Day 17 Rockhampton to Blacks Beach Mackay

Nothing much to report today.  The road between Rockhampton and Sarina is quite boring and I remember my dad calling it the "horror stretch".  The road has improved slightly over the years, particularly when the road was moved slightly to the east.  It is a relief to the eyes to come across the ocean views at Clareview.
As we were fuelling up at Yaamba we watched this fella walking along the highway.  I have no idea what his plan was but it's a hard way to see the world.

It was, once again, a rainy day.  We have commented to each other that we have been under cloud cover almost the whole time we have been away.  One thing that is a relief though is that the temperature has warmed.  Gee we struck some cool weather.

Wickicamps has been a lifesaver on this trip and has directed us to some places that we might have bypassed.  Today, for example, we found that there was a rest area at Sarina Beach that looked inviting even though it was still drizzling.  It was a good choice and we discussed how many of these beaches there are along the east coast of Australia.  Philip recalled his mother saying that it was her dream to call in at every beach along the Queensland coast.  Well Dallas, we are working on it for you.

Sarina Beach

Another search on Wikicamps found us a really fabulous van park at Blacks Beach north of Mackay.  This has been by far and away the best park we have stayed at.  The amenities are impeccable and the sites very large shady and green.  We opted to pay the extra dollars to have an absolute beachfront site.  We did regret this however when l a storm blew in from the ocean.  It was very windy and we ended up dismantling the annex as we were frightened it may take off through the night.

Blacks Beach Mackay 

I had a an uncomfortable night as I have picked up the same bug that Philip had at Fraser Island.  It's not a bad bug but it does make you feel a bit "off".
We cooked up a roast pork belly tonight with all the vegetables and I will just have to take Philips word for it that it tasted great because I just could not stomach it.  Let's hope I feel better tomorrow as we are staying with friends tomorrow night and I don't want to pass on the bug.

Day 16 - Fraser Island to Rockhampton

Well, it's a fact, we are resort lovers.  Sure, we also enjoy our camper and will get many years of faithful service from it because where we want to travel there are no resorts, but we are definitely lovers of the finer life.
We slept in quite late and were woken by the sound of rain falling gently on the roof.  It was a very overcast day so we timed our departure from Fraser Island to perfection.

A rainy day

View from our resort room overlooking the lagoon

We had a buffet breakfast in the resort dining room and after breakfast we packed the clothes we had taken from the camper back in the camper and made our way to the vehicular ferry ramp.  We had arrived in plenty of time so we decided to do a beach walk.  Unfortunately it was cut short by another shower of rain heading our way.

The same girl that loaded us on to the ferry on the way over was also there to load us again and I'm happy to report that she was in a much better mood.  One might even say cheery!

Looking back towards Fraser Island and we timed our departure well as the rain set in

The 45 minute ferry ride seemed to take no time at all this time and by midday we had the car off the boat and pointed north.  We had thoughts of returning to the lovely beachside caravan park at Yeppoon but with all the roadworks south of Rockhampton we didn't arrive into Rocky until 5.30 pm so it would have been a very late arrival into Yeppoon.  We are staying at the same caravan park that we stayed at last year, The Parkhurst, as it is clean and the sites are large and at $25/night, very cheap.
I had pulled out some chicken kebabs at our lunch stop and I had a bag of stir-fry veggies already in the fridge so that was our dinner tonight.  Why does food cooked on the BBQ taste so much better that what it does cooked on the stovetop at home?
It is now time to lay my head down in our very comfortable camper bed and have some sweet dreams.  Although I enjoyed our night at the resor,t I love our camper bed more than any other bed I have ever slept in, and that's a big call!

Day 15 - Fraser Island

We've had a very full and interesting day with decisions made and changed quite a few times.  Most of the decisions centred around the state of the roads we travelled.
We started our day early to make sure that we drove the beach at low tide.  It was perfect timing and we had a great run along 75 mile Beach to Eurong.  We even watched a plane land on the beach in front of us.

At Eurong we went looking for the QPWS office so that we could ask which road would be the best to get to Lake Mackenzie.  We made the decision yesterday to move camp to Central Camping Station as it was closer to our departing point the following day.  I had mobile reception at Eurong so I went online and made the booking.  We finally found the QPWS office only to find that it is no longer manned so our road decisions had to be our own.  Fortunately for us we made the right decision to travel the "one way" Eurong Road across to Central Station.  It was wide and well maintained.

Instead of turning into Central Station we decided to keep heading towards Lake Mackenzie in time for a swim and lunch.  This is where things became rather hairy scary as we came across a downhill section of road that was very badly rutted.  Three massive great holes in the road saw us "hung up" for a scary couple of minutes.  Fortunately my husband is a good driver and manipulated the vehicle over the holes.  One of the park rangers was watching us the whole time (he was coming up the hill) and told us "Yes.  We have to do something about that".  

Lake Mackenzie was everything I had hoped for.  A pure white sand beach surrounded the crystal clear lake that changed colours as the water deepened.  Philip had a long swim while I just dipped my toes.  It was cold!

After our swim and lunch we were once again back in the car and when we reached the Kingfisher Bay turnoff to our left and Central Camping Station to our right (with the deeply rutted road) we made the quick decision to head to Kingfisher.  We knew there was no camping here and hey, what the heck, let's live it up for a night.  It was a great choice.

We took a long walk around the extensive gardens at the resort, out along the jetty and on our way back we found the perfect place to stop for a drink and watch the sunset.  It was fabulous.  I even managed to get a photo of a dingo walking along the beach.  No-one seemed very perturbed by his presence.

When the sun had slowly dipped in the west we made our way back to our room.  No dinner for us tonight as we had munched on an antipasto plate for sunset drinks.  It was a sweet end to a rather full day.

Day 14 - Cathedrals on Fraser

Today we decided to do....... NOTHING!  

Seriously, every day has been a busy day with lots of travel so it was a relief to sit back and do nothing.  Actually it was for the best as Philip has come down with some sort of "bug".  He had a very restless night last night and today all he wanted to do was sleep so our day was planned.

I took the opportunity to catch up on a bit of washing and then sat back with the Weekend Australian and a nice bottle of Rose and that was my day.  It was pure bliss and I was in bed asleep by 7.00 pm.  Tomorrow was going to be an early start to hit the beach at low tide as we planned to go to Lake Mackenzie and perhaps move camp to Central Camping Station as we have realised that we won't be able to make the return ferry in time from our present camp.  Uhhhummmm.  Better planning next time.

For lunch - Roast Pumpkin, Lemon Kale, Hommus, Pepittas and Pomegranate

Day 13 - Goodbye Evergreen Hello Fraser Island

The vehicular ferry to Fraser Island was for 12.30 pm so we rose fairly early to fill up our water tanks and fill the Engel freezer with bacon from the Tiaro Butcher that Marco and Suzie had pre-purchased for us.   Marco also gave us fresh vegetables from their garden and some sausages that they had made that very week.  How good is that!

The Evergreen Heifers looked very inquisitively at us as we left.  Gee they look good!

 Our first stop was at Maryborough to purchase a few things from Coles and then on to River Heads where the ferry was waiting for us.  The girl in charge of loading the cars was obviously having a bad day and was quite impatient with everyone but nevertheless we were all boarded and departed at the designated time.

The 45 minute trip to Fraser was uneventful but we did pass a pod of dolphins that played along with the boat for quite awhile.  The photo I got was unimpressive so you will just have to imagine.  As we disembarked the ferry at Kingfisher Resort our first impression was very positive.  The resort looks like it could be a very nice place to stay.

After a few wrong turns we found our way out of the resort fenced complex and hit the sand.  The map that we were following to Cathedral Beach said that we should follow a road called Cornwell's, and that is what we did.  The road started out okay but quickly deteriorated into a very narrow heavily rutted road.  The road was only 20km from west coast to east coast but took us more than an hour.  You have to be very careful of approaching traffic as the road is only one lane wide and means that one of you has to back up and pull over on a suitable place.

 It was a relief to finally see the ocean on the GPS but just as we could hear the waves we came across a car that was bogged in the last sand dune before he reached the ocean.  Of course we helped him out and he was very grateful (thank goodness for the good old "snatchem" strap).

It was fantastic hitting the beach and driving along the super smooth "highway".  We had timed the tide right (can't say that was planned!) and made our way north towards Cathedral Beach where we were booked for the next three nights.

The coloured sands of Cathedral Beach loomed to the west of us and we knew our camp was not far away

We arrived at Cathedrals on Fraser at about 4.00 pm and quickly settled into our camp site.  It is a lovely shaded campsite that I'm sure we are going to enjoy.

Day 12 - Beaudesert to Gundiah

We woke quite early again this morning.  Daylight in the south is around 5.00 am and we are not quite used to that as our daylight is around 6.00 am.
My sister's day begins early as she heads over to the stables to feed and water the twenty odd horses.  My great niece, Bella, loves helping "Nanny".

The name of the property that my sister and brother in law own is called "Sapling" and it is just 5 minutes from Beaudesert but very rural.  This area is renowned for its many horse racing properties.  I don't think there is a lot of money in horse racing these days but my sister and hubby just love the horses even though it is a lot of work.

After a pancake and banana breakfast, cooked by my brother in law, we were back in the car and on our way to Toowoomba via Boonah, Laidley and Rosevale.  

At Toowoomba we stopped at Mum's for a quick cup of tea and delicious, still warm, Banana Cake.  Mum was able to relate that John's 6 hour operation was successful although he is still in ICU for the next few days.

Next stop for us was Cooroy where we found a shady rest area and made our selves BLT's for lunch.  We decided to have a nanny nap after lunch because we knew we would probably sit up late when we reached at our son's place.

We arrived at "Evergreen" at around 5.00 p.m. and once we had unpacked the van we grabbed a couple of drinks and headed up to the chooks where the two new Maremma pups were caged.  They are so cute at this age.....Big bundles of fur. 

The chooks inside their caravan

Back at the house Marco had a roast in the oven and we chopped up carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and corn and cooked them in the steamer to go with the roast.  Marco is also renowned for his gravy and that did not disappoint.  The meal was delicious, healthy and very tasty.

After dinner we watched Australia annihilate Fiji in the World Cup semi-finals. Australia now plays Tonga in the finals.