Mission Beach - Simply stunning!!! - July 2014

We pulled up out the front of the caravan park where our friends Mark, Vanessa, Will, Charlotte & George were staying. It looked pretty full and we didn't think we would fit and then a bus drove out, so Brad went and worked his magic again getting us a pretty good deal for the next week. These guys had the best site at the park for kids, right at the front with a big patch of grass to play on and right across from the beach.

Mark has a tinny and Brad was pretty keen to do some fishing so they spent the first afternoon fishing, while all the kids had a swim in the pool.

So happy to be back in a pool!

The next day we spent the morning at the beach, Lucy was very happy at this beach it was so beautiful with just soft sand, no shells, no crabs, no seaweed etc so she happily went in the water with her surf mat and astounded me with her confidence in going out and riding the perfect kid sized waves. It also happened to be Will's birthday and the kids were very excited to be invited to his birthday!  The kids had a great evening playing together but it cooled down really quickly so we headed across to light a fire on the beach to warm up. This certainly brought the crazy out of the kids, ours especially, they danced and sang in the dark for ages, before hunger set in and we went back to the CP for dinner and birthday cake. We had a great day helping you celebrate your birthday Will, we hope you had a great day too!!

The next couple of days were just spent relaxing and enjoying the great company. Mark and Brad went out fishing again this time bringing back some delicious spotty mackerel for dinner - sooo yummy!!! We met a guy doing a trip along the coast with his microlight and watched him take off on the beach. The kids spent a bit of time at the skatepark. Vanessa and I met a lady from Switzerland here for 6 weeks with her 2 kids. It was so interesting listening to her talk about her country. In Switzerland you have to get permission from parliament to take your kids out of school to travel, which is why they were only here for 6 weeks over their summer school holidays. Lucy was keen to get on her surf mat again, but every time we tried over the next couple of days, it was very flat with only very small waves.

One day we went to Kurramine Beach, Mark had offered to take us to the King Reef to do some snorkelling. Chloe stayed on the beach with Vanessa, while Brad, Lucy, Mark and I went out. Lucy didn't end up getting in the water but she loved the boat ride. I attempted to snorkel, which I have done years ago with no problems, but I had panicked a bit so gave up after awhile and stayed in the boat with Luce while the boys snorkelled. 

The Turtle Ness, Chloe & George made

We then went for a bit of a drive to Josephine Falls, a beautiful spot with a bitumen walkway all the way to the falls. The kids managed 5kms previously over reasonably rough terrain and didn't fall once, a couple of metres in on a smooth flat surface and Chloe falls over and skins her knee. We calmed her down and manage to get her to walk the rest of the way to the bottom part of the falls but because there is a small amount of blood on her knee she mopes and sooks, so we leave Brad and Lucy and go back to the car to get a bandaid. Miraculously just the thought of a bandaid seems to fix her, where she could barely manage to walk before now she runs all the way to the car, gets a bandaid and runs all the way back to Brad and Lucy and up to the top lookout. On the way back to the car (for the 2nd time) Chloe and I run ahead and spot a hollowed out tree that we decide to hide in to try and scare Brad. They were further behind us than I realised and a group of other people walked past first. The first couple of people spotted us so I said hello, unfortunately 1 of the girls hadn't seen us and when I said hello she screamed and jumped a mile. It was hilarious but I did feel really bad. We stayed in place waiting for our next victim, which was supposed to be Brad but unfortunately was Lucy. I'm still laughing about it writing this, but I'm not looking forward to the payback.

The next day Mark and Vanessa went out in the boat and we had a great morning with George, who is the most entertaining 3 year old I've ever met. Brad went out in the boat in the afternoon and we had a feast of shark, flathead and spotty mackerel for dinner.

The next morning was a rainy one so Brad took the opportunity to give Bruce a wash. By the afternoon cabin fever had hit and the rain had stopped so we went to a nearby jetty to do a bit of fishing. 5 kids on a jetty was not exactly a relaxing afternoon, but after awhile the girls and George found some squid lures in Marks tackle box and happily sat still and played with them, (they didn't have hooks) and we could relax without thinking we were going to loose a child over the edge. Unfortunately we didn't catch any fish.

The sun came back out on our last full day so we spent the morning doing a couple of short rainforest walks and the kids spent the afternoon in the pool.

Can you spot the spider?

The rain came back the next morning as we sadly said our good-bye's. Thanks guys for a fantastic week we, ate loads, drank heaps and had the best time. Mission Beach is so beautiful it has definitely made the list of places to holiday at in the future!

Rollingstone to Tully

We left Rollingstone a bit later than we thought because we had to empty our black waste tank at the dump point first. I usually just sit in the bus while Brad does it but this time I thought I should ask if he needed any help and of course he said yes. This is such a gross job, you don't see anything because of the hose so its a bit better than dumping a cassette, but the smell when you open the dump point lid is so disgusting. So I'm standing there trying to 'help' but at the same time covering my nose and trying even harder not to dry retch! At last it was all done and I could finally breath again - well until next time at least. The joys of living in a motorhome!!

We stopped for a quick break at a lovely seaside town called Cardwell. We took a walk along the jetty to stretch our legs and then spotted a couple of jellyfish, which of course freaked the kids outs, so that ended our little visit to Cardwell.

We pulled up at Tully show grounds for a couple of nights and we couldn't believe how hot it was! The kids wanted to go for a swim so we went for a drive to find the pool, but much to their disappointment it was closed for the winter. We spent a bit of time wondering around Tully, saw the big gumboot. I was really keen to do a tour of the sugar mill but kids had to be over 7, they were happy enough watching the trains going in and out though. 

The next morning was spent doing school work and a quick trip to the park before going for a drive to Tully Gorge. It was a nice drive with soo many banana trees along the way. Tully Gorge was quite impressive with lots of rapids that were a bit nerve racking with 2 little kids in tow!

We spent our last night at Tully and headed off early the next day to Mission Beach to catch up with some friends.

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.

TOWNSVILLE!

We headed to a free camp 30km North of Townsville but we were a bit late in the afternoon and it was full so we backtracked a couple of k's and stopped at a caravan park before heading into Townsville and the beach.

We weren't 100% happy with the caravan park that we were at, so we drove around checking out some of the other parks. Being school holidays a lot were full or just too expensive, then we spotted a Big 4 just North of Townsville, Brad managed to get us a really good deal for a week. 

The CP had a jumping pillow so the kids were stoked and headed straight over to it, where they made some new friends with a lovely family that are also travelling Australia. The kids spent as much time as possible together for the rest of the week. 

The next day the kids were keen to go back to the beach and to try out the water park that they had spotted on the strand. Lucy really surprised me by getting straight into the water and had a great time trying to body surf the waves. Chloe went in the water happily until a bit of something touched her foot and she screamed her head off thinking that a crab was biting her foot, I think it will be awhile before she gets back in the ocean! Then we went further up the strand to the water park, which was absolutely freezing! The kids had a quick play here before it got too cold for them.

Castle Hill was the next stop for the day, where we discovered that Chloe could possibly be part mountain goat. She had a ball running up and down the different tracks at the top of the hill, and I spent most of the time telling her to slow down!

The next day we went to Bushland Beach only a couple of km's away. It was low tide when we got there so we thought it would be fun to walk with the kids out to the waters edge. BAD IDEA!!!! Lucy said she didn't want to go but we thought she was just being lazy so said come on you'll be right! We got about half way out and she freaked out in a huge way. Turns out she is petrified of crabs, sea snails and any other small creature lurking on the sand during low tide. Brad and I ended up piggy backing them both back to the shore - not much fun! The rest of the day was spent back at the caravan park playing with the neighbours kids.

After lunch the next day we went to Pallaranda Beach, purely to play in the sand as neither one of our kids would go in the water both of them now scared of the crabs. 

Lucy and her mermaid

The kids begged to go back to the water park so we went there and of course neither of them would go in because it was so cold, until we spotted the kids we met at the caravan park then Chloe was off running around with them for awhile.

The next couple of days were just spent doing not much at all, just hanging around the caravan park. We did go back to Bushland Beach while the tide was a bit higher, it did get low quite quickly but we had packed the kids 'wet' shoes so Lucy bravely walked out during low tide safe with her shoes on!

A bit more time spent on not doing too much at all, a few bikes rides, lots of jumping on the jumping pillow and a trip into the markets and before we knew it our time at Townsville was up. After a week of staying in the 1 spot Brad and I were more than ready to keep moving. The kids were up and ready early on our last day to get as much play time in with their friends before it was time to go. Brad drove the bus around to the jumping pillow to pick them up and they all went and hid on us! We finally coaxed our kids into the bus with their friends waving and chasing us up the road we headed further North. Hopefully we will catch up with this lovely family again soon!

We all really enjoyed Townsville, probably because the weather was just perfect! The strand is a great place to relax for the day, with plenty of different playgrounds and beaches so while there is lots of people there it didn't feel crowded. Castle Hill has the most amazing views of Townsville in all directions. The Big 4 Woodlands was a great park with really wide sites. 

Brad lived in Townsville for a few years and he couldn't believe at how much it has changed and grown, until we realised it has been 17 years since he lived here! 

Thanks Townsville for a great week we will definitely be back!

Anakie to Townsville

So we headed from Anakie to Emerald to do a grocery shop and bought Chloe some new shorts because she decided that she doesn't want to wear her skirts anymore - which is all she has ever wanted to wear previously! We stopped at Capella for some lunch and a photo with the iron horse.

We drove onto Clermont, where we had planned to stop at a dam, but after ringing the caretaker we decided it might be too busy to try and fit the bus in so we kept on driving. Its a pretty long road from Clermont to Charters Towers with nothing much in between expect for a service station with a small caravan park out the back. This is where we ended up staying for the night - Belyando Crossing. We headed off early in the morning (early for us anyway - Chloe does not liked to be rushed in the mornings!), once we got to Charters Towers we had a run around the park and the kids decided they wanted to keep driving so they could get to the beach. So we jumped in the bus and headed towards Townsville and the beach!!

Rolleston to Anakie

We stopped at Emerald for a bit of a look around before driving out to Sapphire and Rubyvale were I had big plans to find enough Sapphires to pay for our trip or even a week would have been nice! We camped at a free camp in Sapphire which wasn't much and we even had a herd of cows walk thru our campsite towards the end of day!

We ended up doing a self drive tour which was a really good experience. We followed our tour guide out to a spot in the gem fields, were given buckets, a shovel and a pick and you can stay as long as you like digging and washing your own sapphires. We did end up finding about 8 small sapphires before Chloe had enough, so not enough to fund even a week. Lucy worked like a little trooper the whole time, Chloe had enough after about an hour but luckily we had packed some animals which kept her busy for a few more hours.

Brad and Lucy hard at work!

Sorting the sand out

Washing the stones

Picking out the sapphires!

On the way home from our fossicking expedition we called into a little town called Anakie to have a look at the caravan park there and quickly decided to pack the bus up and head here for a couple of nights. This town had a caravan park, a pub, and a school but the park was great, it was cheap and the managers were a lovely couple, we loved a few days here. As soon as we pulled up a lorikeet flew down so the kids grabbed some bread and 1 flew straight down onto Chloe's arm and for the rest of our time there she was surrounded by her 'rainbow birds'. Lucy definitely didn't share her sisters love of birds, at one point she was sitting outside eating a piece of bread (not the smartest thing to do!) and a bird flew down onto the edge of her chair, she threw her bread as far as she could and started screaming until I came and scared the bird away, it was very funny! but on our final day she was starting to feed them just as long as they didn't touch her.

We spent the next day catching up on the washing and Lucy did a heap of school work. Yes we made her do school work during the school holidays!

Later that day we had some friends from home arrive who were on a 3 week holiday and had a couple of kids around the same ages as ours. They just finished setting up and we started to get the fire going when out of nowhere the rain came! Luckily it didn't last long and we had an enjoyable night around the fire with a few drinks. The next day was spent not doing very much at all, Brad must have 'eaten something bad' the night before and struggled for most of the day. It definitely didn't have anything to do with the couple of trips made to the pub the night before.

Bruce is not the 1st bus Brad has fitted out. About 4 years ago he bought a bus off ebay and converted it into a motorhome, we couldn't sell our business so after a couple of years we sold the bus. We have often spoken about how amazing it would be if we ran into it somewhere during our trip....

Later that afternoon Brad & I left the kids with our friends and went for a drive to Rubyvale to see if any of our sapphires were worth getting cut & polished. As we drove past a caravan park in Rubyvale our old bus was in there! We still can't believe that after only 1 1/2 weeks on the road we ran into our old bus!!!

We did a slow pack up the next morning and headed back to Emerald to do a big grocery shop. Lesson learnt here, we didnt think to do a grocery shop in Emerald on the way thru earlier in the week and supplies at Rubyvale were very limited so we had been living on the bare essentials for the past few days.

This is my favourite photo of Chloe!

Surat to Rolleston

We headed off from Surat with plans of staying at Injune but when we got there the wind was still freezing so I decided we should just keeping going as far as we could in the hope that it would be warmer. The kids were not too happy with my decision I think Chloe said to Brad something like 'You know this trip isn't just about Mum, its supposed to be a fun holiday not just driving'  They both did really well as we ended up driving for nearly 5 hours with only 2 very quick stops. We encountered our 1st mountain, which we are trying to avoid at all costs but these ones snuck up on us. Luckily it was only 1.6kms of steep stuff and Bruce handled it nicely! 
We stopped at Rolleston for the night, another small little caravan park in a tiny town, the wind had died down in the afternoon and even the locals were all saying how cold and windy this week had been. 
We went for a walk around Rolleston, stopped in for a quick beer/lemonade depending on age at the pub. As usual Chloe went a little crazy with some lemonade in her system so we headed to the park for awhile to wear her out before heading back to the caravan park, where the kids played happily for the rest of the afternoon with Chloe's animals in the grass clippings under the trees. It really is the small things that keeps them happy!