Tin Can Bay to Caboolture - August 2014

We spent a bit of time in Gympie before driving to Pomona Showgrounds with the intention of basing ourselves here for a couple of days and doing day trips into Noosa and Sunshine Coast. There appeared to be plenty of flat spots but the caretaker was a bit picky about where we could park and the few spots he picked out for us, there was no way we were going to get level, so after an hour of mucking about here we decided to give it a miss and keep going to the next spot. There was a free camp about 10km down the road so we decided not to hook the car back up and drive separately. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake! I will be the first to admit that I have a terrible sense of direction. Usually when we drive separately I just stay behind Brad and follow him, but because I was the one looking at wikicamps I went ahead and left a bit earlier to suss out the first one and if it was no good there was another one further along. But I of course turned off the highway a bit early and by the time I got back on the highway I would have been behind Brad. Brad knew where the first one was supposed to be but there were roadworks and he couldn't find it and ended up back on the highway heading to Brisbane. I also couldn't find the free camp but somehow I ended up back on the highway heading back towards Gympie! Brad didn't know about the 2nd free camp I had in mind so he just kept driving. I finally managed to turn around and we eventually made contact and met up at fuel stop. We decided to just keep driving to Caboolture Showgrounds, the kids were very quick to switch vehicles at this point having learnt very quickly that Dad knows what he's doing and Mum doesn't!! We finally made it and paid for a week on a nice level spot with heaps of room. Once we pulled in we quickly decided a drink was needed and I made a quick dash to the bottle-o and I managed to not get lost!

Much more relaxed after a few drinks!

Torbanlea to Tin Can Bay - August 2014

The next destination was Tin Can Bay, we were booked into a caravan park but we weren't sure if we were going to fit so we left Torbanlea pretty early so that we would have plenty of time to find something else if the caravan park didn't work out. We didn't have to worry though the site was perfect with plenty of room for us. The main reason for our trip to Tin Can Bay was so that the kids, especially Chloe could have a chance of feeding some wild dolphins that come into the cove most mornings. Only 2 dolphins came into the cove the morning we were there, we lined up and the kids were 2nd in line! We were told that the birds are very bold and sneaky so when you receive your fish cover your bucket otherwise you might lose it. A volunteer did take some fish and lead the birds away from the dolphin feeding area. Chloe, Lucy and I headed down to the waters edge and you wouldn't believe it just as Chloe was about to put her fish under the water for the dolphin a rogue bird flew down and in a split second snatched it out of her hand. The volunteers were so good about it and went and got another lot of fish for the kids but there was no way Lucy was going to even try it and because the bird scratched Chloe she didn't want another go either. I was so disappointed for her, she had been really looking forward to it, but on the bright side I got to feed the dolphin both of the kids fishes!

Waiting patiently for breakfast

The injury

The culprit!

The rest of our time here was spent bike riding, I spent a fair bit of time utilising the free wi-fi and catching up on some blog posts. We had such beautiful weather and the pool was gorgeous, but the water was just too cold.

Soaking up the sun

On our last day we went for a drive into Rainbow Beach, such a beautiful spot! Lucy spent ages in the water, Chloe is slowly getting braver, throwing the frisbee around she actually went in knee deep a couple of times.

We headed back to the caravan park where the kids spent the afternoon dancing and singing to what else but some 'Frozen' songs.

Yeppoon to Torbanlea - August 2014

From Yeppoon we drove into Rockhampton and spent a few hours at the zoo at the Botanic Gardens. This is a great little zoo and it has the added benefit of being free! 

This gorgeous guy came straight over to say hello

As we were driving around Rocky we spotted a caravan and camping expo so we spent a few hours wandering around there. There have been a few times on this trip that I have thought maybe we would have been better off in a caravan, but after looking through loads of caravans today I am so thankful that we have our bus, we really do have so much more room inside. Yes it does occasionally make it harder to get into some places but I think it is definitely worth it!

We stayed at a free camp just outside Rockhampton called Woolwash Lagoon for the night, which we had all to ourselves. The best part about this was that we could have a night off from constantly telling Chloe to be quiet. She could be (and was) as loud as she liked!

Once again we got a pretty early start and headed just a bit further south to another free camp near Calliope. Brad and I spent the morning catching up on the washing and a bit of housework while the kids played and then drove into Gladstone for the afternoon. We spent another night here and woke up in shock on our final day to be surrounded by thick fog.

Lucy doing some school work in the sun

Next stop was Gin Gin rest area for the night, where we did absolutely nothing! Lucy did a bit of school work and Chloe made friends with a little boy about her age. The next morning we drove into Bundaberg, we left Bruce at a rest area and spent most of the day driving around the area. One stop that we really liked was Bargara. It had a fantastic playground that the kids did not want to leave. I definitely want to come back to this area in summer to watch some turtles laying their eggs on the shore.

We picked Bruce up and drove about 20km south west of Bundy to a free camp that I think was called Wallum Reserve for the night. We had a surprise visitor here, our neighbours from a camp in Calliope spotted the red stripe on Bruce from the highway and called into say hello. There was a short walk here at the back of the camp that the kids enjoyed so much they made an extra effort to get up early the next morning and do it again before we left.

Practising for the circus that she wants to join one day

A bit of a flashback to childhood being surrounded by these horrible banksia men!

Love these two xxx

Because the kids got up early to go for a walk we were able to leave pretty early and get to the next free camp, which was at Torbanlea. We left Bruce here and drove into Hervey Bay for the day. What a beautiful place! I'm not sure if its always like this but the water was so calm it was more like a lake than ocean. 

We let the kids decide what they wanted to do at Hervey Bay which was to play at a park (easily pleased) so we spent a few hours playing at a couple of different parks before heading back to Bruce for the night.

Bowen to Yeppoon - August 2014

We left Bowen and drove into Airlie Beach for a look around. The kids attempted to have a swim in the beautiful lagoon. Actually Lucy did have a good swim around. The water was pretty cold and it was cloudy which made it even colder when you got out. After a swim we wandered around the shops. 

The kids soon got sick of walking around, all they wanted to do was go swimming, so we drove on to Prosperpine where the sun was shining and we found a pool that was heated to a very comfortable 28 degrees. It was so nice and we had the place to ourselves for most of our time there. This was definitely the highlight of the kids week! 

After about 3 hours we managed to drag Chloe out of the pool and drove on to find a camp for the night. It was late in the afternoon so we thought we would drive until we found somewhere to pull over for the night. This took us a bit further than we planned and we ended up missing Mackay altogether and staying on the side of the road near a truck stop halfway between Mackay and Sarina.

We had an early start the next morning and drove to St Lawrence. I don't know why it was only about 120km but this felt like such a long drive, I think we may have gotten used to only doing about 50km at a time! I had heard really good reviews about St Lawrence so I think I had higher expectations than I should have. It is a pretty good campground with toilets and showers and they just ask for a donation. The town itself is very small and for some reason I thought it had a beach but it just has a very large bay called Broad Sound. It does have a very large tidal range from 6 - 9m, we did head down to the bay one evening to watch the tide come in which comes in really quickly.

Chloe testing out the fitness equipment at the park

Low tide at the sound

Some beetles the kid spotted on a walk

We did have a lovely few days here relaxing and enjoying the sunshine.

Watching the tide come in

After St Lawrence we drove to Yeppoon, we had a caravan park in mind as there didn't seem to be any free camps in the area. Once we got to the caravan park there was no way Bruce was going to fit on the site the owners had for us. On the way to the caravan park we did spot a few caravans parked up next to the beach so we headed back there to see if camping was allowed. Turns out you can camp there, we spoke to a council worker who said they prefer if you only stay 1 or 2 nights but said he wouldn't mind if we stretched it out to 3. It was such a beautiful spot I could have stayed here for a week! 

There was a 2.3km mountain walk a stones throw away, which was just perfect for the kids. Lucy surprised us by doing the walk everyday we were there and running for most of it. I think I'll just let the photos do the talking about this beautiful spot.

Bruce on his little patch of paradise