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We pulled out of the Jacka’s driveway this morning at 8.45am – only 3 days later than planned.
We had been held up on Wednesday by just not being anywhere near organised enough. At that point we still had: to go to Narrabeen to buy tubs for the cameras, clark rubber to fill the tubs with foam, last fill up with "cheap" diesel including the jerry cans, most important grop shop stop, sort out insurance of trailer, contents for trip, house contents to cover stuff at Tony’s and then finish off sewing doors for the overhead consoles and then attempt to pack it all. We did OK until we got to the insurance part. We use the NRMA for our house contents insurance and so we applied for personal effects insurance on the items we were taking on the trip – we estimated about $25,000 worth. They wanted to see receipts for every item over $1000 (which is almost every item) and they needed to be no more than 2 years old or get a quote from a store verifying the value or a valuation certificate! It could’ve been quite straightforward but we had already sent all our paperwork and files with our belongings to Tony’s place and was by now well buried until boxes on a farm past Penrith.
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone trying to avoid using this process and contacted nearly every broker in Sydney in vain. In the end at about 6pm I decided it was worth perservering with NRMA and finding someone to verify the value of our belongings.
Thursday – we got our papers together and headed to Macquarie Centre to sort out the insurance, adjust David’s NAB term deposit and then finish packing and leave around 2pm. Oh – and leave some last minute "leave behinds" in the warehouse at David’s work. I forgot the receipt for the camera and the computer. I returned home and David stayed at Macquarie Centre. We met up around 12noon and left around 2.30pm. It took until 5pm to finish packing and we were pretty certain we would leave that night until it started to rain, got dark quickly and the thought of sleeping an extra night in the little single bed with David made us stay.
So Friday at 8.45am we set off – into the rain I might add which was the only disappointment. Dropped in to say goodbye to Nanna and had to attempt our first street parking including reversing in a residential street!
Our first stop was at Raymond Terrace for cappuccinos, health bars and toilet stop. I think we actually put our sunglasses on at this point. We spent $6.40. Here we realised we had forgotten something – the two boogie boards. Ah well you say – we can buy them when we need them.
The mobile phone rang 4 times: Sue West to wish us a safe and happy journey, Dierdre (business), and Willhemina Davies to wish us a safe journey twice!.
At 2pm we arrived in Kempsey and stopped for lunch $12 at a Mobile servo. Here we saw a strange sight – an albino great dane dog with 2 masters and a chuihaha in a two door Hyundai car travelling from Dubbo to Brisbane. Yuck. We spoke to an older couple who were visiting their old home in Foster they had left only 3 weeks ago when they moved to Brisbane. They told us they we were definitely doing this trip at the right age because (as we know) we are young enough to actually be able to open the car door and climb up into the big 4X4 yet alone "rough it". They told us they were heading to Ballina for 6pm – we thought we’d like to stop around then too so out with the map to pick a spot for the night and we chose Evans Head.
We rolled into Evans Head around 6.15pm and found the Silver Sands Caravan Park which was on both the beach and river. Although it was raining hard we had a fabulous first night out of Sydney. For only $9 (NRMA 3 star) it was the best caravan park I’ve ever been to. We set up, cooked Lentil pasta sauce and rice with a bottle of white wine and relaxed a little. We took an evening walk without torch around the beach and breakwall and bunked down for the night around 10.30pm.
We both woke up early – in anticipation of good weather I think. It was not a nice day outside but we prepared toast and coffee, had long hot showers went for a drive around town and headed off. We took the coast road through Ballina, Lennox Head, Byron Bay, Gold Coast and headed for the Sunshine Coast but still the sun did not shine.
We spent $87.50 at Ballina Woolworths on food supplies and bought the cheapest diesel of the trip just out of Surfers. It was 62 c per litre.
We planned to drive to Noosa, catch the ferry from Tewntin to the beach and do the beach run to Rainbow beach and dive Harvey Bay on Sunday. I spent a few hours on the phone and reading maps and dive books but couldn’t confirm a Sunday dive in Harvey Bay. We even tried Noosa but there is a strong wind warning and there will be no diving tomorrow around here. In the end we agreed to camp in Noosa. And somehow we ended up on the Tewantin Ferry and on the beach camping at the Noosa North Shore Wilderness Camp. This is such a wonderful place to be. It’s quiet, except for the waves breaking just a few hundred metres away and it’s dark and peaceful. I set up the computer tonight for the first time this trip and I’m writing by the light of a battery operated lantern with Crown lager, ham, cheese and biscuits. David has sawn off a few centimetres of our bed because when he remodelled the camper he never checked to see that the bed still pulled out and fit in place. Last night it didn’t! So tonight he made sure it would. He also has turned the trailer tow bar up the other way and is reading the 4x4 books we have to ensure that this is safe. He is concerned that currently the trailer sits too low and may drag in the sand tomorrow when we attempt the Rainbow Beach run. We went for a walk this afternoon when we had set up camp and saw that the beach is very long. In both directions we could see 4x4s and fishermen. Our fishing rod broke as we were packing it so we don’t even have one. It’s on the shopping list but I don’t know if we’ll find one tomorrow.
He’s asked if he can start cooking dinner – he’s bored now, there’s nothing left to fix. So my quiet time on the computer must be over. Back to domestics… you’d think nothing had changed. As we walked back from the beach a little earlier I commented on how great it was to be in such a special place and he barely heard me as he was busy talking about how much work he still had to do to complete setting up the car and trailer. I hope he winds down soon!
We did the Teewah Beach run and found many good spots to stop along the beach and camp (free) near fresh water run offs. We should have done this – oh well. Stopped at the wreck of the "Cherry Venture" along the beach just near the turnoff to Rainbow beach. We stopped for lunch on Rainbow Beach (Crowns and red salmon on vita-wheats).
After lunch we drove up Rainbow Beach and stopped to inflate the tyres. We found a very tidy car paking lot with amenities block and picnic area at life guard station. After all the fuss and drama about crossing the rocks coming off the beach we saw more warning signs to that effect but we had no trouble.
We quickly found a sign advertising 4WD underbody wash. It was a self-serve with a special button to hold open the barn doors for trailers. The wash was very high pressure and although we checked the doors we didn’t realise the back door seals didn’t work! I had been outside the car motioning to David that he should pull the car out because I didn’t think we had placed in all the floor bungs. They were in however, but David came out early worried about how much water had come in the back door seals. This became a $10 flood. We headed into the township of Rainbow beach and spoke to the lady at the Information booth at the local chemist I think it was. I was advised of a great beach camp for $3.50 at Inskip Point. We set up on the beach nestled in amongst trees on the North Pt facing the ferry drop-off point on Frazer Island. It was a beautiful evening and so we walked along the beach and marvelled at the sand dropping away by each few waves. We drew our guess crack line and to our amazement they fell along our lines every time we tested it – which was near 10. Then we jogged 1 and a half km up to the point and back. It was simply beautiful.
Trip meter 1217km.
Left Inskip Point to Maryborough, Childers, bypassed Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton and hoped to make it out to Byfield NP but it was too late. We rang a few beachfront van parks in Yeppon and found the Big 4 at Emu Park (Capricorna Palms Caravan Park) $15 per unpowered grass site.
Trip meter 1790 km
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I was keen to get up and take photos of the sunrise over Great Keppel island. |
Drove from Yeppoon into Rockhampton and shopped until 1.45pm. We went to ARB and TJM pricing suspension and then bought from ARB a snorkel head, pluming heads, maps, grey sheepskin seat covers, cryvac meat and fresh food and a spare trailer pin. At 1.45pm we hit the highway north to Mackay.We arrived at 5.20pm at the Big 4 camping ground. We used the campers kitchen with electric BBQs, gas stoves and stainless wash basins. We cooked fillet steak, salad, red wine, bread. We had a run along the beach front before dinner. Had a great shower and hand-fed and patted a small possum before dinner. He loved the red key tag I had for the shower block and jumped onto my chest to get it.. In the morning we were woken by something sounding like a Mac truck. Upon investigation we found only ducks and lyrebirds.
David’s quote: "My mouth tastes like I’m chewing a mouldy sock".
Start 2164km
We are expecting to hear from the dive shop in Townsville for confirmation of our Yongola day trip. We need to know early today to decide whether to explore Mackay and the Whitsundays or to push on to Townsville. We both want to dive but at the same time I’d like to visit a sugar mill and see Airlie Beach. We started driving and made our way leisurely to Airlie Beach by 5pm. We haven’t heard from Sun City so we tried to book a dive for tomorrow out of Airlie Beach. This was almost impossible. The streets are full of tour booking desks and food outlets. We opted for the backpackers booking group for some reason it looked they had everything to offer. Admittedly the girl serving us worked hard for her commission but every dive tour she sold us was full when she went to book it for us. It seemed we were not meant to dive. We agreed amongst ourselves not to bother but just then the girl came back saying she had found us a spot on board the "Maxi Azure" fast boat tender for Raggamuffin. And she booked our accommodation at Shute Harbour Gardens Caravan Park.
9.05am picked up by mini bus to take us to Shute Harbour to board Maxi Azure. This trip has only been operating for 2 and a half weeks and our crew were Judy and Andy who obviously had many years experience on boats although young. Judy was the diving instructor and was originally from Melbourne. She’s been in the Whitsundays for 3 years and working as an instructor for 1 year full time in the Coral Sea. The trip took us to Whitehaven Beach for lunch and then diving on Hook Island from the NE point. The weather was unfortunatley quite rough and cloudy skies. See log book for dive.
We spent a second night at the van park in a powered site using 240v to charge our car batteries, torches, video batteries, fridge, mobile phone and computer – we had five things on at once!
The amazing thing here is the possums. They are so tame they run along the ground towards you – right up to your toes while you are walking to the amenities block. They actually seem a bit scary – in the night they literally rush you to the point of bowling you up to a sudden stop. They don’t run away – they like to play, scratch tummies, have their faces patted. Very different to Sydney possums.
Eric from Sun City phoned back at 9.30am to say that the diving was off due to strong wind warnings and rough seas. Mum rang for 9mins this morning. She rang again at 7.30pm after diving re camera settings.
We ate coffee and biscuits after diving. Then corn and chicken soup with bread. Stir-fry vegies with tinned Asian tuna with vegie stir-fry packet sauce and yesterday’s sushi topped off with another coffee.
Trip meter 2337km
We left Airlie Beach and headed North to Townsville. I was a bit disappointed when we arrived in Townsville but I’d been told by a lady in the camping ground at Airlie to go up Castle Hill. Castle Hill lookout gives a complete aerial view from all directions of Townsville and the surrounding islands and mountains. We found the Mike Ball Dive Expeditions shop but unfortunately he wasn’t even in Australia. We spoke to his training manager about how to cross-over to become a PADI instructor and wasn’t too impressed to learn that the new PADI system would mean that we would need to go back to Dive Master level and be fully tested again. The prize for completing the instructor program however is a free week aboard Spoilsport diving the Coral Sea but they could give no guarantee that David and I would be together on the same trip as obviously the trip would be stand-by.
As it became later in the day we tried to find somewhere suitable to stay. I didn’t like that Townsville had no real beach so we continued heading North. We found a river well populated by other campers and pulled in. Across the highway was a small service station and bait shop. We asked the locals for their advice for fishing and camping for one night away from the tourists. They suggested we go up the road for another 30km or so and at the turnoffs to any of the beaches to the right we would find free council camp grounds on the beachfront. We checked out a few of these and found Balgal Beach. It was like an oasis for us. Although the camping ground was pretty much just a dirt car park there was a boat ramp and a river feeding out into the ocean at the beachfront. The boat ramp was operated by kiosk which on closer inspection revealed a well setup operation complete with outdoor pool table, bar and bistro with 3 meals a day cooked 7 days a week. We had a great night here. We arrived fairly late around 5pm and headed off to fish in the hope of catching a meal. Some of the locals had beaten us to it and were pulling in nice bream. We caught 3 beam but all had to be returned. We then played a few games of pool and had a few drinks from the bar until we were joined by a pair of young guys who were obviously locals. I say them coming and said to David "these two look like they know what they’re doing" as they approached with a pool cue in a box. Unfortunately for them we whipped their arses! It was quite a funny night actually. Jason and Andrew were local pineapple farmers who last week had been thrown out of the town pup and now this was the only watering hole where they were accepted. We enjoyed their farming stories and answered their questions about the ‘big smoke’.
Trip meter 2704km
We left Balgal Beach at 10am and arrived in Cairns by 1.30pm. Trip meter 2998km.
We found the Coconut Village Caravan Park easily and felt the grounds were very posh. We were given a tour of the grounds by electric buggy with the receptionist on 2-way radio back to the boss to answer any of our questions. They hold water aerobics for free every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the salt water pool; hold scuba diving lessons weekly; and have a rainforest walk; bathrooms with hairdryer,; a shop and bistro; and entertainment room including pool table, air hockey, video room, TV room, mini golf course, volleyball and badmitten court, tennis courts and basketball courts.
Once we were directed to our site we carefully set up our car, trailer and new tent for the first time. Just as we sat down for a beer Collyn and David Darke drove in and waved hello and pointed to their campsite way across the other side of the grounds. We were surprised to find that so many of the TLCC club had already arrived. There was some confusion over camping charges and when we analysed the situation found that everyone had been given a different rate for the same accommodation. We were set up in the commercial camping area normally occupied by bus tour groups with 15 identical tents. The grounds though were superb considering how many campers and heavy vehicles used the grass grounds.
The TLCC group visited our tent for happy hour and we started to get to know one another. Jeff Webster introduced himself by announcing "I snore and I break-wind and I apologise to no one." And then continued by saying a little poem which I liked so much I had to write it down:
A Poem by Jeff
A fart is such a pleasant thing,
It gives the bowels ease.
It warms the bed in Winter time
And smothers all the flees.Let the wind blow free
Where ever you may be
Or church or in chapel
Let it rattle‘Tis better to fart and be ashamed
than to burst your bowels
and be lamed.
David is fixing things. Tightening the screw to hold the console in place; removing and replacing the drain hose for the sink; and pulling everything out of the trailer and car for a re-sort to determine what we are taking to Cape York and what we are leaving in storage.
I cooked pancakes for breakfast with grapefruit and sugar.
We shopped all day. Car parts and food. We returned at 6pm and then left again at 7pm to visit the Internet café at the Night Markets in Cairns. We forgot that the TLCC Cape York pre-trip briefing was scheduled for 7pm and were fined for not turning up to the meeting. Oops!
Today’s the day we begin our trip to Cape York with the TLCC club. The meeting place is way out of town on the Captain Cook drive opposite the airport past Port Douglas.
We were the first car to leave the camping ground. We put our trailer into storage out the back paddock of the grounds and put my sailboard in the back office. Thinking we were finally ready we pulled into a servo to refuel the gas bottle and as I went to pay for it I discovered to my utter disbelief that my visa card was not in my wallet! Panic, drama, return to the trailer – thinking it was in the camera bag from the Whitsunday day trip, only to find it was in my wallet after all only in a different place. We were late – we arrived at the meeting place 45mins late and were fined. For a full account of the Cape York trip see the section in the menu titled "Cape York Expeditition".