Minor Detour...

There and back again… by Bilbo Baggins Sherii and George

This is Schnuffy...he reminds us of our little Hugo back at home,
he waits until we get home every night, just like the real Hugo x

We packed up from Agnes Water and headed for Rockhampton…

GPS suggested a short cut through Eurimbula National Park….why not…

20+kms of severe corrigations, small creek crossings and us dumping our water tanks as we were swishing around too much…

Then 20kms from our turn off… ROAD CLOSED…

Turn around and drive back over the ruts and waterways…oh well lucky it was fun (for me anyway…George may have another version of this story)

Magnum and PI got their toes wet…just a little..

We headed back onto the Bruce highway and drove through, Miriam Vale to find "The Big Crab"

We stopped for lunch at Tannum Sands, would have liked to look around but we had wasted too much time on our “short cut”…

Arrived at Rocky late arvo and looking forward to Bull spotting tomorrow… J

Discovery Coast Caravan Park, Agnes Water

Discovery Coast Caravan and Camping Park, Agnes Water

Stop 3 -240kms

In short, we arrived in the rain, set up in the rain, slept in the rain and then….it rained some more… then it got nice.

bloggin in the rain

After our set up in the rain, we went out for dinner as we had only set up the trailer with a basic setup and I didn’t want to cook in the rain…yummy thai at Nok’s Attack! Nok was an ‘interesting lady’! We went for a quick night drive out to 1770 to see what was around for the festival the next day…cute little town..had an early night, freezing our butts off!

Up early to go to the festival (www.1770festival.com.au)  to catch the parade down the main street…was drizzly and COLD but it stopped raining just in time for the parade, which was so cute…local businesses had floats and there were several captain cooks and a very funny police officer who obviously waits all year to be able to use the loudspeaker in his police car!

“hey you… put your hands up and stand on the side of the road…and…wave to the awesome 1770 festival parade” …and more

Men dressed as bananas offering free hugs or banana, rides, lots of nice food and market stalls..it had it all…oh and several captain cooks…of course…

 

banana giving out free hugs

We left the festival in the early afternoon as it was getting too cool/ bloody cold then we ducked back that night for the fireworks and band. Fireworks out on the sand bar..pretty cool…

so many cool fireworks shots! so hard to choose...

Next day the sun was shining but still cool in the wind,  we headed to Bargara for Georges favourite breakfast at Rocklatinos…how far is the furthest you have travelled for breakfast?... 100+kms? Well we did! The things I do for George to enjoy the Rocklatino pancakes….a stack of pancakes, with bacon, fried bananas and maple syrup (to which George added….hollandaise!)

After breakfast we headed back to Agnes via Deepwater National Park…

We also put up our annexe for the first time, well the roof and 2 sides anyway! Was much quicker than the initial watering in process…but still need lots more practice, we have decided to keep the annexe roof connected and throw it over the regular tent roof when not in use.. will keep you posted as to if this was a good idea or not!

Next day we headed into 1770 again and walked up to the point and lookouts had lunch at “The Tree” best location ever…battery ran out of the camera before I got pictures here though L

my best captain cook impression

Camp oven for dinner, slow cooked beef ribs…pretty successful considering we were in a caravan park in a small BBQ pit then transferring coles over to our brasier with the camp oven in it!

all gone...mustnt have been too bad!

Pack up to leave the next day…off to Rocky…

On the way to Seventeen Seventy…

Our trusty flamingos that guard our tent while we are out
 and light the way when we stumble home trying to work out which tent is ours! xxx

We packed up the tent at Hervey Bay in the morning when it wasn’t raining, after it drizzling all night. So because the tent was a little damp I was paranoid about our bed getting damp too, so layed out plastic, towels etc ontop of the bed before we packed up…we packed it up pretty quick and were pretty impressed with ourselves..then realised we forgot to put the foam mats under the bag…easily fixed..unzipped and popped them in…then….

George: “Hey Sherii, where are the keys we have to return to the caravan park and the keys to lock the trailer?”

Sherii: “In the pouch near the front door of the tent….”

George: “The tent that we just packed up on the trailer??”

Sherii: “Yup….”

Luckily we could squeeze in through the door we had thankfully left open, leaving the tent on the trailer and slide our hands down to the pouch..which also had the pad locks to lock the trailer also..

Lesson learned…hopefully…

I tried my hand at reversing up to the trailer to hitch it on…rain was just starting… sitting in the car wondering why George is taking so long hitching it up…George comes back saturated as the rain was getting pretty heavy by now…wondering why I didn’t help him… <no need for us both to get wet> hahaha…

Goodbye Hervey Bay

Finally on our way, with the rain pretty full on, we popped by the Snakes Downunder Reptile Park at Childers…was raining but the nice ladies put on a show for all of us…(us being: George and I and a family of 5!)

someone forgot to tell this guy he is a lizard not a monkey

George loves Snakes! ahahahha

Weather was supposed to be a little clearer further north than we were planning so we kept going up towards 1770…last turn off at Miriam Vale we see a big sign

 1770 FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND

Awesome! But damn, we hadn’t booked anywhere…so we called the caravan park in our cheap park book and he had accommodation so we headed there…Turns out he was the only one that had spaces left!

Big Things in Hervey Bay

There tucked down a side street George spied... "The Fighting Whiting"

attempting to be a pinup on the anchor, but I kept nearly
falling off, couldnt manage not falling off and looking sultry!

Hervey Bay also has a massive pier!

not this one...this is just a regular sized one for reference :-)

More pics from Hervey coming soon...

Scarness Caravan Park

Scarness Caravan Park - Stop 2 (280kms)

We got scared off by the price of fuel in Mundubbera so we filled up the car with our 2 jerry cans of fuel.
Our new fangled jerry spout was a HUGE failure, resulting in our car being drenched in diesel! But lucky we had a jiggler that my brother had given us...buying a funnel when we get the chance.

Got onto the Isis Highway and stopped off at Childers for some lunch at a nice bakery, just down the road from a place called The Old Pharmacy which had heaps of old pharmacuetical stuff, bottles, medicines etc...really cool...it was actually a museum but we didnt pay to go in...

Arrived at 2.30ish and cruised around town to find a caravan park we liked the look of...

Scarness Caravan Park is right on the ocean 3 rows of vans and you are on the beach..nice swimming beach... and Marilyn was so so lovely, we had to stay here...also it was walking distance to the pub which George was hellbent on watching the State of Origin at!

The lovely Marilyn did warn us that everyone is staying down one end of the park at the moment because of the lorikeets....she said they are very noisy at late afternoon and morning, not to mention the poo!...She told us to walk down and check it out and make sure it was OK... Its a nice park and we are near the ammenities..so we said we would stay...

Set up was pretty quick, still no annexe but all the works came out and setup...table, fridge etc etc...

We went down the the beach to watch the sunset..

We came back to...THE LOUDEST BIRDS I HAVE EVER HEARD!!...and I have walked down Bradman Ave, on the Sunshine Coast of an evening! Yep they were loud and keep going into the evening! But you get used to yelling and its a bit funny ...for now....test me out in a few days...

We went out for dinner and watched Origin at the pub, across the road from a MEGA screen set up in the park...

NUFF SAID....

Auburn River National Park

Auburn River National Park - (Stop 1- 316km)

After what seemed like an enternity driving down this dirt track, we arrived.. at 6pm -past dark...so our first set up, in the dark (on several ant nests no less) but that is where our allocated camp site was...probably took us 30mins for an express setup...no annexe and only bare essentials unpacked...ie.champagne and cheese, and seats

pretty good considering we set up at night!

After a substantial sleep in and lazy breakfast, we went out to explore the national park. There were 5 campsites...really only 2 of the 5 could support our camper setup in size, each campsite was a different shape/size with its own firepit. There was a relatively good long drop, gas BBQ and water available (not for drinking though)
We went out to the look out and looked across to the gorge and the awesome huge boulders. There was a 1.6km steep grade walk to the rockpools at the bottom, would have loved to see them but I woosed out and we were running out of time. George said next time there is no excuses, even if I pass out half way...

We had to be out by 11.30 (not that there was a single other soul around) So we packed up and headed back down the dusty track back to Mundubbera and on to Hervey Bay...

Big Citrus...

Left the Sunny Coast at 2pm, pumped up the rear airbags to maximum to accomodate our fully loaded 1.42tonne trailer! Pull Magnum...pull...

Headed for our first stop Auburn River National Park near Mundubbera...

Coming in near Gympie we spied in the distance...A BIG KANGAROO...

mmm..I am reading the info about
Matilda not trying to look up her tail

and not only was it a big kangaroo....it moved!!! (It was Matilda from the Brisbane Commonwealth Games!)

We then headed along the Wide Bay Highway then onto the Burnett highway and into Gayndah... only to find another unexpected big thing...

The Big Orange and the Big "Gay Dan"??? I know.... I know....why???
There was the nicest lady at the big orange, she was packed up for the day but she let us in and take some photos of the big orange and good ole gay dan...she was even going to put the flags back out the front so we could see them at their best...so sweet...

Then on to....Mundubbera and The Big Mandarin!

Who doesnt love a large citrus at sunset??... Lucky we do cause all our stops today meant we arrived 'late' to the national park...as in 'pitch black late'...