13 - Sarina to Brisbane Sunshine Coast, Queensland. 6th to 18th November

Entry 13 – 6^th to 18^th Nov., Sarina to Brisbane Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Departure day from Notch Point we were up early, commencing our planned days driving prior to 7 am. We blame Taylor and Ernie for our early rise with a need to train our body clocks for waking around first light. These two perpetrators were meant to have been our Canada travel companions for 2020, with all four of us inhabiting their caravan, (Aussie,) or as it is called in Canadian a (trailer) and tow tug. They were going to show us around Canada with plans to visit the Yukon, Vancouver Island, Yellowknife, Nova Scotia to mention a few with many more locations on our radar. The above two architects of this planned trip were also early risers and we have been conscious when waking around dawn, not to roll over and go back to sleep.

We had planned for several days of drive time to get ourselves into the nearby region of Brisbane for planned caravan maintenance. Along the way we had factored in a day or two at a couple of nice sounding locations for further exploration if we required.

At about the 55-kilometre mark was our first location of interest to explore, the town of Clairview and we had decided to make this our breakfast stop. We didn’t feel any urge of interest around Clairview, though we did like their public amenities block, artwork.

Another 42-kilometres down the road was a camp location of St Lawrence. We walked to the nearby wetlands where we saw swans, ducks and a couple of Brolgas in the distance. It was still early and we decided to continue driving as we had previously explored St Lawrence offerings.

Our bodies were saying ‘no more,’ and after another 186 kilometres we parked up, utilizing a free camp location in the middle of the 78,000 populated town of Rockhampton. We were in a beautiful parkland setting where council permitted 2 nights stay in one of the carparks of Kershaw Gardens. There was plenty of green grass with birds enjoying the many trees. Through the parklands there were formed walking paths, a waterfall and another great playground. We walked across the road to a large shopping centre and restocked our pantry and fridge. It was a great location in the middle of a large town.

The downfall to staying in the middle of a large town was the constant nearby traffic noise. We woke the following morning at 5.30 am and thankyou to our constant thoughts for that Canadian couple, Taylor and Ernie we immediately rose, attending a nearby laundromat, catching up on our last 3 weeks of clothes washing.

We topped up our tow tugs fuel requirements and obtained some much-needed loo paper we had forgotten to replenish the previous day. Around 8 am we were mobile to our next targeted location for another free camp at Calliope about 100 kilometres down the road with our first chore to hang out our washing.

It was about another 140 kilometres down the road to our next target location for the much publicized 1770 & Agnes Water towns. This was a location not previously visited by us and we thought it to be an opportune time to assess ourselves, all the hype for this location. The local population at any given time would consist of 99 tourists to 1 local, so we had been told. Yes, it did look like a nice locality but due to its crowded environment with exorbitant fees it didn’t entice us to stay for an extended period. The beach side caravan park looked like everyone had been packed in like a can of sardines.

We chose to stay a night at a quiet farm stay type location just out of town and proceeded to explore the area without our caravan in tow. There was a National Park located six kilometres out of town that sounded nice, with a further ten kilometres to a campground in the National Park with some good reviews. Though it was recommended to enter from the other end with a caravan in tow, = about a 60-kilometre drive from our camp location. We thought the ten-kilometre drive shouldn’t take much of our time with us in a good 4wd vehicle.

About 50-metres in we stopped in soft sand, bogged. Next low range was engaged and we managed to move to a spot off the track where Steve deflated our tyres. It was ten slipping and sliding kilometres down the road to our destination of Wreck Rock campground. It was a nice-looking forested campground, unfortunately with many low tree limbs and a thick overhead canopy all unsuitable for our caravan.

And it was a 60-kilometre drive back to our camp.

We did, enjoy the Paperbark Tea Tree walk near Agnes Water. There were a couple of other touristy locales we could have viewed but the thought of the associated pushy sales tactics annulled those thoughts. For us this area seemed overpriced for what it had to offer, compared to many other locations we had experienced.

Our next target location was a scout campground near Bundaberg. We were feeling fatigued, having spent the last four days with a primary focus on driving and rushing about to view as much scenery as we could. We were due for some rest time and the laid-back atmosphere of the scout camp suited our needs. There was some walking trails and bird life to view.

Our primary reason for being in this part of Australia was due to some maintenance needs for our caravan. A prior appointment early in the year had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Then a second appointment was cancelled with the escalation of covid-19 restrictions. We were within a few days of our current appointment time and our thoughts were focused on these needs. We cleared some of our caravan internal cupboards for the workers ease of access, in readiness for the maintenance work to be carried out by the manufacturer.

Ian and Kathy whom we had met at Notch Point back up the road a bit had offered us accommodation at their home while our caravan was receiving its manicure. This was a much-appreciated offer, transpiring with us staying at their home for three nights. It was another highlight for the year where we were thoroughly looked after, with beautiful accommodation, good conversation, shown around their neighbourhood, participating in some delightful walks and the glorious food.

With the collection of our caravan after completion of repairs, we travelled about 50 kilometres down the road, setting camp in the showgrounds of Beerwah where we repacked our cupboards and tested out all of our repairs before progressing any further away from the manufacturer.

The new hot water service ✔. The new oven ✔, with freshly cooked brownies, and several other tweaked items ✔.

 

12 - Proserpine to Mackay & Sarina, Queensland. 26th Oct to 6th Nov.

 

Entry 12 – 26^th Oct. to 6^th Nov., Proserpine to Mackay and Sarina, Queensland.

With one night at Proserpine we managed to catch up on all our electronic stuff, including a video chat with our Canada based family, then continued south, down the road towards the next major town of Mackay.

We were now travelling through those more populated locations in Australia (coastal regions) with an increase of restrictions imposed by authorities (due to the human element) impeding our preferred nomadic lifestyle.

It was a stretch of about 125 kilometres from the populated towns of Proserpine to Mackay. We had previously experienced the inland highlights for this region and thought it to be an opportune time to view the coastal offerings.

The coastline was covered with plenty of mangrove areas with the current denominator from provided information showing there was an abundance of biting insects feeding on any humans who chance to enter these locations. There seemed to be an absence of walking trails or scenic locations of interest to us. We decided to set camp at a scout property about 15 kilometres shy of Mackay and spent the rest of the day investigating various locations without the hinderance of a caravan in tow.

The area around Seaforth with only caravan park type camping options in a green mangrove type environment looked ok but the lack of other scenic choices didn’t register any temptation for us to stay. Cape Hillsborough National Park, Smalley’s campground did look inviting with acceptable access for our caravan into nearly all the allocated camp sites but the overhead tree canopy obstructed our required solar needs. The below pictures show one of the small beach areas in the national park and an interesting road side, house door bell.

Mackay was a large town with a population of around 80,000. We went out of our way to visit the Mackay visitor information centre, hopeful of obtaining some points of interest for visiting. Sadly, the visitor information centre was closed, no longer in use, even though their web site was showing it to be current. Disappointed, we felt Mackay had failed to entice us to stay.

About 35 kilometres down the road we stopped at the visitor information centre at Sarina. We obtained some information of interest to us though the information centre representative heavily promoted various local caravan parks and tried to scare us away from our preferred locations with some horrible tales about free camping and negatives of visiting the nearby national park.

We did ignore their tactics and at around 45 kilometres down the road, entered the location of a free camp of interest to us. The below photo shows the setting before us when we arrived at our target location of Notch Point.

We were most happy to have ignored the scare tactics of the information centre. There was another couple in the information centre at the same time as us, enquiring about almost identical information. Sadly, they decided not to travel to Notch Point due to the misrepresentation of actual facts provided by the information centre, trying to deflect us to stay at a caravan park.

Notch Point had similarities to Horseshoe Bay at Bowen, a location we had experienced about a week previously, with the open ocean on one side and an inland bay to the other side.

On the ocean side there was a beautiful looking, large open grassed camping area but it was buffeted by a constant strong ocean breeze. The below picture of this camp area with the strength of the wind displayed by the palm tree canopy. We decided to set camp on the bay side with protection from the strong wind provided by a ridge of land. Setting camp was a little bit of a challenge with the sloping surface but it did provide a heightened view of the ocean setting below.

Each time we ventured into the ocean side open grassed area during our walks, it was a struggle to keep our hats on with the strong wind. From our camp location, we had a great view of the landscape from our elevated position, enjoying watching the tidal movement of the ocean waters with 5 metres difference between high and low tide.

We walked about on the sand surface of the bay with the outgoing tide finding it to be a struggle at times, sinking into the soft wet sand. Other days the sand surface felt firm. We enjoyed daily walks along various tracks around Notch Point with constant bird activity in the surrounding tree canopy.

We spent one afternoon watching some thunderstorm activity on the other side of our bay. Unfortunately, our pictures didn’t capture the fabulous stratosphere activity we thoroughly enjoyed viewing over a couple of hours. It did provide a great sunset kaleidoscope of colours.

Another morning we woke with the landscape around us enveloped by a sea fog, providing a different setting again.

The Notch Point scenery provided views, tantalising all our happy vibes we didn’t seem to tire of. It was a most fabulous ocean setting, with its constant changing vista, complements to the 5-metre tidal movement. Then Notch Point cranked up another notch with enthralling early morning bird life activity providing thrilling viewing.

A lovely couple we met whilst at Lake Proserpine (Ian and Kathy) arrived at Notch Point and we continued on from where we had left off, with delightful chatter and walking time together.

Ian and Steve put their thinking caps on and got down to business, attending to a bit of caravan maintenance fixing activity on their caravan undercarriage.

For a few days we even had three Bushtracker Caravans, “with us in the middle,” parked up in a row, enjoying the scenic vista provided by Notch Point.

One evening we decided to light our first fire for this trip since departing Adelaide in July. It was the 1^st November with incentive provided by the cooler temperatures and the attraction for the thought of a freshly cooked camp fire damper. Though the daily maximum temperatures were hovering around the 29 to 31 degrees, with morning minimums around 21 to 23 degrees. A very acceptable temperature range. Mary produced a damper half savoury and half sweet. Sharing an evening fire creates a good atmosphere, enhanced by adding a camp fire cooked damper. There was not much room left for our planned evening meals!

The below picture of our caravan sums up our thoughts for Notch Point with this special picture captured by Ian of our camp.

It was time to continue south towards our target location near Brisbane where our caravan had an appointment with its manufacturer to receive some maintenance attention.