We moved on from Airlie Beach at on 2 May and were going to free camp up to Townsville over a couple of days, but Steph didn't like any of the camps we found so instead of doing only 150km for the day, I drove 360km straight into Townsville and booked into Rowes Caravan Park around 4pm...not happy Jan :)...
Met a nice couple at Airlie Beach...Danni and Ed with their hound dog Eli...who loved the kids.
Bloody hot here and ran the a/c for awhile which was the first time in ages. Nice enough park. I drove Steph up to Castle Hill lookout in the morning and she freaked out as she is not good with heights, but gives you a fantastic view of Townsville and surrounds and out to Magnetic Island.
The people that pulled in behind us, Garth and Sue, turned out to be fantastic people from a bit further up North. They were getting a house built and are in the van for a little while and had to visit Townsville for Sue's Chemo for Breast cancer...thinking of you Sue !!
After Townsville, we moved up the highway a bit to Rollingstone and a great free camp set back from the road some ways. Had a flush toilet, a shop up the road and green grass for the girls to run around on. About 30 vans in overnight and we stayed 2 nights...fabulous place. Click here to view video of Rollingstone Free camp! Then moved on the Mission Beach and caught up with our Niece, Laura, who lives here and works as a Teacher in Tully. We met up at Milliers Bar and Grill for dinner and a few drinks. The bar is next door to the caravan Park, and we also have a view to Dunk Island. Beautiful water here again, but still a bit into the Stinger season so will keep the girls out of the Ocean.
Stayed a couple of extra nights here as it is fantastic. Went for a drive and even saw a Cassowary and it's chic in the wild...excellent. Took Steph to dinner for Mothers day yesterday at the place next door again as it is very nice and a fabulous view. Walked over to the beach again this morning and went for a swim as the water is so beautiful and not cold...and no stingers. Girls love playing on the sand and running into the little waves.
There are lots of skydivers here and yesterday when standing on the beach we saw a shute flapping down to the ocean as if it had not opened. Very scary. Turned out that the skydivers main shute did not open and he jetisoned it and floated down on his reserve. ... as I said...scary
An easy drive in the morning saw us arrive at the Garradunga Hotel, north of Innisfail and about 6km off the highway. This pub offers free camping if you visit and buy a meal....well, we had the best burgers ever !! Along with some beautiful cold beer and wine, as well as friendly locals and owners. A great night and well worth a visit if ever you are up in this neck of the woods...I am sure Cambo will welcome you with a cold beer or two ! We should've stayed longerClick here to view Garradunga Hotel video We are now in Cairns at the Big4 Coconut Caravan Park and will be here for at least a week...a HUGE park and well run. We were even shown around the park in a golf cart with a turtle on the roof...not a real one, but the girls loved it anyway. We have a nice grassy site and will be doing a few tourist things whilst we are here.....plus GOLF !!!
19 May 2015. My daughter, Megan, said I should be doing a BLOG so she knows what she has read and not read, so my alternative is to put the dates down when I make a new entry that way she should be able to keep up better :)
Thursday was free pancake breakfast day here...yummo !!!. It has rained and been very windy here in Cairns which is a bit unseasonal, but that is the weather I suppose. I played golf on Saturday and played OK, but I really needed a little local knowledge. Beautiful golf course and I played with some nice blokes. Got a bit wet but had a pretty good day, except for my final score.
Best thing Steph reckons is that she hasn't been attacked by Midges. Had a drive up to Port Douglas to check out the Markets. We haven't been there for about 14 years and to say the place has changed is a massive understatement...wow !!! Too touristy for us, but we visited the markets and had lunch at the pub...a good day out
Yesterday saw us travel up to Kuranda by the train which was a fabulous trip up the mountain in old train carriages. It rained again up there and we were up in the clouds. We wandered around the markets up there and visited the Butterfly Sanctuary, had lunch and jumped on the SkyRail (cable car) to head back down. Steph shit herself most of the way as she does not like heights and I didn't make it any better for her by wanting to rock the carriage...ooops. Kids loved the Train, bufflies (Butterflies) and Keira really loved the cable car. Grocery shopping today ready for heading off from here on Thursday to start heading in a westerly direction. A couple of free camps should see us arriving in Normanton a few days after we leave here and we may head up to Karumba to the Sunset Bar if we can get a spot in a van park up there as it is very busy this time of year as it is a very popular fishing spot as it is in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
27 May 2015. Prior to leaving Cairns, Steph thought she would get up early on the last day and do some washing. She got her coins ready the day before and about 7am in the morning she headed off to the laundry only to find that some stupid woman had taken ALL 4 washing machines. Selfish and rude. So Steph then had to wait until all the machines had finished which was about 30 minutes. So Steph heads on over after 30 minutes and the woman hasn't returned and there are other people waiting for her machines to be emptied, so some bloke just emptied them onto the other machines so they could get washing done. Washing machine rage !
When we left Cairns we traveled about 85km to a free camp at a place called Rocky Creek War Memorial, just short of Atherton. Click here to view video of Rocky Creek Free camp! Coooked up a leg of lamb on spit over my OzPig...beautiful. Nice spot and we stayed there 2 days and met Keeva, Spud and their 2 boys who were two months into a 2 year journey. Excellent life and if you can do it, go ahead and take off. When I was parking I did a hard u turn and forgot I shouldn't have and it bent part of my Weight Hitch. So after some phone calls I unhooked the caravan and we traveled back into Cairns where the bloke at Jayco looked after me and took the part I needed out of a kit, else I would've had to wait at least a week to get one shipped up. Good on them !! I went to Dan Murphy's on the way back for one of the other campers to save them traveling in as well. We were back for lunch.
Packed up after 2 nights and went through a place called Herberton and then into Ravenshoe for lunch and a bit of a walk around town. Left and drove 11 km to another camp spot at Archer Creek. Click here to view video of Archer Creek Free camp! The parking was just off the highway and there was a small running brook behind us that you could hear during the night as there wasn't much traffic. About 20 vans there and the next day the bloke parked next to me came over and introduced himself as a retired cop. Said he used to live in Wollongong, same as Steph and that he now lives in Port Macquarie. I asked around my many police friends and no one knows him...very odd and I think he may have been telling porkies.
We then went further into the outback and visited a few one horse towns along the way like Mt Surprise....I can imagine the conversation...Where do you live ? Mount Surprise... WHY ? Fueled up at Georgetown and the petrol was the same price as Port Macquarie...we are certainly getting ripped off back there !!! I also found a fresh water tap and purloined some water and filled my tanks...beauty !! Stopped for a few groceries in Croydon and then found a great camp at a place called Cumberland Historic Mine site. Parked overlooking a fairly big Billabong with some fantastic birdlife. Click here to view video of Cumerland Historic Mine site Free camp!Should've stayed there longer but we were all a bit dusty.
After a peaceful night we traveled the 250km into Normanton, set up, did some washing, had a shower and hit the Purple Pub for some nice cold tap beer and a good feed. State of origin tonight so I am going to another pub where it should be fun being a blues supporter in a redneck town filled with Queenslanders :) Until next time, or when I get out of hospital...enjoy
28 May 2015.Well, I survived the night at the Albion Hotel Normanton watching Qld Beat NSW...a good night. We moved on to Karumba today and have booked into a the Karumba Point Sunset van park for 3 nights. In the last 24 hours we have met 4 people from Port Macquarie !!! Bloody hell, can't get away from them :) Bloody hot up here, but once again, there is a nice pool to cool us down and across the road is the beautiful waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Heaps of people in the van park and I reckon 75% of them have boats which they have carried here on the roof of their cars.
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