Friday June 16 Cairns
to Home Hill
We left Gen’s early, dodging peak hour, simply heading
south. Our first stop was in the
beautiful coastal town of Cardwell, billed as Queensland’s oldest town. It has beautiful gardens, sculptures, an
amphitheatre…on the waterfront overlooking Hinchinbrook Island.
At Ingham we had another stop. Coffee and supermarket, then on again through
seemingly endless fields of sugarcane.
After skirting Townsville we did a side trip, heading for the coast for
lunch. Wrong! Very shortly before arriving at the coast we
were confronted with signs saying “Authorised vehicles only” – Queensland
Institute of Marine Science. Pity that
wasn’t signposted at the highway, 20km away!!!!
We took a track into “Bowling Green National Park” to find a
picnic spot. That was a success, but
the track was so dodgy, on the edge of wetlands, we decided not to continue,
and returned to the safety of the main road!
Why Bowling Green? All we can
suppose is that it was named for the extensive very flat salt pans.
Actually, the main road is far from safe. We were basically pushed off the road twice
by B doubles overtaking when they didn’t have enough time/space.
Back into sugar cane territory we stopped to camp in a
caravan park in Home Hill, just after crossing the Burdekin River. Wendy went for a bike ride to check out the
area – the river, its unique bridge, the sugar cane trains going into the mill
some really good information boards along the way.
Back at camp, Rick had done a repair job on our tent’s LED
lights. We enjoyed a roast dinner –
thanks to a Woolies cooked chook and veggies roasted in our wonderful little
Omnia oven.
Saturday June 17 Home
Hill to Brandybottle Camp
We really should stop this leaving early caper!! We could easily have been at our destination
before lunch, but since there wasn’t much to do there, we found some activities
along the way.
We checked Bowen out.
Lots of nice parks and water front, then Wendy found a walking track in
a National Park, just off the highway.
2km round trip and a vertical rise of 185m, sounded like a good
workout…it was more than that. Half of
the way there wasn’t track at all, just a few coloured markers to give the general
direction up a very rocky and steep dry creek bed!
The rest could vaguely be called a track, but
it had never been properly cut, so there were all sorts of tricky bits on
edges, lots of tree roots, fallen trees, and steep, dry slippery dirt. Thank goodness
for walking poles. A couple of young
women on the trail were seriously struggling without poles. The said they were “In awe of Wendy”!!! We
investigated the story behind the name “The Leap”. An Aboriginal woman carrying her
three-year-old child leapt off a cliff to evade capture by the Queensland
Native Police in the 1860s. It's pretty sad there's no mention of her anywhere on the walk.
We decided to treat ourselves to a café lunch, so ventured
into Mackay. Wow, what a big city! We wanted a sea view, so figured the Surf
Lifesaving Club café should work. It
did. The beach had quite coarse sand but
was really long and clean. The harbour
is formed by some enormous breakwaters to protect the huge ships that some in
to be loaded with sugar.
We arrived at Brandybottle Camp – basically a greenish
paddock, but being further south and late in the day, we didn’t need shade! We tried playing a few tunes in the common
area but no one was in the least bit interested!! We couldn’t believe how cold it was in the
evening. We didn’t come prepared for a
fire, so had to cringe off to bed!
Sunday June 18 Brandybottle Camp to Agnes Water
There was an incredibly heavy dew overnight, so packing up
was a bit unpleasant! No, we weren’t
patient enough to wait for the tent to dry!
Back on the Bruce highway, travel wasn’t quite as unpleasant
as it seemed there were less trucks on the road. Probably because it was Sunday.
Once again we decided to visit a city! Gladstone this time. It was really interesting to see the
enormous coal loading facility at the port and also that the artificial
breakwater has been made into a park. It
was a beautiful place to have lunch.
Continuing southwards we finally escaped the Bruce Highway
as we headed to the coast and the town of 1770. Along the way we called into “Travellers
Retreat 1770”, put up the wet tent and scooted off to check out Agnes Water and
1770 itself. It really is a beautiful
area and fast becoming a tourist mecca. We
went to the end of the road, checked out the lookouts then walked back to the
Captain Cook monument. 1770 was named
because it was the first port in Queensland where Cook brought in the
Endeavour. Seems incredible now, as the
entrance has been silted up and there are sandbars everywhere!
On the way back to camp we stopped and collected wood. We weren’t going to be cold again!!
Monday June 19 Agnes
Water to Cania Gorge
We ran our gas bottle out, so thanks again to the Trangia we
had a cuppa and porridge for breakfast.
We returned to Agnes Water village and found a gas supplier happy to
help us. It was a perfect morning, so we
took our breakfast to the beach where we hoped to see some surfing. Beautiful beach, but no surf! We had to be content with a school group
making sand castles!
It was wonderful to be off the Bruce Highway as we headed
west to Cania Gorge where we were meeting up with our good friends Glenn and
Aileen Scotney who we met when living in Chile. About half of the trip was on
dirt roads, mostly in good condition. It
was a beautiful drive and we spotted some great looking wood so stopped to load
it onto the roof. While we were doing
that, the caretaker of the property happened along. She was rather a character and gave us a bit
of entertainment!
We arrived at Cania Gorge early afternoon so enjoyed a great
catch up while setting up camp. Glenn
and Wendy did a short walk amongst the fabulous sandstone pillars, walls, caves
and amazing formations.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Aileen is the queen of fish and chips, having run a fish and
chip shop in the past, and since Glenn is a great fisherman, we were treated to
a spectacular feast.
Tuesday June 20
Cania Gorge
How delightful to not move camp for a change. A lovely slow
start, then Glenn and Wendy went off on another spectacular walk for a few
hours.
We were back at camp for lunch. That’s when Wendy’s dramas began. She decided to boil a couple of eggs and as
she put them in the boiling water, one cracked…to reveal it was rotten. What a stench and of course it wrecked the
other egg as well. Changing the menu,
she made a wrap and was half way through eating that, and helping Rick with an
app on his phone when a kookaburra swooped down, took the wrap, gave her a
significant fright and a scratched leg!!!
In the afternoon we drove to the Cania Dam where, at a
lookout, we had a much better view than the one we slogged up to in the
morning! Wendy did a walk to an old
gold mine site but it was pretty disappointing!
On the way back we collected more wood so we could have a big cooking
and keep warm fire.
We expected this to be our last night under canvas, with
lots of visits to friends and family for the rest of the trip home. It was a perfect night to finish off. Great company, huge fire, fabulous 3 course
meal, no wind, lots of stars and we attracted the biggest crowd for the trip when we played music
before dinner. Thanks to Aileen for the photos.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Wednesday June 21
Cania Gorge to Hervey Bay
Another big plus for our last night of camping, the fly was
a bit wet, but the tent perfectly dry when we packed it at 7.30am! We had a very amusing photo shoot session
trying to get Louis, the dog to look at the camera, especially as we had set it
on a timer so we could all be in the picture.
Aileen and Glenn were heading north and we took off to the
south, taking a series of quiet minor roads that meandered across the ranges for
most of the way. At the tiny village of
Dallarnil there was a school and one business – a café! We had to give it some business of
course. A bonus was they had some
beautiful big passionfruit for 20c each!!
We had a wander around Childers, it had a great vibe, with well
preserved old pubs and other shops and some good street art. Lunch called so we detoured to Burrum Heads
where we enjoyed a picnic in a park with a water view, beautiful sunshine and
no thieving birds!
We arrived at our AirBnb tiny house early afternoon. It was perfect, especially for our immediate
needs – a washing machine and space to dry the tent’s fly! Wendy ventured out on her bike, enjoying the
bike trails, but not finding the tourist information centre. Mr Google sent her to the wrong end of
town. Still, a 25km ride was just
perfect!
In the evening we met up with Ricks nephew Miska and wife
Chris and had quite unusual pizzas in a top rated pizzeria. We last saw them in Perth, last year, so
quite a treat to see them as they’ve recently relocated.
Elaine
2023-06-21
Great you were able to spend time with Miska and Chris
Denise
2023-06-21
Ooh, I remember sailing around Vape Bowling Green, and thought it was never going to end! Thanks for the travelogue and pics. Dig out the thermals for the trip south.
Rod
2023-06-21
Ahhh, the sugar cane. Aahh the trucks. Brings back memories. Do not hurry home unless you like cold, wind, rain - all 4 letter words. So glad the trip is still an adventure. Travel well