Yeppoon - 31.10.2012 to 07.11.2012

Leaving Mackay we did quite a big drive (well for QLD anyway) right down to a coastal town by the name of Yeppoon. Yeppoon is the gateway to the Capricorn Coast, about 40 km north east of Rockhampton. It is a gorgeous little town with wide beaches, warm water and quite a few cafes and restaurants. We ended up staying here for a week it was soooo relaxing with the caravan parked right on the beachfront, a nice little seabreeze to keep it that little bit cooler and a beach that goes on forever. A favorite exercise area for the locals too it appears with many a jogger and walker going past. No stingers in sight at the moment, though there were heaps and heaps of jellyfish washed up on the shore, mainly due to the winds around Yeppoon.

A couple of days prior to us settling in at Yeppoon we were talking about a couple we met over in W.A near Monkey Mia called Simone and Warren and their two kids Tully and Bonny. We knew that they were doing practically the same trip as we were but we hadn't run into them at all since Monkey Mia. Well you know that small world? I was going off to the laundry and Tully goes past me and says "Hello again!" cheeky as anything. I couldn't believe it. We caught up that day and couldn't believe how close we must have been, practically travelling to the same places. It was great to share some stories though and will definately catch up with them again on Phillip Island, where they live once we get home.

A couple of sites away from us we met a couple by the name of Mal and Lisa who came from Kingaroy QLD. Quite an amusing couple sharing some quite hilarious stories about their lives, along with a wine or two. Mal has been in so many diverse occupations I couldn't believe it. Magician, Paver, Mortgage broker and Postie just to name a few. We were very entertained by them anyway and the more wine Mal had the funnier his stories got.

Yeppoon quickly became a favorite spot for both of us I think with its relaxed holiday feel and of course Rockhampton only 40km away, with heaps of shopping. I was quite surprised to see how big Rocky actually was and quite a pretty town with their beautiful old buildings and right on the Fitzroy river. We quite literally had to make a big effort to leave Yeppoon as we were quite happy settled here, but we eventually moved onto our next destination, Seventeen Seventy (1770).

not a bad place to go for a long walk at Yeppoon

singing ship monument at Emu Park to commemorate Captain Cook

washed up jellyfish

Always one to watch the birdlife around any spot we stop now, I had to laugh at this ringeye bird who was not happy with the Kookaburra getting too close to his nest, so I took a series of photos with the ringeye getting closer and closer to the Kookaburra, fluffing up his feathers to make him look bigger and telling him off. Mind you the Kookaburra just looked at him in disdain, but a good effort by the ringeye.  

ringeye lands next to kookaburra

gets a little bit closer

ringeye is now right in Kookaburra's face telling him off!!

Airlie Beach To Mackay - 24.10.2012 to 31.10.2012

 

Beach  right in Airlie Beach 

Airlie Beach has beautiful clear water, with lovely beaches, but due to being the main spot for people to head over to the Whitsunday islands, boy is it full of backpackers and over commercialised. Still pretty to see though. We stayed in Airlie Beach at a caravan park about 1.5 km from town, a nice little park recently renovated so the amenities were very nice here. We also had our favorite little birds the curlews aplenty, one couple even had a chick. 

mum and baby curlew

doting parents

Wondering around the town of Airlie Beach we decided to have a hamburger for lunch. I had just sat down outside and was about to have a bite of my burger when a Kookaburra swooped down and tried to steal it, but ended up flicking one half of my burger
over to the table beside us. He then promptly came back around, sat on the table and began to eat it!! Apparently it had happened to someone the day before as well. Cheeky bugger!



yeah funny ha ha Kookaburra!!



the urinals at Airlie Beach (don't be shy boys)



Airlie Beach would be a great holiday destination if you wanted to go out to the Whitsunday islands, but I couldn't imagine living here. The tourists would drive you crazy I think. Was enjoyable to revisit this pretty beachside town though. Next stop, Mackay.

Coming into Mackay we couldn't believe how big this place is. Shopping centre, upon shopping centre, new housing developments everywhere and a Marina with boats worth up to $4.5M +. We decided to stay at Blacks Beach about 11km out of Mackay city centre and it was quite a nice little park right on the beach. We drove around Mackay city and checked it out, but it was a place we both didn't really enjoy staying in so decided to move on pretty quickly, staying only a few days. I didn't even take any photos, maybe because it did rain during our stay there. Not  a destination I would mark on my calendar to go to again to be quite honest.

Seaforth 27.10.2012 to 29.10.2012

We continued onto a little town called Seaforth where the campgrounds, owned by the council charged $22 per night. It was a strange set up. When you get there you ring a mobile phone number, a man answers and he tells you to look under the mat to obtain a magnetic card for the boom gates and claims he will come around in the morning to collect the money. Well we stayed there for two nights and no sign of the man, so we ended up not paying anything (bonus!).It was a lovely little spot with heaps of birdlife, including our favorite bird, the bush stone curlew. One had a broken leg, so we took pity on him and fed him some raw meat. The whistling ducks were very cheeky and not scared of us at all, but the cheekiest were the rainbow parrots checking out what we had to eat by landing on our table. The midgies were quite fierce here so lots of spray required. We took a walk up one of the hills near our campspot and below in the water we could see turtles coming up for air and then going back down to feed. There were some huge ones and if it wasn't so windy we would have gone for a snorkel around them. Overall a good time was had in Seaforth and very relaxing at that.

whistling ducks pruning each other

and time for a nap for the ducks

 

and also one of the humans

 

No, you cannot call home.........

Our poor Mr Curlew with the broken leg

hang onto that hat Crowey

our peace and quiet camp spot at Seaforth

Bowen - 20.10.2012 to 24.10.2012

As soon as we drove into Bowen we had a good feel about this place. Quickly setting ourselves in the caravan park (just off the beach) we went exploring this small town which had beautiful beaches, bays and most shopping. Heading up the the lookout at Flagstaff Hill you had sweeping views of the Goucester Passage, gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.

The next morning there was the Sunday markets which we thought we would have a look at and get some fresh produce. Well you know how they say it is a small world, I ran into a lady called Christine who I used to work with in Kalgoorlie, who coincidently now resides in Bowen. I couldn't believe it as it was only about two days before that as we went pass the Charters Towers turnoff where I was telling Crowey about Christine and that she used to live there. Anyway we caught up for drinks that afternoon and ended up having dinner and a bit of a catch up chat.

One of the Bay's in Bowen

coconut anyone?

i thought this cloud looked like a bird!!

We also found out that there was good snorkelling with lots of different coral to view and tropical fish, just out from Horseshoe bay so we made a beeline for here the next morning as it was still and the visability was quite good. We took Crowies underwater camera and got some pretty good shots of the coral and some tropical fish. We had a good time in Bowen, though it was a little windy, hence the nickname of Blowin Bowen but we liked this little town.  

Some Coral

more coral

and more coral

thumbs up from Murph

 

 

Townsville - 16.10.2012 to 20.10.2012

Townsville is quite a large city and the caravan park we stayed in was right across from the beach. It offers the same thing as most cities, however has the advantage of having Magnectic, Orpheus, Hinchinbrook and Bedarra islands just off of this mainland city. We were going to venture over to Magnetic Island to seek a good snorkeling spot, however the wind was not in our favour and the visability would have been poor. We ventured down "The Strand" of Townsville, positioned on the beachfront and close to the centre of town and offers views of Magnetic island, a nice casual place to have lunch.

Castle Hill offers Panoramic views of the city and is only a couple of metres short of being called a mountain. It was extremely windy up here, with our hats nearly going over the edge a couple of times. The view was magnificient though. We stayed about four days here, though Crowey did take up the opportunity to do a little work (internet stuff) whilst the weather was a little windy. Next stop, south of Townsville, is Bowen.

Mission Beach - 10.10.2012 to 16.10.2012

Moving down the highway Mission Beach was our next destination. Crowey had a family friend by the name of Julie who lived there and invited us to stay next door to them on a vacant block of land, perfect! We ended up staying almost a week at Mission Beach, such a pretty little town even though they had experienced the terrible cyclone Yasi back in Feb 2011, which created a lot of damage in the town and the surrounding forests. The property market is quite cheap there with many homes for sale. Tempting but no jobs in this area would probably only suit a retiree who wants the quiet life. The weather was good to us and we had a great time with Jules and her partner Callam. Some days we thought we would leave Mission Beach but then Callam would come over for a morning coffee that soon turned into lunchtime with our banter and stories, of which Callam is quite the story teller (we are still unsure of the story about his friend who believes he was abducted by aliens). During our stay we ended up attending the local music fest, which probably turned out to be quite disappointing but never the less we still enjoyed a few acts. It certainly bought some interesting people out of their bush hideaways.

Our time at Mission Beach was quite enjoyable and I think we felt a little reluctant to leave but we decided to keep moving towards Townsville. On the way down to Townsville we dropped in to see Murray Falls where a walk up a hill takes you to the top of the falls then down again to enjoy a

Mission Beach

From the Jetty looking towards the beach

Jules and Callam

Suck it up Crowey

white lipped mouth frog hiding in a bit of poly pipe

Murray Falls



Add caption

Butterfly

 

 

Atherton Tabelands - 07.10.2012 to 09.10.2012

On our way to Cairns the highway led us through the beautiful little towns of Ravenshoe and Atherton, a destination we wanted to visit on the way back from Port Douglas. This area is full of green rolling hills, dairy cows and quant old buildings. Our first stop was at the home of Wilga Bill, the bush poet we met at the Wallaby Creek festival about two weeks earlier. Bill lives in a tin shed next door to his son's house. Quite an interesting little place to call a home but I must say Bill was so hospitable and soon had us sitting down to a lunch of rissoles and vegies. He had already decided what he was making for dinner, so it looks like we were staying the night, even though we just called in to say hi. We decided that afternoon to go and have a look at Lake Tinaroo, a man made lake formed to service various agriculture sectors. It was huge with some gorgeous campgrounds right by the lake and some very scenic spots. We also stopped at the Curtain Fig National Park where a wide curtain of the fig's aerial roots drops 15 metres to the ground.There is a boardwalk which takes you around the tree to protect the fragile root system.  

Heading off the next day, (I think Bill was a little sad to see us go), we headed for Atherton, central town in the Tablelands to everything around us. The next day took us into the beautiful world of the Tablelands, not just those rolling green hills but absolutely beautiful  waterfalls with swimming holes everywhere. The towns of Atherton, Yungaburra, Malanda, Ravenshoe and Herberton offer quant little quiet towns with picturesque rainforest, friendly people and a must see for anyone visiting far north queensland.

Lake Tinaroo

How beautiful does this look!

Curtain Fig Tree

 

 

 

 

Malanda Falls

Millaa Millaa

Millstream Falls (widest falls in Australia)

 

 

gorgeous butterfly

Port Douglas - 05.10.2012 to 07.10.2012

Port Douglas used to be a rustic little seaside town back when I visited in 1996, but boy has it changed. It now is quite a yuppy orientated holiday destination, with restaurants a plenty, good swimming beaches and of course the sunday markets. The caravan park we stayed in was right only about 300 metres from the beach so very convenient as the weather was quite warm with a touch of humidity.

We took a day trip from Port Douglas to the Daintree and enjoyed the scenic drive up and around the windey roads. Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, quite a lot of money has gone into the information centre with a cafe, gallery and gift shop and run by the Kuku Yalanji people in the area. A bus runs you out to the gorge for $4.80 return. Amongst the lush rainforest was the enormous and gorgeous fig trees, little fresh water creeks and a beautiful walk in the Daintree forest.

Fig Tree

The drive in the Daintree is very beautiful even though it rained that day, it was quite nice to see and smell the forest with fresh rainfall. We were also lucky enough to see a Cassowary with chick, so all those road signs saying beware of Cassowaries was definately there for a purpose. The locals are very protective of these native wild birds and it is so good to see a community taking responsibility for their wildlife.

Yes Crowey we will look out for Cassowaries

A male Cassowary (they look after the chicks) and his young one

Back to Port Douglas that night,  we decided to head for the Atherton Tablelands the next day.