After a very quiet night and no sightings of Duckbilled Platypus (they do live in the area). We set off for the short drive to Airlie Beach along the Kangeroo Death Avenue(Bruce Highway). After passing numerous splatted Roos we passed a live one stood at the side of the road looking like it was waiting to cross, I’ve never seen an animal praying before!!
Arrived about an hour later at our camp for the next 4 nights, Seabreeze Tourist Park. Parked next to the Auz Farlams caravan, but no Farlams. After a search of the site we found them at the pool.

A spot of lunch then left the kids with Craigo and walked along the sea front boardwalk( I didnt sing the song). Part way along we met up with Bri who was keen to show us where her brother and sister-in-law got married, Coral Sea Resort. Walk through the hotel, sat by the pool overlooking the sea and partook of a glass of wine each( Neen was shocked too, me drinking wine).

Bri headed off further into town to meet Craig and the kids whilst we wandered back along the boardwalk to the camp.
Went out for dinner to the Garden Bar Bistro, where we enjoyed a sharing platter of salt & pepper calamari, fish tacos, chicken wings, salad & chips with a prosecco and beer thrown in. By this time it was about 7.45pm so decided to make our way back to the camp via the shops(next to the camp) for a pack of beer. Unfortunately they shut at 8.00pm. Bugger.
Up bright and early as we had booked onto a trip around the Whitsundays on the Whitehaven Xpress which is run by a local family company. Were picked up from the site at 8.30am and taken to the marina. Just booking in with Braydon (top bloke) who said”so long as you have your hat, sunglasses and camera, it’ll be great”. Yes we had our hats, sunglasses, sun cream, OH EFFING BOLLOCKS, forgot the bloody camera/phone $#%$^$#/%#$.
A quick trip to shop just along the front where we purchase a disposable underwater camera (it works out at £1 a pic)
Onto the boat, 1st on with a chap from our camp by the name of John. Blagged 3 of only 8 seats on the top deck in the sun. Set off for our 1st stop Hill Inlet Lookout. Heading across Whitehaven Strait, ploughed into a wave which a split second later I was wearing! Oh how everyone else laughed! Dried out in calmer waters by the time we reached The Lookout, Walked up to the lookout, the view was breathtaking it was awesome.

Back on board and headed for our next stop, Whitehaven beach. We dropped anchor about 50 metres from the beach and were ferried across in a little motorised dinghy. Once at the beach we were told to swing our legs over, leap out, and wade the last few feet onto the shore. A simple enough task for most. Swing legs over started to step off, one leg caught in rope, face plant into 2 feet of water whilst holding backpack. Both fully submerged. Stands up to see entire beach in hysterics. So took a bow and smiled, what more could one do. Dumped our stuff on the beach and as I was already wet Neen said we may aswell go for swim. The water was so clear it was brilliant, a bit cool for the Nancy’s but not us hardy brits. Then a walk down the pristine white sands and back in time for our beach bbq. Steak, chilli burgers, sausages and rice with a bit of that green stuff. Excellent scoff enjoyed with beer and some wine. Dont worry about the lizards says Braydon, they are only mildly poisonous, it shouldn’t be to bad, as a 4 foot Goanna monitor lizard walked over my foot. I nearly shat myself, and because I jumped and swore, I think everyone else had a bit of a panic. Did I learn, no, it licked my foot about 5 minutes later (I obviously wasn’t tasty enough) then wandered under the table again.
Made it back to the boat dry then we set off for Hook Island about 40 minutes away for a snorkel.
A quick lesson from Braydon and Chris our other deck hand then into the water we went. This time Neen remembered to close her mouth over the snorkel so she didnt drown…. very enjoyable, lots of fish, coral and goats (they where on the cliffs overlooking the bay) such a random thing to see whilst snorkeling.
Back onboard for the trip home, cheese and biscuits served en route. Watched the sun setting as sailed into Airlie harbour. Such a memorable day. Would highly recommend Whitehaven Xpress to anyone visiting the Whitsundays. Arrived back to a fantastic greeting from Summer and Micah. Now Knackered.

Did the hire company phone me at 8.00am…….. NO
Gave them till 9.00am then phoned them, took my details and asked “what can we do for you”, what does it say on your computer says I. “Oh I see says he, you have a fault on your vehicle”. After 10 minutes he finally tells me there isn’t any garages they can use in Sarina and sends us off up the road (about 45 km) to Mackay. Dinos Mechanical, garage.
So off we go, get there at 9.30,

A really friendly owner tells us it will take 3 hours. He advised a circular walk to the beach and back through the City centre. Which is exactly what we did.
The beach was fantastic and totally deserted, wandered along to the point through the mangrove trees

Just as we got off the beach we were reading one of the information boards, when we were approached by Gloria, a very nice lady in her 80’s who stopped for a chat on her way for her daily swim. Asked about our travels then handed Neen a religious pamphlet and asked if she could pray for us. Then off she goes, now I was expecting a short something on the lines of safe travels. 10 minutes later (it wasn’t quite that long) we escaped. She even told us if we waited a half hour till she had completed her swim, she would show us the best Op shop (charity shop) in town. I had told her I only had a thin jumper with me. What a nice lady. We then headed up to the centre of town. Here we found Oscar’s on Sydney cafe and bar where we stopped for coffee and lunch. Most excellent choice, my fish and chips and Neens poached egg(covered in dukkah) and salmon was so good.

Suitably nourished we set off at a leisurely pace through the shops back to Dino’s. The van was just coming off the ramp as we arrived his timing was impeccable. Great service, would definitely recommend him. 5 minutes later we set off.

70 odd km later we arrive at Hold It Flats campground, bagged a plot right on the river. What a camp, not much to it, toilets, showers and fire pits. Just the sound of running water.

Top location. Sat with a beer and Neen with a wine watching the cormorants fishing in the river. Who could ask for anything more. Just as the sun goes down fire lit it’s going to be a cold one.

Not a bad place to stop, surprisingly quiet. Only 2 problems, no fires and toilets shut when petrol station closes for the night, didnt find out till 10.00pm. Luckily the Bush loo was still open.
Another cool night but another sunny start to the day. Craig looks and sounds a bit better so maybe Bri won’t have drive another full day( she might even become a trucker after this).
Decided to take a different route to Sarina to stay off the A1 Bruce Highway (the Monty Python Bruce sketch came flooding back) and head up the Malborough Rd. What a great choice, such a quiet road, only passed 3 trucks and about 15 other vehicles the whole 207 km. The scenery was ever changing heading around the Blue Mountain and the Sarina range.

Passed 2 live kangaroos and loads of Roo roadkill, some still being feasted on by crows and a possible buzzard or some sort of a large hawk. Not sure of Auz bird life.

Nowhere to buy a coffee, all derelict so found a lay by with an Olympic torch monument. Apparently the torch relay for the 1956 games in Melbourne was passed from one district to another, Mackay, St Lawrence and Rockhampton on this spot 12th November under unique conditions. (Doesn’t say what those conditions were). What a random find.

As we descended towards Sarina the view were fantastic, unfortunately we have no pics because Neen wouldn’t look out the window because of the sheer drop on her side of the road.
About 15 km to go the battery warning light came on in our little Hippy Campervan so after booking into our camp for the night Sarina Palms caravan park I had to call the hire company Apollo. They sent out an RACQ ( RAC Queensland for those nine Auzzies) chap who checked the van and said “batteries not charging mate, you need an auto electrician “. Back onto the hire company, 10 minutes waiting, to be told it would be sorted out and will be back in touch within the hour. My arse, nothing after 1hour and 10 minutes, so I’m back on the phone, 40 bleeding minutes, cut off 3 times, finally get through, was told everywhere is closed now, no shit sherlock, (as it’s now 6.00pm.) Someone will call you in the morning. WE SHALL SEE, WATCH THIS SPACE.
As this is another camp that we can’t have fires, we decided to make use of the onsite bbq, whilst incineration some chicken legs and roo burgers Neen informed me that we had run out of gas in the van. Bugger that’s our only source of heat at night. Who could I blame, no one, I thought I would see if I could get another night out of the cylinder. After eating our scoff (we stayed by the bbq because it was warmer ) we wandered back to the van, there is a couple of gas stations not far from the site so I thought we could take an evening stroll through town with an empty gas bottle and perform a swap for a full one at one of aforementioned gas stations. (Couldn’t drive as no charge going into battery, it could die at anytime).
Just about to disconnect the bottle when I remembered I had turned the gas off whilst driving……………. turned the valve, heard the hiss of gas going through the pipes…… what a dick head.

A later start this morning – no need to rush 😉. We left Tannum Sands in convoy with Craig and Bri. After refueling and picking up a few bits of groceries we headed up the A1, Bruce highway – yes really!!🤣 Even though schools were back this week the roads were still busy with campers and RVs – apparently it’s the grey nomads season ( yes, that’s an official thing!) Retired couples, mainly from the south of Australia, travel north during the winter months to take advantage of the milder (sunny) conditions.We travelled right through the centre of Rockhampton, probably the biggest city we’d come across so far – and not one we wished to stop at – far too like Liverpool and Manchester for my liking! (except for the palm trees – oh, and the mountains in the background😜)Tonight’s stopover was Marlborough roadhouse – an excellent stopover. Just a field adjoining a petrol station with no facilities apart from the garage toilets but loads of space and a very popular stopover for RVs , caravans and campers. We stopped late afternoon and tried to pick a level ish spot. We set up the table and chairs and the kids had a great time running around as there was lots of space . No fires allowed, which was a bit of a bummer, but understandable as the ground was very dry!The weather cooled considerably when the sun went down – at about 5.30!!! and as there was no campfire we retreated to our respective van’s for the evening. Not sure how the other Farlams coped, but we had to light our gas hobs to keep the van at a reasonable temperature. Ventured out around 10 o’clock to use the facilities..but they were locked!!!! Our opinion of this stopover has gone down somewhat – it didn’t say anything on wikicamps about the toilets being locked overnight! Still, the camp was free so I guess we can’t complain too much?

We left Childers in search of our next stop, Tannum Sands. We headed for the coast again along lots of interesting and, in parts, gravel tracks.

Arrived at the park around 2pm to find that Craig and Bri were more or less on the pitch next to us ( just one van between us – and they got used to us hopping across from one pitch to the next😄)
Beautiful weather again, so a trip to the beach was in order – just a short walk along a designated path.

We stayed 2 nights at Tannum Sands and on the second day Gregg and I even managed a run!

We also walked the opposite way on the designated footpath to Wild Boar Island – a wetlands/mangroves area alongside the river Boyne.

We stood at the lookout and watched in awe as stingrays gracefully glided passed. We also saw several massive, and I mean HUGE fish. Later on we asked some local fishermen what we might have seen, and, based on our description there was some debate as to whether they were barracuda or sea mullets.

Another quiet evening beside the campfire before getting ready to head further north.

We left Kinbombi Falls not really knowing where we were heading for – just north ish! We thought maybe we might try and meet up with Craig and Bri in Tannum Sands, but we hadn’t booked and as it was the school holidays the site couldn’t accommodate us that evening ( we did manage to book for the following 2 nights though). So we headed north (ish) and back towards the coast, through Goomeri, Boonara and Ban Ban Springs, stopping off for coffee and cake in Biggenden.We called up a couple of camp sites on route before we eventually managed to secure a pitch at a site called Iron Ridge Park, just past the fairly large town if Childers. We stopped in Childers for a bit and wandered around the shops, picking up some steak for dinner from the local butchers. We popped into the tourist information there and a very helpful lady provided us with loads of brochures and useful information – including how to get to a local winery😉.After checking into the campsite we went in search of said winery, Vintners Secret Wineyard. What an amazing find!! It combined wine tastings with a cute cafe, beautiful gardens, animals, art and crafts and was even a wedding venue!
We had a lovely chat with the owners and of course bought some wine😊.After a nice long walk through the woods we made our way back to the site and settled down for an evening by the fire.

So today we were parting company, briefly, with Craig and Bri as they were off to visit family. So we decided to head inland. Within striking distance was a place called Kinbombi Falls. We had looked at this site back in the UK when we were researching potential camp sites. A free site with good reviews on trip advisor. It was a good drive, passing through farmland and a few gravel roads! We got there about 3pm and there were only 3 campers – while we were there another 2 arrived but still it was gloriously quiet. The falls were a bit disappointing, more of a trickle really 😄but the scenery was stunning. There were a couple of trails around the ‘falls’ and some good viewpoints.

We were just settling down around the campfire when we heard a rustle in the undergrowth and all of a sudden a wallaby appeared right in front of us!

We didn’t manage to get a pic because it was pitch black and the wallaby moved to fast – so here’s a pic of a bird trying to pinch some food from us 🤪

It cooled down considerably during the evening- so much so that Gregg had to warm his feet before going to bed,

A good night a Kinbombi Falls – and it didn’t cost us anything!

Here’s a pic of us stuck in the sand in our 4×4🤣🤣 – thanks Bri😜

We had a brilliant 4 days at Rainbow beach catching up with Craig, Bri, Summer & Micah. The camp site, Rainbow beach holiday park, was lovely. It was quite a big site but it wasn’t too busy. We had probably the best 2 sites in the park – close to the beach and not too far away from the amenities. Our pitches seemed to be the biggest on the site – we were well happy😊. We spent our days either hanging round the campsite or bumming round the beach.Some Rainbow beach highlights;
Lunch at The Deck – a yummy grazing boardSeary’s creek – wild swimming Australia!It was an awesome spot – boardwalk down to the natural water hole. We all got changed into our swimming gear and went in.What I didn’t realise though was that other creatures lurked in the water. I was happy splashing about with Summer and Micah when all of a sudden Gregg ( knowing I’m terrified of all things fishy) said…..you might want to make your way out now – just slowly. I knew there was something up but I couldn’t panic too much because I was carrying Summer – it wouldn’t look good to completely freak out!!So it transpires that a metre long long finned eel had turned up looking to cause trouble. Eeeek! Needless to say I didn’t get back in again – can’t believe I was in the water with that!!😲😲😲.DDinner at Brent’s burgers
Had a fabulous dinner here. Gregg and I had Barra burgers (Barramundi), Craig and Bri had pulled pork( & other stuff) burgers and the kids had fish and chips. Very tasty and highly recommended!Play area and jumping pillow at the campsite.Gregg and I spent a lovely couple of hours with Summer and Micah at the camp site play area.Today we hired a 4×4 to go to Double Island point, along a trail and beach. But we had trouble finding a vehicle(all booked up) God knows what it would be like in the high season. So we started out a bit later than we wanted, and due to the conditions on the main beach route we were advised to use freshwater lake road there and back. After getting some great advice we got our National park permit online (saved half the cost, $13.50 instead of $25).
Met Craig, Bri and the kids at the garage in our monster truck, jacked up Nissan Patrol. Let’s hit the trail.It took us about 1hour along the single track 4×4 trail, we followed Craig as I’ve never driven off road before(although as far as the hire company knew I am an experienced off roader and beach driver).
Had a great laugh getting to the beach as the trail was a combination of all susurfaces.
Didn’t manage to get to the point as the tide was coming in and we didnt know whether we had enough time to get there and back, we didnt want to end up bogged down with waves lapping at the doors. It wouldn’t look good on the blog….
So we made our way back to the trail head but stayed on the beach for a while so we could all get out and have lunch and a play in the surf. Craig and Bri went for a blast down the beach to try out our 4×4. I think they might want one now.Time to set off back, start your engines, select reverse, bury the back wheels, it had slides out of 4 wheel drive. Craig was straight in with “I’ve got some track for your wheels” grinning like a Cheshire cat. Neen wasn’t happy, you’ve got us well stuck you …….. I couldn’t quiet catch what she said.
I’m fine says I, I’m an experienced off roader. Whilst frantically thinking “What did the bloke at the hire place say”. Oh yes, chuck it in low ratio 2000 revs and Bob’s your uncle. Out we get (Phew).
Back on the trail we saw a walk to freshwater lake, to much for the kids, so Craig and went set off back and Neen and I set off. 15 – 20 minutes later we get to the lake, only to find Craig, Bri, Summer and Micah sat by the lake eating watermelon. There was a carpark further up the trail and a 100m walk to the lake.The lake wasn’t very exiting so we went our separate ways back to our respective vehicles.Another great run back to civilisation and to return our 4×4, nobody there, all locked up, got hold of someone by phone who told me to leave the keys inside and leave it unlocked, very trusting.
Into town for a coffee and some supplies then back to the camp. Flash up Craig’s bbq and another night around the campfire.

Up at stupid o’clock for the flight to Brisbane to start the road trip. Back in the cheap seats,

flight delayed, some sort of cover fell of one of the engines. Then a couple of people got off the flight so then they had to take their bags off. An hour and a half later we set off, uneventful hour and a half later we land, pick up bags minus one of the straps was missing. A nice baggage handler(yes they do exist ) went to look for it, apparently it was last seen on a baggage trolley disappearing back onto the airport to who knows where.
A quick taxi ride to pick up our little camper van.

Chuck bags in get given a map to the nearest supermarket, first direction turn south, as we didn’t have a compass, we turned right so had to do a u turn and head back in the right direction.
Massive place, so stock up on supplies and an Auz sim card. Finally we’re on our way, next stop the glass mountains. Rain hits again and again and again, I think its followed us from Sydney. Not a bad campground except for the huge puddles all along the track, grass is sodden so only just get the van on the pitch. Get changed into shorts and thongs coz we got no wellies, feet dry quicker than trainers and out for beer and wine. And 5.30 PM pitch black…… a bit of a curry and a couple of drinks in our hippy camper for a quiet night.

Rained in the night, raining in the morning but decided to have a chilled out day to recover from all the travelling and checked out the glass mountains, basically lava plugs that are left over from eroded volcanoes.

Another rainy night then set off to Rainbow beach to meet up with the Auzzy Farlams. Set the crap nav for Noosa (for a coffee) and off we go, did we end up in Noosa, did we bollocks, it looks like we missed Noosa by about 10 miles, never mind life’s an adventure, try again, this time we head for Rainbow beach. About 5 miles further on we find ourselves on a gravel road driving through the corner of Toolara National park, rather cool road but eventually made it to a proper road.

Found a great place to stop for a coffee and a scone also a bit of live music, Cooloola Berries

Pull into the campground book in then park up next to the intrepid campers, big Summer and Micah smiles, we’re here.