Sunday 29 September 2013

Yeppoon (for the second time), QUEENSLAND

Our Saturday night at Bundoora Dam was noisy thanks to a selfish bogan who decided to run his generator 24/7. He started it on his arrival and we expected, as is the norm in free camps, that it would stop by 9pm at the very latest. But no. There were also coal trains running intermittently through the night on the track beside the dam, then the nearby mine either cranked up, or the wind changed so we could hear it, at 4am. All in all a restless night! That saw us up early and on the road before eight, heading to Yeppoon.

After passing through Middlemount we turned South on the Fitzroy Development Road, a major route that would take us to the Capricorn Highway, then East to Rockhampton. Sunday must be the day large equipment is trucked around Queensland. We passed four lots of escorted convoys heading North, the lead vehicle in each case calling us on channel 40 to give the width and number of loads following. The last of these convoys was big. The lead pilot vehicle was followed by a police car that stopped us and directed we park as far off the bitumen as possible, then a second police car, second pilot vehicle, third police car then a prime mover with an eight meter wide load, pilot vehicle, second prime mover with the same load and finally a trailing pilot vehicle. How much would it cost to move equipment like that.....massive eh? One of the truckies commented on radio chat that not only was the load wide but it was over 200 tonne. The logistics of the move with respect to navigating bridges etc must have been amazing.

We stopped at Dingo to refuel, then had a good run on the Capricorn through to Rocky and on to Yeppoon, 40 km North-east. We were set up at Cool Waters by 1pm, having driven 371 km for the day. While neither of us like caravan park life, particularly when it's 'sardine can school holidays', it was good to be settled in with plenty of time for Brian to prepare to fly to Melbourne the next morning to attend his father's funeral on Wednesday. The remainder of our day was consumed by blog-posting, work for Brian, then a fairly brief catch up with Brian's daughter Nat and his grandkids. It was also lovely to meet the new addition to their family - Jasper, a 13 week-old black Cavoodle. Very cuddly and cute!


Brian's flight to Melbourne left at 10.30am Monday. Unfortunately there's no direct flight Rocky-Melbourne, which meant a stopover at Brisbane. He would arrive around 3.30. The drive from Yeppoon to the airport was 50 km or thereabouts, but given our experience departing Melbourne the previous Wednesday where we queued for almost an hour to check in (Tiger, mind you), he wanted to allow plenty of time. We left just before eight, dropping in for cappuccinos on the esplanade at Yeppoon before heading to Rocky. James decided he would come too.

We dropped Brian off feeling a bit sad that he would be gone until Saturday, before doing a spot of shopping. James stayed in the car, which (I believe) is illegal in Qld. In the northern heat dogs can kark it pretty quickly when shut in a hot car. I parked in shade, put the windows down a bit and shopped quickly. It would have been better to go in an underground carpark, but with the boat on the Beast there's always a risk of getting stuck. The last place we called into was a large pet department store, so James came in. He must have thought it was a kennel (probably the smells) and he was going to be left again. He wanted to be picked up the whole time we were there and couldn't get out of the place quickly enough once he had been fitted with a new collar.

By midday we were back at the van and I spent the entire afternoon Spring Cleaning. Aside from that James got a couple of walks, I pulled the TV out from under the bed (only the third or fourth time it's been out in 6 months), we had an early dinner and went to bed. Boring eh! It could be a long six days.....

James and I hit the beach for a lovely long walk a bit before 10am Tuesday. We drove to Farnborough Beach which is the northern extension of the Yeppoon Esplanade waterfront. With the tide out the firm sand goes for miles and is a great track to do some power walking while soaking up the sun. James, as usual, had a ball bounding through the waves.


I really like Yeppoon. From Zilzie in the south to Banglee, the northern-most 'suburb' of Yeppoon, a beach front stretch of around 30 km, there are maybe a dozen residential pockets called 'localities'. They are all individually named,  though really the only two townships are Yeppoon and Emu Park. which is adjacent to Zilzie. Most of the homes have been built on the hills along the coastline to take advantage of the gorgeous Capricorn Coast views across to the Keppel Island group. There are multiple bays separated by headlands between Yeppoon and Emu Park, so there are heaps of different options as far a beach walk or a swim goes.

Yeppoon itself is a town of around 14,000 residents and retains a small town sort of feel, albeit a bit touristy. There are some great little boutiques and good restaurants in the main drag and on the Esplanade, as well as a couple of shopping complexes built in more recent times back behind the town centre. There is quite a bit of holiday accommodation as well as 6 or 7 caravan parks dotted along the Scenic Highway that runs (with lovely views) between Yeppoon and Emu Park. There are three golf courses, the biggest being the Mercure Capricorn Resort complex which has two stunning, very upmarket 18 holers. Yeppoon also has climate in its favour. It's average day temp is 25.8, the coolest month being August at 21.1 average, and the warmest January at 29.3 degrees. The night monthly temperatures  range from 23.0 to 11.7 with an annual average of 18.5 degrees. It does get a bit of rain - an average of 1042 mm/pa spread over 115 days, mostly as you would expect in December, January and February. but it is south of the cyclone areas so not likely to get hit by a big one.

In the afternoon I left James in the van and browsed the clothing boutiques in Yeppoon. I found a pretty, bright tangerine summer frock that I though would be perfect for my niece, Elise's wedding, in November. It is in Victoria.....I'd better make sure I have a cold weather back up outfit or a big coat!

Wednesday, September 25th - the day of Fred's funeral. Brian was down with his family at Mirboo North in Victoria. Even though Fred was 95 years old and had been in care for some years, the loss of a parent is a huge event in a person's life. My dad was younger than Fred, but passed away in almost the exact same circumstances on September 30th. 2010. It was a happy/sad time for me and now, I suspect, for Brian. I spent a lot of the day pondering life and hoping Brian and his mum and sisters were doing ok.

When it's just James and me we like to do a lot of walking on the beach, in bathers (me...not him), in the sun. I know the sun bit is bad, but I love it. Always have - and no skin cancers to date in my (almost) 62 years - touch wood! We went back to Farnborough Beach and walked further then Tuesday. The weather was just perfect and I sooo love the Capricorn Coast scenery.


The rest of the day was more Spring Cleaning. When I knew Brian would be heading to Melbourne I made a list of all the bits and pieces I wanted to fix, change, tidy up, chuck out etc. It's amazing how, after six months on the road, the van is still a work in progress in terms of what we do and don't need and where it best fits. And the inside of the van - the flyscreens, windows, vents, cupboards, drawers and under the bed - get full of dust and crap from being on the road. I also did three loads of washing so when Brian gets back late Saturday we can hit the road again quickly - maybe Monday - after spending time with Nat (who also flew down for the funeral), Scott, Isla and Halle. A happy family day Sunday is probably just what Grumpy will need!

I decided to play a few holes of golf by myself Thursday morning. After taking James for a stroll down to the Causeway Lake onto which Coolwaters backs, I left him in the van with instructions; 'be a good boy, I'll be back soon". He settled onto the bed, a bit put out that we were not heading to the beach for our usual walk. I promised him we would do that later. By 7.30 I was teeing off at the Yeppoon golf course.

My first few holes were pretty average, which was to be expected given my lack of practise since taking on the role of Grey Nomad. Not to worry, there was hardly anyone around (just lots of kangaroos), the course was in lovely condition and I was sure to improve. But no! Sadly, my game went from ordinary to tragic. On the 7th I put my second drive into the dam. I dropped another ball and 'plop' that went in too. Then, to rub salt into my wounds, I discovered there were no more balls in my bag. Bugger! I spent ages trying to find a ball - any ball - in the dam, but without luck. Disgruntled and dripping with sweat from the humidity (and frustration) I trudged up the 9th and back to the car. I hate golf!

The days were warming up and by the time I got back to the van the temperature was pushing up into the high twenties. Time to hit the beach. Kemp Beach was only a couple of kilometers from the caravan park and long enough for us to get in a good walk, so much to James' delight we headed off. We walked, played ball and swam for ages. The water was just beautiful. It was almost warm. Kemp Beach is another really pretty spot in the Yeppoon area. It is situated between two headlands, Bluff Point and Double Head. Not far off shore is a small, craggy island called Bluff Rock. There are bush walks on both headlands.




Once I'd exhausted James I dropped him back to the van and returned to explore Double Head, the other side of which sits Rosslyn Bay Harbour. A 400 meter track zigzags up the hill through vine thickets and overhanging trees. At the top the vegetation changes totally to open tussock grassland dotted with grass trees. There are two fantastic lookouts - one that provides spectacular views over Rosslyn Bay Harbour and north to Yeppoon while the other looks over an ancient geographical feature known as Fan Rock. The fracturing of rock into hexagonal columns occurred during lava cooling and does resemble a fan. At the bottom sits a blow hole. I had timed my walk to coincide with high tide hoping the blow hole would be blowing, but the sea level was way below what would be required to make it work. I reckon it would need a king tide.






On Friday James and I went to Emu Park for our walk . There are several different beaches to choose from heading south along the coast, but we elected to drive past them and walk from the Singing Ship sculpture that stands on the point at the end of Emu Park's main street. It's a lovely monument to Captain Cook that has wires which vibrate to make music in the wind.


The stretch of beach was a couple of kilometers long and there was hardly anyone there. As we got toward the bluff at the far end two big dogs and a little one decided to charge James. I hate that. They were probably ok as they were with a young mum and dad and two little kids, but you just never know. I scooped him up only to find myself being jumped on as they tried to get to James. The owners were a hundred meters or so away so I yelled at them (a bit angrily). The guy called the dogs but one of the big ones was really intent on getting to James. He scratched my legs as he jumped up. It was a kinda scary. Eventually it retreated, but it did upset our walk.


Back at camp I decided on a new Spring Cleaning project - the inside of the Beast. It hadn't had a real clean since we started our travels in March and was unbelievably messy, with all sorts of junk thrown in the back and a ton of dirt and dust. I pulled everything out, then got sick of cleaning, so decided while Brian was away to go to the Capricorn Caves. Brian suffers claustrophobia, so there was no way he was interested in climbing into holes underground. It was about 50 km away and I got there in time for the last tour at 4pm. It was great.


                                                 Entrance to The Caves

The Caves were first discovered in 1882 by Norwegian migrant John Olsen. He went on to claim the land under a lease hold title and open the attraction publicly in 1884. Today it is one of the largest privately owned cave system in Australia. The attraction is still open to the public and is one of the longest-running tourist attractions in Queensland. Our tour took us through the passageways of ten cave chambers, including one that weddings and small concerts are held in. The guide played Amazing Grace on the sound system and the acoustics were brilliant. There were spear-like stalactites draped from the ceiling, ancient flowstones, limestone 'corals' and a maze of very old, narrow stairways, boardwalks and tunnels. To exit the caves we had to go through a really tight, zigzagging passageway that would have caused Brian to have a major panic attack. To top it off, there were two long, high and very swaying suspension bridges to be crossed just before the end. He would have freaked!




                                              The exit tunnel - it got MUCH narrower

It was after six by the time I got back to the van, so Spring Cleaning the Beast was postponed until Saturday. James needed a cuddle after being left alone and I needed a glass of wine!

Saturday was the first day in Yeppoon that there had been any sign of weather. The sky was overcast at dawn and remained so all day with the odd shower. I was up well before six and had the Beast at the car-wash to use the coin-operated vacuum cleaner by seven. I sucked out an unbelievable amount of dog hair, dust, dirt and gravel, ending up in a lather of sweat. The humidity according to the gauge in the van when I got back was 83 percent. It took me close to four hours to finish cleaning the inside of the Beast by the time I had done the windows and scrubbed the mats.

The second job on my list for the day was James. He was treated to a hair cut, followed by a bath. That was another task that took ages. The electric clippers decided not to clip. I read the instruction manual and came to the conclusion that the blades were out of alignment. I pulled it apart and re-positioned the blades three times before I got it right. The end result was a lovely, even hair cut. By the time James had had a bath he looked and smelt delightful. Hopefully Brian would be impressed with my efforts for the day.


Brian was due back in Rocky around 3. He called to say his flight out of Melbourne was delayed, which was a problem as he only had 30 minutes between interconnecting flights at Brisbane. He arrived at the departure gate in Brisbane just in time to watch his aircraft push back. Bugger! Virgin gave him a seat on the next flight. That would have him landing, so he informed me, around 4.45. I left Coolwaters a bit late having become a bit pre-occupied with the footy grand final between Fremantle and Hawthorn. I was hoping Freo would win, but by the time I headed off to pick up Brian the scores were favouring the Hawks.

I hadn't long been in the car when Brian called to say his flight had landed early and he was dripping wet. A thunderstorm had hit Rocky just as the passengers were getting off. He had to walk across the tarmac in pouring rain and I was still a good half hour away. Bugger - I just wasn't Brian's day! And to make matters worse Hawthorn won the Grand Final.

1 comment:

  1. hello I am David, just wondering about Queensland as I am from Tasmania. Yepoon is nice? How about to live there? and have you been to the sunshine coast and if so what do you think about the sunshine coast for visiting and to live there?

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