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Pulled up at Congo Point Campground in the Eurobadalla National Park which is a bit south of Batemans Bay. Nice spot at $5 a head in the off season ($10 a head in summer when there is 200 odd packed in here) with just half a dozen of us. Quite similar to Moonee near Coffs but better set up for campers with new toilet block, sinks, and rooms for showers. There’s no actual showers but they supply the space where you can use your own portable device, camp shower. Unfortunately there are no fires as this option apparently attracts undesirables and they ask that you boil the water if drinking.
Towed the caravan through Sydney today, went through about 9 after peak hour, and the traffic was minor. No problems, no hassles, tows like a dream, and the reversing cameras I installed work pretty well. I am only using a 3.5 inch screen as the larger screen was a bit intrusive around the dash. The small screen does at times make it a little hard to make out what’s behind but you get used to it after a time, works great for lane changing that’s for sure.

On the road at last leaving home around 11am to end up at Bulahdelah. A nice free campground which is bedside the river in this camper (RV) friendly town. There is probably 20 other campers here. Before that, just south of the Port Macquarie, on the divided double lane freeway we came across an accident. Car and caravan both overturned in the ‘gully’ between the two lanes. Lots of cars and people helping, waved us on, so didn’t have to stop and help. Too many cars and bods around all ready just adds to the confusion and risk of another accident. Seeing such an accident certainly makes you a bit more attentive on the road. Hopefully no one was injured badly.
Next little incident was our GPS deciding to take us back to Toormina instead of Bulahdelah causing us to do about 30 odd k extra than needed. We just couldn’t turn around on the freeway after mistaking heading back the wrong way. Roundabout had 5 exits ….. well – Ahh it happens to the best of us. Met a muso dude at Kew who recited his latest song and nearly pulled the chairs out for a jam but he left his instruments behind. He was off to Bello, in his 14 ft. pop top and little dog. Older dude, like me, who had lost it all to a wicked women, no I didn’t lose it all cause I had nothing to lose, the other dude did. He turned mental for a couple of years until snapping out of the doldrums to travel, write and play and just enjoy the day. Should have bumped into me long ago I could have enlightened him Ha Ha.

20th
Camped at Rolling Stone at the Bushy Creek Campground. Another nice spot with shady trees, a river, swimmable, but the water is a bit low as the Wet season hasn’t arrived yet. Lots of birds tweeting. Moved on to a caravan park, Black Water, just North of Townsville, close to where Jamie lives to spend the day. The park is ok, very ‘grey nomad’ friendly, with real good facilities giving us the chance to do the washing, plug into power, etc. It’s beside a large river, which is mostly sand at the moment. Certainly is dry up this way.

Saw this snake – cant remember where ..

23rd
Moved on and now a little south of Townsville at a place called Home Hill.
At the show ground where you can get a powered site for $10 although you can park right near the main street where the town has set up a ‘comfort zone’ for travellers with showers and toilets for free. The show ground is a bit ordinary for any extended stay but certainly good for a short stop.
26
Stopped at Guys the night before last. It was good to catch up with Guy and Lyn, a chat, spend some time. He seems to be doing ok and sounds like we might see him on the road doing a bit of travelling as well. So with Susan, Gill, Guy, and if the grapevine is anything to go by, Carol, there is certainly some Gypsy blood in the family just dying to break free.
We have moved on today, around St Laurence in another free camp site, showers, toilets, camp kitchen etc., and hope to check out some beaches and slow down a little before our return home.

Pulled up at Yeppoon for a couple of days. Forced to go to a caravan park as nothing free close to the water. Some clean sand under the feet and water you can swim in is nice, although not so different to home. Just happened to be school holidays so the park is packed, noisy rug rats about, little shits, riding those bloody little scooters around the roads of the park. There is a bloody beach 5m away, strange kids. Anyway still a pretty good spot, friendly people, liked my music, reckon I should busk, but I will have to get a repertoire together that I can remember, maybe.

28th
Moving on from Yeppoon Beachside Caravan Park today, down to Tanum Sands. Ross, a man in the park, is selling a caravan so we are off to have a look as we leave. An off road job asking about $21000 and includes a shower and toilet. Just research at this stage. A bit overcast today, looks like it could rain. The overcast sky though makes the Keppel Island much easier to see making them stand out somewhat rather than the misty view we have had before. The polarised sun glasses certainly help.
29th
On the road and pulled up to help a broken down rig. Had to turn around and come back as nowhere to stop on the highway. Unlucky family had a roadside flat, destroyed the tyre on the old caravan, overloaded and moving house. His jack wouldn’t lift the van so with the aid of mine we lifted it and put on the spare. The spare was flat so my compressor came in handy, pumped it up about 60lbs and even them it still looked squashed. They were grateful, and we were only to pleased to help. Bloody dangerous working so close to the road as vehicles don’t slow much and the trucks, well most think that the road is theirs and no other vehicle should be on it. A few drivers think that way as well and that driving a bit slower is going to bring their little world to an end. There really is some impatience, full of there own self importance, downright ratbags out there, and the way they drive on the road is an indication of just how many inconsiderate people there is in the world, too darn many.

We had a day around Bagara and Elliott Beach. Beautiful spot at Elliott beach.
Picture taken at Rainbow Beach.

1st
Nice around Harvey Bay, with lots of developed beach front walking and resting and shops around the Esplanade at Scarness. Quite a lot of older type houses around for around the 320k. There was a renovated Queenslander style house near the water for 800k.

And a similar un-renovated place for 300k. Great bakery, French, at Scarness, and some pretty good looking caravan parks on the beach.
Moving on we headed down the coast a ways, taking in Noosa, Coolom, but found this area just too crowded with high traffic so headed west to Kilcoy and Somerset lake and Dam. Nice area through there, hilly, but a good drive. Much more to see and do around this area than we are doing at this stage, bush walking, skiing on the lake, kayaking, etc but we are coming to the end of our first big road trip with home being only a day’s drive away.

We are feeling the pressure of returning and do so reluctantly as we have really enjoyed the trip. Plans are afoot for the next one, longer and further to see some more of this great country. And so ends this blog and trip. For those who got some enjoyment or cracked the odd smile from my ramblings then good and for those that didn’t then that’s just the way it goes.

You might even find the time to send an email to brujones@gmail.com if you like the read.

13th sept
Popped into Cooktown yesterday from our camp site at Mount Molloy. A nice enough place with pretty views of the inlet and ocean. Cooktown was visited by Captain Cook on the 17th June 1770. Cook damaged his boat on the reef and hugged the coast for a few days, looking for a spot to repair, and Cooktown was it. Cooktown is just a small place, a few shops (no music shop) etc. and a bakery. The bakery looked pretty good with its own parking area and a little seat out the front. This day we thought a pie would go down well so we grabbed one and an apple turnover from the bakery and headed down to the water front near the musical boat for morning tea.

The musical boat was a play thing for children but adults tend to have a go as well. Getting back to the pie and cake – the pie was sloppy and broke out if its case, about one bit of meat, and the apple turnover with fresh cream seemed a few days old. Tempted to go back but you know, so I’ll just bag em on my blog. Don’t go to the bakery at Cooktown is my comment.

Apart from the bakery the town was really nice, friendly. Motor home friendly with a largish park with water and a dump point shaded by large Mango trees with half matured Mangoes. We walked around town, through the botanical gardens, to the beach and up through the busy headland. We were going to stay the night but considered we had seen enough so we decided to leave. This is as far North as we are going so we headed back to the camp at Mount Molloy. Mind you the Molloy spot is 3 hours away but that just doesn’t seem that far after being on the road awhile. The site at Molly, free or donation, is great, with big shady trees, flushing toilets , dump point, showers all be it only cold but sooo refreshing, multitude of birds and sweet songs, nestled beside a running creek.

When leaving here we will head down towards the coast via Kuranda and then onto Cairns.

Certainly we have taken well to this travelling (gypsy) life and are planning to continue soon after returning home from this trip. Money is an issue but I have made contacts and work possibilities seem ok so the prospects of continuing are good.
We came across a roadside carwash a ways back. Well it wasn’t really a car wash but a wash to get rid of unwanted seeds. An attempt by the agricultural section to try and stop weeds from spreading around. The first one we used sprayed water all under and half over the bus with nice clean water and was a bit of fun as slowly driving through we could see nothing through the windscreen, driving on faith, like a lot of drivers seem to do. The next one wasn’t quite as much fun as instead of clean water it sprayed us with muddy water, so have spent a little while giving the bus a wash today. Plenty of clear water availed here at Molloy, although not recommended for drinking but you probably could drink it. We have had no issues with getting water on our trip, seems there is always somewhere, soon enough, to fill up.
I remember a long long time ago when my dad and mum, my brother Guy and I travelled from the north coast of NSW to visit my mothers sister in Victoria. Dad was getting some water from a stop somewhere in Cobar if my memory is right and he was told off by a caretaker. Pretty ordinary. Maybe things have improved but I am unlikely to ever look friendly on Cobar.

Little things that are instilled in the memory, each one of us is different, we each grab our own memory from the way we interpret the world, life. What for me was an act of unnecessary meanness could be looked on from other viewpoints; self preservation; looking after his own; just doing his job; in drought; and so on. It just depends on how you want to approach life.

15th Sept
From Mount Molloy to the coast. We had heard that Palm Cove was a good caravan park and that was confirmed by the comments on Wiki Camps. As there was no free camping around this area Palm Cove was a choice so we headed there, and found ourselves set up for $26 in the seaside caravan park for the day & night. Palm Cove is about 30k North of Cairns. A bustling community with shops a plenty, a couple of small delicatessant like supermarkets, pubs, cafes, jewellers, clothes, resorts and accommodation, and various other touristy type shops. Around the road aways, a km or two there was also a Coles. We were camped only about 30 meters, away from the beach. Being so far North there is always the danger of crocs and stingers but this beach was well patrolled with nets out. While we were there the lifeguards were doing some training.

Palm Cove is beautiful. Nestled by surrounding hills and protected on the sea side by the reef, with a couple of small islands a few hundred meters away, the spot is idealic. A jetty some 80m long ran out into the sea, well set up for fishing with rod holders incorporated into its construction along its length. Alongside the jetty a concrete boat ramp was also available.

The Paperbark trees are some 20 odd meters high here, the biggest I have seen, gorgeous trees that have been preserved within buildings, some shops being constructed around the majestic trees.

Palm Cove for me was a little crowded, caravan camp sites do tend to be a bit that way as they have to utilise the space they have to make money. Bonnie loved it, the market atmosphere of the street, the close beach, the tropical climate. Swimming, the water was warm and quite salty, certainly refreshing. We were there for a full day and then moved on the next to take in Kuranda and then Cairns. Having been to these places before we had no intention of lingering too long so after taking in the shops we headed on to camp at Babinda a lovely free camp on the river about 50k south of Cairns. Cool fast running water, a refreshing dip did reveal. Lots of campers here, roughly 30, taking advantage of the grassy site, showers, toilet, and BBQ facilities.

Where’s bonnie? I left her chatting to a camper down by the river but she hasn’t come back yet. She’s been gone a little longer than I would expect. I’m sure she’s fine, I’ll just finish this cuppa and then go and find her… She will probably be back by then … Ah here she is.

16th
Still here at Babinda – reluctant to leave ….

Brumbies at the Billabong

A song by the billabong – ‘On the banks of the River’ – You tube link
Audio a bit ordinary out there in the wind and with the camera a ways away but you get the idea.