We are sitting here as the sun goes down, with strange bush turkeys hovering at our feet. Quite disconcerting when you see their beady little eyes, hungry for morsels. We have run into them before, but not quite as friendly or pushy as they are here at the Capricorn Caves (previously the Mt Etna Caves), 24km north of Rockhampton.
Arrived here about 3pm after stopping in Rockhampton to visit our friendly Foodworks.
Our previous camp just out of 1770 (the town) and Agnus Waters, was in the Eurimbula NP, called middle Creek. It is an obscure fishing location that we hoped no-one bothered to drive out to, and we were pretty much right. We weaved our way through tiny, and i mean tiny, sand/dirt tracks that took us for 19km, out to the mouth of the very tidal Middle Creek. But gee when we got there was it worth it! Even now we are amazed that we managed to find such an isolated campsite, only 30km or so from the very touristy Agnus Waters/1770.
Our camp was up high on a headland looking out over the ocean and Middle Creek, 300 degrees of water. Just gorgerous! Anyway I will be sure to post some photos soon so you can all photoshop yoursleves in.....
Sell your car for just $40 at CarPoint.com.au It's simple!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
July 25th - Fraser Island
Well the rain has finally stopped, after dumping more than 120mm on us in less than 48hrs. It rained non-stop for two whole days and only ceased late last night. The gale force winds continued to gust into the early hours threatening to tear our place apart, before leaving us in an eery silence this morning. The kids, who normally wake with the birds at the first hint of daylight, slept in till 7.45am. Allowing a rare sleep in for us too.....bizarre.
We have seen two dingoes while we have been on the Island. The first sorry looking specimen, we saw wandering aimlessly on the beach the first day we arrived. The second Max and Jake met, as they made a mad dash in the downpour to the nearby bushes (not all of us can have an ensuite). It was scrounging around near the tent, in the pouring rain, looking again very sad and sorry for itself. After the initial shock of being disturbed it dashed off, only to stand around for a few minutes just in case we decided to send a few morsels its way, before disappearing.
As the rain and wind bombarded us, we spent the first day hiding from the elements inside the tent. But as the conditions continued into the second day we decided to brave it and attempt a few of the inland tracks. It was an absolute crack! The tracks that had been dry two days earlier were running like rivers. It was great to see. So our boring afternoon turned into some of the best 4WDing we have done so far.....Great stuff. We sank in the sloppy sand and hit some deep wheel ruts that were carved out even deeper by the fast running water. Crept thru giant rainforests with pools of water over the track, and attempted to take photos with only a parka to keep me and the camera dry. Not so succesful.
We had avoided the beach because of the hazardous conditions, and the howling on shore wind which was causing the sea to come up as far as the dunes. However the inland tracks were full of their own hazards and we had fun negotiating them as the rain continued to hammer down. Eventually we ended up on the coast at Happy Valley, one of the islands so called resorts, where we had a quick bite before deciding to brave the beaches back to our campsite. We were still nearly three hours from low tide but because of the winds there was high seas no matter what time you left.
So we gritted our teeth and with the rain still coming down, made a dash for camp, negotiating the waves and washouts as we went. Other vehicles stuck by the same weather were also nervously looking at the surf as they drove along the beach trying to reach camp. Ha! All up quite an eventful day and we really got to see nature at its wild and wooliest....
Bees, cows, tigers and more! Windows Live Messenger treats you to 30 free emoticons.
We have seen two dingoes while we have been on the Island. The first sorry looking specimen, we saw wandering aimlessly on the beach the first day we arrived. The second Max and Jake met, as they made a mad dash in the downpour to the nearby bushes (not all of us can have an ensuite). It was scrounging around near the tent, in the pouring rain, looking again very sad and sorry for itself. After the initial shock of being disturbed it dashed off, only to stand around for a few minutes just in case we decided to send a few morsels its way, before disappearing.
As the rain and wind bombarded us, we spent the first day hiding from the elements inside the tent. But as the conditions continued into the second day we decided to brave it and attempt a few of the inland tracks. It was an absolute crack! The tracks that had been dry two days earlier were running like rivers. It was great to see. So our boring afternoon turned into some of the best 4WDing we have done so far.....Great stuff. We sank in the sloppy sand and hit some deep wheel ruts that were carved out even deeper by the fast running water. Crept thru giant rainforests with pools of water over the track, and attempted to take photos with only a parka to keep me and the camera dry. Not so succesful.
We had avoided the beach because of the hazardous conditions, and the howling on shore wind which was causing the sea to come up as far as the dunes. However the inland tracks were full of their own hazards and we had fun negotiating them as the rain continued to hammer down. Eventually we ended up on the coast at Happy Valley, one of the islands so called resorts, where we had a quick bite before deciding to brave the beaches back to our campsite. We were still nearly three hours from low tide but because of the winds there was high seas no matter what time you left.
So we gritted our teeth and with the rain still coming down, made a dash for camp, negotiating the waves and washouts as we went. Other vehicles stuck by the same weather were also nervously looking at the surf as they drove along the beach trying to reach camp. Ha! All up quite an eventful day and we really got to see nature at its wild and wooliest....
Bees, cows, tigers and more! Windows Live Messenger treats you to 30 free emoticons.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
July 22nd - Fraser Island
With cruiser and camper primped and preened, food stocked to the roof and two travel worthy children, we waved goodbye to Noosa and headed for the sands of Fraser Island. It was strange being back on the road but straight away we gave a collective sigh of relief and felt that freedom creep back into our bones. Ella and Jake were excited and enthusiastic to be back in the 'big black car' and be towing our house again.
Made our way via Rainbow Beach to Inskip Point, which was beautiful and crawling with 4wd's and families swimming and fishing. Here we boarded the barge to scoot us the 500m across to Fraser Island. The distance from the mainland to the island is shortest from Inskip Point and we had heard that most good beaches and 4WDing was accessed from this end.
As the barge bumped rather awkwardly into the beach on Fraser, we loaded up and after letting our tyre pressures down, took to the beach. Awesome stuff! The beaches are beautiful and although we were a couple of hours off low tide it was still easy enough to negotiate our way north and through some beach streams. The day was grey, but with the raging seas and white sands, it was exhilarating. It was a strange feeling hooning along the beach thinking at any time the fun police were going to come along and tell us to get off the beach. Cool fun.
There is bush camping along certain sections of the eastern beach (which we had already paid a permit for) so we chose a secluded looking spot and tried to find a suitable camp. Our first attempt found us mounting a soft white sund dune that would give any dune from the Simpson desert a run for its money, but the cruiser managed it fine and we found gorgeous grass and sand covered camps, nestled just off the beach behind the first dune. GORGEOUS! We nearly managed to get the trailer and cruiser bogged on our first attempt to position ourselves, but success prevailed.
Setting ourselves on a secluded grassy knoll looking back towards the beach we revelled in our perfect campsite...ahhhhhhh
Our second day still saw grey skies but we decided to do some inland 4WDing to see the three giant lakes and beautiful rainforests. It really is a place of contrasts. We drove 15km or so up the beach, past people fishing which again made me wish I knew something about fishing...sigh... and turned off onto an inland track.
Much to our disgust the inland lakes were inhabited by those wacky foreign tourists who think throwing around giant flourescent beach balls and floating five to a blowup boat is something we all enjoy to see and hear. NOT! So we hightailed it away from the hire cars and backpackers and made for the serenity and isolation of the eastern beach.
Back to the beach we enjoyed the afternoon, although not much sun.
Last night the grey, threatening skies delivered on their promise and opened up. We knew it was coming so it was no great surprise to wake at midnight to hear the rains coming down. The rain has continued non stop through this morning and we are holed up in our camper. A change of camp, as planned today, doesn't seem like such a great idea in this weather. So we will sit it out till we can get back onto the beach.............maybe the next blog will be about the great cup of tea we just had!
Sell your car for just $40 at CarPoint.com.au It's simple!
Made our way via Rainbow Beach to Inskip Point, which was beautiful and crawling with 4wd's and families swimming and fishing. Here we boarded the barge to scoot us the 500m across to Fraser Island. The distance from the mainland to the island is shortest from Inskip Point and we had heard that most good beaches and 4WDing was accessed from this end.
As the barge bumped rather awkwardly into the beach on Fraser, we loaded up and after letting our tyre pressures down, took to the beach. Awesome stuff! The beaches are beautiful and although we were a couple of hours off low tide it was still easy enough to negotiate our way north and through some beach streams. The day was grey, but with the raging seas and white sands, it was exhilarating. It was a strange feeling hooning along the beach thinking at any time the fun police were going to come along and tell us to get off the beach. Cool fun.
There is bush camping along certain sections of the eastern beach (which we had already paid a permit for) so we chose a secluded looking spot and tried to find a suitable camp. Our first attempt found us mounting a soft white sund dune that would give any dune from the Simpson desert a run for its money, but the cruiser managed it fine and we found gorgeous grass and sand covered camps, nestled just off the beach behind the first dune. GORGEOUS! We nearly managed to get the trailer and cruiser bogged on our first attempt to position ourselves, but success prevailed.
Setting ourselves on a secluded grassy knoll looking back towards the beach we revelled in our perfect campsite...ahhhhhhh
Our second day still saw grey skies but we decided to do some inland 4WDing to see the three giant lakes and beautiful rainforests. It really is a place of contrasts. We drove 15km or so up the beach, past people fishing which again made me wish I knew something about fishing...sigh... and turned off onto an inland track.
Much to our disgust the inland lakes were inhabited by those wacky foreign tourists who think throwing around giant flourescent beach balls and floating five to a blowup boat is something we all enjoy to see and hear. NOT! So we hightailed it away from the hire cars and backpackers and made for the serenity and isolation of the eastern beach.
Back to the beach we enjoyed the afternoon, although not much sun.
Last night the grey, threatening skies delivered on their promise and opened up. We knew it was coming so it was no great surprise to wake at midnight to hear the rains coming down. The rain has continued non stop through this morning and we are holed up in our camper. A change of camp, as planned today, doesn't seem like such a great idea in this weather. So we will sit it out till we can get back onto the beach.............maybe the next blog will be about the great cup of tea we just had!
Sell your car for just $40 at CarPoint.com.au It's simple!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
July 17th 2008 - Noosa
Hi all,
...... Onwards and upwards!!!! You should all be happy to know that after a visit to the hospital in Brisbane again today the doctor has given us the go ahead to move on. They are more than happy with Ella's progress and are confident she will heal up in a few weeks. We have been decked out with a supply of dressings and will do the dressing changes ourselves every seven days till we hit Cairns, where we will do a final video conference with the doctors. Ahhh modern technology.....
After a few average days we are now revitalised and have used the down time to pull everything out of our roof rack pack, fix a puncture in our boat, put new shocker mounts on the trailer, service the cruiser, wash some blankets and sheets (that had been visited by bush mice at our last camp) and rebuild one of our air compressors. Busy, busy but all good. On top of this we were able to catch up with many family members, share in a birthday (Bridgette's 25th) and drive in Brisbane peak hour traffic with our camper trailer...TWICE. See even on boring days life is an adventure.
We will spend the weekend finalising things and will head north to Fraser Island on monday. From there we will cruise up the coast to Cairns where we will video conference with the Children's hospital before getting the go ahead to escape up the Cape. MMMmmmmm isloation.....and leeches...yay
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...... Onwards and upwards!!!! You should all be happy to know that after a visit to the hospital in Brisbane again today the doctor has given us the go ahead to move on. They are more than happy with Ella's progress and are confident she will heal up in a few weeks. We have been decked out with a supply of dressings and will do the dressing changes ourselves every seven days till we hit Cairns, where we will do a final video conference with the doctors. Ahhh modern technology.....
After a few average days we are now revitalised and have used the down time to pull everything out of our roof rack pack, fix a puncture in our boat, put new shocker mounts on the trailer, service the cruiser, wash some blankets and sheets (that had been visited by bush mice at our last camp) and rebuild one of our air compressors. Busy, busy but all good. On top of this we were able to catch up with many family members, share in a birthday (Bridgette's 25th) and drive in Brisbane peak hour traffic with our camper trailer...TWICE. See even on boring days life is an adventure.
We will spend the weekend finalising things and will head north to Fraser Island on monday. From there we will cruise up the coast to Cairns where we will video conference with the Children's hospital before getting the go ahead to escape up the Cape. MMMmmmmm isloation.....and leeches...yay
Click here. Want to help Windows Live Messenger plant more Aussie trees?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
July 15th - Noosa Qld
Good News.....returned to the Children's hospital yesterday for a review of Ella's arm and there is a great improvement. The doctor is confident it will heal on its own and has cancelled the surgery for wednesday, so we are greatly relieved. There is no need for a skin graft and we will just continue with the current dressing, changing it every four days or so. Tough as old boots is little Ella and is just her normal self.
We will now stay at Perigian Beach at Noosa for a while till we find out when we can move on. We will continue to drive to Brissy for dressing changes as needed.
All up we are using the opportunity to do some repairs and maintenance on the car and trailer and some cleaning of our gear and bedding.
Sell your car for just $40 at CarPoint.com.au It's simple!
We will now stay at Perigian Beach at Noosa for a while till we find out when we can move on. We will continue to drive to Brissy for dressing changes as needed.
All up we are using the opportunity to do some repairs and maintenance on the car and trailer and some cleaning of our gear and bedding.
Sell your car for just $40 at CarPoint.com.au It's simple!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
JULY 10 - Gold Coast
Just a quick update to explain that we are on the Gold coast and around Brisbane as Ella has burnt her arm and is getting treatment at the Childrens hospital. We were camped out at Carnarvon National Park in the Salvator Rosa section, having a lovely time and had been there for two or three days. Early arvo Ella managed to fall backwards off a small camp chair onto the ashes of a small fire that had been alight that morning. It was a about 4pm but the coals underneath were obviously still hot enough to do a bit of damage. Anyway we managed to get water onto it and dress it properly, then drive the two and a half hours out to a rural hospital. Since then we have been to Tawoomba Hospital and then onto the burns unit at the Brisbane Children's Hospital, so the best people are looking after her. She has been great and doesn't seem bothered by it at all, has been a real trooper. She will however need a skin graft to help it all heal, which looks like happening this week.
In the meantime, we are all fine and Ella is having a wonderful time playing with her cousins (who live up here) and visiting the beach. Anyway all's well that ends well so we will see what happens over the next week or so.
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In the meantime, we are all fine and Ella is having a wonderful time playing with her cousins (who live up here) and visiting the beach. Anyway all's well that ends well so we will see what happens over the next week or so.
Find out: SEEK Salary Centre Are you paid what you're worth?
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