Judy & Brian Tour Oz

 Bowen Qld. August 2nd 2024 Left Rollingstone a little reluctantly, because despite the incessant wind and the near frigid pool, it was a very pleasant place to stay. Here's what we left behind. Are we crazy? Tasman Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld Tasman Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld Anyhow, left it behind we did. Travelled south through Townsville, which seems to get bigger every time, something like an hour and a half to finally clear the city, and then an easy sort of run down through Ayr to Bowen. Road is rough in patches but a reasonable sort of run got us into Bowen at 1pm. We set up and went to get some groceries but got side tracked and had lunch at Horseshoe Bay in the cafe, which I have to say has really come on since last year. Nice food though, good coffee and some great rock and roll from the 60 and 70s playing. They know their target market. This year we lucked into a front row spot, which faces straight out onto the ocean: Guess we'll just have to tough it out fo...

  Rollingstone, Qld. July 31st, 2024 Today we moved our camp down to Rollingstone, some 360km away. It takes a while to get drive to the other side of Cairns but after that it's a reasonable sort of run down to Innisfail, where we stopped for a coffee, and then to Ingham and through to Rollingstone, which is about 50km north of Townsville.  We had been allocated our old site from last year, but at the last minute they switched us to another, still by the lakeside, but arguably ‘nicer’. It's big and we don't have a neighbour outside, so it's all good. We had a pleasant afternoon sitting in the sun before the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. Here's a few snaps of our spot: Judy taking easy. Rollingstone Qld When they say Lakeside, this is what they mean.  Rollingstone Qld  Our home. Rollingstone Qld I was up early this morning and went for my usual walk along the beach. I hadn't counted on the high tide, which meant a bit of walking through he mangrove ...

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...

Rollingstone Qld July 21, 2015 Not far from where we are in Rollingstone is the Paluma Range NP, which has a couple of creeks and waterholes billed as being Townsville summer playground - mainly because it's considered 'safe' from crocodiles, although no one will every give a guarantee. Paluma is a tiny town at the top of the Mt Spec (860metres), just why its there I have no idea. Its miles from anywhere and at the top of a 22km long narrow, twisty climb. The town itself looks half-dead, the pub for instance, promises to be open on Saturday afternoons and stay open until 8pm if more than six people are in attendance. The road itself, is a piece of work, built basically by hand in the 1930s by labourers lucky enough to get onto the governments work creation scheme during the depression. Half way up, the road crosses the Little Crystal Creek with a Roman style stone bridge. There is a small waterfall and a small, fairly cool waterhole in which a few peop...

Rollingstone Qld July 20, 2015 Our bad-weather hoodoo caught up with us again: today is 100% cloudy and threatening rain. The wind has picked up and you start to wonder why you are parked right on a beach. Not to worry, we wandered off in the car to have a look at the country between here and Ingham (no - nothing to do with the chicken kings), but didn't make it out of the park before i just had to snap these huge seed pods hanging from the trees. Seed pod. Caravan Park, Rollingstone Qld Next stop was just up the road near the highway. They have huge fields of pineapples and one of the fields is just starting to come into fruit, so we stopped and took some snaps. As it turned out we were right next to the highway with only a railway line between us. There are railway lines all over the place up here in Queensland especially because of the sugar cane, so one gets a bit complacent about crossing them. But wait! This one is the main line north and as a small truck came to an...