Tannum Sands

 Once again time to catch up with our family that lives at Tannum Sands. We spent just over two weeks there and this year we made an effort and went around to the local bowls club at Boyne Island, where we were made to feel very welcome and enjoyed a couple of good days of socials bowls. Didn't manage to win any games but was successful with the raffles with winning vouchers for the bar and a bottle of wine.

We enjoyed a couple of lovely meals at Familia Restaurant in Gladstone that has exceptional Italian food, a picnic at Awoonga Dam, a day trip to Agnes Waters a visit to the Maritime Museum Gladstone also seeing the grandkids play their relative sports of netball & soccer. Life at Tannum is always very busy with school, work, gym and all the after school activities takes a bit to keep up with it all.

Baz had a medical episode while we were there with a couple of trips into the Gladstone Hospital. He was laying on the bed doing some leg lifts when everything started to spin, then he had loss of balance all this was a little scary as he was sweating profusely, was cold & clammy to touch. A call to our daughter in law had me ringing the ambulance and he was taken into the hospital. He was later discharged as all neurological tests were good, no problems with his ECG and bloods, I suppose it was one way of getting out of looking after the grandkids and a trip to the cinema to see the Minions. Two nights later at 3am he had another episode, this time I took him by car into hospital as he said he wasn't keen on the ambulance ride as a rough ride in the back. This time wasn't as severe after enquiring could it be vertigo the doctor thaught maybe that was it and gave him some tablets to help with his balance, all seems to have settled down now.

A very spoilt Thor

Me enjoying some sunshine by the pool

Yellow belly green treesnake

Baz with the grandkids Archie and Liv

Friendly magpie Awoonga Dam

Picnic huts Awoonga Dam

Awoonga Dam

Maritime Museum Gladstone

Day out at Agnes Waters

Paper Bark forest Agnes Waters

Jason, Anita, Olivia & Archer

Howard

Making our way further north we have now been at the Gumtree Lodge Bush Camp near Howard for a week. Initially booked in for four nights & then extending for another three. A great spot to sit back and do very little or if you need to stock up on anything Hervey Bay is only a half hour drive or into Burrum Heads 20 minutes, Howard has all you really need with Bakery, Butcher IGA & laundromat and it is only 3klms from the camp. Can recommend both the bakery & butcher had some really good meat from the butcher & slices from the bakery.

 Debbie & George who own the bush camp have done a really fantastic job of building a facility that fills a niche in the market for over 50's RVers. It is set on 40 acres and you have access to power and water they also have sites available that have decks on the dam face fire pots and fire wood is supplied free of charge. They also put on a pizza night in their 50's diner and George has a great collection of memorabilia and restored cars and caravans that he has great pleasure to show you.

Relaxed at the Bush Camp

Dam sites

Servo memorabilia

Pizza night George's Diner

George's Diner

Enjoying a game of Rumikub

 

Kandanga - Poona

We had been to Kandanga previously which has a great RV friendly park right in the township with a $5 donation or you can stay at the bowls club for $20 with power & water.  When we arrived we were surprised that there was only a couple of caravans using the park, we later learnt that a caravan club had been there taking up all the area & had only moved on that morning. We spent two nights there going to the local pub on the Sunday for lunch which seems very popular with clientele coming from all around. We also visited the bowls club where we enjoyed a drink & chat with their green keeper a very friendly bunch of people. There was also a tournament on on the Sunday so we enjoyed watching some entertaining bowls.

Leaving Kandanga was another short trip our next stop was Poona, which is another quiet little fishing village between Tin Can Bay & Maryborough. Unfortunately the site we were given had a massive big puddle for us to park the van in and was also under a tree, when I tried putting a ramp under the wheel it floated away! As we weren’t impressed with the site I went back to the office to see if we could move to another site because if it rained again we would have had dripping from the tree as well. We were given a more open site which was much better but their grounds were very boggy & saturated with water from the recent rain, hopefully the grass doesn’t get too messed up with vehicles on it.

Kandanga Pub

RV Campground Kandanga

Kandanga Bowls Club

Railway Bridge Kandanga

Wet site Poona

No puddles Poona

Waterway Poona

Waterway Poona

Beachmere - Sunshine Coast

After a great three nights in Southport we had booked into Alexandra Headland Caravan Park where our friends Christina & Eddie were staying. As we had a night to fill in before our booking in Alex we thought we would look for a park that was out of the rat race. After much consultation of the map we decided on the little town of Beachmere on the coast out from Caboolture. It was perfect for a one night stop with a coffee shop just through the gates of the park, seeing as we only had about an hour to drive we didn’t rush away with a coffee & cake before we left.

It was great catching up with Christina & Ed, one of our days Christina & I hit the shops for some retail therapy leaving the boys to fend for themselves which was Spring Rolls & chips at the nearby shop. 

We also arranged to meet with our friends Sue & Tony that now live in an apartment on the river at Maroochydore. It was a lovely few hours with them enjoying the sunshine & lovely meal sitting on their balcony looking out at the river. Great lifestyle think I could settle into it very well. 

Unfortunately we were unable to extend our time at Alex so it was back to the drawing board to see where our next stop might be.

Water Tower Beachmere

Reverse view Water Tower Beachmere

looking towards Mooloolaba Sunshine Coast

Gold Coast

Once again we stayed at the Broadwater Caravan Park in Southport as easy access off the M1, take exit 66 onto Smith St Motorway & then only a couple of turns at the end of the road. Our site was at the front of the park which we found extremely noisy with traffic, sirens & hoon drivers sometimes sounding like a race track. One night we were disturbed by hysterical screaming with an ambulance turning up along with a couple of police vehicles just at the entrance to the park. We stayed in the van sticky breaking from a distance a few others from close by ventured closer, seems a youth off his head on drugs was self harming & his girlfriend was the hysterical one. That was our entertainment for the evening, Baz was grumpy as they woke him from a good dream. 

Our main aim of calling into the Gold Coast was to catch up with our good friends Al & Dave always an adventure with them. Saturday we met them for breakfast at their unit then if was off for a burn in their sons Kombi stopping of at Lloyd’s Auctions where we were amazed at the number of cars there that were to come under the hammer that day. Then it was back to the unit to swap into the VW beatle & off to Hinze Dam which supplies the Gold Coast with their water. Great fun travelling around in the VW’s brought back memories of our youth what a fun vehicle they are. Next day Baz was up early and around at the prawn trawlers by 8 am  to get us some big juicy luscious fresh prawns for us to share that night with Al & Dave. I ended up phoning him as was getting worried he hadn’t returned by 9am as only 10mins away, but he had to queue as many others had the same idea. Dave was taking the bug to a car show & shine that morning so once Baz returned we were off to check out the vehicles, unfortunately the car owners get there at 7.30 & by 10 when we arrived most were gone or just leaving.

After shopping for supplies we met back at the unit for a light lunch then Dave took us to Burleigh Heads  where it was nearly impossible to get a park we were lucky to finally secure one then we meandered through the market that was just packing up then a sit on the beachfront to people watch.

 

Gold Coast from Southport

A Mustang about to be auctioned at Lloyd's

Hinze Dam

Photo shoot VW Hinze Dam

Spillway Hinze Dam

Burleigh Beach

Evans Head

After four nights at Scott’s Head we travelled approximately 250 klms further up the Pacific Hwy to Evans Head. Must say travelling up the Princess Hwy is a walk in the park, being dual lanes we didn’t need to worry about the trucks & other vehicles wanting to pass us. Also since leaving Newcastle we have had real good fuel economy maybe because most of the road surface is concrete.

Leaving the Hwy to head into Evans Head had us passing through Woodburn which had been badly effected by the recent floods, a very sad sight indeed. Many houses were empty with people living in tents & caravans on their properties, with nearby cane fields resembling more like paddy fields with household items that had been washed from the houses in the town spread alongside the road. Also in the township of Evans Head there were rental caravans parked on a vacant block, where people were living as they had been forced to evacuate their homes.

The weather seems to be on the improve as the time we were there we didn’t have any rain, we have been keeping watch of the weather reports on the Gold Coast & it seems like this rain might be finally moving away. Long range weather reports are predicting a very wet winter in QLD this year, at least it won’t be cold.

At Evans Head the bowls club is adjacent to the caravan park so it was a short stroll to get ourselves a nice Chinese meal, nice to not have to think what I am going to cook.

Evans Head Beach

Baz on Evans Head Beach

Lizard enjoying the sun

Wooden Boats Memorial

Sea Wall entrance to Evans Head

Local on our walk

Looking at the Sea Wall from the lookout