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