Day 74 Toowoomba to Brisbane

 So today we headed down to Brisbane to spend a few days with Steve. He lives on the Southside of so easy to get to his place.

I realised that after spending a few days there, we didn't really take much in the way of photos so here are couple of his house.

Was so good to see him and catch up.

Dasy 70 Wandoan to Toowoomba

 After a great stay with the relo's , we headed off to Toowoomba, we are now getting to the point where it is changeover time as we reorganise ourselves for our trip to Fraser Island with the rest of the Epsom Crew. Our original plan was to go straight to some friends and set up in their backyard but unfortunately gastro struck so we had to hastily rearrange a few things. Our good friend Wiki camps helped us find a spot at the Toowoomba Showgrounds for a couple of nights. Good spot with water and power but it also reminded us of how windy this place could be as the wind howled around the van. It was not freezing but happy to have the jeans and jumpers on at times.

Spent some time just wandering around and seeing how much the place has changed and grown dramatically. Finally, onto Pete and Judy's place to set up and swap some things around. We are leaving the van with them and heading off to Brisbane to catch with Steve then onto Bundaberg for a visit with my sister and then finally to Hervey Bay to await the arrival of the rest of the gang. 

Day 64 Roma to Wandoan

 We left Roma and headed for Russ's sisters place outside of Wandoan. They live on a property about 20kms out of town. We headed towards Miles but then took the Jackson Road to cut across to their place, This area is full of mines and gas wells so despite being a back road it is very busy with lots of trucks and mine vehicles. It cuts about 50kms off the journey so well worth it. 

We set up in Kerry and Darrell's back yard with a great outlook over their ripening wheat. Their crop is the best one they have ever had so fingers crossed the weather will be kind to them and they will get it harvested. They have already had heliothis grubs in the crop, so it was a bit of a novelty to see the spray plane working,

Dan their son had bought an old John Deere header, so he was very happy to have Russ around to have a look over it as he prepares for harvest. 

Russ even managed to get a pig when he went out for an early morning shot.

We spent 6 nights at the farm and it was great to catch up as it had been many years since it last happened. Lots of chatting, laughter and generally a good time. Russ had saved some of the fireworks from Alice Springs so boys being boys they had to light a few up.

We were also able to catch up with John and Jo Amy who live just outside of Miles. They moved up here from Echuca round 18 months ago.

Russ also had another go at clay target shooting during a night out at the Gun club. Dan is a keen member and invited us in for their regular Friday night shot. 

Dan getting ready to shoot

Day 63 Carnavon Gorge to Roma

 Today was just really a travel day and we headed off early as usual and made our way down to Roma. The Roma Gun Club was listed as a good place to stay on Wiki so that's where we ended up. The town has certainly grown since my sister lived there in the eighties. 

Drooped into the Visitors Centre known as the Big Rig and we were able to buy a number plate for the first time in ages.

Russ was able to catch up with a good mate from his Case New Holland days Ross Thrupp .

Day 61 Rolleston to Carnavon Gorge

 Took our time leaving Rolleston as it was only a short drive to the national park, we were booked into the Takkarakka Carvan park which is a beautiful bush setting with lots of very tall gum trees. It was still the school holidays and a long weekend, so it was still fairly busy, 

On the Road to the Gorge 

We had 2 days here to explore the gorge. The tracks into Carnarvon Gorge are set up so you have one main trail to follow, and all the points of interest run off that track. To do the full walk is a round trip of 24km so we did what most other people do and took the shorter option. It was only 16km!

It was another early start (6am) and we headed off with our back packs full of water and goodies to get us through the day. We walked out the farthest point, which was called the Art Gallery, It was an amazing wall of aboriginal rock art including both painting and pecking. Pecking is the process of literally picking at the wall with a sharp implement to create a mark. As the cliffs are all sandstone, there is lots of pecking along these walls. 

As you work your way back, you head into Wards Canyon which is one of the many narrow canyons found in the park, The are all very tall and narrow and create their own cool and water filled environment with numerous ferns and other rainforest type plants.

The Amphitheatre was next which required a climb up some very steep ladders and through a hole in a wall that opened out into this natural open space. The pictures could never do it justice. 

The last one on the list was the Moss Garden. The name comes from the carpet of green moss growing on the walls of this area. There is water continually leaching and dripping out of the sandstone which creates a perfect environment for the plants. At the end of the access walkway, there is a beautiful waterfall and its a lovely spot to sit and enjoy the coolness. Unfortunately, there were a lot of mosquitoes around so we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked.

It was a wonderful day, but it took us 5 solid hours of walking and all of these places are an uphill walk away from the main track and some of them were pretty steep along with numerous crossings of Carnarvon Creek - not deep but much rock steeping involved. Needless to say by the time we got back we were both stuffed so not much happened that afternoon.

We did walk up to the lookout just on the edge of the caravan park which gave you a great view across the plains.

There was other amazing spectacle that happened each night on dusk. Thousands of flying foxes fly across the top of the park. It took about 15mins for them to pass overhead. We couldn't work out why they gave you a handout about bats when you checked in until we saw that. 

Apparently, some people were quite apprehensive about the number of bats that were around. 

There were other walks around the park, but I think you would need a few more days to do them all, 

very spectacular place and well worth a visit.

Day 60 Yeppoon to Rolleston

 So we headed west today on our journey to Carnarvon Gorge National Park, left Yeppoon and travelled south through Mt Morgan and Moura. It was a steep climb over the range and then out onto the cattle country. They have a memorial set up at Moura honouring those miners who have lost their lives.

We ended up stopping in a little place called Rolleston which is about 100km from the Gorge. Well, what a fantastic little place - the caravan park was small but spotless and like so many of those small towns very cheap. After setting up, we went for a walk through the local park where there was a heap of information about the history of the area. this was presented in an olde cottage that had been moved from off a station and dated back to the 1800's. We ended up dropping into the local for a drink and met up with a few people who were also at the van park. Nora and Peter were real estate agents from Townsville who had well and truly embraced the van life. They started with a tent at the Birdsville Bash and have progressed through to RAM and a Bushmaster van. Great to chat with and compare notes about your adventures.

A nice quiet spot to spend the night.

Day 56 Mackay to Yeppoon

 We had a day to fill in before we were due in Yeppoon and we did have plans of stopping somewhere else along the coast, but it is so busy with the school holidays that we headed straight to Rockhampton and just stayed the night there. We were lucky to get the last site at the Discovery Park for that night as the 2022 Australian Junior Motocross Championships were on. Not exactly the most inspiring place to stay but good for one night.

The Bruce Highway never fails to deliver as one of the worst especially the stretch between Mackay and Rocky. It has always been the same but add lots of caravans and impatient people and it gets very interesting.

The good part of staying in Rocky was dinner at the Brunswick Hotel - a great place if you like good food especially steak. Very full when we left. 

Headed for Yeppoon and our caravan park for the next 4 nights. We were lucky enough to get a beachfront sight at the caravan park just out of town and it was a beautiful spot just to sit back and enjoy the view. We spent a lot of time walking, swimming and Russ even chucked a line in.

We did find this amazing shell museum that was attached to the visitor information centre . For a gold coin donation, you can go in and have a look at an enormous collection of shells some of which are very old and very big. There are lots of things to do in Yeppoon including going over to Great Keppell Island, but it was school holidays, so most things were booked out. I did forget how hilly Yeppoon is .

We did drive over to Rosslyn Bay and check out the marina and the seafood shop - picked up some magnificent prawns for dinner, 

We did have one rainy day so headed into Rockhampton for a bit of retail therapy - I come to the conclusion that all shopping centres are the same - same shops and similar decor. 

The great thing about Yeppoon was that my eldest sister Christine, my niece Karen and her 2 kids were there at the same time. Great to catch up with them.

Tomorrow, we start to head west again towards Carnarvon Gorge