South west Queensland.

Our time at Quilpie was very pleasant by the lake and we enjoyed a tour of the town and spoilt ourselves with very nice pies from the bakery. We even found Old Man Emu at the information centre.

We travelled south past the Toompine pub which is in the process of being renovated. We hope they don’t spoil the uniqueness of this pub without a town! 

We camped at Alroy station which is a working cattle, sheep & goat property, nestled on the Yowah creek. We can’t speak highly enough about this station stay - friendly owners, lovely setting, rustic but very clean amenities and firewood delivered daily for the campfire. There were yabbies in the creek so a delicious yabby meal was enjoyed.

We’ve carted around our swimming gear this whole trip and have only used them twice - once at Goodooga and today here - both in artesian waters. This area is well known for its hot artesian waters which sometimes bubble up from under the ground or they are tapped by a bore. On this property, the beaut old steam engine was used to sink the first bore.Today we are travelling through to Cunnamulla then we’ll sadly leave Queensland behind. The little place of Eulo is well known for its mud baths - we didn’t indulge but did see the springs which act as a release valve for the artesian basin. 

We’ve loved this part of the outback - it’s not particularly pretty country but has its own charm and the people are friendly and must be very resilient as they endure some tough times. We’re starting to see much more traffic - it’s school holiday time plus many we suspect, are on the way to the Birdsville big bash. We trust everyone is well and those on holidays have a happy & relaxed time. ❌❌❌❌

Heading south

After a relaxing day at Lake Dunn, we headed off and now just 3 days later, we are at another lake - this time at Quilpie. We were very tempted at Lake Dunn to do the whole sculpture  trail of 200km, but erred on the side of caution as we were getting low on fuel. Just as well we didn’t do the whole circuit, as when we arrived in Aramac, there was no fuel until the truck came later that day. Luckily we saw several sculptures along the way and marvelled at how clever the artists are. These are a couple of our favourites. 

Muttaburra is also the home of many sculptures and we enjoyed touring around this town seeing the different structures. They have claimed to be the centre of Queensland and have a wonderful monument by the old hospital. Most effective is the rainfall records depicted on a bar graph made of pipes. Very cleverly done and interesting to see the fluctuations over the years. 

Muttaburra is a tight community, working hard to make the town attractive and suitable for tourists. We can certainly recommend the Thompson burgers purchased from the store and we were most amused when we learned the laundromat was housed in the post office! 

The shearing sculpture is still one of the best - we admired this many years ago on our trip northwards. The road from Muttaburra to Longreach provided us with prolific bird life - and the country was lush and beautiful after excellent rains. We stocked up on some groceries at Longreach then headed south to Stonehenge. This cute little place has a population of 10 and a very astute hotel owner as the deal was,  you’d save $10 off the camping fee if you dined at the hotel. So of course we did that, saved $10 but spent $81!! 

Today we felt very privileged to cross the Cooper Creek at Windorah as you wouldn’t believe how green everything was all along the floodplain. The desert has blossomed into a green oasis which is amazing to see. We are now at this beautiful spot out of Quilpie - it’s so tranquil and here we are sitting enjoying the scenery. 

We had a laugh as once more we’ve been sucked into parting with some $$ as the owners send their children around with produce and home made meals to sell. So we’re now $25 poorer but richer with figs, lemons, mandarins and a goat curry!! We’ll have a relaxing day tomorrow then study the  maps to work out our next moves. Seems funny, but once we head south, our thoughts of family and home become to the fore so I suspect we’ll be home soon. Don’t know if we’re ready for the cold as we’ve enjoyed sone glorious days of late. 

Trust all is well and we send our love to you all, ❌❌❌

Leaving the coast.

In the space of a couple of days, we are now in what seems like the middle of the outback. We are at a fresh water lake on the Lake Dunn station - sort of not far from Aramac, Muttaburra & Barcaldine. To get here we left the bitumen and big towns and travelled through some very quaint places. Our lunch stop at Mount Coolon was very different - no shops only fancy accommodation and this helicopter pilot flew in to have lunch with friends. 

We stopped overnight at the roadhouse at Belyando Crossing which is between Emerald and Charters Towers. Our site was really only on a roadway but that fact was made up by the beautiful meal we enjoyed that night at the roadhouse. Best salmon & steak ever!! From there we used a mud map we copied from a fellow traveller and travelled 300km on a dirt road which was not much more than a track in places.

The navigator (me) only made one mistake and we had to back track a little. The cattle along the road were just lovely and very inquisitive. One silly one ran straight towards our car and the brakes were tested! 

Our van has now really been tested for off road travelling - dust, corrugations and all. Nothing moves inside, it tows well and no problems at all. This lake is known for its sunsets and sunrises and didn’t disappoint last night. 

It’s a rest day for us today after the big drive yesterday. We’re going to look for the heaps of bird species found here. We trust everyone is well and not too cold. It’s a bit windy here today which is making it a bit cooler. I’m not sure if this will post but will try! Till the next blog ❌❌from us. 

 

Airlie Beach

We arrived at the bustle of Arlie Beach and immediately we were in tourist Mecca! The area has grown so much since we were last here in 2009 and despite cyclone Debbie and Covid restrictions over the last few years, the area appears to be thriving and we witnessed the arrival of the first cruise ship in 2 years. Our camping in the caravan park was adequate for our purposes but we do miss campfires and spacious grounds! But the reason for us visiting here was this -

Despite our planning, the weather did not play the game  properly, and we had cloudy cool conditions most of the day. This did not however deter from the wonderful experience, and we loved it - great scenery, staff, activities and beautiful food. We walked to several lookouts which made the effort worthwhile as we looked down over the spectacular Whitehaven Beach.

The sand at Whitehaven is very different to other beaches being so pure and white.

It really wasn’t warm enough to swim, but we did enjoy a paddle and even a beer and wine on the beach. We saw this replica ship in harbour then again on the waters which was quite regal. The boats we saw in the harbour were amazing - Dennis and Darryl chatted to a deckhand on one boat which was worth $20million!! Unbelievable!!

Back at camp, bird feeding was a 4pm activity, and we had a visit from a curlew each night.

We moved on yesterday and are enjoying the tranquility of a farm stay out of Bowen. We cooked our fresh calamari over the campfire - then enjoyed beautiful prawns! We had a look around Bowen and made some enquires about where to go next. We’re actually at our turn around point aside we’ll start heading west then gradually south. Our time in this beautiful part of the world was marred a little by these pesky sandflies - even Darryl got attacked and we spent several very itchy nights, until we took an antihistamine tablet and bingo - itches gone (but big welts remain!) . So our destination is still unknown but one thing we do know is that we’ll be  avoiding highways and seeking out of the way locations. Today our thoughts are with Mila playing her first A grade netball game and the family gathering for Dusty’s celebrations. The service here isn’t adequate to post this, so I’m hoping along the way today I’ll be able to sneak enough time to send it off. Good luck to all sporting ventures today  and until the next blog, we send our love. ❌❌❌❌

Beautiful Whitsundays

Our travels have now taken us to the Whitsundays - the weather is improving and life is great! Our stay at Cape Hillsborough was highlighted by several walks which were just beautiful. We walked through rain forests, mangroves and climbed up mountains for marvellous views. 

The park promotes feeding the wallabies on the beach at dawn, so Darryl braved the cool conditions but was disappointed to be restricted in how close you could get - plus no flashes were to be used so his photos are nothing like the brochures. To boot there were only 2 kangaroos on the beach - however, in the camp you can almost pat them as they laze on the lawns and walkways. So the rest of us didn’t bother! Meanwhile, Dennis continued to attract birds - this time a beautiful kookaburra!

Now we are at Hydeaway Bay - on the Gloucester Peninsula. It’s a lovely quiet park, popular for fisher people and not far to the beach. It has surprised us how populated these areas are - Seaforth was a big surprise with houses enjoying absolute beach frontage. It was so lovely, Darryl thought he could easily live there! The houses around here are very luxurious with stunning views. We enjoyed morning tea at the nearby resort -  the view was lovely.

We are quite excited about our next stay in Airlie Beach, as we’ve booked a Whitsunday day cruise. We are starting to realise that we are in a popular tourist area and the exodus from south has begun. No longer can we pop into a park without booking. So we’ll have to be a bit more organised and plan our next moves. We hope the long weekend was enjoyed by everyone and hope the cold snap has abated a little. Till the next blog, love from us ❌❌

Beaches

We left one little beautiful place in the hinterland, and have ended up at two lovely beaches. We loved the serenity at Cape Palmerston where we were able to set up as we like, with the bonus of our camp fire each night. With lovely green glass and a backdrop of trees, it was the perfect spot, especially when the beach was accessed through this little walkway only 200 metres away.

Unfortunately, we haven’t struck good beach weather yet, so Dennis is still waiting to have his dip in the ocean.

The beach was mostly just ours, and we enjoyed walking along - looking at birds and the amazing patterns left by little crabs. 

Cape Palmerston would have to be one of the cleanest tidiest parks we’ve ever come across so we really enjoyed our 3 nights there. We purchased prawns which were from a nearly prawn farm, and they were delicious. 

On our trip to Cape Hillsborough, where we are now set up, we stopped to check out the  Hay Point viewing platform where we could see over 30 ships waiting to be loaded with coal. It’s amazing how busy this port is and how much coal is exported - in one year over 130000000 tons! That’s a lot of coal! It’s one of the largest coal exporting ports on the world. 

Cape Hillsborough is in a National Park, so no fires here but we look forward to lots of walks and drives to check out this beautiful part of our country. One morning we’ll have to drag ourselves out of bed at 6am to witness the feeding of the wallabies on the beach. The beach is beautiful and the backdrop like out of a story book. 

Our reception has been ordinary so I’m not confident this will post. However, if it does, we send our best wishes and hope everyone has a great long weekend. ❌❌❌