Bargara Beach,,,,,cont

While Carlene and Rex were here with us at Bargara we rang Maxine and Henry whom we had met at the bowls club back home, and caught up with them for a drink. They have a beautiful unit on the Esplanade over looking the water. Maxine has organised for Bazza and myself to play bowls on Sunday at Elliot Heads bowls club, it will be an early start for us as we are meeting them outside their unit at 8.10 am ! Bazza thinks he may have trouble getting rigamortis there on time. Monday we are playing in the Turkey Triples here at Bargara, that is a later start after lunch, so should not be such a problem.

We have been into the Bundy factory and stocked up on our supply of their Royal Liqueur to take home, another six bottles.

This morning we thought we would go for a 6klm ride on our bikes out past Mon Repos Turtle Rookery, we must have been nearly there when I thought it is getting very hard to keep up with Bazza, only to find I had a puncture ! Lucky we had a pump with us so after a few choice words from the old boy I was told to peddle as quick as I could back to the caravan park, before it went flat again. Will have to try that ride again now my puncture is fixed as it was an interesting track.

This afternoon we went for a drive out to Elliot Heads and on the way drove up to the lookout, where there was a panoramic view over cane fields across to Bargara.

Bunderberg/Bagara Beach

We left Callopie Tuesday travelling to Bargara Beach Caravan Park, after spending 2 nights at Callopie free camp. We only passed 2 wide loads on the 288 km trip, one donga (6.5m wide), and a mine truck (5.5m wide). The weather was overcast but warm, but since we been here at

Bargara we have had continuous rain and a big bit cooler, only 16 deg yesterday!! As the weather was not the best thought we would go and have a look at the Hinkler Hall of Aviation, which is dedicated to Bert Hinkler who was a pioneer pilot from Bunderberg who flew from England to Australia solo in 1928. Also next to the Hall is Hinkler House (Mon Repos) which was dismantled in England and relocated and reassembled in Bert's birth place of Bunderberg.

We had a surprise visit from Carlene and Rex who are staying here at Bargara for two nights before heading down to Hervey Bay.

Callopie

Yesterday we left Rockhampton heading a little further south, diverting into Gladstone and seeing the coal loading wharf area and just a short drive around the town before heading off to the free camp out at Callopie. We had planned only to stay here the one night, but as it is such a clean green area have decided to spend a second night before we travel onto Bundaberg, where we are booked in at a caravan park out at Bargara Beach. Yesterday when we arrived there was a market being held at the Heritage Village just above where we are camped. so it was left to Bazza to set up while I went for a look at lots of handcrafted wares. We also had another surprise as just after pulling in Bridget & Don who we had met at Seaforth pulled in along side of us. We have said goodbye to them four time already, but we keep coming across each other along the way after Seaforth it was Theresa Creek Dam, Emerald, Bedford Weir and now again here at Callopie. It is not even because we are travelling the same route as they have been going a different way to us, just ending up in the same places, tonight I am cooking a roast of pork as a farewell dinner.

This morning we had a ride around on our bikes to check out the area, we are camping on the northern side of the river so we went for a ride over to the other side and have decided that we are in the better spot. On the way back to the van we cycled up the hill and enjoyed a coffee and hot chocolate at the little kiosk at the Heritage Village. Last night one of our fellow campers counted the vans and motor homes here and there was 87 just on this side of the river.

Rockhampton

We left Bedford Weir to drive appox 300klm to Rockhampton, the country side changed from Coal Mines to Beef grazing land. Upon arrival at Rockhampton it is evident that it is beef country due to the many statues of cattle that you see around the town. We are staying at the Big 4 Discovery Holiday Park on the Bruce Hwy as we are meeting up with Alan & Fay who we met 2yrs ago when we were crossing the Savana Develepmental Hwy. Since we have been here we have been out with them for the last couple of nights, and last night we went to see the Bull Riding that is held every Friday night at an indoor arena attached to the Great Western Hotel which Lee Kenaghan used to own. The Bull Riding is very entertaining especially when the big bulls come out, they average in weight between 700 - 1000 kilograms. I am sure some of those cowboys are very sore today after being bucked off, stomped on and kicked. There were many young children there with their big cowboy hats on and some were even wearing spurs.

Today we had a look around the town and then went to the Botanical Gardens which has a Zoo within the grounds, with many animals, birds and reptiles to view.

Emerald - Bedford Weir

Our second day at Emerald we took a drive out to Fairbairn Dam, it is huge and a very popular spot for camping and fishing. On the way into the dam the roadway takes you over the spillway, I would not like to be going along it when they open the gates. We then decided we would go back out to Sapphire & Rubyvale to check out around the townships a little more and get an opinion on the Sapphire that Bazza acquired. After speaking with a couple of gemologist's it seems the stone is worth around $200 as it is a little cloudy, if it was a clear stone, then it's value would have been around $2,000. We also visited the Heritage Mine and watched while some tourist did some fossicking from the buckets of wash they buy for $10, they didn't seem to be having a lot of luck. We think next time we came out this way we will stay out at Gemfield which is close to gemfield's when you can fossick for yourself. While we were in Emerald we went out for an Indian meal at the Golf Club, where we had a very friendly cat rubbing around our legs while we were eating, good thing it was not "Chinese", as we became quiet attached to the cat by the time we left.
We left Emerald on Wednesday and travelled out as far as Bedford Weir which is about 20klm's in from Blackwell. We met up with some friends there that we had met at Seaforth and had a lovely happy hour with them. Don dropped his pots that night but only caught a couple of small Red Claw.

The extent of the coal mining in this area that we have travelled through is massive, evident by huge dump piles that we could see in the distance. We passed many coal trains which were on an average 1.5klms long also on the road we often had to pull over for over width mining machinery of up to 5 mtrs wide.

Emerald

We left Seaforth last Thursday after a days delay due to rain, we had about 90mm overnight so thought it best to delay our departure some of the tents had water running through them during the night. Heading inland from Mackay to Clermont we left the sugar canes behind to then travel into Coal Mining country, we also saw many coal trains that were so long they had to have a second engine in the middle of the train. We stayed 4 nights out at the Theresa Creek Dam which is about 20klms out from Clermont. We had great weather while we were there and Bazza was even able to put his pots in and get a feed of Red Claw. It is a very pretty spot to camp and only $10 per night, no power but there are good amenities and access to water. The caretakers there run a karaoke night and sausage sizzle on Sunday nights, a prize is given for the best singer, joke teller or bush poet a fun time had by all. Camping in the park was a gem fossicker who sold jewelry and cut stones, we bought a nice green Sapphire from him. Later in the day we helped him look for a stone that he had dropped on the ground but did not have any luck, he was lucky enough to find it the next day when the morning sun made it sparkle. That night all the campers were seated around the fire pit for the karaoke when the gem guy decided he would toss the Sapphire that he had found that morning amongst them, Bazza was alert enough to see where it landed, and after crawling around on his hands and knees for some minutes he found it. Most of the other campers did not realise what he had thrown, so only a couple were looking for the stone, Bazza thinks it is alright getting something for nothing.
We left Theresa Creek Dam this morning and headed for Rubyvale and Sapphire stopping at Rubyvale to check out the gems and have morning tea. We decided we would go on a further 45klm to Emerald, where we are staying at caravan park to catch up with all the washing and charge all our rechargeable items as we have been existing without power for the last month.

Seaforth.......cont

We are having a lovely relaxing time here at Seaforth, have now been here for two weeks. The days are slipping by very quickly, we have less than a week left before we leave and go inland again heading for Emerald. We have been into Mackay a couple of times for supplies and to use the Laundromat as there are not any washing machines here at the campground, my hand washing skills do not include sheets and towels ! Tuesday we went for a day trip to the Eungella National Park and Broken River where you can view Platypus in the river, unfortunately we did not spot any but did see lots of Turtles. We went through acres and acres of cane fields and some lovely little towns on the way, then the last part of the road going up to Eungella was very steep with a gradient of 12 degrees in parts, was not looking forward to coming back down but it did not seem as bad on the descent.
Tomorrow we are off to bowls again, lets hope they pull the shade covers across as we played last Sunday with the covers on and it was quiet pleasant. We have been making good use of our bikes here as it is lovely and flat and very easy riding, so the car has been having a well earned rest. Bazza has even been to the beach to get a little sand between his toes !