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..........

Agnes Waters

Our next stop was Agnes Waters, unfortunately we could only book in for two nights as QLD School Holiday were starting and us Grey Nomads needed to make way for the tents and camper trailers. We would have loved to stay longer as this park is in a great location only have to walk down the track and you are on a lovely beach, it wasn't much good for me with this stupid broken toe/stitches I couldn't go walking or swimming anyhow!!

Our friends Sue and Mike who are our neighbours from home were also at the park so it was great to catch up with them and hear about their time away. We did manage to try out a couple of eating establishments while at Agnes the first being The Getaway Garden Cafe where we enjoyed coffee and lush cakes we must have a return visit sometime. We also made little piggies of ourselves when we went to The Green Turtle Restaurant sharing a couple of Seafood Platters, another place that we must definitely revisit!

Once again our time there went much too quickly the beautiful weather that we have had this year just keeps on keeping on.

Baz, Sue & Michael at the Getaway Garden Cafe

Baz, Denise & Michael at the Getaway Garden Cafe

Getaway Garden Cafe

Agnes Waters Beach

Glamping at Agnes Waters Caravan Park

1770

The Lark 1770

View to beach from van at Agnes Waters

Seafood Platter for Two at The Green Turtle Resturant

Three Little Piggies at the Green Turtle Resturant

Cooroy

We had planned on heading to Carnarvon Gorge after leaving Bargara to meet up with Alison & David, but unfortunately they were unable to get away. As we wanted to catch up with them we headed south to Cooroy which is about 18 klm east of Noosa. Once again we enjoyed our time together popping into Trewantin, Noosaville enjoying a coffee on the Noosa River along with the campfire cooking and a shopping trip to Costco for Al & I, Baz declined the hour drive down to Costco electing to spending a relaxing time at the campground.

A good thing we had an anti slip mat covering our glass cook top, as when Baz was preparing my breakfast he turned the gas knob the wrong way, instead of turning the gas off he turned it to the low setting!, Then he put the glass top down not realising the gas was still burning, sometime later there was a very loud bang when the glass exploded at least the mat kept the glass pretty much contained. Baz said it was the fastest he has ever seen me jump out of bed.

We left Cooroy Friday morning heading north once again, as we were close to Tin Can Bay where Baz's cousins live we decided to pay Judy &  Derek a visit. We were very spoilt with Derek supplying us with home brew Scotch & Southern Comfort also Judy gave us a quantity of frozen fish & Redclaw that they had caught up in the Gulf & dams.

 Things went down hill later that night when I was putting the caravan TV on the bracket, I thought I had it right unfortunately for me it fell off with the corner smashing my fourth toe! I was bleeding heavily leaving pools of blood as I jumped around the van, poor Baz was mopping up with paper towel, eventually the blood flow was under control with ice packs strapped to the foot with shopping bags. I had hoped the next morning we could pull the toe back together with steri strips, no such luck, Judy took a look & said it would need stitches 😱. Our next stop was the Maryborough Hospital where after waiting a couple of hours finally got to see a Dr then an X-ray, finally after four hours I was told I would need to go into Hervey Bay Hospital to see an Orthopaedic Surgeon. Fast tracked at Hervey Bay thank goodness 😅 was then admitted, in surgery at 10 pm, now have sutures & the toe pinned as I had broken the tip off  and it would not of mended. Sutures out in two weeks, pin removed in six no more swimming this trip! All I wanted was a couple of sutures!

Enjoying he campfire at Cooroy

A couple of Old Farts waiting for their coffee fix

Enjoying our coffee & hot chocolate on Noosa River

The Big Pelican at Noosaville i

Glass cook top went off with a BANG !

Oh no an open fracture! Off to theatre!

My lovely footwear for the next six weeks!