Sept/Oct/Nov 2021 - Queensland

This trip was originally supposed to be a visit to the Flinders Ranges via the Darling river, but COVID-19 had other plans for us and we stayed in Queensland just to be sure we could get home again! 

 Still, it was a good trip and we enjoyed it. 

 

Sunday 26 September  

Left home and headed to Al’s place in Gunalda. 

 The traffic was awful heading north and south between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. We’re on the brakes the whole way and stopped or crawling at times. 

 Still, once we got there we had a pleasant afternoon and evening with dinner at the pub. 

 Steve & Elaine we’re passing by and joined us for a couple of drinks in the arvo. We’ll be seeing them tomorrow! 

  

Monday 27 September  

 

Left Al’s, after a walk into town to stretch the legs, at about 10 o’clock and joined the mad rush of traffic heading north. It wasn’t ridiculously busy but everyone wants to go fast so you get dragged along. 

 We stopped in Tiaro to visit the butcher to buy a few things. There were some interesting items for sale there - small goods in particular. We spent too much, but we'll be well fed :) 

 We got to Steve & Elaine’s early arvo and set up. They will be leaving their house in Hervey Bay soon to head out onto the road so this will be our last visit.  

 

Tuesday 28 September  

 Al drove up and joined us and we went to a quiz night at a local pub. We came 13th out of 21 

 Embarrassing, but we enjoyed the evening anyway. 

 

Wednesday 29 September  

 Al toddled off home and we visited Burrum Heads. 

 It has certainly expanded since we were last here, but it's still not an exciting destination. Still, the river frontage is pretty and we enjoyed a delicious fish'n'chip lunch. 

 These pictures are of the river frontage. 

  

 

 Thursday 30 September  

 Left Hervey Bay and travelled the 70km to Childers Nature Park. 

 Dry and dusty and just a bit sad 😞  

 We unhitched and drove to Apple Tree Creek where we shared a plate of Reuben sliders (absolutely gorgeous) with a drink at Mollydooker’s Canadian restaurant. 

 We drove back to Childers and walked the town, calling into the memorial for the young people who lost their lives in the fire in 2000.  

 The town facilities are much better than they used to be, and we'll have the use of these next time we stay here in their free camp. 

 

There are quite a few pieces of art work dotted around the town.

Some of them are a little hard to understand!

 

And then you have the odd Aussie humour at work here and there - great name for a dentist! 

  

Friday 1 October  

 Rain and we decided that the Nature Camp was no place to be at any time, but on a rainy day in particular so we drove to the free camp in Childers and parked up for the day and tonight. 

 A walk around the town was good but my bloody gout is playing up now so it’s not comfortable and we just had a quiet evening of it after a couple of beers in the RSL. 

 Saturday 2 October  

 We headed off to Woodgate Beach for three nights. 

 It's a beautiful spot and we always enjoy a visit. 

 No visit here would be complete without a visit to the pub so that's where we spent a little time. Probably not a good thing for the gout, but what the heck?

 

 

Sunday 3 October  

 We took a drive to Wilson’s Point and had a look around this little community on the banks of the river. A pretty place in which to live - we liked it. 

 On the way back we visited  the Burrum Point campsite - a 12 klm round trip of deep, soft sand. We stayed here around 15 years ago and it hasn't changed much.

 

  

The Bowlo  was our venue of choice for a couple of beers and a nice little spot it is too.  We wanted to get something to eat but the bowlo wasn't going to do it for us until later so we headed back to the caravan park. 

 Fish & chips from the local cafe was our meal of choice and very nice it was too! 

 Monday 4 October  

 Washing and other chores were the order of the day today. Boring, but it has to be done, but we also headed off to the Woodgate Markets  where Karen bought some overpriced thongs and we just noodled around before heading home for a Lazy arvo 

  

Tuesday 5 October  

 Left Woodgate and headed north to a free camp at Miriam Vale. Karen had some work to do so we needed a good internet signal.

 I also called my doctor to get a repeat prescription for the gout anti-inflammatories. That went very easily and they sent me a QR code link to show the pharmacist who handed over the meds. Easy.

 I just hope it works! 

 The free camp we used is just a car park in the town itself. Simple, easy and convenient. However quite a few people drove past this to a grassed area some 100 metres further on and stopped there despite the signs prohibiting it.  I wonder if they ever get policed? 

 

 Waverley Creek was our roadside rest area stopover for the night and it’s a lovely little spot.

 

Easy parking and with good, clean toilets and a reasonable distance away from the road it worked well for us.

 

 

Thursday 7 October  

 Bowen was the next place and we arrived at the Tropical Beach caravan park. Small, neat and right on the beach. 

 It’s a cracker! 

 It was only half full, if that, and we got a great spot, almost on the waterfront, but sheltered from the breezes.

 That first afternoon we took our chairs and just sat out on the waterfront and admired the views.

 Just magic!

  

 This is Karen doing just that 😊

 

Friday 8 October  

 Not a busy day, but we scouted around the town and did some shopping etc. 

 Dinner out at the North Australian Bar & Grill and it was pretty bloody good. Great staff and a superb pizza. 

  

Saturday 9 October  

 Slow start to the day with washing to be done. We had a swim in the pool and eventually headed out to Flagstaff Hill to check out the views and then on to Horseshoe Bay to grab a bowl of fries and a beer/wine at the café there. 

 The whole day has been spectacular views and quiet roads and it’s been fantastic. 

 These are the views from Flagstaff Hill.

 

 

 

We’re leaving tomorrow to go to Townsville to catch up with Laura. 

 Can’t wait! 

 

Sunday 10 October  

 The 200kms to Townsville were easily covered and we found ourselves in a van park near the RAAF base and just 3 klms from Laura’s. 

 The van park was, unfortunately, just outside the RAAF base there so we were regularly entertained by planes and helicopters taking off and landing, but it wasn’t as noisy as we’d have expected.

 We caught up with Laura and Jeff around 2pm and stayed chatting all arvo. 

 It was really good to see her looking so happy. 

 

Monday 11 October  

 Time to do some touristy stuff while Laura and Jeff were working so we headed off to Castle Hill to see what we could see from the top.

 It’s a really nice lookout spot and a nice drive up.

  

This is the new Cowboys stadium – the pride of Townsville.

It was breezy up there!

 

 

Afterwards we headed to the Longboards bar – this is one of Laura’s favourite hangouts and it turned out to be really nice.

 We shared a lunch plate and sipped on some local brews and just chilled and chatted.

 We went back to Laura’s and caught up with her before we trundled off a couple of klms to meet up with Naomi to admire her new home. It really is a nice place and she’s furnishing it with some taste.

 We headed back to the van and later that night all four of us met up at a Korean BBQ place for dinner.

 I can’t say that I was overly impressed with the restaurant, but it was good to spend the time with Laura & Jeff.

 

Tuesday 12 October 

 A nothing-to-do day so we just cruised around Townsville checking out a few places like Otto’s markets which were so very like Parap Fine Foods back in Darwin we had flashbacks!

 We went for a walk around the river and enjoyed the views, but it was really a bit too hot for walking!

 

 

Life is precious! This tree was blown over (or pushed over in a flood) but kept on living and grew its branches straight up from its horizontal position.

 Magic stuff.

 There is a nice little platform out into the river, but it is kept nice and high to keep people away from the crocodile dangers.

  

Wednesday 13 October  

 Washing and other chores (filling water tanks etc) hit us as we are heading off tomorrow and things needed to be done.

 Once we finished them we googled “pubs near me” and realised that there weren’t any pubs near us. We didn’t want to get stuck in city traffic again (and Townsville drivers are so very aggressive!) we looked a little outside and ended up going to the Riverview pub which is out near the university.

 

It’s actually a really nice spot with some cool views out over a weir on the river and we enjoyed our visit.

 

Thursday 14 October  

 We didn’t want to bother with Cairns again so we decided to drive to Millaa Millaa instead and visit the Atherton Tablelands.

 The van park there was an older one but that just meant that the sites were separated by shrubbery and has plenty of room around them. 

 We loved it and booked in for three nights. 

 As you can see, it has lots of shade and space. 

 

As it was still early we headed out to check out the immediate area and we’re stunned (again) by the Millaa Millaa falls. It must be 15 years since we last visited and it has remained a beautiful place. 

  

Zillie Falls was just a few klms away so we called in on that one too. The viewing platform gives you a good idea of what the falls are, but we didn’t have the time or inclination to clamber down to the bottom. 

We should perhaps have visited Elinjaa falls too, but we went to the Millaa Millaa Pub instead and sat outside with a drink to discuss the day and relax. 

 Well, what else would we do?

 

Friday 15 October  

 Time for some tourist driving! So we had a list of waterfalls and decided to tick them off.

 

On the way out we had a great view of Bartle Frere, the highest mountain in Queensland.

 

Mungalli Falls was the first place we visited the next morning and what a pretty one it is to. All those threads of cascading water rolling down the rock face. Just lovely. 

 

 Henrietta Creek was next on the tour and what a pretty little place it was too.

 

 Crawfords Lookout was further down the road and it gave us a slim view of just how high we were!

 We parked up along the road and took the walk down to see another couple of waterfalls. The walk was cool and damp (rainforest stuff) and was full of wildlife noises from things we very rarely saw, but would have been small wallabies or lizards.

 The worst thing were the bloody March Flies – they just kept zooming in and trying to bite us.

 The falls though were well worth the walk.

 

Wallcher Falls was the first one we came to.

 

Tchupala Falls was the next.

 That was enough walking for the day so we visited the Mungalli Dairy and bought some cheese after sampling some of their delicious ice cream and a coffee.

 It was too early to head home so we drove the Old Palmerston Hwy to Ravenshoe. This is a very twisty little road with some beautiful views and we enjoyed the drive – especially the wind farm that we drove past which just appeared before us like magic.

 We bought a few groceries and headed home. This time via the new road!

 There was a scenic lookout that we called in at, right on the top of the escarpment ridge and it gave us a lovely view of the green wonderland that is the Tablelands.

  

 

 

Sat 16 October 

 We took our morning walk as a wander into town alongside the pretty stream.  It really is a nice sheltered walk and so peaceful.

 We had a coffee at Barista in the Mist and choked at the skin-the-tourist pricing, but the coffee was good and the ambience was great,

 Across the road was the local store and it appears to sell everything from clothes to groceries to petrol!

 

 We decided to take a drive to Malinda and Yungaburra to see what they offered and we weren’t disappointed!

 We drove straight through Malinda to get to Youngaburra and we spent a pleasant couple of hours there.

 Our first port of call was the Info Centre who gave us a couple of maps and sent us off to have a look at Lake Tinaroo and the van park. We are looking for our next place to stay, but we weren’t impressed with this spot.

 The lake is man made and the banks are bare and grassy. The van park is unsheltered and just uninspiring. It’d be OK if you like water skiing or fishing, but it didn’t do it for us.

 And so, we went to the Youngaburra Pub where we had a couple of drinks and something to eat and enjoyed the feel of the place and its Tamborine Mountain like atmosphere.

 We even visited a few shops and ended up buying some things as Xmas gifts.

 On the way home we visited Lake Eacham and the van park there. The lake is still beautiful – an old volcanic crater that is now water filled with a lovely path all the way around it. However the van park is some way off and looked more like it belonged on the set of Deliverance than anywhere we’d like to stay.

 We decided to stay in Millaa Millaa for another four nights 

 

Sun 17 October  

 Drove to Ravenshoe and ticked off another couple of waterfalls. 

 Little Millstream Falls - the walk down was a climb down in a few places but it was a stunning sight to see. A beautiful series of cascades. 

 

 The walk down was tough enough on my new knee, but we made it happily and we love the falls.

 

 

 

Big Millstream Falls - this is the widest single drop waterfall in QLD and is a pretty one to see. Not as pretty as the Little one, but very nice indeed. 

 

The walk down to it was a sealed path. Steep in places and we worked up a sweat in the hot and steamy weather climbing back up, but it was worth it. 

 In the wet season with a lot more water it would be very special. 

 We went back to Ravenshoe to a café there for a coffee and a toasted sandwich/wrap. Lovely stuff 😋 and then visited the supermarket to stock up on a couple of things. 

 

We watched the sunset from our camp site and relived the day – it was excellent.

 

Monday 18 October  

More waterfall visits today and they were all very special in their own way. 

 Malanda Falls - this one is actually the town swimming pool and it has all the straight walls and ladders to get in and out that you’d expect. What you wouldn’t expect is that one end of it is actually a waterfall that tumbles thousands of litres a second into the pool. 

 We went for a swim there and it was just bloody magic. Cool water, but not cold, and just fresh and clean. A local told me that they often have platypus there in the early mornings and late afternoons. Just a lovely spot. 

 

 It’s amazingly enjoyable to swim with a waterfall gushing thousands of litres of fresh water all the time.

 

Dinner Falls - these are in the Mt Hypipamee National Park and they are a delightful series of small falls centred around one larger one with a plunge pool that is perfect for swimming in. 

 

The walk down was steep and with lots of ready to trip you tree roots, but it was well worth the effort. A spectacularly beautiful place. 

 

 These falls are a series of smaller steps.

 

  

A little bit of concreting has been done at some time to help make the plunge pool deeper for swimming – it works!

 

 Also in the park is “The Crater” which is the remains of an old volcanic pipe. Gases build up underground from volcanic activity and end up blowing a hole to escape. The resulting crater, more like a huge tube, is spectacular indeed. From the viewing platform it is 58 metres down to the water and a further 75 metres to the bottom. 

  

The water looks very green doesn’t it?

 Halls Falls - this was in the Herberton Conservation Park and was not easy to find. A lengthy 4WD track lead is to a car park and a very rough and rocky track took us to. Gorgeous little waterfall with another lovely plunge pool to swim in. 

 Just magic, but the walk I was graded a Level 5 and is not easy! 

 

 

Wednesday 20 October  

 McKenzie Falls - a disappointment for us. The track to the falls was 6 klms of rocky and uncomfortable driving. After a couple of klms we decided it just wasn’t worth the effort and we turned back. 

 I know I’m a piker!

 Pepino Falls - this was a small set of falls found just off the old Palmerston Hwy between Millaa Millaa and Ravenshoe. The falls were pretty and the road was twisty and slow, but fun 😀 

 

 

 Souita Falls - the walk down was rough and had a zillion steps, but the falls were worth the effort. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 21 October  

Ringers Rest - The drive to Mareeba saw huge roadworks and this slowed us down, but it’s not a long way so it wasn’t too bad. 

 We reached Ringer’s Rest (Dave is actually a retired ringer) and set up. Great spot although a bit dry right now. 

 We drove into town and had a beer at the Anthill Hotel and checked out the general area. 

 It’s not immediately as appealing as the southern end of the tablelands but it has some interesting places to visit. 

 The only one I took a photo of was the curtain fig tree.

 This is a strangler fig that killed its host and was then blown over in a cyclone and ended up putting down roots in a curtain.

 

 

 

Friday 22 October

A day spent exploring the Mareeba area followed by a meal in the Anthill Hotel.

 I doubt we’ll bother returning to this area.

 

Saturday 23 October

After all the noise and general praise for Paronella Park we decided to pay it a visit. We’d never been particularly attracted by the idea of a miniature stately home build out of concrete, but so many people had said it was a highlight we thought it must have been something special.

 Rather a disappointment. 

 The story of the man and his endeavours is really interesting, but a builder he was not.

 He built everything using hand mixed concrete with old railway tracks as reinforcement.

 Well he used sand from the river and that happened to be high in silica which made the concrete porous. That resulted in rusting railway lines and everything is falling down as a result.

 That state of disrepair together with the very small scale of the work (no real criticism there as it was just one man at work) contributes to the poor result.

 Even the gardens are poorly maintained.

 

 The waterfall was nice, and he used that water to create his own hydro-electric power plant which was the very first one in QLD in the 1930s.

  

This is the view across what were the old tennis courts. They do tours daily and nightly and the night tours feature a music and light show at this point.

 That was extremely well done and we enjoyed that.

 

Does this count as a castle?

 

Part of the night tour was aet in the old ballroom. The original ballroom had walls and a roof and suspended from the ceiling was a mirror ball that he used to shine different coloured lights onto.

 Impressive ideas for the time.

 

Sunday 24 October

We left Paronella and headed off to Etty Bay on the advice of a friend, and what a beautiful place it is with the rainforest coming right down to the beach. 

 The van park is expensive and offers poor accommodation with lumpy sites and not really good toilets, but the bay itself is excellent with a swimming enclosure and beautiful, clear warm water.

 We spent time swimming and then just sitting in the shade reading and chatting and watching the water.

 Cassowaries are a big drawcard here and we were lucky enough to see quite a few of them.

 They are quite used to people and will scrounge food if it’s left out, but it’s a joy to see what looks like some sort of dinosaur throwback walking around.

  

“Who are YOU looking at?”

 

 

“Any food around here?”

 

 

 

A goanna also came to visit us – maybe a metre and a half long, it wasn’t a big one, but big enough.

 

 

 Monday 25 October  

 A day of doing nothing apart from relaxing.

 We spent time sitting in the shade on the beach, just reading and chatting and we were a little surprised when a cassowary walked past us close enough to pat.

 The photos tell the story of the day really apart from the fact that my mate Gordon Law popped down to say hello. It was really great to see him and catch up a little. Thanks buddy!

 

Here’s Cyril the cassowary on his constitutional.

 

George the goanna came back and licked my leg. When I moved he nearly pooped himself!

 

The beach at sunset – this was just 20 metres from our camp.

 

 This is the far end of the beach (only 500 metres away from our camp) and it shows the rainforest reaching the water,

  

This was the last we saw of the cassowaries.

 It’s been special.

 

Tuesday 26 October  

We were sad to leave Etty Bay, but we had promised to catch up with Laura and Jeff so off we went,

 Rollingstone, just 50km north of Townsville was our overnighter and it was a great spot to stop. Away from the road it was peaceful and nice.

 Townsville council have provided toilets and water as part of this free camp and it’s much appreciated. The camp is quite close to the Rollingstone pub too, but we didn’t visit it on this occasion.

 

Wednesday 27 October  

Townsville again and we parked on the driveway outside of Laura’s place.

 It was great to see her, and Jeff, again. They are so happy together and so full of plans for the future it just rubs off on us and makes us feel good too.

 Laura and Jeff laid on a really excellent steak and salad dinner and we talked for a couple of hours before heading off to bed.

 

Thursday 28 October  

After the general quietness, if not really remoteness, of the tablelands and Etty Bay we decided that a bit of life was going to be a good idea so we headed off to Airlie Beach and booked into a caravan park at Jubilee Pocket for a few nights.

 We set up and then decided we’d take a look at the town.

 Unsurprisingly we ended up at the pub. Great view and a great name – it’s called “The Pub”.

 

 

Friday 29 October 

After catching up on some chores we took another walk around the town and headed off to the harbour to see how the rebuilding work was going.

 

The answer is that the work progresses, but I haven’t found my photos of that!

 Still, this view of the harbour is well worth looking at!

 

Back at the van park I caught sight of a few of the bloody curlews that live there. Nice to see these things, but when they start hooting and yodelling to each other it’s damned annoying!

 

 Saturday 30 October  

Well today we took a drive out to see the best waterfall in the area. Cedar Creek Falls.

 Sadly, there was no water coming over the waterfall at all and the plunge pool was not much more than a grotty puddle.

 

Sunday 31 October  

Today is our last day here and we’d booked a tall ship sunset cruise for a couple of hours.

 It was really good and they welcomed us on board with a glass of bubbly and a cheese platter before sailing off into the bay area.

 

It was a lugger rather than a tall ship, but being powered by the wind in the sails is always a great feeling.

 The pictures are in no special sequence.

 

This was the ship – The Providence.

 

 

 

Night time and heading back to the harbour.

 All in all, this was a great day.

 

Monday 1 November  

We left Airlie and headed south to get to Seaforth, just 40km north of Mackay.

 This council camping reserve has us camped right on the back of the beach.

 Just perfect. 

 It’s an inexpensive place to camp and offers water and toilets and a great place to be.

 The drinking water is supposed to be the best in Australia. I’m not sure about that though, but it was OK. Just not as nice as the rainwater we drink back on our mountain.

 It’s a little cooler here and we drove through a bit of rain to get here, but it’s all good stuff. 

 The beach is shallow so the tide goes out along way, but the (high tide only) swimming enclosure looks good. 

 We checked out the town and the bowls club which was a surprisingly excellent little spot.

 Love the feel of this place.

 

 We took a walk up the beach and stretched our legs – nobody else around.

 

 This was the beach access from our van.

 

Tuesday 2 November  

 Today was Melbourne Cup so we headed off to the bowls club to join in the festivities.

 We’d ordered a platter of food (excellent) and placed a bet each and settled in to sip a drink and watch the race.

 Our horses fought it out at the end of the field and we won nothing, but it was a good day.

 

This is our site setup.

 

Wednesday 3 November - took a drive out to Cape Hillsborough and checked out the Nat Park camping area. We were last there maybe 15 years ago and it is still a great spot.  

It was an overcast sort of day, but it stayed dry for us. 

 Halliday Bay, a spot we visited on our way back, had an attractive van park, and the village had a very affluent feel to it, but it didn’t strike us as our sort of place.  

 Ball Bay on the other hand was a lot more homely and pleasant. The camping area was small, but comfy with a huge mango tree in the middle. We’ll remember this spot! 

 

Thursday 4 November  

Carmila Beach - we pulled off the highway at Carmila and headed to the coast. We were not expecting much as we’d stopped in Carmila some years ago and found the place to be unwelcoming and generally crap. Even the local pub was awful. 

 But the beach turned out to be a gem. It’s maybe 6km from the town and there are camping spots laid out that stretch right along the beach itself. We got a nice shady spot and set up looking out over the water. 

 And it’s a free camp – even acceptable toilets!

 The beach is shallow and the water retreats a long way out, but it is quiet and quite spectacular and we were told that it is a normal sight to see the tiger sharks hunting along the coast when the tide is in. We missed that though.

 We went for a walk along the beach and spotted a sea eagle and another hawk just hunting along the beach and there was nothing and nobody else in sight. Just beautiful.  

 

The tide is waaaay out!

 

It’s a lovely walk along an empty beach.

  

This is the sea eagle – I missed getting the hawk in the same frame.

 

Friday 5 November

The Caves. Great name and a great little place just on the northern edge of Rockhampton.

 We stayed at the Showgrounds and it was really nice. It’s cheap and offers power and water and toilets and you just find your own spot.

 We walked to the pub and enjoyed a couple of drinks. 

 

 

 

 

 Saturday 6 November

The Caves was only an overnighter so we drove on, via some dirt backroads, to Keppel Sands which is just a little south of our recent choice in the area, Emu Park, and the place is a really nice and friendly community. 

 The van park gave us the chance to do some washing and have a great walk along the foreshore. 

 

Sunday 7 November

Boring stuff still needs to be done so after a walk on the beach and breakfast in the local cafe we went shopping in Emu Park before a couple of drinks in the local pub. 

 

Monday 8 November

More transport section and our overnighter was at the free camp in Calliope and it’s the start of a rainy time.  We got an excellent spot overlooking the river and settled in.

 We had a lightning storm and lots of precipitation so we kept indoors.

 It’s relatively quiet here, compared to the volumes of people we have seen before.

 

Tuesday 9 November  

Gin Gin or Apple Tree Creek was not looking good with the heavy rain so we camped up in Childers at the free camp in town.

 It was nice to be able to walk across the road to the back door of the RSL and enjoy a couple of drinks in there again.  

 

Wednesday 10 November  

Al’s place was our home for tonight. It’s a day earlier than we expected, but the rain spoils everything we had considered and it’s nice to catch up with friends.

 Steve and Elaine are already camped there in their new caravan so we had a jolly crew. 

 

This pic is of Al’s place with our van on the left, Steve and elaine’s behind the Mazda ute and Al’s in the background.

 

Friday 12 November  

Inskip Point was supposed to be the day’s destination, but the rain was forecast to be heavy, and Al had been planning on taking a swag/tent combo and didn’t fancy setting up in the rain so we stayed on at Al’s. 

 A good idea as none of us liked the idea of setting up camp in the rain.

  

Saturday 13 November

Inskip Point today and it’s gorgeous with sunny weather beaming down on the freshly watered everything. 

 A norovirus (gastroenteritis) outbreak has emptied the place so we have very few neighbours and the beach belongs to us! 

 As you’ll see from the photos below.

 

That’s Fraser Island on the right.

  

 

Karen and I did a fair bit of walking up and down that beach – just magic with occasional schools of fish jumping out of the water as a shark ploughs through them.

  

Sunday 14 November

We didn’t really do much today apart from walking and talking.

 A good day!

 

 

 Monday 15 November

Today we decided to head into Rainbow Beach to have a walk around and an ice cream, but we ended up in the surf club for lunch.

 The views from the deck where we ate were spectacular.

 

 After lunch we walked the town again and ended up in the pub.

 This pub displays photos of cars wrecked on the rocks as they tried to drive around them and they have a scoreboard of which vehicles get wrecked each year,

 Scary!

 

 

 

Tuesday 16 November

Time to leave this beautiful place and meet up with the delightful Debbie Snare (a neighbour of ours) in her new 4WD motorhome at a farm stay near Kenilworth to camp on the banks of the Mary river. 

 What a beautiful spot to camp! 

 The place was virtually deserted so we had our pick of spots and chose a beauty.

 

Karen and I did a fair bit of walking again, mostly along the river, and it was a joy to breathe the air there and watch the occasional fish jump.

 

 

  

 

Meals and drinks were an event every afternoon and evening and we had a camp fire every night.

 In the pic above we have three beauties (from left to right they are Elaine, the stunning Karen and Debbie) and one ugly bugger in Al.

 That’s Debbie’s new motorhome in the background. 

 

Sunsets were beautiful with a little cloud like this and one evening we had an eclipse of the moon to watch.

Magic!

 

This pic shows our car and van and our position near the river.

 

 

Wednesday 17 November

Steve woke up with a very sore back and leg (sciatic nerve) so I drove him and Elaine to the local hospital before heading off to join Karen, Debbie and Al in Eumundi for the markets there.

 

Items were bought and much enjoyment had from wandering around the market.

 

For Karen and Debbie anyway – Al and I retired to the pub for a beer!

 

We drove home and I got the call to pick up Steve and Elaine from the hospital.

 

Poor bloke isn’t looking too good.

 

 

Thursday 18 November

It was looking problematical for Steve and Elaine. He was not going to be able to drive the rig and Elaine isn’t confident about doing it, so we planned a couple of options to get them sorted out and decided to stay on a little longer.

 

No hardship as this is a really nice spot.

 

We did a dump point and water refill (the tank in the back of the Pajero) run and called into the dairy to pick up some cheese and have a coffee.

 

Al joined us there and we migrated across to the pub for a drink.

 

 

Friday 19 November

We left Steve and Elaine at camp to give him time to rest and recover and the rest of us headed up to Montville to do some sightseeing, shopping and have lunch in the pub.

 

All very pleasant indeed.

 

We returned to camp to find Steve feeling better and confident he can drive, but far from recovered.

 

 

Saturday 20 November

Well Steve is still confident he can drive so I helped in the packing up and hitching process and got everything ready for him to slide into the driver’s seat and head off to Al’s for a night.

 

It’s just a short journey of an hour to get him OK with driving before they do the next 90 minutes off to Hervey Bay.

 

We set off towards home and the appalling traffic of the Brisbane and Gold Coast area. Debbie set off ahead of us and made her own way.