Category: Queensland

Our destination on Thursday was the Whitsunday Paradise Estate where John and Joy live–approximately 10 km south of Bowen. We met John and Joy on our cruise to Hong Kong, where John was an important part of our ukulele group. We also celebrated John’s 72^nd birthday on the cruise.

We had arranged to park Matilda on a strip of grass opposite their house. It was an almost perfect spot for a campsite—high and quiet. John and Joy were out having lunch with Joy’s mother when we arrived, so we set up Matilda and had our own lunch. Whitsunday Paradise is a newly established community estate with lovely houses, many of them overlooking the serene waters of Port Denison, which is one of the bays in a larger coastal recess called Edgecumbe Bay. John and Joy’s house is 2-storey high, with an uninterrupted view from their deck of Bowen to the north across Port Denison.

They welcomed us to their house when they came home. We chatted and played ukulele on their veranda. As their house is full of artistic and crafty creations by both John and Joy, we thought it best for Dexter to stay on our bed inside Matilda. We took Dexter out from time to time to stretch his legs and to relieve himself. Joy cooked banana pancakes with rosella jam for lunch. These were yummy, and Katie wrote down the pancake recipe so she can surprise Ian one day. Both Ian and John had a good chat and a ukulele playing session.

For dinner John drove us to The Cove on the waterfront on Horseshoe Bay Road. This restaurant serves a variety of Chinese and Thai cuisines. We all enjoyed a delicious banquet including red duck curry, washed down with a nice Marlborough sauvignon blanc. John and Ian had a good chat after dinner on the veranda over a couple of The Ardmore smoky scotches.

We both had a good night sleep with a cool breeze flowing through Matilda. After breakfast on Friday, John and Joy took us in their 200 Series Landcruiser  with Dexter in the back for a tour of Bowen. Bowen has industry–mining, fishing, salt production and agriculture. Bowen is also famous for being the birthplace of the Kensington Pride Mango. Bowen’s fresh produce includes capsicums, eggplants, zucchinis, chillies, pumpkins, and tomatoes. The Big Mango was erected in 2002 to commemorate the connection the area has with the fruit.

Bowen is regarded as being at the northern end of the Whitsunday Coast. John drove us around Bowen along the coastline, showing us some very impressive walking trails and lookouts. At one point, Dexter managed to go for a dip at a beach in Queens Bay. We then headed to Horseshoe Bay and climbed up to a Rotary lookout with a panoramic coastal view. We all managed to climb the Grade 4 trail up to the steel viewing platform.

We were amazed with Joy’s stamina and efforts in climbing up to the viewing platform, as she was recovering from recent abdominal surgery.

After our scenic climb, John shouted us morning tea with sweet potato chips at a cafe conveniently located at the start of the trail. We then drove up to Flagstaff Hill, another lookout with a 360 degrees view of the Bowen region.

John next took us to Arabon Seafoods at Bowen Boat Harbour which is famous for its seafood. It has the most modern seafood unloading and commercial marina facility in Queensland. It sells live trout, prawns, bugs, crabs, and all reef and estuary fish. John bought some cooked banana prawns and Red Emperor fillets for barbecuing for tonight’s dinner. We then went to a chemist for chemicals to alleviate Katie’s mosquito and sand fly “bites”. Our next stop was IGA to shop for ingredients for tomorrow’s spring roll making session.

Back at Whitsunday Paradise, Ian and John tried to repair Matilda’s awning without success. The only solution at this moment was to tape up the awning to its cradle. In late afternoon Joy’s sister Faye and husband Ron came over for a drink. We entertained all by playing the video of our ukulele performance from our Hong Kong cruise. We enjoyed the cooked prawns and barbecued Red Emperor fillets for dinner with a bottle of Cassegrain 2019 Semillon. We had a relatively early night after another big day.

On Saturday morning, Ian took Dexter for a morning walk. Katie worked with Joy to show her how to make spring rolls from the ingredients they bought yesterday. With the half Queensland Blue pumpkin we brought from home, Joy made pumpkin soup for lunch.

John and Ian played their ukes with YouTube videos performed by Cynthia Lin. They really got off on Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl, which we played on our cruise. We had spring rolls and stir fried Red Emperor with vegies and rice for dinner. We all watched the classic movie, The Guns of Navarone, on TV. Today Ian went “alcohol free”, a rare day indeed! Ian also had had an annoying headache for a few days.

At night, John showed us his telescope, and Ian now wants one. We also admired John and Joy’s creativities in wood turning and pottery.

On Sunday morning, Joy’s pumpkin “scones” became a pumpkin slice, but it was delicious just the same. With our morning tea of pumpkin slice, we visited John’s brother, Peter, and sister-in-law, Karen, at a nearby farm producing chillies, capsicums, eggplants and tomatoes. We also met their dogs Ruby and Princess. Peter gave us some chillies and capsicums from his farm.

We got away from Bowen a little after 11am. John gave us some citrus fruit and a lovely eggplant from his own productive back yard.

What a great stroke of luck to meet John and Joy on our cruise. They made us very welcome during our trip up the Queensland Coast, and have become good friends.

On Monday we drove non-stop from Flaggy Rock Café to the Island Gateway Holiday Park at Jubilee Pocket, which is just a little way past the main central business district of Airlie Beach. The park’s admin staff were especially friendly and helpful, and they also act as booking agents for local tours.

Matilda was allocated a nice grassy site. When we set up we looked at the awning and the electronic, which were both playing up. Ian slapped more tape on the awning to keep it closed at the rear end. The step now needs a little nudge to retract, and we decided to live with this.

We considered activities, dining and accommodation options for the next few days, and looked into a doggie day care for Dexter. Katie found an advertisement for a café that was particularly welcoming.

We received a phone call from our friends John and Joy from Bowen (our next stop), and we arranged to catch up on Thursday and to try camping on vacant land across from their house. We met John and Joy on our Majestic Princess cruise to Hong Kong. We cooked smoked mackerel from Grunske’s and pearl couscous for dinner—so good!

After Dexter’s morning walk and breakfast, we decided to go a one-day sail in the Whitsunday Passage. We considered three boats recommended by the park’s admin staff, and settled on the Providence V. This boat is a replica of the Grand Banks fishing schooners and was built from North Queensland timber. The main objective of the sail was to see Whitehaven Beach, which is well known for incredibly white and fine quartz sand. We turned our attention to doggie daycare, and rang several providers. We had two professional people available to mind Dexter, but Narelle from the office also offered to mind Dexter overnight too so we could get away early for sailing the next morning. We settled on accepting Narelle’s offer.

We drove to Cedar Creek Falls which was a very nice secluded creek with rocky outcrops leading to a waterfall and a swimming hole. At first Dexter was not very confident to go over the rocky surface leading to the water—this was different from a sandy beach. The temptation to get wet was eventually too great, and he went for a paddle, but did not get out of his depth.

We then dropped Dexter off at Narelle’s house for an overnight stay. Narelle has a Labrador X Border Collie called Buster, and her daughter, Teagan, has a parrot called Mango. Dexter immediately got on well with Buster, but we were a bit concerned about the parrot, who often has the run of the house. We warned Narelle that Dexter likes to chase birds, and we did not want to think about what he would do if he caught one. We were assured that the bird would be OK, so we left Dexter with his bedding and some food. We received an SMS from Narelle later with good evidence that Dexter had settled in well—he was being spoilt by Teagan.

As we were now dogless, we walked across the road from the caravan park to the Jubilee Tavern for dinner on pasta night.

On Wednesday morning, we rose early to find sticky syrup leaking from a plastic bottle of peaches in the fridge, onto the motorhome floor. Cleaning up took some time, so we missed breakfast and went to the front of the caravan park to be collected by a shuttle bus. We arrived at Abell Point Marina North for boarding the Providence V.

We had 20 adults and 2 small children on board as passengers. Kieran from Scotland was the skipper and Brett from Poland was the crew. This sailing boat has 2 masts and can raise a bunch of sails, but we motored all the way to Tongue Bay or Hill Inlet on Whitsunday Island.

Brett led us to a series of lookouts over Whitehaven Beach, where we looked down to Whitehaven Beach.

We then were given time to climb down onto the beach itself. Ian walked out into the clear water in search of rays and lemon sharks. There were plenty of rays and whiting, but no sharks on the day. We tried rubbing the very fine white sand on our bodies to exfoliate our skin.

Back on the boat, we had a packed salad for lunch. Providence V then motored back to Hook Passage between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island to allow passengers to go snorkelling along the fringing reef. Ian wore his contact lenses for better vision underwater. You can lose track of time when snorkelling, and Ian was one of the last to come out of the water. Again, there was a total lack of sharks.

On the way back to Abell Point, we motored all of the way but raised four sails to assist sailing. It was a good feeling to be under sail in a relatively large sailing boat (for us). We enjoyed some fruit, then the bar opened and Ian had a couple of Coronas while topless soaking up the late afternoon sun. There are no photos of Ian topless.

We arrived back at Abell Point at 4:30pm after a full 9 hours on board. We were driven back to the caravan park, from where we set off to collect Dexter. It was dusk, and Narelle told us that she had to go out at 5:00 pm, and she thought Buster was best in the house. We wanted to collect Dexter before dark so that he would not fret by being alone in the yard. James in the Tom Tom got us lost, but we recovered and arrived at Narelle’s just on dark to find Dexter waiting patiently for us at the front gate. We left a bottle of good Hunter Valley Semillon and a box of Malteasers for Narelle and her daughter Teagan for looking after Dexter.

Back at the caravan park, Ian relaxed over a couple of Cloud Catchers. All three of us were pooped. Dexter had his normal dinner, but Katie and I just had some bread and jam and ice cream for dinner. We all hit the sack early.

We slept well after a big day. We were ready to leave at 9:30 am on Thursday, and dropped into the office to leave a message of farewell and thanks to Narelle. We drove out to Shute Harbour, from where in 2004 we caught a boat to Long Island. We spent five nights at Club Croc. Unfortunately, the area was flattened by a cyclone a couple of years ago, and we understand that Club Croc no longer exists. The area around Shute Harbour was still looking a bit derelict.

John had asked Ian to pick up some ukulele strings from the Airlie Beach music shop. We found the shop OK, and bought some good quality strings with a low-G. In the same street there was a brewery, but it had just been set up and was not yet open—bugger!

We headed north for Bowen.

Agnes Water to Airlie Beach is over 700 km. We had decided to try and limit each daily drive to 400 km, or about 5 hours of driving, so we looked for a stopover on the way to Airlie Beach. Using GeoWiki, we found a low cost ($10) camp site at the Flaggy Rock Café at Clairview on the Bruce Highway. However, multiple attempts to contact the Café by phone over two days failed to get a person to answer the phone. There was also the Flaggy Rock Community Centre, and the first phone call encountered a very helpful woman, who said there would be plenty of room on several hectares of grassy paddock.

After leaving Agnes Water on Saturday, we stopped at the Rockhampton Information Centre where we parked on the main street street and had our lunch of tuna sandwich. Two volunteers in the Information Centre were very chatty and helpful. The Tropic of Capricorn passes through Rockhampton, and the road west of Rockhampton to Longreach, which we drove in 2015 on the way to Alice Springs, is the Capricorn Highway. The Tropic of Capricorn is the southernmost circle of latitude where the sun can lie directly overhead the earth. It is currently at 23°26′12.4″S, but it is moving northwards at about 15 m per year.

We reached the Flaggy Rock Community Centre at 4:15pm, having not seen any evidence of the cafe.  We were met by Ray, the cheerful and helpful caretaker, and we had no trouble finding a grassy spot to camp well away from others, and the facilities. Ray collected $15 from us just before dark. The site was next to a railway line, but apart from a few trains, we had a quiet night.

Dexter enjoyed a long walk on Sunday morning to the facilities, which are good. We met a couple in another Jayco Conquest motorhome who were travelling with their young Border Collie, and towing a small Mazda car on a tilt trailer. They had sold their house and were travelling indefinitely. Unsure if we could do that.

We wanted to get away early, but the awning refused to retract all the way at the rear end. Ian was able to tape it closed so it was not a problem when we were driving. Ian had wondered how long the flimsy looking awning would last. The electric step also decided not to retract unless it was given a light kick. Matilda was starting to play up—nothing critical, but definitely annoying. It brought back memories of a major problem we had with our awning on our tag-along trip to the Kimberleys in 2015.

When we eventually got away, soon after getting back on the Bruce Highway we came up to the Flaggy Rock Café, which looked open. We stopped in a dirt carpark, which is presumably where people are supposed to camp. Ian went in an explained that he had wanted to book a spot to stay, but he could not get anyone to answer the phone, possibly because the phone was faulty. The response was that they knew the phone was faulty, and words to the effect that they were seriously considering the possibility of thinking about trying to approach someone about doing something about it, maybe.

So, if you need to find an overnight stopover for a self-contained RV and on the Bruce Highway between Agnes Water and Airlie Beach, you would not do much better than the Flaggy Rock Community Centre (0477 545 618) at Clairview. We suggest giving the Flaggy Rock Café a miss, at least as far as a stopover point. Can’t comment on the coffee, as Ian did not feel obliged to support their business after their lack of interest in fixing their business phone line.

Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy are two coastal towns located only a few kilometres apart at the southern end of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The town of Seventeen Seventy was named in honour of Captain James Cook’s first landing in Queensland. The Endeavour anchored in Bustard Bay on 24 May 1770, while his first landing on Australian soil was at Botany Bay near Sydney. Each year, the town of 1770 does a re-enactment of the landing as close to 24 May as practicable. There is also a 1770 Festival, and we were lucky to be in the area when this was on. We first heard of the town of 1770 when Grant and Jacqui went there for their honeymoon 10 years ago. We were curious to see what the place was like.

During our Around Australia trip, Dexter welcomed his swimming and walking sessions and enjoyed every minute of them, then he would “crash” at night. At Agnes Water, we chose the caravan park right on the beach, mainly for Dexter.

The Agnes Water Caravan Park has amazing facilities catering for various accommodation choices: powered and unpowered sites, beach front luxury cabins with designated parking facilities, studio apartments, bungalows for couples only, and treetop safari tents, as well as a coffee shop right on the beach serving breakfast and lunch. When we checked into the caravan park on Wednesday, we were amazed with their facilities, and of course, the pristine beach. Unfortunately, the beach adjacent to the caravan park was a NO GO zone for dogs, but dogs were allowed on lead immediately to the north, with access through a council reserve. We had another concrete slab for our campsite. We cooked red snapper fillets that we bought from Grunske’s, with a fish spice coating that is becoming too salty. Katie made a nice avocado salad using avocado from Jamie and Denise.

Thursday started off with Dexter’s beach walk and swim. He loved playing in the breakers, but it was disappointing that he had to stay on lead.

We spent the morning planning the remainder of our journey to Port Douglas. For lunch we had rissoles left over from our last dinner at Woodgate Beach. Ian tried to use Wiki Camps, but found it rather cryptic. On the other hand, CMCA’s GeoWiki was brilliant, and we used it to plan a stop over to break up the next trip to Airlie Beach. Ian had a short afternoon nap—the first of our trip.

We enjoyed some of our drinks obtained from Bundaberg in the late afternoon, and Ian played his guitar and Katie’s ukulele using songs from Rob in the Gold Coast.

Dexter had another great beach paddle on Friday morning. After breakfast, we went for a drive to the north and stopped at Joseph Banks Regional Park. Botanist Joseph Bank came ashore with Captain Cook and collected 33 plant species. Katie took photos of the Lieutenant James Cook Monument Cairn (a concrete obelisk). We could not take Dexter for a walk along the path of the Regional Park as it was not dog friendly. However, we located a little track to the beach in Bustard Bay , and Dexter had a short paddle. Lunch was grilled red emperor fillets and chips at a dog friendly bistro near the beach.

Festivities for Captain Cook’s landing re-enactment at 1770 were scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm. To kill some time, Ian visited the 1770 Distillery and spoke with John, the owner, who has 4 varieties of fruit liqueurs. Ian bought a bottle each of two of them.

We found a very convenient parking spot for Matilda for the re-enactment. There was abundant seating available when we arrived, so we set ourselves up at the end of one of the rows of chairs. Ian bought a beef vindaloo and Katie had a mild chicken curry. A service club sold drinks, and was providing silicon cups for wine at $5, with a $4 refund at the end of the night if people did not want to keep them. Intrigued, Ian bought one with a sav blanc in it, and kept it for a practical souvenir of our visit. It felt a bit funny drinking out of it at first.

We enjoyed the re-enactment, which was well directed under a beautiful sunset. Captain Cook had a menagerie of animals on the Endeavour, including a couple of greyhounds. At least one of them came ashore at 1770. The re-enactment also explained why Bustard Bay got its name. The story is that the landing party saw a large bird, that they thought was a bustard. They saw this an opportunity to get some fresh meat, so the “bustard” was shot, and the bay where the Endeavour was anchored was named accordingly. Dexter enjoyed the experience tremendously, ingratiating himself with children and adults sitting on blankets around us.

Next year, 2020, we understand that plans are for the Endeavour replica to be part of the re-enactment to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing. We would certainly consider coming back next year to be part of the celebrations, maybe on a 4WD trip to the tip of Cape York?!

When Ian rang to book the caravan park at Agnes Water, we were only going to stay until Friday. However, we were encouraged to stay another night to attend both the landing re-enactment and one day of the 1770 Festival.

Early on Saturday morning we took Dexter to Aunty Ray’s Doggie Daycare. The place was a little bit rough, but we felt that Dexter could handle it for a few hours on what was a fine day. We then parked Matilda in the town of Agnes Water, and boarded the shuttle bus to the festival venue. It was a very small event but well organised. There was a street parade and a fun run, which we missed, and at the main venue there were fishing, food, retail and games precincts. It was multicultural, with a Chinese dragon parade and a bagpipe band, but the most enjoyable performances were by the ukulele group and a kids acrobatic and dancing group.

At one of the retail outlets called Kombi Dalts, Ian bought a comfy pair of long plants to wear in the hot evenings when the bugs are out, while Katie bought a shoulder bag and an overalls dress. All the products are made in Thailand, where the owners live. They love selling at festivals, including folk festivals. With our purchase, the shop owner gave a small present to Katie–a handmade fan.

In order to commemorate our visit to this special festival, both of us bought a 1770 tank tops. We thought these could be handy if we come here again for the HMB Endeavour Replica anchoring in Bustard Bay from 23-25 May 2020! We also bought some yummy beef jerky to enjoy for our trip.

We found a street store called Govindas selling delicious vegetarian koftas, so we had them for lunch and kept some for dinner.

Back at the caravan park, Ian and Katie began making some cumquat jam with almost 1 kilo of cumquats brought from home, and half a lemon. We managed to fill 3 jars of cumquat jam.

After picking up Dexter from Aunty Ray’s, we took him to the off-lead beach near Agnes Water SLSC for a beach run and play. Katie was a bit worried about sharks, as it was dusk and there was nobody else on the beach at that time. Ian reassured her that the sharks had been scared off by crocodiles migrating south due to global warming.

Dexter had his usual paddle along the beach early on Sunday morning. We packed up and left the Agnes Water Caravan Park at 10:00 am to continue our journey north to Airlie Beach. We filled up our fuel at a service station just outside town recommended by the caravan park staff. A long drive was anticipated today with an overnight camp at the Flaggy Rock Community Centre.

We decided on having a day in Bundaberg based out of Woodgate Beach because we had some difficulty finding dog-friendly accommodation. On the drive to Bundaberg on Tuesday we encountered our first rail crossing where we were stopped to wait for a train.

Everyone has had, or at least heard of, Bundaberg Ginger Beer. Well, it is actually made in Bundaberg, along with 16 other varieties of soft drinks. The company has a visitor centre called The Barrel. For $12, a person gets a self-guided tour of a museum showing how the ginger beer is made and packed, a taste of all 17 flavours, and a six-pack of 375 ml bottles of one’s choosing. This has to be awesome value! Katie and I were some of the first customers of the day.

I was surprised to learn that all the soft drinks made here are brewed, that is fermented, from one to four days. This creates alcohol, of course, but most of the alcohol is driven off when the wort is heated and the yeast is killed to stop the fermentation. I know that some alcoholic ginger beers are made by adding alcohol to a soft drink. However, I am now intrigued to see if anyone brews alcoholic ginger beer like a conventional beer and leaves the generated alcohol in.

It is not surprising that the soft drink factory is very highly automated. The museum uses cameras that are set up in the factory. We only saw one human being from all the cameras that we must have watched for about 20 minutes.

Katie and I came away with a carton of 24 diet ginger beer stubbies, a half carton of 12 pink grapefuit stubbies, a 6-pack of pineapple and coconut stubbies, and two mixed six-packs from the cost of the tour. I bought diet ginger beer because it has more ginger in it relevant to the traditional ginger beer, and it does contain less added sugar. I thought that the ginger beer would be useful to make Dark and Stormy with rum. The pineapple and coconut drink would go well with a white rum.

We were advised by staff at the Woodgate Beach Caravan Park to try Grunske’s by the River for a fresh seafood lunch in Bundaberg. Sounded good, but it was not dog friendly. We found a parking spot next to both Grunske’s and the Burnett River. All the seafood at Grunske’s, except the Tasmanian salmon, is locally caught. We bought some seafood for lunch—crumbed mackerel, some calamari, and a seafood basket, washed down with a Bundaberg guava drink. We also bought some cooked prawns and some smoked mackerel for our fridge. The place is licensed, but very casual. It would be nice to have a sit down meal there, but we enjoyed our lunch in Matilda overlooking the river. Dexter scored more than one chip.

In the afternoon, Ian booked a tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. The museum in the distillery is amazing. On the tour we were taken through the rum making process, which Ian was quite ignorant about. The electric fences around the distillery were daunting—apparently they are essential to keep out people who have more than a healthy liking for the rum. We learned the story of the polar bear mascot, Bundy R Bear, and the distinctive square Bundy rum bottle, which were devised by Sam McMahon, brother of past Australian prime minister Billy McMahon. McMahon actually means “son of bear” in Irish, and that is why an Australian rum has a polar bear mascot rather than an Australian animal.

The tour included two full drinks—one of any rum, and one of a rum liqueur. One of the rums was recommended for those who don’t drink rum but who like Scotch whisky, so I went for this. It was perfect, but at $179 a bottle, I would have expected it to be. I had the liqueur neat and with some soda water, but was not impressed. I ended up buying a Reserve rum that was recommended for mixing with ginger beer to make a Dark and Stormy. I also bought a Bundy Rum glass.

While we were at Bundaberg Brewed Drinks we found a brochure on a relatively new distillery in town called Kalki Moon. We decided to visit on the way through Bundaberg to Agnes Water on the Wednesday. Rick, the owner, was very welcoming. He used to work at the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, but left to start his own distilling business with his wife. He makes rum, gin and liqueurs, but the rum is still ageing—it has to be aged for at least two years before it can be released as rum. Rick explained the gin making process to Ian and Katie. The gin starts life as a raw alcohol, which is purchased. It is mixed with juniper and other aromatic plants and then redistilled to make gin. Gin must involve juniper—if not, it is vodka. He makes three varieties of gin—a standard gin with 37% alcohol and a small range of aromatics, a middle of the road gin with a wider range of aromatics, and a top of the range Navy gin with the most alcohol and the widest range of aromatics. We each tasted some gin as mixed drinks. The standard gin was said to be good with muddled lime and ginger beer to make a Gin Gin Mule. Gin Gin is a nearby town. The standard gin was also good with Bundaberg grapefruit drink. The pink gin liqueur is infused with elderflower and rose, and is good with soda water. We bought a bottle of the standard gin and a bottle of the pink gin liqueur. Rick was interested in our travels, so we showed him through Matilda.

So, Bundaberg provided us with insights into three drink making businesses, and a local seafood purveyor. Good memories, which will be stirred up whenever we have a Bundaberg soft drink, a Bundy rum, or a gin mixer. We also stopped at a shopping mall for lunch on the Wednesday and to stock up on provisions before heading off to Agnes Water.

On Saturday, we drove north from Cooroy and checked into the Woodgate Beach NRMA Caravan Park. This park is located across the road from a beach that must be about 10 km long. We had a concrete slab, which we found enabled us to keep the motorhome a bit cleaner. We put up the awning and the wall that attaches to the end of the awning. We were near the facilities and a dump point, the Serenity Cove Café is at the entrance of the Park, and there is also a convenience store selling essential items such as icecream. For dinner tonight, Katie made a pork, veggie and noodle stir fry dish, and we had Jenny’s leftover fruit and custard flan for dessert.

The 18 May was Federal Election day. We voted before leaving home as we were uncertain where we would be on the day. We watched the election result that night on our TV with quite poor reception. Everyone had predicted a Labor victory, but by the end of the night it looked like the Coalition had won, possibly even with a small majority. What a surprise, and I must say, a pleasing one for a change. We felt that after the Rudd – Gillard – Rudd debacle not that long ago, current Labor would struggle to run a chook raffle competently, despite the strong reforms undertaken by Labor in the Hawke – Keating years. Of course, Tony Abbot and Peter Dutton damaged the Liberal Party significantly by overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull, and we think it is fitting that Tony Abbot lost his seat. Peter Dutton is still there, so our current PM needs to watch his back.

It was sad that just before the election, Bob Hawke passed away. He was an impressive leader of a political party and a country in his day, and we wonder whether we will see anyone that comes close to his leadership ability in our lifetimes.

We started Sunday at Woodgate Beach with a family walk south to Banksia Park looking for a dog lead-free area. At the time we thought it was at the other end of the park, so we simply retraced our steps along the concrete path. However, we found out later that dogs are allowed on the main stretch of the beach on lead, and they are allowed off-lead on the beach from Banksia Park southwards, and north of the boat ramp opposite the pub. Katie shouted breakfast at the Serenity Cove Café and we enjoyed a Canadian breakfast of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, and coffee.

One interesting observation was that many places we had visited so far are dog friendly. It was common to find dog water bowls at street corners, front door of libraries, and near toilet amenities.

It was a good day for catching up with washing clothes and writing our travel blog. We shared the responsibility of writing up our blog, with most of the writing initiated by Katie (the Possum), and further text and photos added by Ian, who posted our entries to our web site.

Ian lifted the Trek mountain bike off the back of Matilda and took a long bicycle ride south along the path to Banksia Park, looking for an off-lead dog beach. He went on the beach and continued south on the hard sand for a fair way, then turned around and headed north until the sand became rather soft past the caravan park. He continued on the path to the pub and boat ramp, and then back along the path to the caravan park. This was the longest bicycle ride in months and took him 1 hour 20 minutes. He thoroughly enjoyed it even though his legs felt as though they had done some work.

Ian then took Dexter for an afternoon paddle at the beach on lead. On this holiday, Dexter has enjoyed his beach time.

Sunday night was the best night of sleep for both of us—Katie slept in while Ian took Dexter for a morning walk on the beach. Ian made porridge for breakfast for the first time this trip. We then planned for the next few days.

In the afternoon, Ian took Dexter for a long walk to Banksia Park along the concrete path, and then onto the beach where Dexter could legally run off-lead. The tide was out, and he chased a tennis ball and a red squeaky plastic stick that floats along the sand flat and in the shallow water. We walked back along the beach that was supposed to be for dogs on lead, but as the beach was almost deserted, Dexter did break the law and go most of the way lead-free.

Ian rode his bicycle into the supermarket to buy rissoles for dinner.

Ian rose early on Monday morning and took Dexter to the beach again, this time to see the sunrise. After breakfast, we drove into Bundaberg for the day—please see our separate post on this. Dexter had another 10 minute run on the off-lead part of the beach north of the boat ramp when we got back from Bundy. This was clearly not long enough for him, for Dexter bolted back to the beach after we toweled him down instead of jumping into Matilda. We enjoyed fresh prawn sangers from Bundy for dinner.

We left Woodgate Beach on the Wednesday morning to drive north to Agnes Water via Bundaberg. We concur with friends Grant and Jacqui that Woodgate Beach is a perfect place to relax and get away from the crowds. The weather was kind, and the caravan park is in an ideal location.

Grant was a flatmate of Ian’s brother, Alan, when Alan lived in Port Douglas. Alan and Grant became good friends, and used to go skiing years later. We got to know Grant when he visited Alan in hospital in 2004, shortly before Alan died of cancer. We have become close friends with Grant  and his parents, Margaret and Peter, and eventually also with Jacqui, who he married 10 years ago. Grant is a cabinet maker by trade, but he is also a highly skilled sculptor. He still works in cabinet making with his business partner and friend, Marty, who we also know, but renovating and building recreational vehicles also occupies a lot of his time. Grant has fixed our CUB camper trailer, twice!

We had arranged to look after Grant and Jacqui’s place while they went away on an anniversary long weekend from Friday to Monday with their dogs, Pepper and Sully, to Woodgate Beach. We had agreed to arrive at Grant and Jacqui’s place at North Arm at 4:00 pm on the Thursday so that Grant could have a good day working on building a motor home.

It did not take long to drive from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast, so we camped for a few hours at a shady spot near Aussie World and had Beefy pies, coffee and tea for lunch. Ian practised his ukulele at this very tranquil spot. We also bought a family apple pie to take to North Arm.

We arrived at North Arm at the agreed time, and Grant and Ian considered options for parking Matilda. There had been heavy rain over several weeks, and much of the ground on the property was soft. We eventually parked Matilda on a concrete slab behind Grant’s shed, and we were able to get 240V connected.

Jacqui came home with lots of shopping for their trip away. As all of us were very tired, Ian got some takeaway from a Thai restaurant at Yandina for dinner. He enjoyed driving Grant’s Pathfinder into Yandina. The Pathfinder was our first real 4WD vehicle, and we sold it to Grant, who took a liking for it when we first bought it and Grant was still living in Buderim.

We got up a bit later than usual on Friday morning and we had showers and breakfast in Matilda. Grant had put up a gate to keep the sheep (brother and sister) away from our camping spot and Dexter in. Grant and Jacqui then set off to Woodgate Beach with Pepper and Sully in the Pathfinder.

Marty, Grant’s workmate arrived to supervise the unloading of a truck full of cabinet making materials. Ian has known Marty almost as long as Grant, and they had a good chat. Marty had a bit of a go at Ian’s new travelling gitar. Ian took Dexter for a walk down side road, met an elderly woman with a red cattle dog that we met last time when we were in North Arm, about 16 months ago.

Ian took Grant’s ute into Yandina to shop at IGA. He bought a microwavable fish fillet pack and we had it for dinner with brown rice and quinoa. We watched some TV inside Matilda and hit the sack early. The weather had been humid with showers.

On Saturday we did some planning for the next week or so. We were keen to visit Australia Zoo, which is at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, but we needed to find doggie daycare for Dexter. Ian also contacted Jenny, who we met on our Kimberley trip in 2015 and who lives at Tewantin. Jenny was very pleased to hear from us after all these years, and she and her husband invited us to their house for lunch on Friday. We also received an invitation for lunch on Sunday with Jamie and Denise.

As the afternoon’s sun was out, Ian and Katie could not resist the temptation of playing their ukuleles on the back of Grant’s old truck. This reminded us of a rock and roll scene in the 70s. We were very impressed with Grant’s creativity.

We had a Beefy’s chicken and veggie pie and barbecued pumpkin slices for dinner, and some apple pie for dessert.

On Sunday, we moved Matilda off of her concrete slab, across the damp ground and up the driveway with no problems. We were off to visit Jamie and Denise at Woombye. Jamie was Katie’s colleague when they both worked at Hornsby Council. Jamie married Denise and moved to Woombye, and they have twin sons, Luke and Ryan. Their boys have grown up so fast–we saw them as babies when Jamie and Denise visited us a few years ago. they have also adopted an 8 year-old dog called Arnie (or Arnold when is not a good dog).

Jamie prepared a tapas for lunch with haloumi, marinated prawns and lamb, asparagus, tomatoes, smoked salmon, toasted Turkish bread, dolmades, home grown parsleys, chillies, and sun-dried tomatoes. Starters were white and blue cheese and salami. It was a very tasty feast, enjoyed with Ian’s Cassegrain 2019 Verdelho.

Dexter spent a few hours inside Matilda while we were having lunch, but Ian took him out to socialise with Arnie and had a walk on lead around their property. He and Arnie were getting on okay. Dexter was given Arnie’s squeaky toy as a gift from Denise and Jamie., as Arnie doesn’t care about toys!

Jamie took us to a tour of his property, which used to be a bonsai nursery. It really is too big for Jamie to handle. We remember helping Jamie to clear away most of the unloved bonsai plants and weeds from the old nursery a year or so after he moved in.

We came back to North Arm a little later than expected. It is to Ian’s credit that he managed to manoeuvre Matilda back onto the same parking spot on the concrete slab.

On Monday, we had intermittent showers all day. However, Katie managed to wash some clothes and hang them out, and we did get them dry.

It had become increasing urgent to replace our Tom Tom for this trip, as it was not picking up any GPS signals.  Ian rang JB HiFi Maroochydore to enquire about their GPS. It seems that the current models no longer fit the cradle we have in Matilda. He borrowed Grant’s ute to drive to Maroochydore and bought a Tom Tom GO 520. This appears to be a useful model for us, and it has hands free phone capability like our old one.

Ian later took the ute to Yandina and bought bolts to fix the foot of the awning leg that was damaged at Christmas in a storm. The fix was surprisingly easy for once. He also bought groceries, fish, salad and spuds to make dinner for us and Grant and Jacqui.

It was good to see that Grant and Jacqui had returned from Woodgate much refreshed. Grant also lowered our dining table in Matilda to a more comfortable height. He then swapped the cushions to even out the wear.

All of us enjoyed a delicious spicy fish dinner with a Cassegrain 2019 Semillon, and then Byron Bay cookies. Ian and Grant were allowed by their wives to sip port from port pipes—a rare treat!.

The rain continued all Tuesday morning! We filled our water tank using a couple of 9 litre watering cans and a flexible funnel. Katie’s important role was to hold the funnel steady while Ian poured fresh water into it. This was a tedious process involving two people. Grant then made Katie “redundant” by affixing a bracket to the side of Matilda to hold the funnel in place. Katie now has more time for her research on the Internet.

We then planned the rest of the week. We arranged to meet Peter and Margaret (Grant’s parents) at their house in Buderim tomorrow for morning tea, prior to travelling to Caloundra.

Later in the morning, at Grant’s suggestion we borrowed the Pathfinder and visited the Ginger Factory at Yandina. We had a scrumptious lunch in the Ginger Café, with a bottle of Buderim non-alcoholic ginger beer (for Katie) and Buderim ginger beer with spiced rum (Dark and Stormy for Ian).

We had visited the Ginger Factory several times previously, and had toured the factory and attended a bee show, but had not ridden the Ginger Train. We decided to rectify this oversight, and Katie bought us tickets. The Ginger Train runs every half hour and the whole journey takes about 20 minutes. The train now runs on diesel rather than steam. The driver frequently blew the train whistle near intersections to warn pedestrians of our approach. It was quite an interesting train ride. After the ride, we visited a ginger biscuit shops on the premises and bought some delectable ginger biscuits and some fudge. We also bought some ginger beer for our journey.

The Macadamia Nut Factory was across the road from the Ginger Factory, so we took the opportunity to pay a visit there. We bought a bottle of macadamia oil for cooking, as well as a bag of macadamia nuts to share with Grant and Jacqui tonight.

Jacqui cooked us a delicious fried chicken and vegetable noodle dish for dinner, and we had a good chat before Katie and I trundled off down the yard to our camp behind the shed.

On our motorhoming travels, we are finding that it is best to plan our dog-friendly accommodation and main activities a few days in advance. We started with a spreadsheet of the whole six months trip around Australia, with all stays, activities, distances, and special needs of Dexter. However, it is becoming obvious that we need to be much more flexible. Our new Tom Tom combined with Google, Google Maps and CMCA’s GeoWiki proved to be extremely useful for our detailed planning.

We decided to base ourselves in the southern part of the Sunshine Coast from Wednesday for a visit to Australia Zoo. On the way, we wanted to drop in to see Peter and Margaret, Grant’s parents, in Buderim.

Due to continuous rain in the past few days, the paddock behind the shed where Matilda was parked had become very wet, and the red basalt soil was slippery. Matilda became stuck as we had no traction for the front wheels on the slippery soil, despite only the slightest of slopes. Grant used his Pathfinder to tow us out with the snatch strap, all the way to the bitumen road. As we were parked precariously near a corner, we had to say our goodbyes to Grant and Marty without delay, and we navigated with our new Tom Tom to Peter and Margaret’s house in Buderim.

It was wonderful to see Peter and Margaret as they had recently been involved in a serious road accident. They appeared to have recovered well. We had a good chat and enjoyed scrumptious carrot cake for morning tea. Peter and Margaret shared their experiences of interesting places to visit for our journey and their pitfalls such as mosquitoes and sand flies. Katie hates sandflies as her skin reacts badly to them.

We lingered a bit longer than expected, and so we were invited to stay for lunch. Margaret prepared a lovely spread of veggie rissoles, green salad and curried rice and nut salad which we enjoyed very much. In return we entertained them with the video of our ukulele concert performed on our recent Majestic Princess cruise. They were amazed!

Our Tom Tom navigated us to the Golden Beach Tourists Park. Ian and I both like the new Tom Tom. James, the narrator, is very funny and speaks with a broad Aussie accent! On arrival of every destination, he cheerfully announces, “Your have arrived at your destination. Windows down, grab your sunnies, and don’t let the seagulls steal your chips!”. When we get to an intersection where we go straight on, he says, “Go straight on, too easy!”. Occasionally, we are told to “Chuck a U-ee! Good on ya!” It keeps us amused for now.

It was quite late when we arrived at the Golden Beach Tourist Park, so Ian walked up the road and bought a pizza for dinner from Pan O Vino. We had an early night as we were both tired! We blamed it on the rainy weather. We hoped that it would be fine the next day, Thursday, as we had planned to visit Australia Zoo. We have made a separate post on that adventure.

Readers, by now you would have noticed we have religiously composed our travel blog like doing assignments on holidays, so that our friends and visitors can follow this journey and have a laugh or a sigh – it’s all good fun!

As mentioned above, we had arranged to catch up with Jenny (from our 2015 Kimberley trip) at Tewantin on Friday as we resumed our journey northwards. The arrangement was that we would provide wine and dessert for the lunch. After checking out of the caravan park at Golden Beach, we stopped at the local bakery to buy a decadently rich chocolate mud cake for dessert and a loaf of bread for us.

We decided to try the Cooroy RV Stopover on the Friday night. Cooroy is a gateway to the Noosa beaches and neighbouring hinterland towns such as Pomona and Eumundi. Prior to driving to Tewantin we checked out the RV Stopover and met Dillion, the caretaker. There were already a couple of caravans parked on site. It is a large grassy area within walking distance to town. However, Dillon said that the recent rain had made most of the area rather boggy, so only a relatively small area was available, but it should be large enough to accommodate everyone. There is a dump point, but no other facilities. RVs need to be self-contained to stay there, and Matilda was. It is run by volunteers of the Cooroy Chamber of Commerce with all profits going back to projects in the Cooroy community. In order to secure a spot, Ian paid Dillion the $10 fee. This was our first experience camping at such a place! We checked out the Cooroy IGA and bought a few essentials before setting off for Tewantin.

On arrival, we were pleased that Jenny and John had organised a parking spot opposite their house for Matilda. Dexter was welcome to have a run at their backyard while we had lunch in the enclosed alfresco. Their pet ginger cat stayed inside the house.

We had cheese and biscuits and Turkish bread as entrée. Jenny prepared a yummy tapas style salad with hem, olive, boiled egg, slices of roast beef and prosciutto. Ian’s Cassegrain 2019 Verdelho and a 2010 Peterson Sparkling Shiraz went down well. All enjoyed the rich chocolate mud cake and Jenny’s fruit and custard flan. Jenny’s friend, Suzie Brown, came over and we had a good chat.

Before we left, we amazed them with our Majestic Princess cruise ukulele concert.

We had a lovely afternoon with Jenny and John. We drove back to the RV Stopover at Cooroy, watched some TV, and hit the sack early.

We survived our first night at a camping spot other than a caravan park, with no dramas. By the way, readers, just for your information–we had been travelling in a confined space in Matilda for two weeks now and the good news is that we hadn’t “killed” each other! We have learnt to be tolerant and patient!

Ian took Dexter for an early morning walk into the Cooroy CBD. After breakfast, we all walked into town for a morning coffee in a coffee and book shop called Little Shop of Soul in a laneway. Books displayed at this coffee shop are mostly directed to preserving healthy minds and bodies. We found Cooroy to bs a small but busy town, with interesting shops. Tourists and locals enjoy their morning coffees at sidewalk cafes–a very laid back lifestyle! We met a couple of ladies travelling from not that far away and exchanged travel stories while we enjoyed our coffee.

Prior to leaving the coffee shop, Katie bought a Cooroy eco handmade shoulder bag sewn by some ladies in the town to help raise money for charity. We also bought a 10 litre water container from Mitre 10 and some dog treats from a pet store set up in a garage. Katie also bought a collapsible step from a discount shop which enables her to reach all the overhead cupboards inside Matilda.

And so we left the Sunshine Coast, bound for Woodgate Beach on the recommendation of Grant and Jacqui.

The distance between Brunswick Heads and Gold Coast was only 77 kms. It was a quick run, but without a working GPS, it took us a little extra time to locate Rob and Donna’s house at Broadbeach Waters. Rob and Donna are friends we made on our tag-along Kimberley trip in 2015. We arrived all excited and had a good chat prior to setting off to a little Chinese yum cha restaurant in nearby Robina. Katie shouted, and ordered an extra dish of special fried rice to take away for our dinner tonight in the motorhome, wherever we may be.

Rob was interested to know where we were going in the afternoon, but we honestly did not have any plans other than vague thoughts of heading north to either Brisbane or the southern end of the Sunshine Coast. We were offered the chance to stay for the night at Broadbeach Waters. We declined their offer of sleeping inside the house, as it is easier to stay in Matilda with Dexter while parked on the street. Rob passed us a 15 amp power lead over the front fence, we had a full water tank and an empty toilet, so we had everything we needed.

After lunch, Ian and Rob had a lovely afternoon strumming their guitars on the back patio. Rob is incredibly good with guitar and has been playing for 17 years, while Ian has been slowly “learning” for 14 years, with side tracks towards the ukulele and the flute. They enjoyed playing together while Donna and Katie relaxed with the music. Rob’s business partners and neighbours, Peter and Judy, dropped in to visit and gave us some tips for travelling in the Northern Territory.

For dinner, Rob barbecued the best steaks we have had this year—so tender and juicy—even better than what we has at the Crown Bar and Grill on the Majestic Princess. They rivaled the mud crab we had on our last visit. Donna made a noodle salad, and with the special fried rice, we had a feast. During and after dinner, we had more guitar demos and tips from Rob.

Rob and friend, Sophie, went water-skiing at 7:00 am the next morning (Friday), and Rob invited Ian to be the spotter on the boat. Rob owns a 1992 ski boat that he is very proud of. Ian had never had anything to do with water skiing before, so this was quite an exciting opportunity. He took some action images and video, and was very impressed with Rob’s strength and stamina.

After Rob’s ski run, Donna made toast with peanut butter sandwiches with coffee for breakfast. Donna then photocopied some music that Ian selected from Rob’s collection, and Ian promised to learn all the songs during our trip.

Dexter had a run and paddle at the private beach of Rob and Donna’s house beside the Nerang River. As usual, he thoroughly enjoyed his romp on the sand, but did not venture very far from the shore.

We are very grateful for all the hospitality that Rob and Donna gave us. We disconnected the power lead, said our goodbyes, and continued our drive northwards.