The Isa to Hervey Bay

Judy and I have had a wonderful four months travelling around The Far North of Queensland. We have seen much and learned much. We will return during another season, might be some grass and less dust then.

We pulled out of The Isa not too early on Saturday morning, actually it was just before lunch! We then had to be in Bundaberg to meet our Thursday morning appointment at Warburton Jayco to have some minor repairs completed on our caravan. By travelling about 200 km the first day and then about 400 km each of the following days we should be there safely and on time.

First stop was Fullarton River North RA (Camps 7/365) on the Landsborough Highway. Second stop-over was at Apex Riverside Park (Camps 7/347) at Longreach. Numerous camps already set up when we arrived and many more come in later. We had a local drop by and sell us a dozen fresh hen eggs for $2, great for breakfast next morning. So far it has been easy driving and this continued on the Capricorn Highway till we reached our next stop-over at Bogantungan RA (Camps 7/ 327). We and three other caravan travellers did a little cheating here. The actual RA is quite near the Highway, we drove into Bogantungan township and camped beside the Railway Station. Nobody told us to move and we had a peaceful night away from the trucks. The easy driving was soon to be over as we eventually reached and navigated over The Great Dividing Range. Turning onto the Bruce Highway near Rockhampton the tempo rose immediately. Dense traffic flows and some woefully slow caravan towers had drivers exasperated. I was thankful when we reach Calliope River RA until we drove in and found the area almost totally packed with caravans and motorhomes. We did manage to find an almost level area to stop. For the final leg of our cross State trek we had a reasonably short leg to Wallum Reserve (Camps 7/126) on the Isis Highway and just 28 km short of our Bundaberg destination. An early rise next morning and a short drive to reach our appointment at 8 AM. Following some rapid repairs on the caravan we were parked outside our front gate before lunch on Thursday.

The caravan is now cleaned and safely locked away in storage and that's all we have to report until our next caravanning adventure. We plan on being on the road again about mid November. I will look forward to compiling more Blog Posts as we are driving south along the NSW Coast.

Tour of Far North Queensland

At 6 weeks, our Jayco Caravan has been in storage for far too long. Plans were made and a time set to leave Hervey Bay and travel to the warmer climate of Far North Queensland. We hope the rains have eased and sunny skies will prevail.

Our caravan was collected Tuesday at 8 AM bought home and packed with food, clothes and other necessities. We locked our home and departed rather late at 3:15 PM.

First camp was at Apple Tree Creek Rodeo Park. We had an appointment at Warburton Jayco in Bundaberg the next morning at 8:30 AM.

Wednesday afternoon we reached Coominglah State Forest, along the Burnett Highway, and made camp there. Here we met and had a yarn with Mick and a play with his Maltese Terrier, SAS.

Thursday morning came and rain was threatening. It wasn't far along the road that the rain began and it continued for 24 hours including all of our time camping at Duaringa Rest Area on the Capricorn Highway.

We managed to depart Duaringa about 9:15 AM after refuelling. Our Friday night camp and our current location is Isaac River Rest Area on the Peak Downs Highway.

This is the maiden trip with our new vehicle, a Mazda BT50. This vehicle is proving eminently suitable for towing our caravan and is delivering exceptional fuel economy while maintaining good highway speed.

Lunch stop on Wednesday was at Monto.

The large park also incorporates The Tourist Information Centre.

This piece of sculpture represents The Three Moons Creek which is not far out of Monto.

Dry weather track at Coominglah State Forest leading to Hurdle Gully Lookout. Sadly we didn't have time to check it out!

Lucky enough to camp beside a shelter at Coominglah State Forest.

Back to clear sunny skies at Isaac River Rest Area.

Lloyd Jones Weir, Barcaldine

We drove 15km out of Barcaldine into the Lloyd Jones Weir picnic/camping area and were a little disappointed after our camp at Jericho. It was dry and dusty and we were the only camp there, apart from a squadron of Apostle birds. The amenities are first class in the camp area, it is probably well patronised at other times during the year. Another Jayco Starcraft pulled into camp a little later, with a family of five. As with us, they were only staying one night before heading to Longreach. We woke to a Nor-Westerly breeze, not what we wanted towing a caravan into a head wind. We will see how far we can get!

This is The Lloyd Jones Weir, as you can see it is NOT full of water. We think this may be the Alice River, but not really sure. Somebody maybe able to enlighten us.

Kangaroo and 'Joey' on the river bank.

This little critter fell out of the tree, must have dozed off in the heat. It laid on the ground for a several minutes before starting the climb back up.

Flipping Aldi Beef Burgers on the banks of the weir. Using "Cobram" Olive OIl to cook and XXXX Bitter for lubrication.

Jordan River, Jericho

We have stopped over in Jericho on one other occasion, in the Jericho Hotel. On this occasion however we have a caravan and we were looking for a camping location. We knew there was a park on the Jordan River but it took us a little time to locate it. The local council has blocked some of the streets with a levy so the directions we had were of little use. Eventually we found our way in and we were happily surprised. Later that night we met up with John and Sybil, who are travelling in a mobile home named "Two Easy" and Graham in a caravan. We had an impromptu river side 'Happy Hour' OR Three! John was keeping us refreshed with beer from his 'Home Brew'. We were sorry to leave there the following morning. We called into the Jericho Hotel on leaving camp to top up on essential supplies and learned that the Hotel might be closing in 2013, that will be bad for the town.

Our pleasant camp site beside the Jordan River.

Walk down from our caravan and this is the sight you see.

Must be 'rest time'.