Townsville Part 1

Townsville was a favourite stop on a previous trip so we were pleased to be visiting again and combining this with getting to know newly found cousins on my Dad's side. As my cousin was house bound after having foot surgery we spent our days being tourists and our afternoons and evenings with our cousins. Their apartment overlooked the bay across to Magnetic Island. It was a wonderful opportunity to just spend time with Betty and Bruce get to know each other, talk about family, do some research on the family's war time service together and just have a good laugh together. A big thank you to both for their hospitality and friendship.

Castle Hill Lookout was our first stop, and we were lucky to have Bruce drive us up there and show us around. The hill which is a giant pink granite monolith is just metres short of being a mountain. The hill allows one a 360 degree view of Townsville and its surrounds. The hill has a very steep and narrow road access complicated by many residents walking or running up and down it each day as part of their exercise regime. Some walk several abreast and others even push strollers which seems very dangerous when driving.

Views of Magnetic Island and Cleveland Bay.

 George walked the extra tracks to gain the complete 360 degree views and take photos. You can just see hime going up the hill in the second photo !

 The Strand is Townsville's fabulous foreshore which was a favourite with the girls on an earlier trip. It stretches 2.5 km along Cleveland Bay and provides walks, swimming enclosures and pool, 

waterparks, playgrounds, a Friday night market and waterfront dining. 

Jezzine Barracks is at the northern end of the strand and has beautiful views of the bay and waterfront pool from the top. Here the history of Townsville and its connection to the world wars is displayed. At the top of the hill Forts gun placements used to protect our eastern seaboard have been preserved and the history of the bombings of Townsville by the Japanese in WW2 are recorded

 A map showing the sea battles of WW2 was painted on the walkway.

The screens show pictures of the history of the men in the area. Below the poles on the disc were photos of local soldiers during the world wars.

 Connected to this area via a timber walkway is Kissing Point and its Bush Tucker Trail and Artwork to the top of the point.

Below is me on my scooter travelling down the pathway! 

Mackay to Townsville

 Mackay to Townsville

On leaving our friends at Ilbilbie we promised to stop in at the Eimeo Hotel to take in the view of the bay on our way to the overnight free camp. 

On arriving there in the early afternoon, and not having had lunch ... and if you know me well you know I love sweet things ... I decided to forgo lunch and have scones, jam and cream with a milkshake Lol ! And what a beautiful view to sit and be decadent over.

While there we saw a whale out in the distance frolicking in the bay. A shame it was just a little too far out for decent photos to be taken.

We headed off to the Leap Hotel to a free camp for the night deciding to go the back way. The road turned to dirt so our ' little old caravan saw it's first dirt,' and arrived safely.  

The next day we headed off to explore the town of Bowen before stopping at a very good free camp at Home Hill. Bowen was to provide us with our first swim for the trip. We headed down around Queens Beach and up to Horseshoe Bay where I could not resist having a swim. Once I had convinced George it was too beautiful to pass up, and that it was definitely warm enough we parked and changed. What a beautiful spot with clear blue water and no waves ! Many beaches up this way, including Queens Beach have either black sandy beaches or rocky entries but not here.

Below are photos of George on Queens Beach and the bottom one is on the other end at Horseshoe Bay

We spent quite a time in the water before having lunch and heading off to our next free camp at Home Hill where we waited excitedly to head into Townsville the next day. 

Not only was Townsville a favourite place of ours to visit but it now held the added bonus of having relatives, who were new to us, living there.

By Lynne 

Out From the Cane Farm : Mackay - Sarina Area

While staying with friends on the cane farm, Kate acted as our tour guide and gave us the benefit of local knowledge. So much so the local volunteers at the Information Centre in Sarina offered me a job saying we'd seen more than them ! We visited local points of interest from Ilbilbie to Eungella and Mackay and were once more thankful to have our 4wd ute!

Our first trip was to Marion Creek and Yarrawonga Reserve on the coast out from Ilbilbie, which required some 4wding. The Marion Creek was a very clear aqua blue and we stopped where there was a free camp to get a closer look, take some photos and chat to some campers/fishers there.

Next stop was Yarrawonga Reserve, what a beautiful spot out on the point ... Perfect for camping but a little difficult to get into for bigger vans and you need 4wd. 

 This shows the other side of the point at Yarrawonga. You can camp on either side. This one is more formal.

We had a morning in Sarina which included a lovely lunch with Kate at the local football club. 

On another day we headed into Mackay taking the opportunity to stop at the markets at Sarina and the Hay Point coal loading facility on the way. Hay point was truly impresssive.  The loading jetty went out 1.8 kms into deep water.  Every step was mechanised from the coal depository to the conveyor belts that loaded the ships. There was one full size bulk carrier berthed and being loaded while the tug boats returned to sea to bring in another one. Hay point had an information centre at the look out. This gave us an insight into the facility.  It was well worth the stop.  

In Mackay we did our usual tourist thing and drove around looking at the interesting architecture and buildings, very art deco for the older buildings, and lunch at the beach. We were taken in by the Kite Boarding for the first time and watched for ages. (Since then we have done this quite a few times.)

Our next day trip was quite a distance and hence a long day. We headed up the ranges to Eungella and the National Park. Driving windy, thin, steep mountain road seems to be another habit we've got into ... though thankfully more often than not without our caravan.

The town of Eungella offered beautiful views back to the coast over Pioneer Valley, and the National park was known for its turtles and platypus viewing. Unfortunately we saw none, but have heard others tell of their wonderful luck. 

Our last day was spent taking Kate somewhere she hadn't been ... Cape Palmerston. I believe this day was George's and Kate's favourite. George, as he was encouraged by Kate to drive on the beaches, and Kate's as she just loves the beach and beach driving. I'd have to say, for me it was the most challenging as I am not a fan of beach driving ! Cape Palmerston was an amazing day none the less and we had great fun together.

Part of the Cape Palmerston  drive is through the bush on the headland which provides access to camping and picnicking areas. You first have to drive along the beach before accessing this area. One of these areas provides access to another small beach area where we had lunch. 

At the end of this day Kate also showed us around a few other small towns and Greenhill beach  which we also drove out and onto. The photo shows George enjoying himself there.

Thanks to Kate who was a wonderful host and tour guide !

By Lynne

A Fabulous Week Spent at the Cane Farm !

A Fabulous Week Spent at the Cane Farm

We had been invited to spend some time with friends on a cane farm. It was a wonderful week of relaxing, getting to know new friends, being shown around by a local, and finally getting to set our caravan up and spread out a little.

We were shown first hand the different workings of a cane farm and witnessed the hard work and long hours put in by the workers doing the haul out. 

Wherever there is cane farms there is a multitude of rail lines through every farm and town to service the cane haul out, a very efficient network. The harvester cuts the cane which is directed into haul out bins on the back of a truck, which then races the bins down to the rail line and adds them to the finished bins for pick up by the cane train loco. Each farm is allocated a number of bins for the day which are dropped off by the loco and picked up later. The driver then takes the next group of bins and races back to the harvester. There were, in this case, three drivers who rotated through these steps so that the harvester did not stop its work of cutting the cane. As they said, ' down time for the harvester means loss of money while the expensive equipment stands still waiting and longer days... Time is money.' 

The men begin work in the early hours of the morning and may not get home any time up to the early evening.

Below is a photo of a loco train hauling empty bins through the centre of town on the Bruce Highway. The bottom one is the common sight, and smell, of a sugar cane mill in the local towns. It is not uncommon for everything to be covered in a fine soot from the sugar cane burns. Where we stayed the cane was not burnt before harvesting.

By Lynne

Sunshine Coast to Cane Farm

Sunshine Coast to Cane Farm

We left Brisbane, and all our friends and family, and headed north spending a few days as tourists and a couple just relaxing on the banks of a river.

First stop in the late afternoon was the Ginger Factory in Yandina which was closed, but the touristy type shops in the same complex were open and George came away with a packet of crystallised ginger anyway. We also visited a Macadamia one across the road. 

The next few days were spent browsing through several towns.

Maryborough... 

We drove around the old port city and looked at the interesting buildings and architecture, then spent the bulk of our time in Queens Park admiring the trees, sculptures, old canon placements and fountains where lorikeets were playing in the water. The town dated back to the 1800's and the Botanic Gardens were a place of early signicant plantings of tropical specimens by the man who was to become the state's first royal botanist. The canon and gun placements were for the defence of the river mouth during war. Below is a photo of a very large Curtain Fig, one of the oldest specimens in the country.

 The park also had this wonderful sculpture of a soldier in the remembrance area of the park, commemorating a local resident who fought in WW1 and received a Victoria Cross.

                                                             Hervey Bay... 

Once more we took in the beaches and walked out along Urangan Pier then hit the shops for a change. Our most interesting purchase was a pre-loved guitar for George which involved hunting down a pawn shop find for the first time ever. i had decided that we could not go any further without a guitar for George. His pride and joy, or his 'first wife', was being repaired in Sydney and due to the wet weather there was still not ready to be brought up to us when Jessica came up.

Calliope ...

 We also spent time at Calliope, a favourite free camp of ours from our two previous trips up this way. This time, without our girls, we camped on the north side up on the embankment with a beautiful view along the river. In the past we have camped on the south side which gave the girls' access to the river for paddling and swimming. 

Rockhampton ...

We were once more taken in by the architecture and old buildings and could see from the main road the spires of 2 different churches. The first was St Josephs Catholic Church which was the central church for the parish area. We were able to walk through and look 

inside the Cathedral which had been restored beautifully. Unfortunately George didnt stop to allow me time to take some photos of the other one which had an amazing widows walk at the top of one section.  

Our final stop before heading in to stay with friends on a cane farm was a night at St Lawrence where we waited in expectation of meeting and getting to know new friends better. 

By Lynne