Townsville to Rollingstone

Our day didn't start off too well. We took a wrong turn trying to find a free camp so I get out my trusted google maps and tell Brad, its no worries just follow this road for a bit and we will be able to go around the block up ahead a bit further. But NO for the first time google has let me down and what was supposed to be a turn was a dead end! So we have to unhook the car (you can't reverse with an A-frame connected) reverse the bus back up the road turn at the t-section, reverse back to the car and hook it back up. When we get close to the main road we decide to unhook the car and have a drive around to check out the camps in the area, and make sure the bus can actually fit. We get about 2 minutes down the road and find our original destination which has a spot just right for us. We drive back to the bus and Brad drives it into Bushy Parker Park Rollingstone. A beautiful and peaceful spot.

Lucy doing her schoolwork at Rollingstone

We had everything we needed in the car for a day out so we headed towards Crystal Creek to do some exploring. Big Crystal Creek is first and its beautiful. We ran into a ranger there who said people had been swimming in there earlier that day. It was still slightly overcast and after standing in the water for a few minutes my toes started to go numb, so there was no way we would be swimming! The kids loved climbing all over the rocks.

Big Crystal Creek

Then we drove up the mountain to Little Crystal Creek, which has a lovely bridge and small waterfall and a couple of small walks. Brad showed us where he used to jump off the rocks into the water. 

Little Crystal Creek

The kids were very keen to do a bit more walking tracks so we headed a further 17kms up the mountain to Paluma. Paluma used to be called Cloudy Clearing, which was very appropriate for when we were there. The kids were pretty excited to be up in the clouds, it did make the temperature drop slightly though!

Heating up some lunch in the carpark at a cold and cloudy Paluma

There were a few walks to pick from up here. The first one we came across was 1.1km but we thought that might be too far for the kids. So we found a smaller one leading up to a look out. It was such a shame it was too cloudy too see because the lookout on a clear day would be spectacular  There was a walk near the lookout that in total was a bit over 5kms so we thought we would just do a bit and turn back, but we ended up doing the whole thing! The kids were fantastic and didn't complain once, well Chloe did complain once but after a quick piggy back up a steep hill she was fine and did the rest by herself at a run. Lucy did so well and was very proud of herself at the end, she was pretty scared at the start but bravely kept going and ended up having a great time. I had such a wonderful time on this walk, on the way to the lookout and waterfall Brad and Chloe went ahead and Lucy and I strolled behind at our own pace having a lovely chat. On the way back Chloe and I ran ahead (Chlo doesn't like to walk; running or skipping is more her style). I loved this walk, it was so good to spend a bit of time individually with each of the girls, they really do have such different but beautiful little personalities.

The next morning we spent a bit of time exploring the crystal clear creek that runs along the back of the free camp. The creek had some shallow spots that the kids enjoyed walking around in and it got a bit deeper further down where we spotted lot of different size fish swimming around.

We then spent a relaxing few hours at Balgal Beach, playing in the sand of course! Rollingstone has a 48 hour limit so we packed up that afternoon to try and head off early the next morning.