The last leg - to Melbourne

The Australia Telescope at Narrabri

Tilly!

The view of Melbourne as we finally arrived on a cold, sunny morning

The tired family

Arriving at Nanny and Pa's house in Melbourne

The girls ready for their first day of school, 1 week after arriving in Melbourne

It was sad leaving Brisbane (and saying goodbye to our good friends), but we were also excited about heading towards Melbourne and whatever our new life would hold. We had decided that we would take the quickest inland route to Melbourne because it was really only a week or so before school would start, and there was so much to do to get settled.

We left Brisbane early in the morning and weren't sure whether we need to stop for 1 or 2 nights on the way down. It was really slow getting out of Queensland because of the huge amount roadwork out past Toowoomba, so we didn't make as much progress on the first day as we would have liked. We camped at the showgrounds at Narrabri (which were cheap and not too bad at all) and had a freezing night. We woke the next morning and headed inland about 40km to see the Australia telescope (actually an array of big telescopes), which were quite spectacular. Then it was back on the road down through New South Wales.

We stopped for dinner in Forbes on the second night at a strange little country Chinese restaurant. With full tummies we hpped back in the car, intending to drive all the way through to Melbourne and arrive at 2 or 3 in the morning. The girls fell asleep watching movies, so we kept driving and making good progress until midnight. Driving into Tocumwal at that hour with no fuel, we thought we'd easily find a petrol station to fill up and keep going. Unfortunately nothing was open, so we had to quickly make a new plan and find somewhere to camp in Tocumwal (no easy task at midnight!). Luckily our guide book led us to a quiet free camp by the river where we could pull up for the night. It was close to 0 degree overnight, so we all put on every piece of clothing and blanket and slept the remaining few hours until morning.

At first light we wound down the camper for the last time and drove the last 4 hours down to Melbourne. Fortunately the sun came out to welcome us as we drove into the city. Exhausted but happy we found our way across the city to Nanny and Pa's house for some warmth, lovely food and rest. In the last few minutes of driving Tilly asked when we could head off again (because we hadn't been to Uluru). Everyone gave it some thought and finally agreed that we should plan another trip soon, which is a sure sign that we all had a great time.
Thank you to everyone who helped us on this great adventure.

Airlie Beach to Brisbane

The obstacke course at Camp Kanga, Proserpine

Pia tackling the obstacle course

Isla looking cool in the tyre

Having a great time

Isla waiting for lunch up at Eungella, near Mackay

Waterfall at Eungella

Nice moustache Tilly

Maia ready for a swim at Eungella

Cheeky Pia

Eungella

Climbing trees at 1770

Colouful beetles everywhere at 1770

With a new friend (Sophie) at Elliott Heads, near Bundaberg

Maia relaxing in the camper

Playing at Bargara, near Bundaberg

Elliott Heads, near Bundaberg

Isla having breakfast on the beach at Hervey Bay

Camping at Hervey Bay

The girls finally in Brisbane

After leaving Airlie Beach we all felt like we were on the downhill run towards home. However we still made the most of our time away, despite the relatively cold and wet weather. We took another 10 days to get to Brisbane.
After leaving Airlie we travelled only 50km south-west to Camp Kanga, which is just out of Proserpine itself and adjacent to Lake Proserpine. Camp Kanga was a really fun place for kids - it's basically a big school camp that also has camp ground facilities for travellers. The kids particularly loved the obstacle course, and building a camp fire that we kept burning 24 hours a day. While there we went walking and fishing at Lake Proserpine (Justin nearly landed a Huuuuge Barra - yes, "the one that got away").

From Proserpine we travelled south to Mackay, and stayed just out of town at a nice suburb called Black's Beach. The highlight of our stay in this region was our day-trip inland to Eungella in the hinterland mountains. It's a really beautiful place with views back towards the coast and nice bush walks. We walked in to a lovely swimming hole down the river and Justin, Tilly and Maia were crazy enough to swim in the freezing waters.

Further south, we stayed at Yeppoon (just near Rockhampton). We felt very uncomfortable when we arrived at the caravan park because there were many long-term residents who were unfriendly. Fortunately it didnt take Maia long to win them over by being her usual really friendly self. By the time we left, they were all waving us goodbye!

A couple of nights at Agnes Waters / Town of 1770 were a real highlight of this leg of our trip. It's a really beautiful place with lots of trees and a protected front beach and rugged back beach. We camped amongst the trees next to another family from Brisbane, so there was lots of fun running around and playing soccer.

Last stop before Brisbane was at Hervey Bay. We were lucky enough to find a camp site right on the water there, so we were able to eat our breakfast looking across to Fraser Island - a real treat! We only stayed one night, but did a really nice walk along the foreshore. Hervey Bay is a really nice, relaxed place that still has an undeveloped feel to it and we really enjoyed being there again.

Upon leaving Hervey Bay we thought we might spend a night on the Sunshine Coast before arriving in Brisbane. As we drove south, however, the weather got colder and wetter and we thought we might just keep on driving past the Sunshine Ciast. Fortunately our very generous hosts in Brisbane (Cam and Marti) didn't mind us arriving a day early made a bee-line for their place. As we drove in to Brisbane we couldn't help feeling a little sad and proud as we had completed our circuit around the Australian coast (and were a better family for it).

Our days in Brisbane were great. There was plenty of time for us and the the kids to catch up with our friends and visit some of our favourite places. Lisa even had a belated 40th birthday party with a few of her closest girlfriends, which was a really nice touch. Thanks again to Cam and Marti, and Claud and Andrew for putting us up at their places over that time.

Airlie Beach (The Whitsundays)

We went to Airlie Beach with the intention of somehow seeing the Whitsundays. We soon worked out that it would be hugely expensive to hire a yacht or stay at one of the island the resorts. We had, however, heard that that the 3 Island (8 hour) Cruise was really good value and great fun - particularly if the weather is good.

Fortunately we had to wait a couple of days for the tour to run as we were lucky enough to strike a really beautiful day. While it was only just warm enough to swim, it was a bright and clear sunny day with no wind at all. Our (quarter full) boat left Shute Harbour at 8.30am and travelled straight out to Hook Island for snorkeling - I'm happy to report that the girls thought the snorkeling was "just as good as Quobba", which is a big rap. From Hook we headed to Whitehaven Beach, which was just as beautiful as it looks in the brochures. We spent a couple of hours there playing cricket, swimming and bush walking. Our last stop was at Daydream Island where was watched the sharks and rays in the (man made) reef pool and enjoyed the pool and spa. What a day - our boat arrived back at Shute Harbour at 5.30pm, so it was straight back to the camper for dinner and bed!

We ended up spending 3 night in Airlie Beach and enjoyed it a lot. We camped out of town in a nice quiet park, and generally avoided the (loud) backpackers. It is definitely quite touristy but it still very beautiful looking out across the water to the islands.

Photos below are-
1: leaving Shute Harbour on the boat
2: in the glass bottom boat
3: snorkeling photo
4: Pia sleeping on the boat
5-6: Whitehaven Beach
7: lunch on the boat
8: chasing wallabies on Daydream
9: the big girls with mermaid statues on Daydream

Horseshoe Bay (Bowen, QLD)

Just a quick note on Bowen. We spent a couple of days there and found the town itself to be unremarkable, but we were really surprised at how beautiful Horseshoe Bay was. It is just a few kilometres out of Bowen and has apparently been recognized as one of Australia's top beaches - we would have to agree. It is a little cove with beautiful white sand and deep, clear water. We camped at the caravan park just a few meters from the beach. It felt a bit like a retirement village, but we loved the location. Would love to go back for a holiday one day.

Charters Towers

After having had a couple of weeks of rain on the east coast, we decided to head inland in search of clear skies. It was only a short drive west of Townsville to Charters Towers - about 150km.

Having not heard too much about Charters Towers, we were quite surprised to find that it is a really interesting place. It was once Queensland's second largest city due to a gold mining boom in the late 1800's, and there are still several of the grand old buildings standing. It also has a large hill right in town (Tower Hill) where we walked around old mine shafts and about 30 concrete bunkers used to store munitions during World War 2. It was also interesting to see that there are several gold mines still operating through the area.

As well as enjoying the history, we took a look at the cattle sales in Charters Towers. This gave Isla a chance to really blend in with the locals in her cowboy hat. While we really couldn't understand what the auctioneers were saying (they speak a language of their own!), we enjoyed the atmosphere nonetheless.

A highlight of our time in this area was staying at a farm stay called Camp Bivouac. There were lots of chooks and wallabies around, and the girls particularly loved happy hour around the campfire where some of the oldies sang songs.
Photos below are-
1: in the old Stock Exchange in Charters Towers
2: the town from Tower Hill
3: looking down from Tower Hill (note WW2 bunkers)
4: Pia
5; at the cattle sales
6: sitting around the campfire at Camp Bivouac
7-8: on the camp 4 wheeler with Del the dog

South of Port Douglas and Cairns

Sorry, no photos of Prt Douglas and Cairns because everyone's seen it all before. We had lovely but brief peons of sunshine while inPort Douglas and enjoyed walking around the streets and the water. It was raining as we passed through Cairns, so we decided to keep going after a very brief swim at the man-made lagoon.

The countryside south of Cairns is green and lush, and full of sugar cane. Moving through the extremely wet areas of Tully, Innisfail and Babinda we stopped only occasionally. A real highlight was stumbling upon the Babinda Boulders where the river has car edits way through the mountains to create some beautiful rock formations (best just to seen photos below).

We were all looking forward to arriving at Paronella Park, located about 30km inland from Innisfail. Created by Jose Paronella (a Spanish immigrant) in the 1930s, this is an amazing property. In its heyday it was a type of county club with a castle, tennis courts, cafe, ballroom and cinema set in rainforest along a beautiful river. It is gradually being worn away by cyclones but is still really worth a visit. We enjoyed walking around the enormous grounds, but the kids particularly liked feeding the turtles, fish and eels. The girls could resist letting the eels slither all over their feet as they fed them. As we were able to camp at the park, we also did a night tour where we spotted glow worms and luminous fungus and heard more stories about Jose and his family. The highlight was seeing the amazing castle lit up out of the darkness.
Hoots below are-
1-4: Babinda Boulders
5: Paronella Park (castle)
6: Tilly's feet with the slithering eels
7: by the creek at Paronella Park
8: QLD Karri Pines along Lovers Lane at PP
9: Jose's castle at night