Category: Far North Queensland

About Karumba

Karumba is a fishing destination and industrial port on the banks of the Norman River where, each winter, anglers from all over Australia arrive to try their luck in the fish-rich waters of the Gulf. Once it was nothing more than a small, sleepy outback town. In recent years it has evolved into two interconnected, but quite separate, towns. There’s the “commercial-industrial centre” with its wharves, barramundi farm, prawn processing plant and MMG Century Mine loading facility. It has little interest for tourists. Then there is the “tourist centre” with a four-star motel, caravan parks, cafes, the Sunset Tavern with its views across the mouth of the Norman River, and there’s the justly famous Mud Crab and Crocodile tour. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Karumba was on our “places bucket list”. W were not too sure what we’d find here but “just had to have a look”. Not disappointed at all with our choice.

In 1937 Karumba became a refueling point for Qantas and BOAC flying boats travelling from Australia to London. During World War II the town was an RAAF base for Catalinas flying into New Guinea, Timor and Indonesia. Parts of the infrastructure still exist today.

It was a wild old town back in the 1970’s when there were over 40 prawning trawlers operating from Karumba. The local pub was known as the Animal Bar which was pretty wild. They say that everything had to be bolted down even the ashtrays, so it couldn’t be used in the many pub brawls that occurred there. Today it is still home to extensive prawn, mud crab and the barramundi fishing fleets.

Karumba Caravan Park

There were 2 main choices for caravan parks in Karumba – Karumba Point Tourist Park OR Karumba Sunset Caravan Park (over the road from the Sunset Tavern) – maplink. We selected the 1st one as we’d heard a lot of bad reports about the sunset one, which we soon discovered were incorrect. Well there’s always a chance of staying there on our next trip.

Karumba Sunsets at the Tavern

There’s one place that you must pay a visit to experience an awesome sunset and that’s The Sunset Tavern (Facebook). We paid two visits to the pub to experience the sunset and each time stayed to experience their mouth watering grilled Barramundi.

1st sunset

2nd sunset

Karumba Barramundi Centre

The recently completed Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre is a fantastic place to visit. You must take the tour of the centre to learn more about the iconic “Barra” (maplink).

Merrisa even attempted to hand feed some of the barra but they weren’t hungry but it was still pretty exciting waiting for a 1 metre long barra to snaffle the tiny squid she was holding above the water.

Kerry D Fishing Charter

You must take a fishing charter out of Karumba when you’re in town. The natural choice has to be Kerry D Charters. They have been in business for ages and know all the right spots. Their price was very reasonable too at $140pp for about 4 hours.

Our trip was great with Paul (skipper) & Mick (decky) looking after us really well. The fish weren’t all that friendly. The water was just 19 degrees so a bit cool for a great catch but Paul & Mick tried so many spots trying to improve our chances.

We were about 1.5kms from shore and the water depth was about 1 metre on average. Could not believe that it was so shallow.

Merrisa was successful with 2 lovely blue threadfin salmon and I caught 4 catfish (throw back fish).

Sunset Cruise

Karumba’s Croc & Crab Tours run a sunset cruise, so we thought “why not” and booked in for our final night in Karumba.

They begin with a bit of a tour up the Norman River informing us of the history which surrounds the port. They spoke of the cyclones and floods they regularly get, where a young boy once caught a 25kg Barramundi on the main road out the front of his house (half a km from the river). Another was about this massive croc which came out of the Norman River, walked down the main street and settled on the doorstep of a house. They had to get professionals out from Cairns to remove and relocate him.

More history – In 1938 a flying boat base was built in Karumba to provide a refueling point for the Sydney-Singapore legs of the Empire Air Route to Britain. During WW2 the RAAF stationed a fleet of Catalina ‘Flying Boats’ out of Karumba.

Lot’s more info was provided about the town and it’s port. We already knew about the fish & prawn part, but there was also a ship, called Wunma in town which carries Zinc & Lead Ore from the Century Mine 304kms away at Lawn Hill, via a ‘slurry’ pipeline to a Karumba refinery. After processing the Wunma takes the ore out to mother ships for export.

Following the very informative talk about Karumba’s history we set sail for a small sand island to witness yet another brilliant Karumba sunset. Drinks and nibbles on the sand as the sun went down was totally beautiful. Then it was back to the boat ramp to finish up a really nice tour.

Normanton and Georgetown

Leaving Karumba we refueled in Normanton (maplink) at the local BP. It was a bit of a classic experience with 3 old blokes sitting around in dilapidated armchairs next to the fuel pumps, giving advice about travel & life in general – very funny. We checked out some of the historical buildings’ like the Purple Pub (Facebook) and the Burns Philp building (a bit of family history – my mum worked for Burns Philp in Madang PNG in the early 1960’s)

Then it was off to Georgetown for a couple of nights stay. We decided to stay here as a base for the trip into Cobbold Gorge due to the reported poor road conditions on that leg of our trip. We pulled into the Goldfields Caravan Park (Facebook) and were happy to find out that they have a happy hour every night – nice.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – the Karumba Point Caravan Park is pretty dusty park with lots of “rules”
  • Cost per night – $39.00 (@ 25-Aug-2020)
  • Facilities – clean but pretty outdated
  • CP Location – have to drive about 3 kms into town (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 6/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – yes – a bucket list item ticked off
  • Activities & places of interest – plenty to do but you have to look around for it
    • The sunsets from the pub are absolutely fantastic
    • Barramundi Centre is great – plenty to see & learn about the famous “Barra
    • “Kerry D fishing charter was fun – only $80 per head
    • Sunset Cruise? – take it or leave it
  • Tourist info centre? – 149 Yappar Street, Karumba (website)
  • Would we return? – no – been there & done that but still totally recommend it as a must do location
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – Loved our stay here and made some really great friends too.

With all of the kerfuffle with Covid down in Victoria we decided we may as well extend our adventures and do a quick trip up to the nethermost point of Australia and visit Cape York. With a bit of planning and a lot of phone calls we decided on a 2 stop leg up from Cooktown with 3 nights staying ‘at the tip’ and then repeating the same 2 stop leg for our return.

We decided to leave our caravan behind in Cooktown (as we did not want to destroy it on the Cape York roads) and found a lovely guy called Nicko (the seafood seller) who stored it for us on his property for $5/day – far better than paying $49/day in the caravan park.

Trip up the Cape

1st leg – Cooktown to Coen

Our new “best friend” Nicko gave us a tip on which way to go on the first leg so we’d miss the worst parts of the famous Telegraph Track. We followed them pretty well, using our new Heima map book (thanks to our son Brendan for the fathers day present), but we missed the turn-off at Lotus-bird Lodge (no bloody signs!) and ended up at Musgrave (maplink). We were then on the famous track and it shook the bejeevers out of us all the way to Coen.

Booked into the Coen Guesthouse for a 1 night stay. Went to the pub for dinner and then were treated to an absolute delight with a musical presentation by 2 young performers using a Cello and Violin about Australian bird calls. I know it sounds a bit strange but it was absolutely magical.

2nd leg – Cohen to Bramwell Station

After being battered and shaken along 227km of the famous Telegraph Track Development Road (maplink) it was lovely to finally arrive at Bramwell Station Tourist Park for another 1 night stay. We met Ken the boss and he “upgraded” us from a Donga to a room with an en-suite – wow!

Dinner that night was at the free flowing air dining room (no walls here) as we were given a history talk about Bramwell Station from Ken, the owner, which was quiet amazing.

Fruit Bat Falls

We took a short diversion of the PDR to check out Fruit Bat Falls. It was an easy track in to find this beautiful oasis which left no doubt that it was time for a swim to wash off the dust (maplink).

Jardine River Ferry Crossing

Arrived 20minutes too late to catch the Jardine River Ferry as the crew knock off for lunch between 12:00 & 1:00pm. The queue for the ferry grew and grew. You could purchase a ticket either as it closes for lunch too. Finally paid our $100 return fee, jumped in the car and were about the 5th crossing before we headed off again towards Bamaga & then Seisia

Our destination – Seisia

After another 212km shaking and rattling trip we arrived at the Seisia Holiday Park and checked into our accommodation for the next 3 nights.

Well, at $250 per night you’d expect something special but it was quite the opposite. This was all we could find so decided to make the most of it. We were given the “lodge” which sleeps 8 people so really cannot complain.

I even discovered a green ant nest in the tree right next to where I parked our car. These are the same sort of ants I got covered in and seriously bitten after tripping into a hibiscus plant when I was a kid living in Madang, New Guinea – I have always tripped over things!

Seisia Sunset

One of the advantages of staying here is supposed to be the brilliant sunsets. Well, for the first 2 nights there was total cloud cover, so no sunset photos.

Then, on our last night we ventured down to the beach and wallah – a sunset! This young kid called Jackson wandered over to check out our photos and was so impressed he pleaded for me to take his photo – so I did (check him out below – cute kid).

Walk to the tip of Cape York

Today saw us taking the walk to the northernmost tip of the Australian mainland – the main reason for us coming here.

Another dusty drive with heaps of red dust from the large number of vehicles (99% were Toyota) heading the same way as us on the way to Pajinka (indigenous name for the tip).

There were soooo many people at the tip that you have to queue up for “that photo”, including some blokes who all got their gear off for a cheeky photo. There were even dogs doing the walk too.

It was also really (really very) windy with hands on hats so they weren’t blown all the way to PNG.

Punsand Bay

It was then off to Punsand Bay for lunch (maplink). Lovely spot right on the beach with beautiful white sands. A couple of beers, a burger and salt & pepper calamari sure filled the spot after the walk out to the tip.

On the way back to Seisia we called into the Croc Shop and picked up a “I walked the tip” singlet to replace the Bintang singlet (which Merrisa hates)

Thursday Island Day Trip

You just have to visit Thursday Island (TI) when up on the “tip” – everyone we met on our travels were telling us this.

So we headed off to catch the Pedell’s Ferry (seniors are half price – woohoo) for a 1 hour 10 minute trip from the Seisia wharf.

Included in the fare was a 1 hour bus tour of the island, so we took advantage of this. The only disappointing aspect was the three museums (a “must see” on TI) were all closed due to the Covid19 Pandemic. So it was shorter than normal bus tour followed by lunch at the pub, then back onto the ferry for the return to Seisia. These are some of the things we got to see on our bus tour of TI…

A look around TI

Green Hill Fort

The Green Hill Fort was built in 1891 to defend the top end of Australia from possible Russian attack. The 1885 confrontation between Britain and Russia, which almost resulted in open conflict, galvanised the Australian colonies to jointly fund construction of the fortifications, and these represent an important and uncommon instance of pre-Federation Colonial cooperation on defence in the “national” interest.

An interesting fact we learnt was the fort was decommissioned after World War One and not used in World War Two – but no one told the Japs. The fort was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List in 2008.

The views are fantastic from this location and pretty impressed to find the canons could fire 8 miles out to sea. The original canons are still in place.

TI Cemetery (incorporating the Japanese Cemetery)

Thursday Island Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery. It was established in 1887 and includes the Japanese Cemetery. It contains hundreds of graves, including between 600 and 700 Japanese (mostly pearl-shell divers), entrepreneurs and fortune hunters of all nationalities, Torres Strait pilots, sailors and ships’ passengers drowned at sea, as well as generations of Thursday Islanders.

Return trip from the Cape

After 3 fantastic days checking out “the tip” it was time to turn around and travel the 1,000 plus kilometers back to Cooktown to pick up our caravan from our new mate “Nicko”, then continue on our way south toward home.

We’d heard a lot on our travels up on the Cape about Lockhart River; things like rocks that appear to float on the ocean and the (apparently) world famous Chili Beach, so we naturally headed that way on the way back down from the cape.

So it was off down the PDR (Peninsula Development Road) AKA Telegraph Track over the Jardine River hitting those damn corrugations again..

The Greenhoose – Lockhart River

Bramwell Station was discarded as our first overnight stop (we used it on the way up to the cape) and we booked into The Greenhoose (yes folks a Scotsman came up with the name LOL). Turning off the PDR at Picaninny Plains onto Portland Road (maplink) provided us with our first experience of the famous outback bulldust. In some parts of the first 20kms we probably hit about 20 or more dust bowls where it just covers the car just as if we had driven into water (at a slow speed of course).

Finally reaching our destination at the lovely and basic accommodation we found a green oasis after all of the dust. The people who run the Greenhoose were so welcoming it made the stay even more enjoyable. They also run a little take-away food truck up on the main road so it was pizza for dinner – yummo!

Quintel Beach – Lockhart River

Taking an afternoon drive from the Greenhoose to the town of Lockhart River we found the famous rocks that appear to float on the ocean at Quintel Beach.

These rocks are pretty cool, but didn’t appear to be floating on the water as the tide was not right. Even still it was worth the drive to check them out.

Chili Beach

Leaving the Greenhoose the next morning we took a detour out to see if Chili Beach is as good as it’s cracked up to be. Well, maybe it was the really strong onshore winds or the tides were wrong here too but it was a fail as far as we were concerned. Quintel beach was a much better choice.

The only cool thing we found were the pumice stones littering the beach, which apparently, have come from volcano action in Indonesia.

Heading back to the PDR we basically drove (at about 10km/hr) into a bull-dust hole that totally covered our car so much that we had to put the wipers on the clear the windscreen.

Continuing down the PDR

Returning to the PDR we then reached Coen for another overnight stay at the same guesthouse we stayed in on the way up. It was a matter of off to the pub for dinner then bed; nothing exciting.

Hitting the road again the next day, reaching Musgrave Roadhouse we then turned off the PDR and headed down the Lily Dale Road travelling through the Lakefield National Park to reach the Laura pub for lunch. Then it was back to Cooktown, pick-up the van and settle down for a couple of days to clean up our filthy & very dusty car.

A dirty car!

The roads certainly made a mess of the car, both inside and out. Not sure if we will EVER get rid of the red!

Summing up…

• Accommodation…
  • Coen – Coen Homestead Guesthouse for 1 night (website)
    • Cost per night – $160.00
    • Facilities – Shared bathrooms – basic
    • CP Location – 37 Regent St Coen (maplink)
    • Our rating/score – 5/10 – somewhere to lay your head
  • Bramwell Station – Bramwell Tourist Park, Shelburne (website)
    • Cost per night – $110.00 – Donga Room
    • Facilities – Shared bathrooms – basic
    • Location – Off the PDR (maplink)
    • Our rating/score – 6/10
  • Seisia – Seisia Holiday Park for 3 nights (website)
    • Cost per night – $250.00 – bungalow (sleeps 8)
    • Facilities – not too bad – self contained bathroom & kitchen etc
    • Location – 6 Koraba Rd, Seisia (maplink)
    • Our rating/score – 7/10 (a great location BUT bloody expensive)
  • Lockart River – The Greenhoose for 1 night (website)
    • Cost per night – $150.00
    • Facilities – Donga with an en-suite
    • Location – 161 Lockhart River Rd, Lockhart River (maplink)
    • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Were they nice places to visit?
  • Coen was OK – nice pub with great pizzas
  • Bramwell station was a bit of a rip-off, but a necessary stop to rest
  • Seisia was great but would have been good to take our own tent or swags
  • The Greenhoose was fantastic – owners are really nice people
• Activities & places of interest – plenty to do at Seisia but the other places were really just transit points
• Would we return? – probably not – Cape York was a bucket list which is now ticked off

About Mareeba

Mareeba, an important regional service centre, is the largest town on the Atherton Tablelands. It lies at the heart of the tableland’s agricultural activities and is surrounded by coffee plantations, mango and paw paw farms, avocado farms, macadamia nut plantations as well as sugar cane fields and orchards specialising in pineapples, bananas and cashews (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

After the big clean-up of our car in Cooktown it was off to the town of Mareeba and checking into a farm stay called Ringers Rest for a few days.

Ringers Rest

Ringers Rest is an absolutely top spot to camp for a few nights. Only $10 per night to stay – no power or water, but we’re pretty self sufficient anyway. Located about 6kms SE from Mareeba it’s easy to find (maplink)

Dave, who ran the place, was an absolute blast. He was a true bushman and had so many stories; like…

• the time he broke his leg saving a young girl from being trampled by a runaway bull. He fixed it by wrapping it tightly with heaps of gladwrap
• he was bitten by a Taipan snake and he sucked the poison out and survived
• he has survived out in the bush for so long, living on bush tucker, that he is basically immuned to anesthetics and wakes up during surgery, even after having 7 doses
• … and the stories went on for about 30 minutes – and we were only checking in at the gate LOL

Here’s some photos from around the Ringers Rest camp…

The sunsets at Ringers Rest were pretty cool too…

Mareeba Museum

Behind the Mareeba Visitor Centre is a pretty cool Heritage Museum about the town and it’s history. It’s worth taking an hour or two to check it out.

Granite Gorge Park

About 17kms SW of Mareeba (maplink) is a park by the name of Granite Gorge. If I were coming through this way again it would be a toss-up between here and Ringers Rest to camp for a few days. $13 per head to enter and explore the park.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Ringers Rest Campground (website)
  • Cost per night – $10.00 (@ 5-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – a long walk to the toilets – would be crowded when a wedding is on – 1 mens & 1 ladies dunny
  • CP Location – 277 Fichera Rd, Mareeba (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 7/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – Yes – lots to see & do
  • Activities & places of interest – Would want to stay at the Granite Gorge Park next time as there are heaps of walks in the gorge
  • Tourist info centre? – 345 Byrnes St, Mareeba (website)
  • Would we return? – maybe
  • Overall Score – 7/10
• Summing up – it was a great stay. The guy who mans the camp’s entry gate loves to chat & it took us about 30 minutes to check in – 1 minute to pay & 29 minutes to hear his life story; a great character.

About Atherton

Atherton, at the heart of the Atherton Tablelands, is a substantial and attractive service town. Today, apart from the very unusual Crystal Cave and the Art Deco Barron Valley Hotel, most of the attractions are at the edges or beyond the town. The unusual Tolga Bat Hospital, the Hou Wang Temple and the many parks, lakes and unusual volcanic formations which are such an integral part of the Atherton Tablelands experience and beyond the town’s centre and the intense rich, red volcanic soils of the area, which have been estimated to be over 30 metres deep, have been used to produce tobacco, maize, potatoes, peanuts, macadamia nuts and avocados (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Lake Eacham accommodation

On our way north we stopped off for a one night stop in Yungaburra (see post) and we planned to stay in the same caravan park on the way back down; but it was booked out! So we hurriedly searched for another place to stay and found Lake Eacham Tourist Park and wow were we lucky as it was a top spot; only 7 powered sites set in bushland (maplink).

We used this as our base to explore the famous Atherton Tablelands region. These photos of the caravan park have been sourced off the web (as we forgot to take any!)…

Lake Eacham

Located approx 500 metres from our campground the Lake Eacham features a beautiful 3 km walk around it’s perimeter. We discovered some turtles at one point plus two gigantic Kauri Pines, each were about 6 metres in diameter.

Malanda Falls

Malanda Falls are located right in the small town of Malanda. These falls are really beautiful with a fantastic tiled entry board created by local indigenous artists.

Yungaburra Platypus

The town of Yungaburra has a platypus viewing platform on the edge of town, over Peterson Creek. So off we travelled and there they were – we saw several of these elusive creatures drom the platform and then more along the walking trail on the opposite side of the main road. Really cool little animals who can swim faster than expected.

Yungaburra Curtain Fig Tree

The Curtain Fig Tree is a heritage-listed tree and is one of the largest trees in Tropical North Queensland. It’s one of the best known attractions on the Atherton Tableland just outside of Yungaburra.

Photographs don’t really do this magnificent tree any real justice. You have to visit it to take in the true awesomeness of this tree.

Lake Barrine

Lake Barrine Tea-house was lovely place to have lunch on our last day in the Tablelands. Sitting in this heritage listed tea-house with views over Lake Barrine was very calming and the food was fantastic.

Lake Barrine, part of Crater Lakes National Park, is a maar – a crater lake formed by two massive volcanic explosions.

Herberton Historical Village

A day out to the Herberton Historical Village is a “must” when you are visiting the Atherton Tablelands region (maplink). This attraction has been put together over the years by very conscientious volunteers and the amount of memorabilia is outstanding.

We spent the day exploring the village with our new travelling buddies, Paul & Estha along with their wonder-dog, NiggaBella.

The Village currently has over 60 original buildings that date from Herberton’s foundation years. Walking through the Village, we were given a sense of being in a real township complete with chemist, bottle collection, school, bank, grocer’s store, frock salon, toy shop, mechanic, jail and more.

There was sooo much to see I may have taken tooo many photos. Take your time to check them out as it really shows how much there is to see here. I took 156 photos but cut them back as best I could to 47. Enjoy…

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Lake Eacham Tourist Park (website)
  • Cost per night – $29.00 (@ 7-Oct-2020) we stayed for 4 nights
  • Facilities – pretty basic, but very clean and they fit into the bush style campground
  • CP Location – 198 Lakes Dr, Lake Eacham QLD (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – Yes
  • Activities & places of interest – There is so much to do in the Atherton Tablelands that we could have stayed a couple of weeks
  • Tourist info centre? – Silo Rd &, Main St, Atherton (website)
  • Would we return? – YES – This is a definite destination to go to
  • Overall Score – 9/10
• Summing up – A fantastic little caravan park and we met some really fantastic people and saw some great attractions.

There were so many people we met on our travels who said “you must go to Paronella Park“, so we did. What a great spot with so much history.

Located on Mena Creek (maplink) it was originally opened in 1935 by José Paronella whose dream was to build castle, a picnic area by the Mena Creek Falls, tennis courts, bridges, a tunnel, and wrapped it up in an amazing range of 7,500 tropical plants and trees. He even harnessed the waterfall for his electricity by building Australia’s 2nd hydro electric system in 1933.

A brief history

José Paronella arrived in Australia from Catalonia in Spain, in 1913. For the next 11 years he worked, cutting sugar cane initially, then purchasing, improving, and reselling cane farms. In 1924 he returned to Spain and married Margarita in 1925. The trip back to Australia was their honeymoon.

José first saw this 13 acres of virgin scrub along Mena Creek in 1914. He eventually purchased it in 1929 for £120 and started to build his pleasure gardens and reception centre for the enjoyment of the public.

The earliest structure, the Grand Staircase, was built to facilitate the carrying of the river sand to make the concrete.

First they built a house to live in, then they started on the Castle itself.

Apart from the house, which is made of stone, all of the structures were constructed of poured, reinforced concrete, the reinforcing being old railway track. The concrete was covered with a plaster made from clay and cement, which they put on by hand, leaving behind the prints of their fingers as a reminder of the work they had done.

Staying at Paronella

We camped in the “Paddock” behind the Mena creek Hotel and had a short walk over the road to the park. Plenty of room with power provided but using our own water (from our van’s tanks).

After checking in to the park we drove down to Etty Beach to see if we could spot our first cassowary. With none on the beach (where they are supposed to be) we found one on the drive out LOL.

Night tour and light-show

Our 1st experience was the night-time light-show which was really impressive.

Daytime tour

This is the best part of visiting Paronella Park. The tour takes you through the park and our guide provided an extensive overview of it’s history and how much effort José Paronella put into developing his dream.

They also told us the number of times the park was devastated by cyclones and wild weather and how it was lovingly rebuilt.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – If you’re lucky you may be able to pre-book a site in Paronella Park (pretty hard to get in at short notice) or you could book into the “overflow” behind the Mena Creek Hotel (website).
  • Cost per night – $22.00 (@ 11-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – none but may have changed since we were there – we had to use the toilets in the pub
  • CP Location – 1671 Innisfail Japoon Road, Mena Creek (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 6/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – not much in the town. Great pub meals
  • Activities & places of interest – just Paronella Park
  • Would we return? – no – been there done that
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – Paronella Park is totally worth the visit as it’s truly a wonderland of mystical constructions and amazing stories of it’s origins. Make sure you take at least one of the tours – we did both.

About Mission Beach

Mission Beach is a series of interconnected villages – South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, Mission Beach, Bingal Bay, Brooks Beach, Carmoo and Garners Beach – a 14 km beach on one side, and the World Heritage Tropical Rainforest on the other side. Thoughtful promotion has turned these sleepy villages into a desirable holiday resort destination. The road leading to the beachside suburbs is known as Cassowary Drive because the district is home to the beautiful bird, the Cassowary. Mission Beach’s claim to fame is that it is one of the last areas on the north Queensland coast where tropical rainforest actually reaches down to the shoreline. The rainforest is the habitat not only of the elusive cassowary but of parrots, wallabies and impressive butterflies (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Back down on the coast again, staying at Tasman Holiday Parks – South Mission Beach (maplink). This is a truly lovely part of Queensland, with views of Dunk Island, and it was also great to be able to jump in the ocean again for a swim.

Our first cassowary encounter

After setting up our caravan onsite I settled down to read my book while Merrisa took a snooze inside. There was movement out of the corner of my eye and I looked up to come face to beak with a cassowary – WOW! He walked right past me, under our caravan awning, out to the front. Lucky I had my camera ready. We also had a visit from a local goanna as well.

Around Mission Beach South

As mentioned earlier, this is a beautiful place to stay and you can see why there’s a lot of retirees putting down their roots here.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Tasman Holiday Parks – Mission Beach (website)
  • Cost per night – $38.25 (@ 13-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – Good – modern & clean
  • CP Location – 122-132 Kennedy Esplanade, South Mission Beach (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – great place with a truly beautiful beach
  • Activities & places of interest – not much. A great chill out location
  • Tourist info centre? – 55 Porter Promenade, Mission Beach (website)
  • Would we return? – yes
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – Loved our stay here; a top spot, right on the beach. The accidental meeting of a cassowary was pretty amazing

About Townsville

The elegant city of Townsville can correctly call itself ‘The Tropical Capital of North Queensland’. It is a city of great charm and style which has not, like Cairns or Port Douglas, been overwhelmed by tourism. It is too big and too devoted to serving the tropical north, to be a slave to tourism. Even Reef HQ, one of the city’s premier attractions, is relatively low key. It makes little of the fact that it is the only living coral reef in captivity – a fact which means that visitors can actually see the Great Barrier Reef while safely on land. The result is that its gracious buildings and old pubs give it a sense of sophistication.

Recognise that Townsville is the largest city in Australia lying north of the Tropic of Capricorn and you will quickly realise that it is a thriving metropolis with lots of accommodation, a vibrant nightlife, and large numbers of excellent restaurants (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Townsville was selected as a location for no reason at all, except that it was a pin on our map. Glad we chose it and also glad we had a last minute change in our accommodation selecting BIG4 Rowes Bay Beachfront Holiday Park (closest to town – maplink) for 4 nights.

Castle Hill Lookout

First touristy thing to do is to head for the nearest viewpoint of your location and Castle Hill Lookout really did impress. From various points around Townsville you see this massive red granite monolith, which you just want to get to the top of – that’s Castle Hill Lookout.

Townsville Sea Aquarium – ReefHQ

ReefHQ is a great place to catch up on some of the beautiful creatures from the Great Barrier Reef without getting wet. We spent a few hours here checking out this well designed aquarium. Put it on you “must do” list when you’re in Townsville.

Townsville Street Art

I came across a brochure (view in PDF) about the Townsville Street Art Program which caught my interest; so I spent a few hours around Townsville discovering some really brilliant art pieces.

Street art is growing more an more popular these days and it really does bring a place alive. We totally enjoyed the Mallee Silo Art Trail in Victoria last year (view the post) and it’s great to see this type of art moving into city spaces as well. One of the Townsville Artists, Adnate, also painted the Sheep Hills silo’s in Victoria.

Artist’s name are in the caption of the photos below…

Day trip to Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is a short 20 minute ferry ride from Townsville (maplink) and is a great day trip to take.

I must say, that after visiting the island it would have been more fortuitous to actually book some accommodation for a couple of days so we could really explore the place – it has heaps to offer.

We took the hop-on hop-off bus for a whirlwind trip, stopping at Picnic Point and then Horseshoe Bay for lunch.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – BIG4 Rowes Bay Beachfront Holiday Park (website)
  • Cost per night – $32.50 (@ 17-Oct-2020 – we got a special!)
  • Facilities – standard type facilities
  • CP Location – 46 Heatleys Parade, Belgian Gardens – a great location close to town (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – a great location with lots to do. We could have easily stayed longer
  • Activities & places of interest – plenty – check out TripAdvisor
  • Tourist info centre? – Bulletin Square, 340 Flinders St, Townsville (website)
  • Would we return? – yes
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – Townsville is a great town.

Cape Hillsborough (maplink) came with fantastic recommendations from so many other travellers we just had to check it out.

The Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park is a top spot to stay, right on a majestically beautiful beach with wildlife all around you. It is also surrounded by the Cape Hillsborough National Park. We even had a couple of young kangaroos snoozing on the site next to our caravan – pretty cool. It was surprising to find the park was pretty empty.

A kangaroo sunrise

Up at 5:00am and down to the beach, with a heap of other dedicated campers, to greet the sunrise along with wallabies and kangaroos.

This is a daily event set up by the national parks ranger. He puts down plastic cones to separate the eager humans from the wildlife PLUS sticks Covid19 social separation signs down as well. The wildlife certainly turned up as well as a beautiful sunrise.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park (website)
  • Cost per night – $38.00 (@ 21-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – Standard type facilities
  • CP Location – 51 Risley Parade, Cape Hillsborough – right on the beach (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – a beautiful location
  • Activities & places of interest – the kangaroo viewing on the beach is great at sunrise
  • Would we return? – probably not
  • Overall Score – 7/10
• Summing up – this is a lovely spot but we left a day earlier than expected as we were bombarded by sand flies (AKA Midges) and Merrisa was covered in bites.

About Sarina

We left Cape Hillsborough a day earlier than expected as we were bombarded by sand flies (AKA midges) and Merrisa was covered in bites.

So it was off to the sugar town of Sarina. Booked into Sarina Palms Caravan Village again because it was a great little park which we had previously stayed at (maplink).

The owners of the park have a collection of concrete animals placed around the park. It sounds strange but is actually rather quaint. At night the road is actually lit up like an airport landing strip LOL.

Being Friday it was fish & chip night, which we joined in with our fellow campers. What a great night, sharing a few beers and stories with fellow travellers.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Sarina Palms Caravan Village (website)
  • Cost per night – $33.00 (@ 23-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – standard and very clean
  • CP Location – 31 Anzac Street Sarina (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 9/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – no chance to check it out
  • Activities & places of interest – this was just an overnighter. Would like to return to check it out
  • Tourist info centre? – Mackay Region Visitor Information Centre (website)
  • Would we return? – yes
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – we want to come back and check out the area as it looks promising. We’ve stayed here twice but only for an overnighter.

Keppel Sands was selected as a destination as it had a cool sounding name and the pub was within walking distance, as today was the AFL Grand Final and we had to ensure we could watch it on TV. We booked into the Keppel Sands Caravan Park (only one in town – maplink).

Well, we saw the grand final at the pub (great win Tigers), celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary and that was that. The town is very quiet with not much too do, especially when you have thunderstorms and rain. We were glad to move on after 2 nights.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Keppel Sands Caravan Park (website)
  • Cost per night – $32.00 (@ 24-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – Basic but clean
  • CP Location – 28 Taylor Street Keppel Sands (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 6/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – not really – its a weekend retreat
  • Activities & places of interest – bugger all
  • Tourist info centre? – Capricorn Spire Visitor Information Centre – Rockhampton (website)
  • Would we return? – no
  • Overall Score – 5/10
• Summing up – This was a poor choice of location BUT you never know what a location is like until you go there (won’t be back)

About 1770

Seventy Seventy is a new town. Captain Cook Drive was only sealed in the 1990s and all the houses now scattered around Ocean Drive, and surrounded by the Joseph Banks Regional Park, look as though they have been built this century. It is a place with a marina, a pub (The Tree Hotel), a few shops, a camping ground, and pleasant walks with delightful, tropical views across Bustard Bay. The area’s chief appeal, as indicated by the name of the town, is its celebration of Captain James Cook’s journey up the east coast of Australia. It was the second place (after Botany Bay) where he landed on the continent and that is worth celebrating. It barely has a separate identity which is why the area is often known by the combined name – Agnes Water 1770 (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

I first heard of 1770 back in 2013 on our 1st caravaning trip up the east coast of Australia. Nearly everyone we met told us how cool it is. So we put that into our “must stay at” bucket list back then. There were no vacancies when we were travelling up the coast in August and we were extremely lucky to book 2 days at this idyllic location.

Settling into our beach-side site at the 1770 Camping Ground (very lucky to get this site as well – just sayin’) we took a stroll along the beach to to the nearby Captain Cook memorial cairn commemorating the first landing of the “Endeavour” in Queensland at Bustard Bay.  It stands on the site where one of Cook’s crew carved the date on a tree near where they came ashore.

Seventeen Seventy Campground

One of the most “cramped in” places we had stayed at where people park caravans, motor-homes and tents into every skerrick of available space. Hope they do not have to evacuate this park in a hurry as there’s only one exit! BUT, we were parked right next to the beach and it was beautiful.

Our 1st sunset

With only 2 nights in 1770 we were hoping to view the iconic sunsets which it’s renowned for and the 1st night wasn’t too shabby.

Captain Cook Memorial

After circumnavigating New Zealand, Captain James Cook’s expedition sailed west for Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) but winds forced the Endeavour north and the expedition came upon the east coast of Australia, landing at this location on 24th May 1770 (hence the town’s name). They anchored in the bay and set off to find fresh water.

We found a memorial cairn just a short walk to the east of the campground.

A trip on the LARC

One of the quirky things you can do while in 1770 is to take a trip on the pink LARC – an amphibious bus come boat. So off we went to support the local tour industry and booked in for the 1 hour afternoon cruise. It was a bit of a novelty thing to do but we managed to see a sea eagle perched in a tree as well as many smaller sea birds. The trip finished with a “splash down” as the driver drives full bore into the water from the beach – pretty cool.

1770 storm and stunning sunset

Toward the end of our second day we noticed the sky darkening while we finished the LARC tour and once back at our campsite decided to pack some of our gear up as it looked really stormy.

Lucky we did some packing up as a massive storm hit the park with extremely strong wind and really heavy rain. The place was flooded in no-time at all. Palm fronds were flying through the air covering tents, cars and caravans – it was really scary. Our poor neighbours tent had so many palm fronds over it that it started looking more like a bush hut than a tent.

Our fellow campers all got together to clean up the mess left by the storm and to make the place safe again. It was then followed up by an amazing pink and orange sunset.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – 1770 Camping Ground (website)
  • Cost per night – $48.00 (@ 26-Oct-2020)
  • Facilities – not too bad
  • CP Location – 641 Captain Cook Dr, Seventeen Seventy (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – absolutely
  • Activities & places of interest – plenty to do – check out TripAdvisor
  • Tourist info centre? – 71 Springs Rd, Agnes Water (website)
  • Would we return? – yes
  • Overall Score – 9/10
• Summing up – this was a bucket list being ticked off – loved it

Returning to Bargara (east of Bundaberg) we booked into the Bargara Beach Caravan Park for just 2 nights. The reason for this was so that we could do the famous Bundaberg Rum Distillery Tour, as it was closed due to COVID19, on our 1st visit back in August (check-out the blog from our earlier visit).

This is a really great tour and there’s so much to learn about how Bundaberg Rum is made and the history of the distillery.

Some history

Bundaberg Rum originated because the local sugar mills had a problem with what to do with the waste molasses after the sugar was extracted (it was heavy, difficult to transport and the costs of converting it to stock feed were rarely worth the effort). Sugar men first began to think of the profits that could be made from distilling and the Bundaberg Distilling Company began its operations in 1888 – find out more on the Bundaberg Rum Showcase website.

About Hervey Bay

A lot of people have said to us “oh Hervey Bay, that’s where people go to die”. Well I thinks that’s a bit harsh; it is a beautiful spot. We pulled into the Fraser Coast Beachfront Tourist Park in Pialba (maplink) for a 3 night stay and scored site 16 which backs right onto the beach – bonus!

It’s amazing how far the tide goes out here. It’s a shallow beach just like Rosebud back in Victoria. The weather is still windy with storms building up in the late afternoon.

A walk out on low tide with our neighbours George & Sylvia saw some interesting patterns in the sand. The incoming tide sure came in quick too.

We had a fantastic blood red full moon on our last night. This seemed a bit strange as it’s also a “blue moon” (2 full moons in the same calendar month).

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Pialba Beach Tourist Park (website)
  • Cost per night – $52.50 (@ 30-Oct-2020)
  • Stayed for – 5 nights
  • Facilities – standard and very clean
  • CP Location – The Esplanade, Pialba (Hervey Bay) (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 8/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – it was OK but very large
  • Activities & places of interest – plenty to do here
  • Tourist info centre? – 227 Maryborough Hervey Bay Rd, Urraween (website)
  • Would we return? – yes
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summing up – We enjoyed our stay here – was also our stepping off point for Fraser Island.

A bucket list item was ticked off today when we visited Fraser Island on the Fraser Experience Day Tour. Our driver, Syd, picked us up at 7.30am and headed off in our 17 seat 4WD bus (with only 8 passengers) for the ferry from Hervey Bay over to Wanggoolba Creek, on Fraser Island (maplink), for a 10 hour tour.

The ferry arrived at Wanggoolba Creek and we were off on our adventure, driving from the west side of the island to 75 Mile Beach on the east coast. What a bumpy ride this was as the sand tracks have certainly had a massive amount of traffic over them.

The Pinnacles & Coloured Sands

Once onto the 75 Mile Beach we headed north to check out the Pinnacles, which are apparently one of the key attractions on Fraser Island, but we found that they weren’t all that exceptional.

SS Maheno Shipwreck

Heading back down the east coast of the island our next stop was the famous shipwreck of SS Maheno.

Now you’re talkin! This is spectacular, especially since it has laid on this beach since 1935.

Eli Creek

Next stop is the beautiful fresh water Eli Creek. We could not believe the amount of vehicles parked up at the creek, but our guide Syd this is nothing and that we should see it at Easter when there are 5 times the number of vehicles (and people) here.

Central Station & Wanggoolba Creek

Lunch was taken at Central Station in the middle of the island. This is a beautiful spot. After lunch it was time to stroll along the boardwalk beside the near transparent waters of Wanggoolba Creek – truly magnificent!

Lake McKenzie

Last stop was at Lake McKenzie which is situated high up in the middle of the island. Crystal clear water to swim in after strolling across the super clean silica sands.

A stormy trip back

Then it was time to climb aboard our bus and have the virtual stuffing knocked out of us as Syd navigated the tracks back to Kingfisher Bay for our ferry trip back to the mainland. We watched as the clouds got darker and bigger, signalling a stormy night ahead. This also provided yet another glorious Queensland sunset though.