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.