Brian's daughter Natalie and son-in-law, Scott were flying to Brisbane Sunday. Scott and his rescue helicopter crew had been nominated for the Pride of Australia Heroism Award for their incredible efforts during the floods earlier in the year. The announcement of the award recipients for Queensland was to be made Monday. Grumpy and I had the pleasure of looking after grandaughters, Isla and Halle, for a couple of days.
We bid farewell to Nat and Scott around 9.30, then planned our day. I was keen to show Brian and the kids the Double Head lookouts, so we headed there first. It was a lovely start to the day, a bit of a walk and the chance for the girls to explore something new. It is really a stunning spot and everyone enjoyed the breathtaking views over Rosslyn Harbour. Fan Rock and the blow hole was also a hit.
A dip in the pool at our caravan park scored the next vote. I joined the kids in the water and we had a great time - swimming races, somersaults, shoulder stands, catapults - it was a hoot! The rest of our day consisted of more swimming, both in the pool and down at Kemp beach. James had a a great time playing fetch in the water with Halle and Isla. It was a real battle between him and Halle as to who could swim to the ball fastest. The water was a perfect temperature. I could have stayed in for hours, though we couldn't convince Grumpy to take the plunge. Back at the van we pulled out the Yahtzee. It took the girls no time at all to learn the game which was excellent. I love playing it but could never get Brian into it. We had a few games before packing it, and the kids up to go back home. Poor little Jasper had been left alone all day and Isla was concerned about his welfare. He was so delighted to see us....a wriggling, bouncing little bundle of excitement. Puppies are sooo gorgeous.
Monday we took the girls to the Esplanade for morning coffees and fanta spiders (the good thing about being a 'visiting' grandparent is you can say yes to everything), then drove up to Bangalee, the northern most Yeppoon 'locality'. Bangalee is the nearest spot to Yeppoon where you can access the beach via 4WD. The tide was out and the sand was perfect for driving on. Brian didn't even bother to reduce the tyre pressure in the Beast. We drove north along the beach for 12 kilometers until we reached Fishing Creek and could go no further. It was a lovely, pristine area with tidal sand pools that were shallow and warm to the point of being hot. We all donned bathers and splashed around before heading out into the deeper water of the Coral Sea to body surf the small waves. ..... it was just lovely.
By the time we got off the beach it was midday and we were all starving, so we headed back to the van for lunch and a few games of Yahtzee. Isla and Halle talked Grumpy into taking them to the pool, which he did, really enjoying playing around with them in the water. When they got back from the pool the girls decided to give James a bath. He wasn't overly impressed but suffered in silence until they hopped in the tub with him, at which point he opted out.
When Nat arrived to pick up the kids we celebrated Scott (the pilot) and his chopper crew being awarded Queensland State Pride of Australia medals in the category of heroism. What a fantastic achievement! The boys now go onto the national awards ceremony in Sydney in November. They really deserve the acknowledgement for the amazing job they did winching a baby to safety from the roof of a car in floodwaters by placing him in a bag earlier in the year. That same day they risked their own lives flying in perilous conditions to save nine people trapped by flood.
We planned to leave Yeppoon Wednesday and head to Glebe Weir, so Tuesday was earmarked for packing up and stocking up. After a coffee we drove into Rockhampton to get grog at Dan Murphys and buy a collapsible trolley at Bunnings. Brian wanted something to move 20 litre water bottles and the generator. Carrying heavy stuff plays havoc with his back. While there I looked at mobile phones. I wanted to find one with a super large screen so that I can use it like an Ipad and a really good camera so that I don't have to lug my large one everywhere. I still have more research to do.
By the time we got home to the van we had been gone over 4 hours, and apart from a couple of breaks James had been in the Beast all that time. He also had quite a big fall from his car seat when it tipped him out going around a corner (I should have had his harness on) and he hit the door with a hard thud. As soon as he got out of the car he started eating grass, then throwing up, then runny bum. Poor little bugger was really crook. We were not sure if it was heat stress, carsickness, concussion from the fall or he eaten something nasty earlier in the day. Whatever it was he looked positively green for hours. I checked him thoroughly for ticks and kept a very close eye on him till he started to come good around dinner time.
The shopping had to be done in the afternoon so Brian stayed back with James while I did it. Nat had asked us to go to the pub with them for dinner but there was no way we were going to leave James shut either in the van or in the Beast. That could be very ugly! The best idea was for them to come to us. That ended up being a great option. I lit a fire in the big public fire pit adjacent to one of the camp BBQ areas and we had a lovely last evening with the family.
Wednesday morning we packed up, hitched the van to the Beast and drove into Yeppoon to have coffee with Nat, Scott and the kids. James, thank goodness, was much better. Scott brought his Pride of Australia Medal to show us. It was absolutely stunning. Made of solid silver and depicting the five stars of the Southern Cross, it was surprisingly large, heavy and beautifully crafted. The award box also included a miniature version of the medal in a tie pin. The girls are so proud of having a dad who is a hero and rightly so. We are all proud of him.
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We left Yeppoon at 10am with about 350 km of travel ahead of us - our destination Glebe Weir. From Rocky we headed South-west on the Burnett Hwy, passing through the townships of Bouldercombe and Mount Morgan before turning onto the Leichardt Hwy at Dululu. We stopped to make a sandwich and give James a break at Banana. It was incredible how much drier the heat was inland compared to the coast. The country-side was brown and dry - so different from the lushness of the Capricorn Coast. We continued south to Theodore where we grabbed fresh bread and oil for the generator, past Isla Gorge (which we planned to go back and visit in the coming days), travelling 66 km to the Glebe Weir turnoff. The weir was 26 km along a narrow bitumen strip that passed through privately owned grazing country which was well-stocked. We had to slow down multiple times for cattle, many with new calves, wandering along the road. We even came across a litter of four wild puppies that were maybe 5 or 6 months old on the side of the road. They looked so gorgeous, but I know what huge damage they do to stock in Queensland.
Our decision to go to Glebe was pretty random. We didn't know anything about it other than the small amount of detail provided in Camps 7. The only plan we had in mind was to start heading south to be back in Victoria for Elise and Jim's wedding on November 30, and it was the closest waterway with a free camp to Yeppoon. When we arrived we pulled up and went for a walk to suss out the best spot. There were only 5 or 6 other camps set up, which surprised us a bit given it was school holidays. There were plenty of choices and even power boxes dotted around the area. We picked a site around the corner from all the other campers, under some trees and as close to the water as we could. We even managed to plug into power by connecting two extension leads together. Excellent! By 4pm we were relaxing outside under the awning in a beautiful, remote bush environment, in gorgeous warm weather with not a soul in sight. Ah what bliss!
It was very windy and rather cold when the sun woke us up just after five on Thursday morning. It felt great to see bush from every window and hear only the sounds of the birds and wind. We stayed in bed for ages, Brian reading his Kindle, me on my laptop and James snuggled in between us. Another good thing about Glebe Weir is that we have network coverage. That, combined with the availability of power and water means we could stay for ages. The water is from a bore and while it is crystal clear it does have a sulphury smell, so we probably won't put it in our tanks.
The weir was going down as we watched - literally! The water lines on the banks indicated it was dropping at a rate of maybe half a meter per day. That was bad news for any notion of boating we may have had. The end of launching ramp was way out of the water and while we probably could have manoeuvred it in, there was no way of telling how deep the weir was or how difficult it might be to retrieve it after a few days. Mud islands were appearing in various spots all along the waterway, growing in size by the hour. Fishing from the banks was a bit tricky too as the mud was thick and deep for several meters from the water's edge.
Water level Thursday
James and I went and explored the Dawson River downstream of the weir after breaky. It was flowing well and while not large enough for the tinnie it looked like a good spot to fish. Later in the day we all drove to the river, following tracks in at a couple of different spots. We figured we'd throw a few lines in after we'd picked up some bait. That would mean a trip into Taroom, 54 kilometers away. We'd do that Friday. We were more than happy to spend our first full day at Glebe pretty much just pottering. Brian actually had a few aircraft sales deals on the go, so he needed to spend quite a bit of time on his phone and computer.
As the day wore on it warmed up significantly, sitting on 30 degrees from mid-morning through until dusk. Even after dark it stayed warm. There was a howling gale from the west that blew pretty much all day, though it didn't stop me from lighting my nightly fire (much to Brian's angst). I just kept it small and made sure it was well clear of surrounding fuel. While I was doing that Brian pre-occupied himself with checking the axle alignment on the van. The back two tyres were scrubbing out - the outside of the left hand tyre and inside of the right hand tyre. He measured the distance between the front and rear wheels and found two centimeters difference left to right. What to do? He figured we should start by contacting Jayco - it must be a manufacturing problem. It's out of warranty so they probably won't accept responsibility, but we assume they'll point us in the right direction with respect to rectification.
Brian got stuck into work for a couple of hours Friday morning while James and I walked. We wanted to get into Taroom before lunch to refuel the Beast, get bait and buy a coffee plunger (if we could find one in a town of 800 residents). It was midday when we arrived there, just in time for a cappy and a bite at BJ's Coffee Shop. We had a walk around the main street, managed to get everything we wanted and did a sightseeing tour of the place. The Dawson River runs alongside the town but there was very little water in it after a long dry season. It's apparently a big river after the Wet, and we could imagine how much prettier Taroom would be then - green and lush rather than dry and parched. The nicest feature of the town was the plantings of Queensland Bottle Trees along the main street and at the lookout.
On the way back to the van we called into Chain Lagoons, a camp/rest area a couple of kilometers off the highway. It was quite pretty with lots of wild palms through the bush. As expected there was very little water - just a series of swampy mud-holes. A bit further north we turned off the highway again to check out the Lake Murphy Conservation Reserve. It had a lovely little camping and picnic area set, once again, among palm thickets and bushland, but we couldn't find a way to access the lake.
Given we were out on the highway we decided to go past the turnoff to Glebe Weir and retrace our steps north for 35 km to Isla Gorge. It was well worth the trip. Isla Gorge National Park is a complex maze of gorges and isolated sandstone monoliths. Soft sandstone has eroded into a breathtaking panorama of cliffs, peaks, overhangs, tunnels and arches. The rock apparently changes from yellow to orange and pink with the angle of the sun, but we only saw it in the full light of afternoon.
Being a National Park, James had to stay in the car. It was pretty warm so we couldn't leave him too long, There are lots of different walks that you can do but we just did a fairly short one on a narrow, ridge-top track with steep drops either side. It ran from the carpark to a peak a few hundred meters away. We walked along it taking in the stunning views, not only over the rugged gorges but also across the distant countryside. On the way back I almost stepped on a small snake that slithered across in front of me.
It was close to 4 by the time we got back to the weir after stopping to collect a load of fire-wood along the roadside. The rest of the day we spent sitting out in the beautiful weather just pottering, reading, chatting, playing ball with James and generally enjoying our life!
The weather was getting warmer by the day. The forecast showed the temperatures increasing by a couple of degrees each day to a high of 38 degrees by Monday. Humidity was quite low - 20% or thereabouts, so it was a really comfortable, dry heat. By contrast, the level of the weir was going down. It was being rapidly released downstream - presumably for irrigation purposes. Nevertheless we were enjoying the solitude and rustic aspect of Glebe, even if we couldn't fish in the dam. It certainly wasn't at its most attractive with large expanses of muddy banks, but the bird life on the water, particularly the Pelicans and Snake Birds, was abundant. There were also cheeky Apostle Birds who played with us, a variety of stunning parrots, Kookaburras, Galahs and Kingfishers - they are just beautiful. It was only a short walk to the downstream side of the wall anyway, and we could always throw a line in the river.
Water level Sunday
It was a long weekend in Queensland so we expected an influx of campers Friday or Saturday, but that didn't happen. We were still the only ones at the end of the camping area, around the corner and out of sight of the handful of vans closer to the entrance and boat ramp. We were pleased about that. We do enjoy our privacy. Surprising that after almost 7 months on the road, in each other's company 24/7, we aren't seeking other companionship. I think we both must tend to introversion!
Saturday was rather productive - at an extremely relaxed pace I must add. The Beast got a thorough wash, the flyscreens in the van which clog up with dust at an amazing rate were treated to a super-duper clean, as were the inside and outside of all the windows. The outside of the van, on the other hand, was disgusting. It was covered in mud and grime, mostly due to the huge amount of roadworks on-route. We figured that before we left Glebe we would tow it to the bore water tap and give it a good clean.
Our plan is to head south Monday to Chinchilla/Condamine area - quite a short leg. There are several free camps both at Chinchilla Weir and around the Condamine River. Brian is keen to find a spot where he can put the tinnie in for a few days. We also want to find a vet. James has something going on with his ears and despite me putting Epi-otic ear drops in them for three days he is really uncomfortable and constantly shaking his head. He's eating ok but he's just not himself. I hope he isn't suffering some kind of concussion from his fall on Tuesday!
We bid farewell to Nat and Scott around 9.30, then planned our day. I was keen to show Brian and the kids the Double Head lookouts, so we headed there first. It was a lovely start to the day, a bit of a walk and the chance for the girls to explore something new. It is really a stunning spot and everyone enjoyed the breathtaking views over Rosslyn Harbour. Fan Rock and the blow hole was also a hit.
A dip in the pool at our caravan park scored the next vote. I joined the kids in the water and we had a great time - swimming races, somersaults, shoulder stands, catapults - it was a hoot! The rest of our day consisted of more swimming, both in the pool and down at Kemp beach. James had a a great time playing fetch in the water with Halle and Isla. It was a real battle between him and Halle as to who could swim to the ball fastest. The water was a perfect temperature. I could have stayed in for hours, though we couldn't convince Grumpy to take the plunge. Back at the van we pulled out the Yahtzee. It took the girls no time at all to learn the game which was excellent. I love playing it but could never get Brian into it. We had a few games before packing it, and the kids up to go back home. Poor little Jasper had been left alone all day and Isla was concerned about his welfare. He was so delighted to see us....a wriggling, bouncing little bundle of excitement. Puppies are sooo gorgeous.
Monday we took the girls to the Esplanade for morning coffees and fanta spiders (the good thing about being a 'visiting' grandparent is you can say yes to everything), then drove up to Bangalee, the northern most Yeppoon 'locality'. Bangalee is the nearest spot to Yeppoon where you can access the beach via 4WD. The tide was out and the sand was perfect for driving on. Brian didn't even bother to reduce the tyre pressure in the Beast. We drove north along the beach for 12 kilometers until we reached Fishing Creek and could go no further. It was a lovely, pristine area with tidal sand pools that were shallow and warm to the point of being hot. We all donned bathers and splashed around before heading out into the deeper water of the Coral Sea to body surf the small waves. ..... it was just lovely.
When Nat arrived to pick up the kids we celebrated Scott (the pilot) and his chopper crew being awarded Queensland State Pride of Australia medals in the category of heroism. What a fantastic achievement! The boys now go onto the national awards ceremony in Sydney in November. They really deserve the acknowledgement for the amazing job they did winching a baby to safety from the roof of a car in floodwaters by placing him in a bag earlier in the year. That same day they risked their own lives flying in perilous conditions to save nine people trapped by flood.
We planned to leave Yeppoon Wednesday and head to Glebe Weir, so Tuesday was earmarked for packing up and stocking up. After a coffee we drove into Rockhampton to get grog at Dan Murphys and buy a collapsible trolley at Bunnings. Brian wanted something to move 20 litre water bottles and the generator. Carrying heavy stuff plays havoc with his back. While there I looked at mobile phones. I wanted to find one with a super large screen so that I can use it like an Ipad and a really good camera so that I don't have to lug my large one everywhere. I still have more research to do.
By the time we got home to the van we had been gone over 4 hours, and apart from a couple of breaks James had been in the Beast all that time. He also had quite a big fall from his car seat when it tipped him out going around a corner (I should have had his harness on) and he hit the door with a hard thud. As soon as he got out of the car he started eating grass, then throwing up, then runny bum. Poor little bugger was really crook. We were not sure if it was heat stress, carsickness, concussion from the fall or he eaten something nasty earlier in the day. Whatever it was he looked positively green for hours. I checked him thoroughly for ticks and kept a very close eye on him till he started to come good around dinner time.
The shopping had to be done in the afternoon so Brian stayed back with James while I did it. Nat had asked us to go to the pub with them for dinner but there was no way we were going to leave James shut either in the van or in the Beast. That could be very ugly! The best idea was for them to come to us. That ended up being a great option. I lit a fire in the big public fire pit adjacent to one of the camp BBQ areas and we had a lovely last evening with the family.
Wednesday morning we packed up, hitched the van to the Beast and drove into Yeppoon to have coffee with Nat, Scott and the kids. James, thank goodness, was much better. Scott brought his Pride of Australia Medal to show us. It was absolutely stunning. Made of solid silver and depicting the five stars of the Southern Cross, it was surprisingly large, heavy and beautifully crafted. The award box also included a miniature version of the medal in a tie pin. The girls are so proud of having a dad who is a hero and rightly so. We are all proud of him.
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We left Yeppoon at 10am with about 350 km of travel ahead of us - our destination Glebe Weir. From Rocky we headed South-west on the Burnett Hwy, passing through the townships of Bouldercombe and Mount Morgan before turning onto the Leichardt Hwy at Dululu. We stopped to make a sandwich and give James a break at Banana. It was incredible how much drier the heat was inland compared to the coast. The country-side was brown and dry - so different from the lushness of the Capricorn Coast. We continued south to Theodore where we grabbed fresh bread and oil for the generator, past Isla Gorge (which we planned to go back and visit in the coming days), travelling 66 km to the Glebe Weir turnoff. The weir was 26 km along a narrow bitumen strip that passed through privately owned grazing country which was well-stocked. We had to slow down multiple times for cattle, many with new calves, wandering along the road. We even came across a litter of four wild puppies that were maybe 5 or 6 months old on the side of the road. They looked so gorgeous, but I know what huge damage they do to stock in Queensland.
Our decision to go to Glebe was pretty random. We didn't know anything about it other than the small amount of detail provided in Camps 7. The only plan we had in mind was to start heading south to be back in Victoria for Elise and Jim's wedding on November 30, and it was the closest waterway with a free camp to Yeppoon. When we arrived we pulled up and went for a walk to suss out the best spot. There were only 5 or 6 other camps set up, which surprised us a bit given it was school holidays. There were plenty of choices and even power boxes dotted around the area. We picked a site around the corner from all the other campers, under some trees and as close to the water as we could. We even managed to plug into power by connecting two extension leads together. Excellent! By 4pm we were relaxing outside under the awning in a beautiful, remote bush environment, in gorgeous warm weather with not a soul in sight. Ah what bliss!
It was very windy and rather cold when the sun woke us up just after five on Thursday morning. It felt great to see bush from every window and hear only the sounds of the birds and wind. We stayed in bed for ages, Brian reading his Kindle, me on my laptop and James snuggled in between us. Another good thing about Glebe Weir is that we have network coverage. That, combined with the availability of power and water means we could stay for ages. The water is from a bore and while it is crystal clear it does have a sulphury smell, so we probably won't put it in our tanks.
The weir was going down as we watched - literally! The water lines on the banks indicated it was dropping at a rate of maybe half a meter per day. That was bad news for any notion of boating we may have had. The end of launching ramp was way out of the water and while we probably could have manoeuvred it in, there was no way of telling how deep the weir was or how difficult it might be to retrieve it after a few days. Mud islands were appearing in various spots all along the waterway, growing in size by the hour. Fishing from the banks was a bit tricky too as the mud was thick and deep for several meters from the water's edge.
Water level Thursday
James and I went and explored the Dawson River downstream of the weir after breaky. It was flowing well and while not large enough for the tinnie it looked like a good spot to fish. Later in the day we all drove to the river, following tracks in at a couple of different spots. We figured we'd throw a few lines in after we'd picked up some bait. That would mean a trip into Taroom, 54 kilometers away. We'd do that Friday. We were more than happy to spend our first full day at Glebe pretty much just pottering. Brian actually had a few aircraft sales deals on the go, so he needed to spend quite a bit of time on his phone and computer.
As the day wore on it warmed up significantly, sitting on 30 degrees from mid-morning through until dusk. Even after dark it stayed warm. There was a howling gale from the west that blew pretty much all day, though it didn't stop me from lighting my nightly fire (much to Brian's angst). I just kept it small and made sure it was well clear of surrounding fuel. While I was doing that Brian pre-occupied himself with checking the axle alignment on the van. The back two tyres were scrubbing out - the outside of the left hand tyre and inside of the right hand tyre. He measured the distance between the front and rear wheels and found two centimeters difference left to right. What to do? He figured we should start by contacting Jayco - it must be a manufacturing problem. It's out of warranty so they probably won't accept responsibility, but we assume they'll point us in the right direction with respect to rectification.
Brian got stuck into work for a couple of hours Friday morning while James and I walked. We wanted to get into Taroom before lunch to refuel the Beast, get bait and buy a coffee plunger (if we could find one in a town of 800 residents). It was midday when we arrived there, just in time for a cappy and a bite at BJ's Coffee Shop. We had a walk around the main street, managed to get everything we wanted and did a sightseeing tour of the place. The Dawson River runs alongside the town but there was very little water in it after a long dry season. It's apparently a big river after the Wet, and we could imagine how much prettier Taroom would be then - green and lush rather than dry and parched. The nicest feature of the town was the plantings of Queensland Bottle Trees along the main street and at the lookout.
On the way back to the van we called into Chain Lagoons, a camp/rest area a couple of kilometers off the highway. It was quite pretty with lots of wild palms through the bush. As expected there was very little water - just a series of swampy mud-holes. A bit further north we turned off the highway again to check out the Lake Murphy Conservation Reserve. It had a lovely little camping and picnic area set, once again, among palm thickets and bushland, but we couldn't find a way to access the lake.
Given we were out on the highway we decided to go past the turnoff to Glebe Weir and retrace our steps north for 35 km to Isla Gorge. It was well worth the trip. Isla Gorge National Park is a complex maze of gorges and isolated sandstone monoliths. Soft sandstone has eroded into a breathtaking panorama of cliffs, peaks, overhangs, tunnels and arches. The rock apparently changes from yellow to orange and pink with the angle of the sun, but we only saw it in the full light of afternoon.
Being a National Park, James had to stay in the car. It was pretty warm so we couldn't leave him too long, There are lots of different walks that you can do but we just did a fairly short one on a narrow, ridge-top track with steep drops either side. It ran from the carpark to a peak a few hundred meters away. We walked along it taking in the stunning views, not only over the rugged gorges but also across the distant countryside. On the way back I almost stepped on a small snake that slithered across in front of me.
It was close to 4 by the time we got back to the weir after stopping to collect a load of fire-wood along the roadside. The rest of the day we spent sitting out in the beautiful weather just pottering, reading, chatting, playing ball with James and generally enjoying our life!
The weather was getting warmer by the day. The forecast showed the temperatures increasing by a couple of degrees each day to a high of 38 degrees by Monday. Humidity was quite low - 20% or thereabouts, so it was a really comfortable, dry heat. By contrast, the level of the weir was going down. It was being rapidly released downstream - presumably for irrigation purposes. Nevertheless we were enjoying the solitude and rustic aspect of Glebe, even if we couldn't fish in the dam. It certainly wasn't at its most attractive with large expanses of muddy banks, but the bird life on the water, particularly the Pelicans and Snake Birds, was abundant. There were also cheeky Apostle Birds who played with us, a variety of stunning parrots, Kookaburras, Galahs and Kingfishers - they are just beautiful. It was only a short walk to the downstream side of the wall anyway, and we could always throw a line in the river.
Water level Sunday
It was a long weekend in Queensland so we expected an influx of campers Friday or Saturday, but that didn't happen. We were still the only ones at the end of the camping area, around the corner and out of sight of the handful of vans closer to the entrance and boat ramp. We were pleased about that. We do enjoy our privacy. Surprising that after almost 7 months on the road, in each other's company 24/7, we aren't seeking other companionship. I think we both must tend to introversion!
Saturday was rather productive - at an extremely relaxed pace I must add. The Beast got a thorough wash, the flyscreens in the van which clog up with dust at an amazing rate were treated to a super-duper clean, as were the inside and outside of all the windows. The outside of the van, on the other hand, was disgusting. It was covered in mud and grime, mostly due to the huge amount of roadworks on-route. We figured that before we left Glebe we would tow it to the bore water tap and give it a good clean.
Our plan is to head south Monday to Chinchilla/Condamine area - quite a short leg. There are several free camps both at Chinchilla Weir and around the Condamine River. Brian is keen to find a spot where he can put the tinnie in for a few days. We also want to find a vet. James has something going on with his ears and despite me putting Epi-otic ear drops in them for three days he is really uncomfortable and constantly shaking his head. He's eating ok but he's just not himself. I hope he isn't suffering some kind of concussion from his fall on Tuesday!
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