Denise and Barry's Caravan Travels: Tannum Sands, Wuruma Dam, Broadwater Rec Reserve, Wivenhoe Dam

Our five days back in Tannum Sands went way too fast! Liv and Archie had grown in the weeks since we had last seen them. Baz had Fathers Day with family a first for the last eight years as we are usually on the road somewhere with only me to spoil him (not). Jason cooked a lovely breakfast which we thoroughly enjoyed sitting out by the pool, then late morning we took a short trip out to Awonga Dam where we enjoyed a BBQ lunch with Jason, Neat and their friends. Our friends Pauline and Les were spending the night at Tannum Sands Caravan Park on their way south, it was great to catch up with them later in the day and enjoy a meal at the local hotel.

Wednesday is was a sad farewell as it was time for us to leave and head south. we have less than three weeks before we need to be in Melbourne to get the boat back to Tassie. We travelled via Biloela and headed to Wuruma Dam where we were meeting our friends Alison and David, Alison had heard that the campsite at the dam was clearing out, and it should be easier to get a spot. Upon arrival it was still quiet packed but we managed to get set up near the dam, our neighbour (bush pigs) were very possessive of the area and were quiet loud and not very pleasant. We didn't let them spoil our time there, just ignored them! We enjoyed our camp fires and good company, even when it drizzled with rain on Friday we were able to sit under the awning and had the fire pot alongside, lucky David and Baz had been and replenished our wood supply before the rain set in. Our hot water system in the caravan was refusing to light on gas. luckily for us David had a generator with him (for his coffee machine) we were able to have hot water for a shower, Baz braved the cold water for a couple of mornings, finding it very invigorating, at least he didn't use a lot of water leaving more for me to enjoy. (Silly boy!).

After three nights at the dam we headed further south finding a peaceful campsite at the Broadwater Recreation Reserve situated about 20 klms north of Nanango just off the Burnett Hwy. When we arrived the weather was still very pleasant with blue skies, a couple of hours later as we were enjoying our lovely camp fire when a Thunder Storm passed over drenching the track that we had ventured along. Baz and David were a little stressed that we may have trouble getting out the next morning if we got too much more rain, lucky for us it moved over fairly quickly and we were able to continue on the next day. We stopped along the way at a country town Blackbutt where we strolled around a local show before paying a visit to another lushoius bakery, it was then time to say goodbye to Al & Dave for them to return to the Sunshine Coast and for us to head south.

Our next stop was at Wivenhoe Dam where we had a lovely campsite over looking the dam, it was a very peaceful location where we were subjected to amazing sunsets. It was so nice that we decided to stay an extra day as we are not very keen to get south too quickly, where it is cold and wet. On our last evening at the dam we shared Helga & Claus's campfire, they were from Munich and had been living and working in Darwin for nine years, now travelling Aussie for twelve months before heading home to Germany. Our hot water system in the van still operates on 240v so it was very nice to have constant hot water again. We rang Coastal RV on the Gold Coast to discuss our problem with the gas ignition and what we thought was condensation coming from the gas vent, to discover we will need a new hot water cylinder as it is most likely leaking and will need to be replaced! This has been a very expensive trip, first the motor in the Paj and now a new hot water system 😡