campsites

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Day 3: Heatons Lookout to Coopernook

Weather: stinking hot – mid 30’s
Distance: 234K

It rained in the early hours of the morning. I woke worrying about what the rain would do to the road conditions on the way back down the mountain – and also because the window was leaking and I was getting wet!

After breakfast, as we were preparing to leave, the Forestry Ranger arrived. We had a good chat to him about the district and here in particular and he reassured us our vehicle would have no problems negotiating the wet, slippery conditions on the way down – and we didn’t. While we were chatting a man popped out from the rainforest just behind where we were camped. This lookout forms a part of the Great North Walk, which is a 250K walking trail that stretches from central Sydney to downtown Newcastle. We’d walked 50 or so metres down it earlier, and I got a leech for my efforts. This chap said he does the walk from the bottom of the mountain every week, finishing at the coffee shop. That’s a good way to keep fit – we’re pretty high up here. Meeting and talking to people on our travels is one of our goals – everyone has a story and they are all so interesting.

Anyway before setting off we read the Mercedes manual and discovered some non-intuitive steps to take to put the vehicle into ‘low lock’ 4WD. Our first real test of this vehicle on roads that need 4WD and she came through with flying colours.

On the way to Coopernook we saw the turnoff for Karuah – we’ve started our own tradition with this little town now and HAVE to stop to buy fresh oysters from Cole Bros every time.

Coopernook was bypassed by the highway in 2006 and is a very pleasant, well-tended, small country town of about 350 people. The primary school was opened in 1875 so it has a pretty long history. The pub at Coopernook offers free camping to self-contained RV’s, and a lovely spot it is too – a large, grassy area within about 50 metres of the Lansdowne River. Fishing must be good in the river by the look of the Achievements Board on the wall of the pub.

We really appreciated this spot today because it was so hot – had a few cool drinks and lunch in the air conditioned pub. There was one other RV parked here – two women who now live permanently on the road and seem to be enjoying the lifestyle.

hotel coopernook

We’re camped on the grass behind the pub, right where that rainbow ends.

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Day 2: Umina Beach to Heatons Lookout

Weather: hot on the coastal plain, lovely in the mountains
Distance: 98K
Refuelled Umina Beach: Odometer: 131K; Litres: 65.82; $/L: $1.369

We left Umina Beach early-ish and stopped at the local Coles to buy groceries. Hmmm we are pretty long, and the normal parks are a bit short for us – something to remember.

The Jabiru has to be registered in Queensland and we were therefore duty bound to drive her home expeditiously. However, that didn’t stop me planning an interesting trip back.

Heatons State Forest is not far off Highway 1 and offers a free camp at the lookout. Most of the drive was highway driving where we learned all about the cruise control and the sound system and the warning messages and other fancy things modern vehicles do these days. It was a relief to leave the highway and trundle along quiet country roads with no other traffic.

Heatons Road

A road less travelled – get used to it baby!

It wasn’t long though before the road started to climb, and climb some more, and the blacktop disappeared and ruts and rocks appeared …. quick lesson on how to put her into 4WD followed. That was unexpected! Note to self – study road conditions of planned itineraries.

campsite heatons

Arrived safely and setup for the stay.

Anyway we arrived unscathed and the view was worth it: 180 degrees across the national park, farming land, Lake Macquarie to the ocean. We camped right on the cliff edge (inside the protective railing!). Delightful.

The afternoon was spent peacefully reading car manuals and going for a short walk further up the road. An early and peaceful night anticipated.

heatons lookout

Lunchtime at Heatons Lookout.

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Woody Heads to Bulahdelah

Good, long day driving today. We don’t usually drive more than about 150K a day, so its been rather a shock to us these last two days. We’re sticking to the Pacific Highway due to expedience. Major roadworks happening in some areas, but no big hold-ups for us. Some parts of the highway are fantastic, other parts reminded us of the D’Aguilar (ie left a lot to be desired!).

We were trying to get to a campsite on the shores of the Myall Lakes, but we needed to catch the ferry and according to our TomTom directions we were going to miss it by a few minutes. Never mind – a free camp at Bulahdelah was recommended on Wikicamps which didn’t take us far off the highway and there was no rush to get there. As it turned out it was a lovely spot, right beside the Myall River. There were already a few motorhomes and caravans set up, but plenty of room for all. We selected our spot near the bridge (recommend a bit further away next time – from the noise of the occasional vehicle and the lights on the bridge), set up and went for a walk into the little village.

Free camp at Buladelah.

Free camp at Bulahdelah.

The highway bypassed Bulahdelah about 6 months ago, and from all the signs in the shops (eg We’ll keep trading after the bypass. Please come back and support us.) it appears it was a major concern for the community. Anyway, it is a lovely little town, and we wouldn’t have stopped here if the highway traffic had been going over that bridge just above our heads all night … so they lost some customers, but gained others.

Click here to see a few pictures of our Bulahdelah stay.

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Off to the Opera

And so another adventure begins.

At Christmas Nick and Kim gave us tickets to the Underground Opera Company’s Opera in the Caves for the Jenolan Caves. I think they must have been reading Cruisin Chronicles from when we were at the Capricorn Caves. Anyway we are delighted about the gift, because firstly we loved the Opera in the Capricorn Caves and we really want to see the Jenolan Caves. I’ve never been there and Steve was just a little boy when he last came.
We’re planning to take about 10 – 12 days to do the trip, bringing our kayak and walking shoes with us, and staying in Arty (our roof top tent).

So, Day 1: A late departure from Brisbane as I had a Lactation Consultant’s luncheon to attend. We got away about 2pm and headed south on the Pacific Highway. Nothing much really to report on the way down. We got into the National Parks campgrounds at Woody Head a hour or so before dark, were set up in a few minutes and went for a walk around the headland. Lovely spot – small beach but beautiful views around the bay and up to Evans Head. After dinner we went for another walk on the headland – magnificent evening, 2/3 moon, lots of stars and the ocean sparkling.

The camping area was very large, lots of caravans – now the school holidays are over looks like the retirees have taken over. Facilities, etc were all very good and well-maintained, $27 for the night, plus 20c for a 2 minute shower, and “Don’t” notices everywhere – too caravan-parkish for us!

Woody Heads

Woody Heads

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Days 30 & 31: Opera in the Caves then Gympie

Starting where I left off, at Waterpark Creek Camping area, we had a good rain downpour our last night there, and very pleased to report that Arty kept as dry and warm. It delayed our departure the next day though as we didn’t want to fold the tent up wet. While waiting for it to dry we got to talking to a couple who were wandering around the campsite taking bird photos – twitchers! Both had decent cameras to capture lovely photos – fast and with good magnification. We are seriously tempted – need guidance Deb!

Headed back through Yeppoon to Rockhampton and The Caves. Tonight is the night for Opera in the Caves. The Caves has a camping ground – bonus … just walk back to our tent after the show! Sounds good, except that an unpowered site cost us $30, camp kitchen didn’t have a cooktop, the kettle didn’t work at all, no hot water, no internet and the lights are on an automatic setting and they didn’t come on until after we’d made our dinner in the dusk! Not impressed and definitely won’t be recommending this spot to anyone.

Opera in the Caves

Darian Di Stefano-Johns, Baritone; Glenn Lorimer, Tenor; Susan Ellis, Soprano; Louise Dorsman, Mezzo-Soprano.

Opera in the Caves

Hard to show perspective of the towering roof of the cave.

However – the Opera in the Caves. Wow – wow, wow, wow! It was amazing, surreal, fantastic, incredible. Loved every second of it and didn’t ever want it to stop. Yep – you’ve probably guessed that we enjoyed it. The singers were fantastic, the venue (the Cathedral Cave) outstanding. There were about 50 in the audience, which was about 2/3 capacity, there was just a single piano and the singers (a baritone, a tenor, a mezze soprano and a soprano). It was so personal and so awe-inspiring to have these incredible singers right beside us, their voices soaring to the tops of the cave. And a few bats flying around added even more atmosphere. We’ll definitely be looking to see where their next performances are. We’ve got our sights on their Jenolan Caves performance and their Mt Isa in the mine performance – maybe even the Spring Hill in the water reservoirs too.

Click here to view more photos of The Opera.

Well that concluded our last real camping day. Today we’re heading for Gympie to spend the night with our friends Patrick and Sally. We’re currently in Childers having driven the last leg from Bororen. It was very stressful driving with so much road works happening – not so much being delayed, but more the continual changes to speed limits – 60, 40, 80, 90, 100 (briefly) and backwards and forwards on those speeds all the time … then the cars behind you that see no reason to stick to 80 for many km (neither did I frankly, it seemed pretty average 100 territory); who then roar past me at the slightest opportunity that may or may not be safe and speed away. Not happy Jan! Either make the speed limit what they want, repeat it often and then police it, or leave it at 100 which we all expect.

Finished lunch now, with some peanuts from the Peanut Van and maybe a Mamimo icecream.

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Days 25 & 26: Gladstone and Eurimbula National Park

 

Cheree, Alan, Steve and Denise

Cheree, Alan, Steve and Denise

Gladstone Harbour with Curtis Island in the distance.

Gladstone Harbour with Curtis Island in the distance.

Very pleasant day catching up with my oldest friends, Cheree and Alan who took us for a drive around town and to the lookouts. Gladstone Harbour is a muti-commodity harbour exporting primarily mining-related resources. 70% of Australia’s coal exports go through this harbour, and we can certainly attest to incredibly long coal trains running parallel to the road as we travelled in.

On Curtis Island they are building export facilities for the gas from the inland coal-seam gas projects. And of course bauxite smelters and alumina exports are synonymous with Gladstone. We had a very restful time with Cheree and Alan – nice to not have to wonder where the loo is in the middle of the night! They have a lovely home high on a hill with views to the ocean – and the smelter, which actually looks very pretty all lit up at night.
Because of their lush tropical garden they have lots of birds and have encouraged them by feeding them each morning.

for the best crab sandwiches in the whole world!

for the best crab sandwiches in the whole world!

Monday morning we headed off to Eurimbula, a national park just north of Town of 1770. We stopped at Miriamvale to partake of what it is famous for – crabs! We both had a crab sandwich for lunch – yummo! It was a 15K drive in to the Eurimbula campsite on a 4WD-only track (ie narrow, rough, corrugated, loose gravel and the last 7K on sand). Needless to say after such a tough drive in we expected to have the place to ourselves – not so!! It was about half full with fisher-people. We set up camp right beside the beach, but the kayaking and beach-walking weren’t calling us due to a strong onshore breeze, and swimming in salt water is no fun if you don’t have a fresh water shower to go finish off with, which the campsite didn’t (and our open-air shower is a bit ‘revealing’ when there are other people around). Bit of a ho-hum stop for us, though we did enjoy a lovely walk along the beach at sunset.

Click here to view our photos of Gladstone and Eurimbula Beach.

Sunset.

Sunset.

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Day 23: Water Park Creek, Byfield Forestry Park

A pair of bush turkeys were making their nest near where we camped. Love the pretty neck!

A pair of bush turkeys were making their nest near where we camped. Love the pretty neck!

Another magic day! The campsite is beside Water Park Creek, which is a nice wide-ish creek with a weir where the road crosses. We got in late-ish yesterday so just wandered down to the creek, relaxed with our iPads (3 bars 3G!) had delicious BBQ lamb steaks and salad for dinner and spent the dusk swatting midgies and marsh flies! This campsite is very heavily treed (read, lots of shade), and has 10 defined camp sites which are mostly quite secluded from each other. To one side is a large park with sheltered tables, modern electric BBQs and clean, flushing toilets (no showers). We get the use of these excellent facilities for the princely sum of $11.20 per night. I love Australia.

This is the prettiest kayaking we've done to date.

This is the prettiest kayaking we’ve done to date.

Today the plan was to paddle the kayak up the creek. 7K of it is navigable from the weir. We pumped it up and set off about 11am, with a picnic lunch. Within minutes we were in Nirvana. The creek was so beautiful as it meandered through natural bush on both sides, palms, fallen trees in the water, some parts shallow as we just skimmed over the creek bed, other areas so deep we couldn’t see the bottom.
When we got hungry we tied the kayak to a tree and just relaxed in the boat eating our picnic – the creek sides were fairly steep, so we didn’t want to get out. I was sure I could hear rapids ahead, so after lunch we kept going, past some tricky fallen trees and rocks, and sure enough there were the rapids and a small waterfall. To the side was a little sandy area where we pulled the kayak up and got out. We spent a lovely hour or so here swimming, sitting under the waterfall and lying in the beautiful chilling rapids – who needs a spa pool?
We turned for home and life became even easier. Going up we would have sworn there was hardly any current and didn’t think we were paddling too hard, but coming back we only had to paddle ever so gently and we just kept gliding along.

Wompoo Fruit Dove. We were indeed excited and so fortunate to see these fairly reclusive birds.

Wompoo Fruit Dove. We were indeed excited and so fortunate to see these fairly reclusive birds.

We didn’t see much bird life which surprised us, but were delighted to be treated to seeing two Wompoo Fruit Doves. We sat under the tree they were in and they seemed just as intrigued by us as we were by them. Other wildlife was just a couple of cormorants and lots of water monitor goannas from little ones to very big, and a couple of turtles.
Back to camp, feeling pretty good for our 14K paddle, and noted this as a place we’d love to return to (not on weekends or school holidays though).
Click on this sentence to open the gallery of photos we took while camping here.Kayaking on Waterpark Creek

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Day 21: Hamilton Island to Flaggy Rock

Not goodbye, but aurevoir!

Not goodbye, but aurevoir!

Mixed emotions today. We left Hamilton this morning. Enjoyed our last breakfast by the pool watching the ocean. Said our goodbyes to Ric and Gill and Laura and Stuart (they flew back to Brisbane) and caught the boat back to Shute Harbour. I must say the weather today was the best yet. The ocean was calm and the islands sitting in it were stunning. Very sad that this part of our trip was over.
Back on the mainland we picked up Mitzy and went to Cannonvale to restock the food. We were surprised how quiet it was in both Shute and Airlie. The van parks were just about empty. When the season finishes, it finishes! Got away about 1pm. The drive from Airlie to the highway is really unattractive – maybe with the excitement of going there you don’t notice it so much, but leaving you do.
Tonight we’re staying at the Flaggy Rock Community Centre which is a couple of K off the highway and just south of Camilla. It was once the primary school, but is now used by community groups. The grounds are very spacious as you can imagine and beautifully maintained by the caretaker – green grass! And only $5 per vehicle per night. Only downside is the railway line runs past it. Let’s hope there’s not too many trains tonight.
I mentioned mixed emotions at the beginning of this entry. It was sadly and reluctantly that we left our tropical island, and hassling with shopping and highway driving didn’t make it any easier. However, once set up here after dinner sitting outside looking at the myriad of stars and watching for satellites and falling stars the joy of our trip soon came back. Great to be on the road again.

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Days 13 and 14: Eungella

Breakfast, then packed up and left Eungella Dam – surprising how fast we are getting at packing up – we were on the road by 8.30, heading to the mountain top and a camping ground called Explorers Haven. Took a small detour through Crediton on the way – very pretty country here. Lovely to see the paddocks green after all the brown fields of the last couple of weeks.
The camping ground has the most incredible location – right on the precipice at the top of the range – views down the valley for as far as you can see. I’m sure there is no more beautiful camping area anywhere. We booked in, chose our spot and decided to do one of the walks.

Short walk to the Sky Window and Broken River.

Short walk to the Sky Window and Broken River.

This is the starting point for the Mackay Highlands Great Walk. We did the last leg when we were at Moonlight Dam to Mt Britton, and today we did a little of the first leg – from Eungella to the Sky Window, and back – 6K. I’d love to do the whole walk – it’s 4 nights, 5 days. It’s on the Bucket List.
Eungella is noted for platypus! Yeah, yeah you know how I feel about them. Anyway I dutifully went and stood quietly whispering on the viewing platform overlooking Broken River with the other tourists in the cold waiting for dusk. Well, blow me down if the little blighters do actually exist. One swam right past where I was and I could see it clear as day. Fancy that! So cute.

How to see a platypus - instructions just for me!

How to see a platypus – instructions just for me!

While waiting I amused myself looking for other wildlife – scrub turkeys, white cockatoos, azure kingfishers, a funny little brown bird that blended perfectly with the leaf litter and stayed on the ground at the waters edge, turtles … that was just so that if the platypus didn’t show up it wouldn’t have been a total waste.

This is the ramp the handgliders run and jump off. Too far down for me!

This is the ramp the handgliders run and jump off. Too far down for me!

We left the west because it was getting a bit hot, but I think we overdid it – I spent today in a track suit trying to stay warm. I guess we are at 800 metres! Speaking of which, at the Chalet (ie the pub) there is a launching ramp for the hang gliders. It’s a straight fall down 800 metres if they don’t get airborne! Many years ago sister Deb and I thought we’d be brave and walk out on the ramp. I still distinctly remember having to crawl on hands and knees back to terra firma. Needless to say I didn’t try that again this visit.
Today was a day spent catching up – washing, reading, work, internet … you know how it is. Click here to view a few other photos taken at Eungella.

How's this for a view for wine o'clock?

How’s this for a view for wine o’clock?

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Day 12: Eungella Dam

The other campers packed up this morning, so we’ve got the place to ourselves. They recommended a drive from here along the Mt Barker Rd to Collinsville – very pretty they tell me, 4WD (we didn’t do it – just here for future reference).

Our morning chorus!

Our morning chorus!

I spent the morning sitting in the camp with binoculars and bird book to hand. Here we get not only the water birds, but lots of land birds too – kookaburras, currawongs, butcher birds, straw-necked ibis, pee wees, friar birds, white cockatoos, greenies and squatter pigeons. This is a truly idyllic spot – grassy site, sandy shore, freshwater, good swimming and kayaking, and bird watching. I believe it gets very crowded on weekends and school holidays, with good reason. This afternoon we took the kayak into deep water and  practiced flipping it and getting back into it. Although a little ungainly we both managed pretty well. Enjoyed a lovely swim afterwards. Happily, until we got back onshore and realised Steve did it with his glasses on, and now they weren’t on anymore! Hmmm. Lamb Hotpot for tea (love my Dreampot) campfire and another lovely quiet night.

View a few photos we took at the camping area by clicking here.

Watching the locals pass by.

Watching the locals pass by.

That's alotta bull!

That’s alotta bull!

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