Rollingstone

Our next stop was at the Rollingstone free camp 50 klm north of Townsville. We arrived here around 2pm spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing, reading & enjoyed a nice walk to stretch our legs.

As darkness fell we packed our chairs away to go inside for our dinner, a few minutes later a wiz bang pulled in, they were that close to us that if we had our awning out they would be sitting under it. So of course the TV volume went higher the cupboard doors were shut with a little extra force, Baz had a need to go out to the Paj excusing himself as he squeezed by! Baz did say they were OK as the female scenery was very easy on the eyes 😳

Bowen

It would have nice to spend more time at Yeppoon but unfortunately we need to keep moving as we need to be in Cairns by the 28th May. We are booked on the MV Trinity Bay Cargo Ship that leaves Cairns and travels up the Cape York Peninsula via  Horn Island and Thursday Island before docking at Seisia Warf Bamaga the most northern township in QLD. Trinity Bay's principal purpose is to carry freight to the islands of the Torres Strait but also carries passengers. As it travels inside the reef we should be able to see land most of the way and will be able to do tours on both Horn & Thursday Islands as well as a 4 wheel drive trip to the tip. Looking forward to experiencing this adventure.

Leaving Yeppoon Tuesday we travelled around 370 Klms ending up at Leap Hotel that's about 20 klms north of Mackay. It was a lovely grassy area beside the hotel and free to stay there, they only ask that you have a drink or a meal to support the hotel. The only downside is that is is right on the Bruce Hwy, we didn't find it too noisy managed a fairly good nights sleep.

On the road again today we travelled  to Bowen only 170 klms arriving by lunch time booking in for two nights. I was feeling a little hot this afternoon so cooled off in the swimming pool, it was a bit chilly getting in but once the body temp came down it was very pleasant. Tomorrow we intend to walk to Horseshoe Bay about 5 klms return I think we had better do this before the day gets too hot.

Leap Hotel Free Camp

Leap Hotel

Big 4 Caravan Park Bowen

Queens Bay Bowen

Sunset Queens Bay Bowen

Yeppoon

Today we left Tannum Sands and started our journey north towards Cairns. Our first stop is the coastal town of Yeppoon which is 40 klms north east of Rockhampton, with lots of roadworks along the Bruce Hwy it took us much longer than expected to travel the 140k's from Tannum to Yeppoon. The weather has been beautiful, lovely blue skies and nice temps around 26 degrees so after a late lunch we went for a walk into Yeppoon to see what improvements they have done along the waterfront. There is still a lot of major work being done but they have finished the Infinity Pool a large Lagoon pool right on the Esplanade overlooking the beach

Beachside Caravan Park Yepoon

Infinity Pool Yeppoon

View of beach from our caravan

Sunset over the beach

Hobart - Tannum Sands

5th May 2018 we left home and headed north to catch the Spirit of Tasmania to head to the Big Island to escape the Tassie winter. Our friends Gladys and Graeme were staying at the Ulverstone Caravan Park and were kind enough to invite us over for a meal before we left on the Spirit, as we had a late sailing we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy a wine or two with them before we had to board.

 We were hoping for a smooth crossing but upon boarding the crew ask us if we new how to disable the car alarm as vehicles fitted with motion sensors the alarms go off in rough seas. As we had never had the need before to disable the alarm we left the Paj unlocked overnight, we have since read up and hopefully will know what to do in future. The Captain advised that we should expect a rough crossing as there were 40 knot winds and 3-4 metre swells. Shortly after passing through the heads we could certainly feel that we were in for a doozie, we have been lucky for the previous 10 years so it was about time we experienced a rough one. It wasn't too bad we managed a glass a wine and to watch the footy game then it was off to bed. Laying in the bed I would feel weightless as we went down the wave then you feel a pounding as the bow of the boat went into the next wave then up we would go, I thought I would not get a lot of sleep but was surprised that I had a fairly good nights sleep.

We arrived in Melbourne Sunday morning to lovely clear skies and and headed north,we had planned to travel around 600 klms a day and we were really enjoying the warmer weather we were experiencing along the way. Our first overnight stop was at West Wylong in NSW, the next day we travelled further north to one of our favourite stops Moree where we booked in for two nights so we had time to enjoy time in the thermal pools. Leaving the Newell Hwy we headed towards Toowoomba and out to the Bruce Hwy and onto our next planned stop Cooroy, on the Sunshine Coast, where we caught up with our friends Alison and David. We enjoyed a lovely night out with them at a local restaurant, leaving the next day on our last leg to Tannum Sands.

We have spent the last 10 days staying with Anita and Jason and it has been lovely to once again spend time with the Olivia and Archie and be able to see what they are up to. It was so cute to see Archie playing soccer, brought a tear to our eyes bringing back memories of when Jase and his mates were young little soccer players.

 It is seven months since we parked the van beside Jason's house so we needed to give it the once over to make sure all was ok before we head off towards Cairns. One of things we did was cull some of our clothing as we had left all our clothes in the van from last year, then we were back at Christmas and of course we needed clothes travelling up, managed to leave a whole suitcase full at Jason's that we will collect before heading home in September.

Yesterday we spent the day out in Jason's new boat hoping to catch at least a couple of nice Coral Trout only to come home empty handed the only fish we caught were undersized and had to be thrown back. At least we had a lovely day out on the water and had lovely roast meat for Dinner, maybe our next visit we will get a feed of fish.

Lunch time Tocumal

Lunch time Coonabarabran

Enjoying the Thermal Pool

Mothers Day in the park

Tannum Sands 1st Oct 2017

Our time away is quickly coming to an end, how the time has flown this year we can't quiet believe that we have been away for nearly five months. We are once again at Jason and Neat's place at Tannum Sands, the weather here has certainly heated up most days are 27-30 degrees with overnight temps 17-20 degrees, just hoping someone turns up the temperature back home by next week. The grandkids are loving being able to swim in the pool again, poor old Gran can only dangle one leg in and hope she gets splashed!

We are leaving the caravan and car here at Jason's as we are coming back at Christmas time so we need to do our clean up before we go, but Baz and I are finding these higher temps are not productive to work in, much rather be sitting in the shade with a nice breeze

or inside cooling down with the AC.

Today we met up with Annette from home she is in Rocky for work and was heading down to the Gladstone Branch and of course couldn't miss an opportunity for a glass of bubbles and a light lunch. So great to catch up on the gossip from home and to have a laugh or two.

We will be flying home on Tuesday after celebrating Archie's 4th Birthday so this brings to a conclusion of my blog postings for this year, already looking forward and planning next years. Hope you will continue to read about our travels..........