While we were in the Gladstone area, (Calliope) we took a coffee cruise on Gladstone Harbour. Photo below shows Mount Larcom, the Sleeping Giant, in the background.
Click on photos for a larger view.
These tug boats appeared to be having a tug of war! They had a rope connecting them.
Friday 9th Oct; We left the Gladstone area and travelled only 15km or so to Benaraby where we stopped for the night at a free roadside rest area. Saturday 10th Oct; Went to look at Awoonga Dam, there wasn't anywhere suitable for us to park, so we headed down to the coast to 1770. That's the name of the town. Nice place, with boardwalks along the beachfront, clean BBQ's and picnic areas.
Then we drove to the small town of Rosedale, off the main highway, where we spent 2 nights parked behind the local pub. Cheap and very quiet. We had dinner in the Rosedale Pub both nights. The crumbed fish was very good.
Monday 12th October we headed to Bundaberg to tour the rum distillery. Very interesting, and we were given 2 full sized drinks at the end of the tour. We bought the liqueur, which is only available at the distillery.
We drove to the free rest area at Gin Gin for the night, where we met up with a group of travellers who had also attended the Rockhampton Rally. Happy Hour became 3 hours. LOL
Tuesday 13th Oct; Driving towards Childers it was very windy. We stopped at Apple Tree Creek for lunch, but decided to find another place for the night, as it was very hot and windy. We took a tourist route through Burrum Heads and Hervey Bay, then drove through Maryborough and back onto the Bruce Highway. 2km north of Tiaro we stopped at Petrie Park, on the Mary River. This was a very peaceful stop with lots of bird life, so we stayed 2 nights.
Had to watch out for frogs in the loo here! Photo below is Winny at Petrie Park.
Thursday 15th Oct; We left Petrie Park around 10am and drove to Gympie, where we stopped at Chatsworth Park for coffee. This is another free overnight rest stop with a series of ponds; a nice stop, even though it is on the highway. There were a lot of large wading birds in the tree tops by the ponds, as pictured below.
From Gympie we took the hilly and winding road down to Tin Can Bay, then Rainbow Beach; then back to the southern end of Gympie to Six Mile Creek for the night. This is another free stop on the Bruce Highway.Friday 16th Oct; heading south to the Sunshine Coast. We thought we would go and have a look at the famous Noosa Heads; we couldn't find anywhere to park the Winny it was so busy there, so we followed the coast until we found a place to stop and have a swim. I think the beach was Mudjimba, between Coolum Beach and Maroochydore.
Up into the hills a way we came across a town called Yandina which is home to the Buderim ginger factory, so we did the tour and sampled some yummy ginger products, and purchased some too. We found a rest area near Yandina, Brown's Creek, where we spent 2 nights. Had Happy Hour with a couple parked in front.
Sunday 18th Oct; Took the tourist route through Kenilworth and Maleny. The road was quite bad in places, and scary going down the steep hill from Maleny to Landsborough, but the views were great. We saw the famous Glasshouse Mountains from up the top at Maleny, and also from a couple of other vantage points.
As we weren't to far from Caboolture we visited our niece and family, then went to the local showgrounds to camp for the night.
Monday 19th Oct; Drove to the Glasshouse Mountains lookout up the hill from Beerburrum, then over to see what's at Bribie Island.
Rick then decided we should head off and get through Brisbane. Yikes! After all our time driving through the countryside and smaller towns, this was quite an experience. Traffic! We hadn't seen traffic like this since early May in Melbourne.
We managed to get through Brisbane, then onto the Pacific Motorway to the Gold Coast. Using the GPS we were trying to find Stotts Island Nature Reserve, which is just across the border in N.S.W. Well, the GPS took us up over a big hill, down to a dead end dirt track by the Tweed River and expected us to cross, but there was no bridge. Rick used his sense of direction and managed to find where we wanted to go. I turned the GPS off.
Photo below: Glasshouse Mountains from Bribie Island.
Photo below taken from Glasshouse Mountains Lookout.
Photo below is the Glasshouse Mountains from up at Maleny.
We stayed 3 nights at Stotts Island Reserve as we wanted to visit Movie World and Sea World, which are around 40kms back along the highway on the Gold Coast, Queensland. We crossed the border a few times.
We thought Movie and Sea Worlds were overpriced for us, but would be better value for kids. You are not allowed to take in any food or drink; you have to buy their over priced items. At least we found a drinking fountain at Movie World. The 4D Shrek movie was fun, and Rick went on 2 of the rides.
At Sea World the dolphin show was very good. We both went on 2 of the water rides here.
Photo of Rick at Movie World.
The "Imagine" dolphin show at Sea World.
Thursday 22nd Oct; we set off around 10.30am to Murwillimbah in search of a laundromat. When the washing was taken care of we drove over more very hilly roads to the Pacific Highway (which is also very hilly) down to Ballina, through Woodburn looking for a place to park for the night. We came to a locality called New Italy, where we stopped under the trees next to a small museum. Next morning we visited the museum; interesting story about this place.We then drove inland to the town of Casino, which has a very good RV village. We paid to stay for a week here; we are due to leave Friday 30th Oct.
The weather has been very warm to hot, and dry, our whole drive south. Yesterday was overcast and humid; late afternoon rain, thunder and lightning started and continued most of the night. It was good to see; we might get more today.
I have often heard or read of people thinking Australia is all flat, well sometimes I wish it was! We have come across some very interesting roads so far, and I bet we will find many more!
