Wednesday 30th May 2012 - Brampton Beach

The weather started to worsen and it rained all day. Bummer!!
We had planned to drive inland to see the Undara Lava Tubes and the Chillagoe Caves however you can only do the lava tubes on a tour and the one we wanted was not available until Sunday so we decided to continue on up the coast and we will do them on the way back down after Cape York.We had a slow start to the day and it continued to rain.

We stopped on our way towards Cairns at Wallaman Falls in the Girringun National Park. The falls are the longest single drop falls in Australia. The view from the platform was quite spectacular!

Wallaman Falls - 268m

The kids and I at the waterfall

The view at the top of Wallaman Falls

We then drove through to Tully and it continued to rain (not unusual for Tully which has the highest rainfall in Australia apparently).

We drove out towards Mission Beach. We are keen to spot a Cassowary in the wild so as there are lots of areas around Mission Beach which are conservation areas for them. Unfortunately we didn't see one. I don't think that the continued rain helped our cause! We did stop and do a pretty little walk at the 'Lakes' near Mission Beach as part of our hunt. We also had lunch there in a beak from the rain.

Ed and the kids being silly on the boardwalk.

I love the shapes of the rainforest vines. Checkout this one that Charlotte is holding.

We drove up as far as Brampton Beach where we camped for the night.
Ed managed to go for a quick fish - no result of course because of the very bad weather.
We had a very wet night!

Monday 28th - Wednesday 30th May 2012 - Jourama Falls (Paluma Range National Park)

We left Townsville hoping for a short drive up to one of the beach camping areas just north of town, however all the grey nomads had taken them over and we had no hope of getting into any of them. After a bit of exploring we ended up at the Paluma Range National Park where we found a lovely grassed camping spot at the Jourama Falls.
There was another family there (Troy & Kristy) with their 5 kids (what champions are they!) doing a 5 month trip through QLD/NT/WA. THe kids enjoyed playing with them and riding bikes around the campsite. We chilled in the afternoon and did some school work. Ed and Troy took all the kids for a spotlight down to the creek after dinner which they all enjoyed.
The next day we explored the rock pools and the falls which were a short walk from our campsite. They were lovely but I can only imagine how spectacular they would be with loads more water!

The upper section of Jourama Falls

Ed and the kids at the falls

The kids enjoyed exploring the creek some more and we also did some school work with all of them.
It was nice to relax and chill out without moving again! The weather was good which was a bonus!
Had a relaxing evening planning our next move before going to bed. Great day!

Sunday 27th May 2012 - Townsville

We awoke to a brighter sky and enjoyed a BBQ breakie. As we were cooking the kids spied a green tree snake above the BBQ keeping warm out of the weather no doubt, above us. It didn't move the whole time we were there.

It was high up in the rafters above the BBQ.

We drove on into Townsville and dropped off the trailer at a caravan park on the water before doing a little exploring.

We went up to Castle Hill which was a high hill in the middle of Townsville which had excellent views of the whole town and surrounds. Some mad people were even running up it! We enjoyed Lunch with a view there. We also drove along 'The Strand' which is basically the foreshore. There were several playgrounds which the kids enjoyed and filtered swimming areas (stinger free apparently!) which we didn't use as it was still a little too cold.

The kids were given the option of going to Reef HQ or the Museum. They chose Reef HQ which was a smaller version of AQUA. THe kids had fun and we also got to look at the Turtle Hospital where sick and injured turtles are cared for and released back into the wild. That was interesting to see.

Olivia diving on the reef!

The late afternoon was spent washing and doing school work as we had good internet coverage so we got to do some Mathletics and Spellodrome. The kids were a bit ratty so it was a bit of a chore, too many 1 nighters I think! Ed and I got everything ready to hit the road again tomorrow.

Saturday 26th May 2012 Airlie Beach - Bowling Green Bay National Park

Olivia feeding the birds

It was disappointing to not be able to enjoy the Whitsunday's very much but the rain prevented us from really enjoying them. I'm glad we went for our Barrier Reef experience at Lady Musgrave Island!
Yesterday the girls got to feed the birds at the Caravan Park - the closest we got to nature in Airlie Beach!

Charlotte feeding the birds

Our beautiful kids!

We left Airlie Beach and drove onto Bowling Green Bay National Park to the Alligator Creek Campground. It was a lovely little park with the creek running past as the name suggests. We did a bit of exploring along the rocky creek however the kids all said no to a 17km walk up to the falls (I don't know why!)

Thomas - the King of the Castle!

A beautiful butterfly on the short walk to the lookout.

The lovely wok along the boardwalk and pathway by the creek. We saw some turtles in the creek and Ed spied an eel there as well.

Unfortunately the weather was average so it was an early night to get out of the rain for us all.

Thursday 24th May - Friday 25th May 2012 - Rockhampton & Mackay & Airlie Beach

We spent the morning in Rockhampton getting some supplies. As it was close to lunchtime we stopped in a Red Rooster for some lunch. The kids got a paper model kit to make of famous landmarks around the country - and what did they get?? They got the Bell Tower in Perth!
We drove onto a place called Smalleys Beach which was in a National Park. The campsite was a short walk from the beach. It had continued to rain so we put up the annex and the walls and decided that we would stay for a few days.
Unfortunately after a morning spent doing school work 2 Backpackers came along and said they had booked our site for a week. When I finally got onto the camping booking office (I had patchy reception) they said that the whole park was booked out for the next 3 days! Bummer!! We had not choice but to pack up quickly and hit the road again. We drove onto Airlie Beach and had to book into a caravan park. The weather was still wet and rainy! Due to the sudden move we got an lucy snack at 4pm!
It continued to rain overnight so no good views of the Whitsundays!

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 - Rockhampton

We awoke early and looked outside to see that we were surrounded by clouds! The Kookas all came back to visit and they looked very wet. After breakie we packed up and left the trailer and car at the campsite and set off on a 2.8km loop walk called 'The Culture Trail.' It was really pretty and we saw some aboriginal art as well as remains of when the early settlers tried to farm unsuccessfully there. There were lots of rock formations along the walk, many with ferns or trees growing out of them.

Aboriginal handprints on 'The Culture Trail.'

We returned back to the car and drove along the track to the Rainbow Falls. It was a 4km return walk down to an amazing cascading waterfall. We were able to walk on the first 3 levels before it dropped way down to another 2 levels at least. It was so beautiful! Ed wanted to find an Olive Python and I was so relieved that we didn't!

Rainbow Falls

We had an early lunch there before getting in the car an driving to Rockhampton where we stayed at a caravan park so we could wash clothes and get some new supplies.

Sunday 20th May - Tuesday 22nd May 2012 Carnarvon Gorge

We packed up early and had a driving day to Carnarvon Gorge which is inland and south of Emerald. We stopped by a river for lunch before arriving at 4pm at the visitor centre at the Gorge. We collected our maps of the gorge walks and went to the camp ground.

At the Visitor Centre with the Kangaroos

We got up early and packed snacks galore and sandwiches for lunch, filled our water bottles, slip, slop and slapped on the hats and suncream and drove to the visitor centre. Little did we realise that by the end of the day we will have walked approximately 21km nearly up to the end of Carnarvon Gorge!!! We left the visitor centre  at 9.20am and returned tired at 4.45pm.

The start of the Carnarvon Gorge walk

We took loads of photo's so you will only get a quick snap shot of our day. The gorge walls are mostly a white sandstone with a tinge of grey and yellow and orange rocks. Walking through the gorge floor you are surrounded by gum trees and palms and lots of sword grasses with the towering gorge walls on either side of you. It is quite spectacular!

The first offshoot from the main canyon walk was called Moss Gardens. It was 1.3km return walk back to the main track. We crossed the river on stepping stones (the first of many such crossing throughout the day) and climbed up some stairs into a lush tropical oasis. Along the way we walked around an amazing strangling fig tree that was enormous and it's roots were wound around a massive boulder.

The roots of a strangler fig 

The last part of the walk into the gardens was on a specially constructed boardwalk to protect this special area. A waterfall flowed down into a pond and the surrounding rock walls were covered in moss and ferns. It was a beautiful, tranquil place.

In the Moss Garden

Once we returned back to the main track we continued on till we came to another offshoot from the canyon called Wards Canyon. This was a steep climb up to this beautiful canyon with a waterfall and a narrow walkway with ancient King Ferns. You could see up towards the canon rim. It was gorgeous!
The kids and I enjoyed having leaf boat races down the waterfall!

The beautiful Wards Canyon

Back on the main track we walked on till we cam to the Art Gallery where there was some Aboriginal paintings and carvings. The Art Gallery was 5.4km (one way) from the Visitor Centre. We walked through a narrow gap in-between the rocks to the boardwalk viewing platform. There were lots of handprints, boomerangs, nets and then heaps of vulvas. They are not sure why there are so many vulvas and what the significance of it is.....maybe it was a women's area????? We had a bit of explaining to do!

Some aboriginal art at 'The Art Gallery'

We stopped there for lunch and then we decided to tackle the hike up to the Cathedral and Boowinda Gorge.
Due to the floods in 2011 & 2012 there was a lot of track damage so Ed was in the lead finding the way through. We crossed the river several times and walked on tracks with grass almost over Thomas's head!
I was on 'hyper snake alert' as you can imagine!
We were rewarded with more spectacular views and aboriginal art at the Cathedral. 80m beyond the Cathedral was Boowinda Gorge. It is shaped a bit like a crescent moon at the gorge entrance. We walked a short way into it before turning back for the return journey.

Boowinda Gorge

Ed set a cracking pace and the girls and I couldn't quite keep up but Thomas was running along with him.
By the end of it we were glad to get to the car and we couldn't believe that we all had walked nearly 22km. Our feet were sore but it was so worth it. The chocolate along the way helped to get us to the end.
The kids were amazing and we were so proud of them.

We enjoyed dinner and hot showers before we all crashed early as you can imagine!!!
The next morning we were all a little stiff and our feet were still a little sore too.
After  breakie we packed up slowly and decided to take a short drive up to Blackdown Tablelands National Park which was north east of Carnarvon Gorge. It was a steep climb up into the park. We camped at the only camp ground there for the night.
We were surrounded very quickly by Kookaburras and Currawongs all waiting for an opportunity to eat. One cheeky one even flew into the car through Ed's window looking for food!
There were several walks around the park but the kids and I were not up for any walks so we opted for a 4wd around the park which was fun. We stopped halfway along at a lookout which gave amazing views of the surrounding countryside.

The lookout at the Blackdown Tablelands National Park

Unfortunately the weather started to close in so we had rain overnight.  We crashed early again, although Ed and I didn't sleep very well listening to the rain overhead through out the night.

Wednesday 16th May - Saturday 19th May 2012 - Deepwater National Park

We camped at Wreck Rock Campground in the Deepwater National Park. It wasn't far from 1770 and it was a short stroll to the beach. The kids enjoyed stopping there for a few days of exploring and catching up on school work.
On the beach there were many spots where turtles had laid eggs, however we missed the last hatchlings we think by a few weeks.
Ed took Thomas to the beach to look for pippies for bait while I did some school work with the girls and we were constantly interrupted by 7 goannas! We had to keep jumping into the car until they finished exploring our campsite. One of the goannas was so keen to eat scraps that it got its teeth caught in our shade cloth flooring!

One of our larger visitors!

Ed caught us a yummy dart fish which we enjoyed for lunch one day.

We also enjoyed spotlighting on the beach at night as well as a visit into the townships of 1770 and Agnes Waters.

The girls of the beach at 1770

I was very keen to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef so we booked a day trip out to Lady Musgrave Island. It is a protected atoll and part of the National Park. The trip out was not fun as I was sea sick 4 times. Olivia and Thomas lasted until the last 5 minutes of the 90 minute journey before they were also sea sick. We enjoyed snorkelling on the reef and seeing lots of reef fish. Thomas and Olivia were not too good in the water (scared) however by the afternoon they were using a mask and snorkel properly and swimming by themselves. The highlight for me was swimming with 5 sea turtles. We didn't take any photos.....too much to think about with the kids and all our gear! Thankfully the trip back was sea sick free! Ed says I was just soft!

Wednesday 16th May 2012 - Hervey Bay - Bundaberg - Deepwater National Park

We left Hervey Bay and headed up to 1770 a coastal town where Captain James Cook landed on the 24th May 1770 (hence the name of the town!)

Before we got there we stopped into the Bundy Rum factory and the Ginger beer factory. We just had a look around at each place as the tour for the rum factory was expensive and the kids weren't that interested.
We moved onto Deepwater National Park which was just south of 1770 the town so named as it is where Capt. Cook landed on the 24th May 1770!

A view of the beach at 1770.

The memorial to James Cooks arrival in Australia in 1770.

Monday 14th May 2012 - Fraser Island to Hervey Bay

We left our campsite near the Maheno Wreck at around 10am for the drive off the island at low tide. When we were on the barge Ed saw a Dugong in the water - we were all jealous!
We drove off to Hervey Bay via Tin Can Bay which was a lovely town on the water. We drove onto Hervey Bay and stayed in a caravan park for 2 nights. Unfortunately, our roof bag had a hole in it and had soaked our spare clothes inside it. As we didn't know some stuff went mouldy so I spent a fair amount of time washing or chucking out stuff that was beyond repair. We still found time to explore Hervey Bay which was far bigger than I realised.

Thursday 11th May - Monday 14 th May 2012 - Fraser Island

We got up at 6am and bundled the kids, still in their PJ's, into the car whilst Ed and I packed up and hit the road for the short 5minute drive to the barge.

The kids still in their PJ's on the barge

We had booked Dundabarra Point campground which was an electrically fenced campground to stop the dingo's getting in. We stayed there for 2 nights but unfortunately you couldn't use generators so we had to move out and camp along the beach. We had a few curious dingo's  when we camped on the beach but you just had to stand up and hold your ground and they moved away. ( I was a little more paranoid than Ed about the Dingo's!).

A Fraser Island dingo

They only time I panicked was at lake MacKenzie. We were looking at a large goanna walking past when a dingo appeared. The goanna got scared and ran towards the closest tallest thing which unfortunately was me. I yelled and ran and it quickly found a tree to climb! These QLD goannas are huge!

The goanna that scared me!

We really enjoyed exploring the island. The main camp areas are on the east coast which is where we stayed but we did go over to the the west coast which was lovely.

The kids and I near the beach at Indian Head

We enjoyed beach walks, swimming in the fresh water lakes, fishing, 4WDriving around the island from Hook point up to Waddy Point, Champagne Pools, Indian Head, Lake MacKenzie and the drive across to Woreli Beach on the West Coast, the wreck of the Maheno and Eli Creek. The kids enjoyed swimming at Eli Creek where they got on their boogie boards and floated down the creek before running along the boardwalk and doing it again. Great for getting them exhausted! The rock formations along the east coast were beautiful and the colours were more spectacular than Rainbow Beach.

Whilst Ed was fishing on the Sunday he saw a feeding frenzy going on out at sea. He saw a Humpback whale and then killer whales feeding all day. The Ranger said that he hadn't seen Killer Whales there before, however the barge guys said that they do come around all the time. Ed thought that there were at least 10 of them having a feeding frenzy out there off the east coast in the vicinity of the Maheno Wreck.

The wreck of the Maheno

Yummy Mud Crab for dinner!

We really enjoyed the beauty of Fraser Island and it was a very laid back, chilled out place although I would hate to be there in the peak times - apparently it gets extremely crowded.

The kids all enjoyed a fish on Fraser

The view of the sunset from our beachside camp on Fraser

Tuesday 9th May - Wednesday 10th May 2012 - Inskip Point at Rainbow Beach

We packed cup and headed back to the coast to prepare for our trip to Fraser Island. We camped right next to the beach just a 5 minute drive away from the barge to get across to Fraser. We caught up on some washing and relaxed on the beach for a couple of days.
Some beach walks, fishing and just playing in the sand was all we got up to. We organised our car and camping permits and barge tickets for Fraser whilst we were in town.
Rainbow Beach is famous for the multicoloured rocks along the beach which were beautiful with the sun on them. Lots of golden yellows and oranges.

Rainbow Beach

Wednesday night we packed up as much as we could as it was an early start with the tides to get across to Fraser Island.

Monday 8th May 2012 - Australia Zoo

We left Maroochydore early and after a false start (I left all the toilet bags in the bathroom!) we took off for Australia Zoo.

We enjoyed the day exploring the Zoo and seeing the Crocoseum. It was particularly moving to see the memorial area to Steve Irwin. His spirit is there and all the keepers are very passionate about the animals.
They have great space so there is loads of room for the animals to move around.

The kids on and in Cameron the Croc!

We enjoyed the midday show where we saw crocs being feed and an amazing display of birds flying in and out and around the crocoseum. The kids held out a glimmer of hope that Bindi or Bob would be around...but alas no they didn't make an appearance!

Thomas feeding an elephant

We all really enjoyed the Zoo. In particular Olivia loved the Tassie devils, Thomas enjoyed feeding the Elephants and Charlotte couldn't choose - she loved it all!
We found a bush camp afterwards by a creek and enjoyed a relaxing end to a busy day at the Zoo.