Central Qld

I've been very slack of late and not updated the blog, mainly due to the fact we haven't done a lot of the tourist attractions and basically traveled from the Sunshine Coast to the Atherton Tablelands, FNQ leaving the east coast at Hervey Bay going via Monto, Emerald, Charters Towers to Townsville.

We stayed around Hervey Bay for a while to enjoy some nice sunny days but cool nights.  Coming into Noosa we cracked the windscreen which I had repaired at Novus, Hervey Bay.  The job was completed, but what I didn't realize at the time was the driver side mirror had been broken during the repair by the repairer.  I found this out when we had started travelling north so couldn't go back and thought this would cause an issue when I called to follow up.  I spoke to the proprietor who was away at the time of the repair and as a result he was most apologetic and had the mirror replaced without any question.  I wouldn't normally write about an event like this however because of the exceptional customer service from Ian at Novus, Hervey Bay to have my mirror replaced I would certainly recommend their service.

Had to take this piccie of kangaroo and joey 

Yep, cracked the windscreen going into Noosa so spent some time around Hervey Bay having the screen replaced.

Early morning not far from camp near Hervey Bay

More of that early morning mist as the sun peaks through

We traveled from Hervey Bay to Childers picking up some hot and spicy nuts from the roadside van in Childers.  Headed west towards Monto, camping north of Eidsvold adjacent to the Burnett River.  It's around here we could still see evidence of the 2011 floods which  was devastating in this area and of course Bundaberg.

Over night camp - Ceratodus Rest Area beside the Burnett River.  You could see evidence in the trees of the 2011 floods.  Nice camp spot 

Dawson River Rest Area, a very popular camp spot, we only stopped for lunch and continued on.  Good facilities and a gold coin donation.

Stopped for the night at a gravel pit about 30kn North of Rolinston.  No facilities but much quieter.

Fairbain Dam just out of Emerald, we stayed at Higher Ground Station Stay about 3km from the dam.

Our bush camp at Higher Ground Station Stay.

The Higher Ground Station Stay was a bush camp without facilities, although you could have power if require. Had to be self contained and take the sh**ter (toilet cassette) to the nearest dump point.  From Emerald to Charters Towers we found the camp spots few and far between.  What was available was very close to the road and sometimes cluttered with rubbish.  We stayed on the side of the road at a gravel dump with 2 other vans and woke to the rain that morning.  We left early morning and went into Charters Towers, pulling up at Macrossan Park 22km east for coffee.  This was a large free camp area along the Burkin River, would have had 30 vans camping, but as the rain persisted we had our coffee, a chat to another New Age owners from SA and continued towards Townsville in the rain.

Townsville from Castle Hill Lookout, if you have a good eye you can see the V8 track/pit area.

After a couple of days in Townsville we moved further north to Bramston Beach, where we meet up with Mike and Chris who we had met in WA last year.  We stayed for 4 days enjoying some sunshine, although not enough to fully charge the batteries and had a look around Innisfail and surrounding area. Lovely place to stay with beach access & on the cheaper scale of cost per night.

We were at Bramston Beach for the State of Origin game two -Trevor the caretaker organised the TV out by the camp fire and we all brought some finger food to share for dinner.  Unfortunately the local Queenslanders weren't too happy with the result.

Bramston Beach Council Park

Hels making most of the sun as we had seen plenty of overcast days.

Trevor (caretaker) arranged a TV to watch the State of Origin (2) unfortunately in the depths of Qld,  NSW managed to win the series, first time in 8 years. Mind you we had a few blue supporters who were very happy!

Looking North along Bramston Beach

From Bramston Beach we headed to Atherton to start our house sit for 2 months.