopped to air back up – this is becoming a ritual now – and it doesn’t actually take that long (2 compressors and 10 tyres to pump back up).
By the time we got back to the Bruce Highway it was after lunch so we really started to get a move on. Even though we joke about setting the trailer up more often in the dark than daylight, it is nice to still have a bit of light left.
We made really good time up to Carmila where we stopped for fuel. I had to put 75 litres in her today, mind you yesterday I got 77 litres in her – starting to run it a tad fine I think! Surprisingly we worked out the costs of that run in dollar terms between the two vehicles, and they are the exact same – difference being that I’m towing!
Turning of the Bruce Highway at Ilbilbie we headed towards Greenhill before turning up to Cape Palmerston. The track to the beach had a lot of ‘biggish’ potholes that required lowering the speed. We let the kids have a quick play at the beach whilst we dropped the tyre pressures (20psi for the Landy; 18psi for the trailer; and 25psi for the Prado).
The run up the beach was very much like Byfield N.P – spectacular the whole way. We’ve done really well at timing the tides so far this trip – it normally doesn’t happen that way. There were a few softer parts that you didn’t know about until you hit them.
Required some quick downshifting but it wasn’t enough to get you bogged. I wouldn’t like to try a run at high tide though.
Leaving the beach we followed the bush track through to our campsite. This track does have a few challenges and it found the Prado lacking slightly in the clearance stakes, however it wasn’t enough to stop it from getting through.
Finally arriving at the campsite (approximately 1 hour from the highway) we set up whilst there was still daylight!!!
I’m going to sound like a broken record but the coastline really is spectacular. I cooked some steak and sausages with salad for dinner and we again retired to bed at 1930h.
Friday
Mitch and Jessica went down to the beach early with the camera to try and get some sunset shots. I made myself a coffee and chatted to an ex-defence bloke for a while before getting my bum into action to pack up.
Somehow amongst all of the craziness we managed to be packed and in the vehicles by 0900h. I don’t think that’s ever happened. I did ask and yes the kids did eat breakfast ïŠ
We aired up whilst the kids had their last play on the beach and headed off to Mackay. A quick stop at the chemist (Ethan) and some KFC as a treat for the kids was followed by a quick run up to Prosperine where we turned of the Bruce Highway again.
I decided to splurge a little and booked us into the Big 4 Caravan Park at Airlie Beach. It was $90 for the night but I can safely say now whilst I’m typing this that it was well worth it. We arrived just after 1400h and set up camp. I still can’t believe we made a camp and set up that early. Something must be wrong today…..
The kids and I had a swim in the pool and they also spent a lot of time at the jumping pillow and playground. Actually I haven’t really seen the kids since we got here. The showers here are fantastic, not at all like the usual garbage you get now days – the water here is actually hot and covers your whole body.
I went to the bottle’o for some bundy and then cooked a spaghetti bolognaise in the camp kitchen area they’ve got set up here. It’s got 4 BBQ plates, a 4 burner gas cooktop, TV, cappacino machine, kettle, toaster etc – one of the best I’ve seen that’s for sure.
Popping the kids to bed I sat down to download some photos, sort finance and type this report. At the moment the rest of the family is asleep and it’s only 2100h – and I’m still enjoying a rum.
Tomorrow it’s the short jaunt to Townsville and then in to my new job I suppose. Short of anything exciting happening then there won’t be much added to this report.
Cheers
Chris
P.S – there wasn’t. The highway run was completed easily enough and we arrived at Townsville just before 1500h.