Queensland Coast

 

November/December 2012

Beautiful one day, Perfect the next

 

Following the kiddy-mania of Coconuts Resort in Cairns, we couldn't wait to find ourselves some natural beauty and tranquility and it emerged in the form of Bingil Bay.

      A pretty shabby view from the campsite.

In what was a very funny turn of events, the campground caretaker left a couple of days after we arrived, so a local council officer asked us if we would do it. "Hey, why not?' It wasn't a paying gig, but a few free nights in paradise was just what we needed.








Our very funny friends from Cairns, Jim and Ally, joined us for the weekend.

Two creative souls and a beach load of sand....

You've gotta love a boozy lunch....and an apprentice photographer (Riley)

One big bug

Happy Birthday Jimmy!!

 

Plenty of hammock time when you're a tropical beach caretaker.



Sunrise....another tough working day ahead.



After a fair bit of laying about, Riley and I decided a bit of a hill climb was in order.

There's our beach from above. The moonrise was a lovely parting gift...we were very sad to leave this place

 

Heading south from Townsville

We enjoyed a brief but great overnight stay at the glorious Airlie Beach home of some fellow travellers (Tracey, Damon and their cute kids Siena and Cameron), where I enjoyed a lovely outdoor shower surrounded by rainforest and Paul had a rather large drooling session down at the marina. The dusty, sandy camper trailer was not as appealing, but the roadtrip must go on, so we hit the road for a series of quick camps on our way down to Brisbane.
 

Now, I'm not normally a morning person, but this 5am sunrise at Carmila Beach was worth getting out of bed for.

Especially when this happened.

OK, can I go back to bed now?

The Good:  Tantalisingly warm and clear Pacific ocean framed by sandy beaches and palm trees.
The Bad: Not being allowed to swim in the above-mentioned tantalisingly warm and clear ocean due to nasty jellyfish that want to kill you.
The Ugly: Leanne and Paul in the morning due to Queensland's (stubborn) reluctance to adopt daylight savings, thus tormenting its inhabitants with 5am sunrises, which is very mean to those who have 3 super-charged children that wake at the crack of dawn.

Byfield National Park

 

Heading down the Queensland Coast toward Bundaberg, we stopped off for a couple of nights at Byfield National Park.

Freshwater swimming at Upper Stony Creek campground was a good way to get around the stinger season.

Super-soft sand driving made the Colorado work a bit harder than usual.

The vegetation became a bit jungle-like in the Deepwater National Park near Agnes Waters.

Seventeen Seventy




This idyllic, sheltered spot named in honour of James Cook's visit with the Endeavour in 1770, was a great playground for the kids (just south of stinger zone...although I'm not sure how the jellies are supposed to know this)

And safe for the kids means more relaxation time for mum and dad. Now, where's my wine?

 Now that's something you don't see everyday. The kookas were very friendly at 1770.

 Wow! That's cool

 

 

 

The Good: Everything about Bingil Bay.

The Bad: Archie's iceblock theft. At the 1770 caravan park, Leanne seized a rare early-morning opportunity to go for a solo walk, leaving sweetly-sleeping Archie next to snoring daddy. About 20 minutes later, big brother Riley comes tearing up behind mum brandishing a raspberry icypole with a rather traumatised Archie in close pursuit. Turns out that Archie snuck out of the tent just as the office/kiosk opened at 7am and trotted up to the iceblock machine, grabbed an icypole and trotted back out with the managers asking ``hey kid, are you going to pay for that?".

The Ugly: The enormously embarrassed, bad mother trudging up to office/kiosk offering profuse apologies and $1.20 for the icypole, which she had to eat herself, because no good mother would give their child a stolen, raspberry icypole before breakfast now would they???