Entry 14 – 2023 – July – Central coastal regions Queensland.
We headed south from Townsville. Travelling past the townships of Ayr and Home Hill, where we had previously spent time exploring the local areas. Nothing extra special stood out in our memory banks for this area.
The only memorable item was the drive across the Burdekin Bridge, known locally as the “Silver Link.” Before the completion of the bridge in 1957 the Burdekin River was impassable for much of the annual wet season. It was a grand bridge constructed during times when rivets were in use. It still provided a fabulous setting driving across the bridge.
Our research came up with a location we hadn’t ventured into before. Funny Dunny Park Campground near the beach side town of Wunjunga. We were feeling fatigued after driving around 150 kilometres for the day and thought we would give Funny Dunny Park a go.
Turning off the highway there was about 14 kilometres of dirt road to the campground. The first couple of kilometres the road was very corrugated. It was horrendous and we were contemplating bailing out. Then we spotted some Brolga birds in the distance enticing us to continue on. Thankfully the corrugations abated. The road/track travelled through a large wetlands area and our eyes were tantalised by a setting with hundreds of Brolga’s feeding in the wetlands. We spotted a lone Jabiru bird and stopped to watch its movements for a while. It was prancing back and forth stirring up any morsels lying in the shallow waters. Every now and then its beak would dive into the water emerging with a delicacy.
Funny Dunny Park Campground had a nice setting with a lovely beach a sort stroll from the campground. A late afternoon walk along the beach with the tide out was quite pleasant.
Early morning provided a beautiful sunrise with the tide on its way in. There was an additional special bird sighting of a pair of sea eagles.
After a couple of days at Funny Dunny Park the midge’s impact had left us with lots of uncomfortable red spots over our bodies. It was time to move on.
About a 100-kilometres down the road was the township of Bowen. We had previously stayed at Bowen a couple of times. We had special memories of Bowen, snorkelling at Horseshoe Bay, viewing fish swimming amongst coral and the quality produce from the towns fish and chip shops.
A phone call with 4 of the 7 caravan parks located at Bowen showed they were fully booked, unable to accommodate us for 1 or 2 nights. We managed to obtain a camp site a bit out of town in a paddock next to a house called, “Bowen Base Camp.” This turned out to be a splendid choice, very beneficial with our social well-being. It was a nice, different setting. Even all the tree trunks were covered with fairy lighting helping you to navigate the grounds at night without crashing into a tree.
Another couple had arrived just prior to us. It was their third stay at this location in the last three years making it an auspicious occasion. Evening one there was a communal fire we enjoyed with eight other couples including the campground owners. It was a fabulous night with conversation easily flowing. Evening two the communal fire consisted with the above eight and two additional couples staying the night. It was a wonderful group of people providing a special atmosphere. Even the campground owners said they normally wouldn’t sit at the campfire participating in the conversations.
We found Bowen was still an enjoyable location for us. There were some grand lookouts we revisited, there were several beach side bays we loved, having a swim in a couple of them getting our salt water immersion fix. We tried snorkelling at Horseshoe Bay but unfortunately, there was a lot of silt in the water hindering our view of the ocean floor. We patronised a couple of enjoyable fish and chip shops where we obtained our seafood fix, possibly over indulging during our stay. These shops catch much of their own fish and they were well patronised by locals and visitors.
Day 3 we packed up camp ready to move on. We were a bit undecided where to next? Eventually we decided we were quite content where we were and chose to stay another night. This provided a bonus where we could spend more time in the ocean waters enjoying the setting of Bowen and another night of conversation around a camp fire.
Day 4 it was time to move on from the town of Bowen. Our target destination for the day was about 150 kilometres down the road where we set camp at fellow Bushtracker Caravan owners, Rhonda and Albert’s family sugar cane farm. We were permitted to wonder about, exploring their farm.
It was the season where they were busy planting and harvesting their sugar cane crops. Albert and Rhonda worked as a team around their farm. Our arrival coincided when Rhonda was driving the tractor, planting sugar cane. Rhonda took Steve for a loop around one of the paddocks for him to get a first-hand experience of the planting process.
Many sugar cane farms are family owned and operated. The modern-day equipment had become exceptionally expensive, most beyond the reach of family farms financial incomes. Nearly all of these farms now sub-contract out much of their work, where the use of heavy machinery is required. During our stay there was a group of sub-contractors, cutting their sugar cane, transporting it to a nearby rail loading area and depositing the cut cane into the rail transport bins. These bins were railed to the sugar cane mill for processing, mostly within 24 hours of being cut.
We had first met Rhonda and Albert in May when we attended a mini muster of Bushtracker Caravan owners at Cooktown for a week of entertaining activities. Their caravan was very new with many similarities to what we thought we would like. They were wonderful people permitting us to explore the inner sanctum of their caravan. Further investigation of their caravan continued whilst we stayed at their farm. Ironically another couple we met at the mini muster were also staying at the farm helping out with the busy period of farm life. We were permitted to view this other caravan obtaining some further ideas/thoughts for what we might like.
One day we visited the Port of Hay Point where coal was loaded onto ships for transport overseas. We counted 32 tanker ships anchored out from the port waiting to be loaded with coal. At the town of Sarina, we toured a mini sugar processing mill. Mary enjoyed tasting some of the sugar products.
We spent another day walking in the nearby town of Mackay’s historic walk and viewing some of its points of interest. Unfortunately, it was a day with the scenery shrouded by low cloud and rain.
We spent five nights at the sugar cane farm. Moving on about 50-kilometres down the road we spent a night at Finch Hatton show grounds. We visited the nearby Finch Hatton Gorge. It was an enjoyable location where we would have liked to spend more time exploring. Another location for next time we are in this area.
A further 23 kilometres up the road was one of our target locations of Eungella National Park. There was a small camp ground where we were in need to book with full payment in advance to secure a site. Leaving the town of Finch Hatton, we could see the mountain peaks of Eungella National Park shrouded in cloud. It was a wet, steep drive, with many sharp bends as we drove through the cloud covered peaks. Our tow tug needed to operate close to its peak performance towing our caravan up the steep gradient.
When we had last checked the predicted weather forecast, there was no mention of rain. It rained all the way up the mountain range, inhibiting visibility making it difficult to assess the layout of the road ahead. Our endurance levels were put to the test, at times we could barely see 100 metres ahead due to the low cloud cover. It might have been a short drive for the day but by the time we arrived at our destination we were feeling exhausted. We set camp at the Broken River camping area. It was a lovely setting, though it rained whilst we were setting camp, leaving much of the camp ground covered by a sheet of water. It was very muddy underfoot!
It had been a busy day. We had risen early and driven to Finch Hatton Gorge. Returned to Finch Hatton show grounds where we reconnected the tow tug and caravan. Driven to Eungella National Park and reset camp. With the dissipation of the rain, it had provided incentive to further explore our surrounding area nearby the camp ground. Our legs had clocked up a lot of kilometres walking through rain forest terrain and were starting to feel fatigued. We had about an hour before the publised best time to spot platypus in the wild. Back at the caravan we put our feet up, without the need to set the alarm as we were feeling hyped, in anticipation for spotting the illusive platypus marsupial.
We prepared ourselves covering up in anticipation of insect activity, including for the drop of temperatures at sun set and for any rain. The platypus viewing areas were only a few minutes’ walk from our camp site. It wasn’t long before we were watching “platypus activity.” We were mesmerised by the platypus at times with three diving and surfacing directly in front of us, over and over again. We returned to our caravan as the day light was fading feeling very satisfied.
The next two days we woke with our surrounds shrouded by low cloud swirling around us. It rained on and off most of the time. In between showers we would head out walking along a different trail enjoying our rain forest setting. Each time we headed out we would deviate to the various platypus viewing areas with a platypus sighting around every second visit.
We were constantly looking up around us, monitoring the sky conditions. Late one afternoon there seemed to be a break in the cloud cover. We drove a few kilometres down the road to a location titled “Sky Window,” walking along a short trail through the thick rain forest to an opening showing the valley below. We continued driving finding another valley viewing area at the town of Eungella and one more a bit further on from Eungella. Our bodies appreciated some exposure of sunshine lifting our spirits.
The central platypus viewing area was from the Broken River Bridge. The camping ground was located on one side of the bridge with a large day use area on the other side of the bridge. The day use area had tables and BBQ’S for use. We utilized the BBQ’S for some of our cooking. The Kookaburras were watching us and we stayed close to our food providing incentive for the Kookaburras to keep their distance.
Day 4 the sun appeared for a couple of hours. It was amazing how a bit of sunshine could change the colour of the scenery.
We did enjoy our time at Eungella National Park. There was the ever presence of bird activity and the scenery was fabulous. We did appreciate the comfort provided by our caravan, especially with the wet weather conditions. Many other campers cut their planned stay short due to the uncomfortable wet conditions. Most of these people were utilizing canvas protection from the elements, tents, awnings, camper trailers and roof top tents. We were the only occupants with a caravan which also helped with the constant flow of water around our camp site including under our caravan. It was slushy leaving our foot wear wet and covered by mud. Steve was missing the use of his lost hiking boot.
Initially we were planning to continue on from the Broken River Campground to Eungella dam, on to Lake Elphinstone and out onto the main road towards the town of Nebo. It was a publised route without the hazardous mountain range roads we had travelled up. A conversation with the local National Parks Ranger revealed our proposed route road surface was black top soil roads, currently impassable due to the wet conditions. The only route out of Eungella was to travel back down the steep decent along our inbound route. In hind sight if we had known this we would not have travelled to Eungella with our caravan in tow.
With our thoughts focused on a safe strategy to descend down the mountain range we emptied our caravan water tanks to lighten our weight. This was a first for us in over 10 years of travel. With our caravan brakes power supply turned up and the tow tug locked into 1st gear we were as ready as we could be. We had even off loaded some reading books, depositing them in a nearby book exchange box.
It was a Thursday at 10.30 am when the tow tug nose-dived downwards into the descent down the Mountain Range. The increased power to the caravan brakes worked well, eliminating any feeling we were being pushed by the caravan. No vehicles came up behind us and there were only two other vehicles on their way up. We virtually had the road to ourselves. Thankfully the road was dry and no clouds about, restricting our visibility. Luckily there was no need to ride the brakes all the way down. Feathering the brakes on and off helped to keep the brakes cool enough to operate correctly. In the end the upward trip with rain and heavy cloud cover gave us more anxiety. We were glad that section of road was behind us.
We stopped at the Finch Hatton show grounds where Mary sweet talked the caretaker to permit us to top up our caravan water tanks. Water is your liquid gold in Australia. You never know when you next can get water. We checked our rig and everything appeared to be as it should. We were on our way again.
