Heading North 2016

Coffee stop by the river.

We left Menai, and our wonderful hosts, The Ayerso's, and headed north for a very fast tracked trip to Queensland. As usual, we are behind schedule, having been partying too much with all our family & friends! Having exhausted all attempts at finding a suitable cover for our new bikes, we phoned our canvas guy Tony, at Coffs Canvas, and he has agreed to custom make us a cover. So, it is all speed to Coffs Harbour!! Tony is such a helpful man. He had agreed with us, that we could call through on arrival in Coffs Harbour so he could get some measurements, and then bring back the caravan the next day for him to do the making, and fitting.

The cover looks & works great.

We are so pleased with the results, and have been getting enquiries from a number of other caravanners, who have been admiring Tony's work. With the cover completed just after lunch, we decided to hit the road, rather than spend another night in Coffs Harbour. By 5.00pm we had had enough driving, and found a caravan park at Ballina for the night. It didn't look much, full of permanent homes, but the friendly staff guided us down the back to a long drive thru site, right beside the river. We watched the sunset over the river, but when the midgees arrived we were straight inside!!

Beautiful Coolum Beach.

Next morning, we were back on the road and en route to Coolum Beach. Within minutes, Carolyn saw the sign to Bangalow, which meant we were now doing a mandatory stop in this quaint little village, for early morning tea, at one of the many wonderful cafes. We chose Helix, again, and as usual, it was excellent. We got back onto the new Bangalow Bypass, a section of highway that has opened since our last visit. The amount of road works being undertaken on the Pacific Hwy is incredible, and it won't be long before it is duplicated all the way to the border. Mid afternoon, we pulled in through the gate at Coolum Beach Caravan Park, and the weather was just beautiful, so after getting set up we headed out onto the beach to stretch our legs after a long couple of days in the car.

My mate Pete & I have a standing joke about our visits to Coolum. Whenever I let him know we are coming, he says he will alert the SES! In recent times, it is fair to say, that some serious weather events have occurred while we have been in the area! This time we were only staying a week or so, but true to form we did get flooding rains and wild winds, that headed down the south coast to cause some of the worst floods experienced for more than 30 years!! So no golf, and not much walking along the beach this time!! We did manage to catch up on a couple of the latest movies!!

Catch up with Lynne & Paul.

We also had some great catch up time with our friends Lynne & Paul and their two pooches Harley & Kenzie. They managed to hit us with their big news, which still has us shocked and bewildered. They have purchased a house in Launceston, Tasmania, and move there in August!!! We knew they had not been happy with the management at the Lifestyle Village they bought into at Maleny, but this move really came out of left field. Like all our friends, we respect the decisions that they make, but we will be very sad to see them leave this area. For us it is a region we travel through on a regular basis, and is the region we will most likely settle in, if we ever give up our Gypsy lifestyle!! Tasmania is a destination all by itself. We plan to head back again at some stage. The only ones passing through on a regular basis, are migrating whales, birds, and the odd Antarctic explorer!! We will be doing our best to visit, but it is unrealistic for us to ever hope to keep up a similar frequency of visit. Above all else, we wish them well with the relocation.

All about Cania Gorge.

Bush camping at Cania Gorge.

The sun shone brightly as we left Coolum Beach on our way north. We had decided to stop in at Cania Gorge, a fairly remote place in the Central Tablelands of Queensland. North of Gympie, the fuel filter warning light came on, and the fear of water in the fuel had us reaching for the phone. The fantastic team at Wide Bay Toyota in Maryborough agreed to fit us in on short notice, so I unhooked the caravan in Bunnings carpark, left Carol to guard the caravan, and took the car into Toyota! Two hours later we were back on the road. What was already going to be a long day, was now looking like we wouldn't make it to Cania Gorge before dark, so we phoned ahead, and they kindly agreed to stay open until we arrived. We finally arrived, in the dark at 6.00pm, unhooked the caravan, got the power and water on, and tucked ourselves inside, as it was bloody cold!!!

Arriving at Fern Tree Pool.

Sitting by Fern Tree Pool.

Next morning, we awoke to the sounds of many birds, and a bright sunny day with a promised high of 27. There are two caravan parks in Cania Gorge, both offering powered sites, camping sites and self contained cabins. We chose the first park, a Top Tourist Park, primarily because it was getting the best reviews in Wiki Camps. We were glad we did. For the warmer months, it has a nice pool, and for the cooler months you can hire fire pits and buy firewood. The sites were large and grassy. The Big 4 Park was up near the dam at the end of the gorge. We drove through, and found most of the sites without grass, but in true Big 4 style it had playgrounds and water parks for the kids!

Cania Dam.

Huge Elk Horn Ferns.

Cania Gorge is not a spectacular gorge compared to others we have visited. It is well treed, and whilst it does have some impressive rock formations, it doesn't have the towering sandstone cliffs. It does have a number of excellent walks, and many of these started from our caravan park. We took ourselves off on the 5.6km circuit to Fern Tree Pool & Giants Chair. It was just lovely winding through the creek beds and dry rain forest. There were lots of bird varieties, and arriving at the Fern Tree Pool, was a nice surprise. We sat beside the pool, watching many varieties of birds come in for a drink. It was a steep climb up from the pool to the Giants Chair Lookout, which gives a nice view out over the floor of the gorge. From there it was an equally steep descent back to the carpark and a short flat walk to the caravan park, where we collapsed into our big reclining chairs!

Feeding the Lorikeets.

So many birds!

Later that day, and in fact every day, there is a bird feeding on the lawn outside the office. What a sight!! By 4.00pm the trees were just full of thousands of chattering, screeching Rainbow Lorikeets, and a host of other birds. But it is the sheer numbers of Rainbow Lorikeets that is so impressive. When the feed, chopped bread and seed mixed with honey and other goodies, arrives, it is a raucous frenzy of colour, as the birds clamber over each other to get a taste. Just fantastic, and in ten minutes it is all over, with just a few birds left to pick over the remains! We returned to our chairs and watched the glowing sun shining on the sandstone cliffs through the trees. When the sun set, the temperature dropped rapidly. Another cold night ahead, but we are cosy and warm inside our caravan!

Timid little Rock Wallaby.

Off to the caves.

What's with the turnstile???

Next morning we headed off on another walk, this time to Dragon Cave, Bloodwood Cave and the Gorge Lookout. This walk crosses Three Moon Creek, which is a lovely clear stream fed by the Cania Dam. This walk revealed some major damage caused by a huge rain event that came through earlier in the year. Bridges and stairs had been washed away, and the track was reopened with temporary crossings in place. It was another lovely walk. One of the features of the gorge is the huge array of Elk Horn Ferns that grow off the rocks and cliff faces. They are spectacular indeed. Many are a silver grey colour we have not seen before. As we came around a bend in the track, we came face to face with a rock wallaby. He was sitting on a rock ledge, not 10 metres away, quietly munching on a fern. He wasn't startled at all, just sat there and watched us while he finished his fern, then with two giant bounds he was up over the ledge and gone!! We were so lucky, as rock wallabies are usually very timid and retreat at the sound of your approach.

Serious flood damage to the trail.

One of the caves.

As we descended from the Gorge Lookout, we ran into a couple of fellow travellers, and got talking. They were from Nowra, and had just arrived in Cania Gorge to take up Management of the Big 4 Caravan Park! They were doing the walks so that they would be able to give good advice to people that stayed. We were impressed by that. We sat and had a good old talk about the area and other places we have all been. Always looking for new places to visit!!! We wished them well, and finished our walk. Back at the caravan park, we jumped into the car and headed up to the Cania Dam for a look. It is quite a big dam, and there are some cabins to stay in situated at the dam. There are also some lovely picnic grounds with good facilities, and there is a boat ramp, as the dam is stocked with a number of freshwater species. According to the sign, the Cania Fishing Classic is held in November each year, and judging by the photos, there are some decent fish caught!

The nearest town is Monto, a town we have never been in before, so we took the 26km drive into town. It was a little bigger than we expected. The region supports a lot of agriculture, with fruit and vegetables grown all around the district which includes other towns such as Gayndah and Mundubbera. We found a nice café for lunch. Called Café Delicious, which specialised in home made pies, and they were good. The café was doing a good trade, but most looked like locals on their lunch break! Not sure we will be rushing back to Monto, but there is no doubt that Cania Gorge is a really nice place to take a break, as you can really get away from it all. No phone or internet at the Top Tourist Park!!

No bananas in Banana Shire!!

Great town signs in Springsure Shire.

The drive from Cania Gorge to Emerald was all new roads for us. First major town along the way was Biloela, a coal mining town. It is a large town with good services, and it was no problem finding a great café for morning smoko. Café Aroma. Carolyn reckons they had the best cheesecake she has ever had. Big Call!!! The Turkish Delight Cheescake was the overall winner, just ahead of the Pineapple & Coconut! Suitably fed and watered, we turned west for Banana, in Banana Shire. There isn't a banana in sight!! But then, if you blink you'd have missed the place anyway. From Banana it was out

Coffee cart in Rolleston.

past Moura, another coal town, then our lunch spot was at

Beautifully restored Queenslander.

the nice park in the centre of Rolleston.  We did our own thing for lunch in the caravan, but did support the Coffee Cart set up in the park, and manned by a volunteer lady. She explained to us, how the beautifully restored Queenslander home, right next to the park, had come to be. A local guy who had made a lot of money servicing the mining industry had seen the old home in nearby Springsure. He didn't want to live in Springsure but approached the owner of the rundown place to see if he would sell the house. He bought it, moved it to Rolleston, spent a lot of money fully restoring it, and now lives there with his wife and six kids!! Another piece of history saved!!

We arrived in Emerald mid afternoon, checking into the very nice Emerald Cabin & Caravan Park, right alongside the Golf Course. We got allocated a big drive thru site, which was great, even though we wouldn't be spending much time there. We were looking forward to catching up with Carolyn's nephew Darren, and his family. As I was checking in, Carolyn came running into the reception to tell me there was smoke coming from under the car bonnet!! I raced outside, and she was right!! I quickly opened the bonnet and found that an "in line" fuse from my third battery, was burning out!! I disconnected the battery, and called Darren to see who he knew might help us late on a Friday afternoon. His contact at Mideker Auto Electrics, identified the problem, and had me back on the road in time for Happy Hour! Very impressed with the service.

At the track with Kynan.

Cold but proud Mum & Dad.

That night, we all met up at the Mayfair Tavern for dinner and a long overdue catchup. It had been three years, and Kynan & Jersey had grown so much. We noticed how much more confident and "grown up", they were. The shyness has gone. We had a great night catching up on family news, and their life in Emerald. Darren is halfway through a Supervisor's course, that will allow him to assume a "Deputy" role with his company, which would mean more benefits, more supervisory capacity, and less manual work. He has about another 12 to 18 months of study to go, but his firm has agreed to put him on a scholarship to ease the financial burden, and to almost guarantee him a Deputy position when he finishes. With the kids now both at school, and doing very well, Erin has more time, and has been working longer hours at the Pharmacy. She is now a Pharmacy Assistant, dispensing medications which she really enjoys, and is doing very well, and can get as many hours as she wants to work.

Emerald Go-Kart Track.

Kynan racing.

We chose to come over the weekend so we could spend time with all the family, and especially since there was a big Go-Kart Race meeting being held over this weekend. Darren has been involved for a number of years, and has had great success, including 2nd in his class at the Queensland Titles one year. Erin has also raced with some success, and now that Kynan is old enough, he is right into it as well. This year Darren has decided to devote all the family time and budget, into Kynan's racing, as he is showing some real promise. Darren's mate has a full race team, and is an importer of the CRG Italian Go-Karts, and they all race under the "Full Throttle Race Team" banner. It is all very professional, and well run. Motor cycle legend Mick Doohan is President of the National Association. Saturday was qualifying day, and whilst the fields were small the racing was very good with track records being threatened and broken. Kynan did exceptionally well, setting personal best times, and winning all three of his qualifying sessions. Saturday night we all met at Darren & Erin's for Happy Hour and dinner. We had already decided on take away after such a busy day. Erin's mum Sandy joined us and we had a lovely night. Both the kids wanted to show off their rooms and impressive collections of kid's treasures. It was a lovely relaxed evening for all.

The Champion is Kynan!!

My first Championship!

Sunday Race day was cold, windy and overcast, and we had a very early start, with the first race at 7.30am! We were all freezing and searching out every jacket we could find! Kynan's first race was the Pre Final, which would determine grid positions for the Final. He won that race easily. We all headed for the canteen in search of hot coffee and toasties! For the Final, Kynan was really focused, and blitzed the field, eventually lapping the field to win his first "title". It was incredible to watch the skill and calm nature of such a young guy. He has the words "smooth is fast" written on his steering wheel, and he lives by that mantra. I can assure you that these are not kid's toys!! They are fast racing machines, with Kynan reaching speeds of almost 100kph down the straight! It was fantastic to watch, as were the other classes on the day. The day ended with Kynan on top of the podium collecting his Coalfields Title trophy.

On Monday morning it was cold and drizzly. We had enjoyed a great weekend, and Carolyn couldn't ever remember a better, more relaxed weekend with any of her family. We packed up and headed off west, into some unexpected rain clouds. The news told us that Longreach and surrounding areas had experienced a drenching, and some roads were closed. But we couldn't be worried, as this area has been in drought for some time, and needs the rain. We were booked in at Barcaldine, and all accounts are that the roads are open this far.