Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Yamba NSW August 27th 2023 "Flew" down the Pacific Highway to Yamba. Not sure if the big huge ridge over the Clarence River was open last year, but it certainly is now and completes the 'superhighway'. Yamba is about 15k away on the coast and as we drove in we are both wondering if it's the same place we had come to before. Given that it's been eleven years, some change is expected and of course our memories aren't as sharp as they may have been. There's plenty of change around, new buildings, new housing estates and the like.  We arrived at the Blue Dolphin van park and were even more bemused. We must have stayed here but it just didn't look right. They have lots and lots of cabins and new amenities and a new office. And three pools and a swim-up bar. I went back to my archives and found a photo from 2012, we were defiantly here! The site has gone and been replaced by a cabin, but it was satisfying to know we hadn't made it up regarding our ...

  Biggara Waters Qld August 25h 2023 Easy run down the Bruce, across the Gateway Bridge and down to the Gold coast. Our spot this year is near perfect ES300. Must ask for this if we come here again. Friday night we went out on a Dinner cruise from Seaworld, and we lucked into a great little tablet on the back deck. The food was superb, couldn’t help but go back former prawns n fish n calamaris. The cruise goes way down the Nerang river and into a few of the side canals. My but how this place has exploded! All luxury mansions and hi-rise apartments. Great be out on the water with all the lights and movement. Gold Coast at night Gold Coast at night Saturday morning we were up at six and headed off down to Kingscliff, just so I could do another Parkrun, but this was special. This was my ‘K’ that I needed to complete my ‘PARKRUN’ challenge. Had a hot breakfast at Kingscliff itself before wandering around the hinterland a bit, stopping at Brigalow down near Byron Bay for a look ...

  Tewantin Qld August 20th 2023 Sunset over the Noosa River. Noosaville Qld Another totally exhausting day crashing our way down the Bruce. And, just when you thought it was tolerably bad and not far to go, it all turns to the “real mccoy”as my father was wont to say in polite company. You can almost see the end in sight, just 20km into Gympie, a quick sandwich by the park and ponds, then onto the Bruce Proper and sail down to the Noosa turnoff. But no, this last twenty kilometres were the worst we have seen this trip. The road is atrocious, that’s the best I can say. It looks like bits and pieces have been patched up, there are one or two signs that big things may have been planned but have now been forgot. Its just awful. Perhaps there is light at the end of that tunnel. Down near Gympie itself, off to the east you can see a massive bridge / overpass and road works. Then the penny drops: they are building the Gympie bypass and the rest of the roads are a minimal maintenanc...

  Bundaberg Qld August 19 2023 Just a transport day to get closer to Tewantin. 320 kilometres worth of transport. The road is sort of Ok, great in parts and only two slow-me-downs for roadworks... that didn’t exist. That is annoying. Only thing was that the wind had picked up and was buffeting us from all quarters and it was handwork and a really tiresome trip all round. Another thing, ‘my’ bedroom window popped open, which it hasn’t done for some tome. We stopped and closed it, but by the time we got to our rest stop, it was open again. Odd, really odd. Oh and the spare tyre on the van has moved across to the left about 300mm! On this leg, most would stop at Miriam Vale, which is the turnoff for 1770 and Agnes Water, and for the foolish, Bundaberg. I was staring to struggle and as we came into Bororen, a tiny town about 10km north of Miriam Vale, I made a snap decision to pull off into the large, well marked but mostly empty RV parking, next to the brand new toilets, and take ...

Rockhampton Qld August 18th 2023 No, not a time warp, more like Ground Hog Day. All the things I've written about this stretch of the Bruce are still true, The road surface is just OK, but the road is windy and undulating and narrow. No roadworks to talk about, just hundreds of caravans that think doing 82 1/2 kph on a 110 stretch of road is OK. It’s not. It’s just very frustrating and when the very rare overtaking lane appears, I find myself ‘going for it’ instead of letting the stream cars and trucks past, because the snails all speed up to 105 because it’s a nice straight road...  I incurred the wrath of one truck driving cowboy because I passed a van instead of letting the truck go around both of us first. He then proceeded to tailgate me, attempting, and finally overtaking in the most dangerous of manners. Not happy with that, he then proceeded to do the same thing with all the other vans in front of him. Too bad if you were coming the other way, or that there wasn’t room i...

  Sarina Qld August 17th 2023 It’s almost like a time warp: all the roadworks from last year are still there, perhaps even multiplied. They start as you pull out of Bowen and never really stop until you get to Mackay, which they have now bypassed with a Ring Road. I missed t he turn and had to take the old bypass, which was just fine. The plan was to spend two nights in Sarina. On the Friday we were booked to do the Sugar Mill tour, and on Saturday I was going to go the 30km back into Mackay to do Parkrun. The mill tour we had booked months ago based on our experience last year, when it had been booked out for weeks. Judy had done a check and found that they had plenty of availability, so a plan was hatched to do the tour this afternoon, and decamp to Rockhampton tomorrow. As it turns out, I haven’t done the Rockhampton Parkrun, so that’s a bonus for me. The Sugar Mill tour turned out to be a Sugar Shack tour, which was Ok and informative as the guide told us all about cane, h...

 Bowen Qld August 14th 2023 Came down from Townsville to Bowen, about two-hundred kilometres. Not a bad trip, except for a great stretch of road surface that could have been Pebblecrete. Whatever it was it produced a really harsh ride and was basically hard work to drive on. As soon as we rolled back onto normal bitumen, it was like sliding along, effortless compared to the other. View from Flagstaff Hill, Bowen Qld Bowen has lived up to our expectation, a great site in aa great van park. Absolutely brilliant weather. Couldn't ask for more. We did the half-hour tour of town including Flagstaff hill, the esplanade and the ex-flying boat base, and a bit of a look into some shops. One of 14 Lighthouses in Queensland. Bowen Qld Finished the afternoon laying by the pool. I even went in despite everyone saying it was freezing. Maybe I'm getting used to cold pools, but it didn't seem that bad. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out and ended up at the Grand View Hotel, where ...

 Townsville Qld August 7th 2023 We came down to Townsville, only a 50km run from Rollingstone, for our week-long stay, which is a bit of a novelty for us. This is day 3 and we haven't got bored yet. Mind you, it's a 20km drive into town and to the Strand, which is pretty well the main attraction really.  Just wandering around really, I took a couple of snaps for posterity: Main Street, Townsville Qld The Grand Chancellor Hotel, aka The Sugar Shaker. Townsville Qld Everyone waa just hanging around, so we did the same. Townsville Qld The marina seems much larger than last time we were here.  Townsville Qld Our van park is in one of the northern-most suburbs of Townsville, a place called Deeragun. When we first came here in 2017 the van park was just nestled off the side of the Bruce Highway at a nondescript crossroad. At this point the highway runs next to the railway line. There were two trains a day, one up to Cairns and one back. Over the years, they started to do r...

Rollingstone Qld August 6 2023  We haven't been here for eight years and we can see some changes straight away. They have filled the lagoons that there were creating, installed a huge pool, which is almost swimmable, and put in a few rows of huge cabins. We found our site on the edge of one of the lagoons and were surprised by the size of the plot. More than enough room to park a van, have the awning out and plenty of room for the car neatly parked next to us. It makes such a difference not to be living cheek-by-jowl with the people next door. Mind you the people on the next two doors were tent dwellers and ran afoul of us when they turned their "music" up full blast.  Anyhow doesn't matter. They turned it down when asked. I recall from our last visit that there is a big expanse of unoccupied beach right around the corner, so naturally I went exploring this morning. Rollingstone Beach Qld Rollingstone Beach Qld I was going to refer to the beach as "unspoiled...

Cardwell Qld August 4th 2023 As is often the case, at 7am it wasn’t actually raining. A bit windy but warm enough and dry. I took myself off down to the start of the Kennedy Walking Track and proceeded to make the 2.5km trek across the headland and along the beach to Mije Creek. First though, I was really surprised at the debris thrown up and right across the road from the high tides and howling wind last night. The track itself was its normal slightly damp self, being in a rainforest and all, and the beach was pristine. Not one footprint upon it and the tide right out. I had a lovely walk right down to the end marked by Mije Creek. As I turned around and started back, it started raining lightly, which was okay, not afraid of a little damp. But then it started really raining, forcing me to take cover under the forrest canopy. It only lasted a few minutes and then I was on my way again. Lovely! Luggers Bay, Kennedy Walking Track, South Mission Beach Qld Mije creek, Luggers Bay, Kennedy...