Mackay to Mission Beach

 

Mon 14 June – We left the Caves Showgrounds and drove north on the A1 (Pacific Highway) for 180kms. A fire truck speed passed us and we came to a big semi-trailer which had rolled with a huge bridge beam as its load. We must have just got thru before they closed the road. We camped at Clairview Beach, the first time we had been at the coast for some time. We got a non-powered site looking out onto the beach. It was very humid and had a tropical Fiji feel. We sat under the awning in the rain until it eventually stopped, and we walked the beach until a clap of thunder sent us back to “Andy”. The storm set in and it rained hard in the night.

Tues 15 June – A cloudy steamy morning and we continued on to Mackay driving thru the centre of the town, over the Pioneer River, and on to our camp. We had a great swim and a sit in the sun at the camp pool. First swim this trip! Val’s togs were deemed to be less than adequate! A warm evening.

Wed 16 June – We rode the bikes along a cycleway back across the river and into the CBD. There was a large mall where we bought new togs for Val, new bath towels (old ones are slogged out), and Val got a hair cut at Just Cuts. Back for a late lunch and the rain settled in again. Watched people setting up awnings in the rain.

Thurs 17 June – Heavy rain in the night and drizzling for our 150km drive to the Whitsundays. We shopped at Proserpine before heading to the coast at Airlie Beach where we had booked a camp for 4 nights. The camp was set in lush tropical gardens and palm trees. Our site was small. This camp is the closest to the centre of Airlie Beach about 3 kms further on. We set up in the rain, but it soon cleared, and we walked along a pathway towards the town. We will be able to bike all he way on a path/cycleway. This camp has a great swimming pool where we tested out Val’s new togs. Very good! Drinks outside.

Fri 18 June – The camp is full as it is a public holiday here. A beautiful warm (26C) morning so we biked all around Airlie Beach. We stayed here with Lynne and Gary about 19 years ago. The place has changed completely, and we could not even work out where we stayed then. Back for lunch and spent the afternoon around and in the pool.

Sat 19 June – Much cooler in the night and a cool wind blowing in the morning. In the afternoon we walked away from Airlie Beach to Cannonvale beach. Back to our pool for a couple of swims and a read. Very uncomfortable loungers! Jerseys on and inside by 5:15pm. This cool weather is forecast for tomorrow also.

Sun 20 June – Back on our bikes and a ride into Airlie Beach town. We walked the main street with its many touristy shops, bars and restaurants. We eventually settled on an Italian restaurant where we sat outside and had a beautiful pizza and a glass on rose. Back to our camp pool for our last swim.

Mon 21 June – We left Airlie Beach and drove thru sugar cane farms 70 kms to our next camp at Bowen. This camp is separated from the beach by a golf course. A lot of the campers are up from the south for the winter, many of them golfers. A nice camp! We walked across the fairway with our chairs and sat in the sun on Queens Beach. The tide was out but the water felt warm.

Tues 22 June – We rode into the town which is smaller and older than we thought it would be. It was also very quiet. Back at our camp the neighbours informed us it was show day here and a holiday. We seem to be following the shows north! We decided a dip in the camp pool[VM1]  would be good but it was also shut. (chemical imbalance). We were assured that there were no crocs in the sea at this beach so we went for a very quick dip. No one else seems to swim here. The water was warm, however. There were fireworks at the show at night which woke up all the birds in the trees.

Wed 23 June  - We left the camp and shopped before driving to Horseshoe Bay. This is the swimming and snorkelling beach at Bowen evidently, with many in the water. We had a great swim. There is a camp at the beach, possibly a better choice for us in future. Back on the Pacific Highway for a 100km drive towards Townsville. We stopped for the night at the Home Hill Showgrounds where there were a large number of caravans and RVs.

Thurs 24 June – It rained in the night. We left the Showgrounds and it started to rain again as we bypassed Townsville and headed north again on the Pacific Highway. Our camp for the night was at Crystal Creek. A very quiet camp in garden settings. We had a swim in the pool and in the evening, we booked our flight home from Townsville on 3 August. (Jacinda willing!!)

Fri 25 June – We drove north thru Cardwell and Tully before turning off to Mission Beach, where we will stay for 5 nights at a nice camp just over the road from the beach. In the afternoon we took our chairs down to the beach for a swim in the sea and a read. The tide was low, but the water is warm. We watched sky drivers landing on the beach. Back to the camp for a swim in the pool. All great! The camp is filling up as school holidays have started.

Sat 26 June – Walked down to the small village with its shops, bars, and restaurants. Quite unsophisticated. It had a Pacific Island/Bali feel. The weather forecast is not great for the next few days. It was still warm however, and we had a swim in the sea and back to the pool and a read.

Sun 27 June – It is now very hot at night. Sheets only! We changed sites as our old site faced south where the rain will come from. Not hard to do with a camper! There was a big market in the park over the road. We wandered around but markets here are the same as in NZ. Some nice craft stuff (not selling), cheap plastic shit, (selling well) and food (selling well). We bought a pawpaw. In the afternoon we walked along the beach for about 3kms and ended up back in the pool. In the evening everyone, mostly wearing maroon shirts cleared out to the pubs to watch the State of Origin NRL.

Mon 28 June – A beautiful day (so much for the forecast!) Back to the beach for a swim but, as the sea was rough, we opted for the pool. Nice to be back in the sun. We went to a restaurant for a pizza but they had run out, so went to the Mission Beach Tavern for a burger and steak sandwich which was very nice.

Tues 29 June – The promised rain set in in the evening and it has rained most of the day. We used this time inside to publish this blog.   

 

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 [VM1]p

Brisbane to Rockhampton

 Thurs 3 June = We left Nobby’s Beach on the Gold Coast and shopped and bought LPG before driving to the M1 at Nerang and followed this to Beenleigh where we turned inland thru Logan Village to a free camping area at Tully Memorial Park. It had started to rain, and we spent the afternoon inside.

Fri 4 June – A beautiful morning for a very short drive to Carolyn and Gary Carruthers home where we parked up on their front lawn. In the early evening we all (Carolyn,Gary, Jess, Hannah and us) piled into Carolyn’s 7 seater car and drove down to  the north side of the Brisbane River to an area called ‘Eat Street’. It turned out to be a huge street food market with hundreds of stalls selling food from around the world. The stalls form alleyways where there were many stages with acts and music. The whole thing was covered, beautifully lit and decorated. We meet Gary’s brother Sean (Auckland) and his sister Nicola and her two adult children there and enjoyed a great night eating (dumplings and paella) and drinking. The wine came in huge buckets!! A great night!

Sat 5 June – A full day planned! Hannah drove Gary and us down the Beaudesert Rd to her riding school where we dropped her off and Gary took us on a tiki tour of the new rural suburbs that are springing up, before returning to the riding school to watch Hannah jump her horse around an arena.

Back home for a quick lunch and change, then after dropping Gary off in town, it was on to Kangaroo Point to watch Jess play premier reserve football. A nil all draw.

We were then to meet up with Gary, Nicola, Sean and some neighbours (Kelli and Mark) who had gone into town earlier and made a head start on a pub crawl around South Bank area. It was to celebrate Sean’s last day before heading home to Auckland. We had some parking issues but eventually we all met up at a Mexican Restaurant for drinks and an early dinner.

 Our next stop was a roof top bar with fantastic views of the city lights. We were going to bus home, but Val offered to drive 7 of us home in Carolyn’s car. A great effort considering the slightly confusing directions coming from all angles!!

Sun 6 June – Gary delivered croissants to “Andy” for our breakfast. We left the Carruthers and drove across Brisbane, via the Gateway Bridge, and headed north on the M1 stopping for lunch before arriving at Judy and Frank McAlister’s home in West Caloundra. It was great to catch up with them and see their new camper van. We decided to stay at home for the night and had good old fish and chips with a few wines and liqueurs.

Mon 7 June – We had breakfast outside on their patio and sat and chatted before saying goodbye and driving a short distance to Jill and Bob Rice’s home. We had a great catch up and reminisced on old camping trips. All our old friends over here are looking great! We drove the short distance to Alexandra Heads where we had booked a camp for two nights. It was a short walk down to the beach.

Tues 8 June – My birthday! We had to shift sites which turned into a bit of a shit, fight as the site we were meant to go to was still occupied until 11:00am. Val spent some time booking camps up north. There are lots of old folks (not us of course!) on the road all heading to the warm north and camps are filling fast. We managed to get sites in all the areas we wanted. We have noticed that the prices have gone up a lot since we were last on the east coast. In the afternoon we biked from Alexandra Heads south along the cycleways to the Mooloolaba Spit. A great ride. On the way back Val shouted me an ice-cream for my birthday! We decided that we had been out all weekend so will go out for a meal later on.

Wed 9 June – We woke to rain on the roof, and it rained and drizzled most of our drive north thru Noosa and around Lake Cootharaba to Boreen Point where we camped in a council camp on the shores of the lake. Another two-day booking. In the afternoon, the sun came out, but it is much colder, around 16C. They are even forecasting snow on the Queensland southern mountains. There is a small holiday town here and we walked most of it.

Thurs 10 June – Chilly last night and the heater on this morning again. We took our chairs down to the lakeside and sat in the sun reading. Walked up to the historical old pub for a beautiful lunch and a couple of glasses of wine. I had mullet and Val had a pumpkin and pork pie. We shared a fantastic sticky date pudding. Classy food in a beautiful setting.

Fri 11 June – Drove out to the M1, thru Gympie where we shopped, and headed inland via some dodgy roads including a couple of sections of “blacktop” (single lane asphalt with gravel either side) to the Burnett Highway. The term highway here is any asphalt road going for some distance. Some of the trip was fairly rough! We will follow this road to Rockhampton about 480kms. We have spent some time on the coast between Gympie and Rockhampton so this road was all new country. A nice drive thru rolling cattle country with crops in the irrigated valleys. Our overnight stop was at a heritage railway camp site in in Gayndah. No power and it was chilly in the night.

Sat 12 June – Up for an 8:30am guided tour of two railway carriages (a club car and a dining car) that used to run on the Brisbane to Cairns trip. To say the guide was long winded would be an understatement!! Back on the Burnett Highway for a 245km run to Biloela where we stayed at a Historical Museum. It was a great camp surprisingly full. Our $15 camp fee included entry to the museum with many old items including cars, tractors, household items, and electronics. Sad as they were mostly from our youth. Must really be getting old!!! We had drinks outside watching a beautiful sunset.

Sun 13 June – Another 150kms on the Burnett Highway before joining the A1 and skirting around Rockhampton. We have spent some time in “Rocky” on a previous trip. The next bit of the A1 is all new to us, however. We stopped for the night at a showground about 25kms north of Rocky, a great spot under gum trees and wattles. We gave “Andy” a good internal clean.

Christchurch to the Gold Coast 2021

 

Tues 18 May – Glen drove us to the airport for our 2:50pm flight to Sydney. The plane was only half full, all wearing masks. Into the train to Central Station and a very short walk to a hotel we had stayed in before. We dropped our stuff in our room and set off to a Telstra Shop to activate our phone. As we had not been here since December 2019 our sim card had to be changed and a new number issued. It takes up to 24 hours for this all to happen! Takeaways for dinner.

Wed 19 May – Back to the train station for the 8:18am train to Lithgow on the western side of the Blue Mountains. Our camper is stored at Wallerawang about 14kms from Lithgow. It was a slow trip stopping at every stop in the Blue Mountains. At Katoomba we were off loaded into a bus as the track is still being repaired after the forest fires. We caught a taxi for the last bit of our trip to the storage yard arriving at 12:00. The camper seemed to be all intact but dirty and covered in spider webs. Inside, all was great with no unexpected guests (snakes, mice, or spiders). Unfortunately, the truck battery was flat. So much for the mini solar panel I installed in 2019. Not unexpected, however. Jumpering up the house batteries did not help. As our cellphone was not working we were a bit stuck. A man arrived to sort some stuff and we borrowed his heavier jumper leads. Still no go! We even tried his battery. Very kindly, Chris our new best friend, offered to take me back to Lithgow where I bought a new battery at Repco. Back to the camper, in with the battery and it started first try! Val meanwhile while had packed away all our stuff. We left “Andy’s” home for the last 18 months and headed back to a camp in Lithgow via a Supermarket, for food for dinner and breakfast and a tyre place to inflate the tyres. The temperatures are much the same at CHCH as we are still in the mountains. Power and heating are required! A large whiskey and bed.

Thurs 20 May – A good nights sleep before heading off to do a large Supermarket shop. Our cellphone is still not activated so we went to a Telstra Shop where they told us there was a problem at their end which is being worked on. We called into a carwash and gave “Andy” a well-deserved wash. Lithgow is an old coal mining town (est 1850) with some very cute miners’ cottages remaining.

We left Lithgow and drove back up into the Blue Mountains to Katoomba and booked into a camp with wifi, our only means of communication! It was a nice sunny day, so we sat outside for lunch and then fixed a few minor problems. This camp is very close to most of the lookouts including the Three Sisters, so we did a short walk before dinner.

Fri 21 May – We plan to stay here three nights as there is some great walking and hiking. We walked to the Scenic World who run the Skyway, Gondola, and train into the valley.

Our plan was to walk around the cliff track, passed the Three Sisters, to Echo Point and down the Giant Stairway, along the valley and back up on the scenic train. All possible according to the staff. Walking back to our camp a wet fog rolled in, not forecast. We postponed our trip until tomorrow and settled for a walk into the town in the drizzle. The shopping area is bigger than we thought it would be.

Sat 22 May – The day dawned cool fine and sunny. Our cellphone came right in the night thank goodness. Val did laundry and I replaced the tube in one of the bikes. We set off for our hike along the cliff track, passed Echo Point and the views of the Three Sisters. We left the tourists and climbed down the Giant Staircase into the Jamison Valley. The Staircase is a combination of steep rocky steps and metal ladders. Incredibly steep but with a handrail most of the way. We then followed a track along the valley. We were going to eat lunch in the valley but it was cool and in shade, so we continued on to the scenic railway which follows a 52 degree slope back out of the valley. At the top we sat and had our lunch before a short walk back to our camp. Total distance walked was 8kms. We had done this same hike 20 years ago with Norma and Noel! Relaxed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.

Sun 23 May – We left Katoomba and followed the Great Western Highway out of the Blue Mountains turning off at Springwood just short of Penrith and drove thru some outer suburbs of Sydney and into farmland passing the towns Richmond and Windsor. We headed on to Wisemans Ferry, a small town on the banks of the Hawkesbury River. The river splits here and there are two ferries crossing both branches. Our camp was right on the river with some great views. We off loaded the bikes and rode back into the town for an ice-cream. A lovely sunset!!

Mon 24 May – A short drive to the ferry and a rough, bumpy road following the river before heading north in a loop to Gosford. I know this is not the direct route from Katoomba to Gosford, but it dodged most of Sydney and let us see the Hawkesbury River, a vital link to inland NSW in the early days.

Our camp at Gosford was in the Greyhound Track, a nice grassy site. The temperatures are much warmer now we are out of the mountains.

Tues 25 May – We left the Dog Track and drove thru the centre of Gosford and onto the Central Coast Road. There are a series of large lakes to the west and the Pacific Ocean beaches to the east. The road follows a very narrow strip of land between the two.

We crossed the Entrance Bridge and stopped at Norah Heads for a walk along the beach with views of the lighthouse.

Our camp was at Budgewoi Beach. After lunch we walked to the beach where a huge surf was pounding in. Nice temperature around 22C.

Wed 26 May – Just a coffee before driving to Cave Beach where we had arranged to meet Kevin (Val’s cousin) and Suzanne Jelley for brunch. We enjoyed a catch up with them. They had been on a road trip and had come down the Hunter Valley and were on their way home to Sydney. We carried on for a few kms to Blacksmiths Beach with Lake Macquarie on one side and the beach on the other. Another short walk to a beautiful beach with a big surf. At night we watched a Blood Moon (not very spectacular) and then a Luna eclipse.

Thurs 27 May - We are quite close to Newcastle, so we shopped at an outer suburb then crossed the Hunter River and camped at Stockton Beach.

Newcastle is a port city situated on the mouth of the Hunter River. Our camp is on the north side of the river and we off loaded our bikes, rode to a ferry, crossed the harbour, and explored the city and beaches. There was a great bike track around the headland. Unfortunately, they are working on this track, so we had to take to the roads for a steep ride up to the ANZAC memorial and down into the main city streets ending up back on the river. A great ride!! Back on the ferry to our camp.

Fri 28 May – We have been listening with increasing concern of the Covid 19 outbreak in Victoria and decided to make a run for the Queensland border just in case they decided to close it. We have travelled most of this trip before, so we drove 400kms up the M1. Not a great hardship as the road is two lanes in each direction so we can tootle along at our 90kms and everyone can pass us. We stopped for the night at a camp at Emerald Beach, north of Coffs Harbour. We walked down to the small beach where the surf is pounding in. These surf conditions are forecasted for the next few days.

Sat 29 May – Back on the road for a 300km drive over the border into Queensland. Surprisingly, to me, there were no checks at the border, and we continued to a camp at Nobby’s Beach halfway between Coolangatta and Surfers Paradise. We have booked here for 5 nights and have a great sunny site on a hill at the back of the camp. It was a short walk passed some local shops to the beach.

Sun 30 May – Breakfast outside for the first time. I did a couple of jobs to “Andy” and after lunch we walked south on a walkway and then back along the beach. The morning was lovely but dark clouds in the afternoon.

Mon 31 May – Breakfast outside again. Hopefully, this will be the norm from now on! Biked north on a great cycleway passed Broad Beach and on to Surfers Paradise. Locked up the bikes and went for a walk. Not much seems to have changed over the years!!

The old Surf Regency where we stayed with Lynne and Gary is still there. We went on a detour inland to Bunnings on the way home. The ride was 22kms. Another great ride. After lunch I tackled the bonnet of “Andy” which had developed some large rust spots in the last 17 months, sanding, masking, and painting with spray cans. A slight improvement!! We phoned Carolyn and Gary (Brisbane) and will visit them in the weekend.

Tues 1 June – I finished the bonnet which now looks OK. In the afternoon we biked south to Tallebudgera Beach stopping at Burleigh Heads to watch the surfers tackle the giant waves. Most of this ride was on dedicated cycleways. The weather is warming up and today was very sunny and around 23C. Back at Nobby’s Beach we called into the Surf Club for a wine overlooking the beach. We phoned Judy and Frank McAlister (Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast) and will visit them next Monday.

Wed 2 June – Another warm morning. Val did a huge laundry and I cleaned the floors, defrosted the fridge and cut and polished the new bonnet paintwork. It does not look too bad! This is our last day on the Cold Coast, so we walked along the beach towards Broad Beach for 2 ½ kms. Very pleasant.