4th of September to the 15th of September

4^th September

Just an easy drive from Airlie beach down to Mackay where we checked into a caravan so we could catch up on some washing while the kids played with some other kids in the park before having a quiet afternoon.

5^th of September

Went from Mackay to St Lawrence, St Lawrence is a small little town just off the highway with a great free camp where we had a hot shower for $1. We had a quiet afternoon with some bears and chit chat with local travellers.

 

6^th of September

Short drive today Kate has an Auntie and Uncle at Emu Park just out of Rockhampton. We set up our van in their front yard. I went for a drive into town to get some dinner with Kate’s uncle and had a tour of the beach side town and then resided back to the house where we caught up over a few beers.

 

7^th of September

Followed Kate’s Auntie and cousin up to Yeppoon, we had some lunch on the beach with them so Kate could catch up with the cousins. Kate’s Auntie and cousin had to go so we drove back down the coast road enjoying the sites before stopping at main beach at Emu park where the kids had a play and swim. While we were at the beach a nice couple we spoke to at St Lawrence free camp turned up to have some lunch so we spent an hour talking to them before heading back to the van.  

 found this big whale at Emu park and it tried to eat the pajero

 Kate's Uncle and Auntie's house where we stayed for a couple of days

 

8^th of September

Left Kate’s Uncle and Auntie’s house, on the way out we call into Rockhampton to the botanical gardens and there little zoo which is free. After a walk around and some morning tea Kate fed the baby while I made up a heap of sandwiches to keep the kids fed. We left Rockhampton and we were heading to Theodore where Kate had another Auntie and uncle. Kate’s Auntie is the manager of the pub at Theodore, and we parked our van in the pub grounds. The pub at Theodore is actually owned by the council and is kept in great condition with heaps of accommodation, bistro and huge bar. We enjoyed a pub meal and had a heap of beers catching up with Kate’s family again.

 

Rockhampton big cows there is a few around town

 The gardens

 

9^th of September

Went for a walk down the end of the street with the girls and took Kate’s younger cousin who the girls enjoyed playing with. At the end of the street is a council run free camp which had free hot showers and is surrounded by a creek and a river, there were heaps of campers here that come from the south and stay all winter to keep warmer if I didn’t have Kate’s family in town this would have been a great place to camp. We also caught up on washing again while Kate hung out with her family. We enjoyed a pub bbq for lunch and spent a lazy afternoon before we realized we had run out of time to cook a dinner so Kate’s auntie ordered in a pub meal again ( the advantage of living on top of a pub lol)

 river on the left creek on the right. Jessica walking Katie's Auntie's dog

10^th of September

We left a bit later than normal as the kids were enjoying playing with Kate’s 10 year old cousin. WE are heading towards Rainbow beach but we won’t make it as it a bit too far to travel with a late start and some dirt roads to be crossed if we want to keep the distance down. We call into Mundubbera a river side town where we had lunch in the park before heading further towards the coast where we end up free camping on the side of the road. The free camp was alright but far from perfect which we were expecting as it had a recommended tick from the free camps publisher (also mentioned by others camped there) But it still had grass and flushing toilets so can’t complain.

 Had about 30km of dirt

 Lunch stop

 The big Mandarin

 Then a big Orange

I had some fun with the camera here.

 

11^th of September

We have a short drive into rainbow beach and are there by 10am where we get a permit to beach camp for 2 nights up at inskip point looking over to Frazer Island cost $21 for the 2 nights (I went to Frazer Island last year so we decided we don’t need to go again on this trip so soon). There are multiple camp grounds with multiple sites at each and it is a case of try find the best spot you can. We went to into one road which turned out to be an access to the beach with a turn off into the camp ground half way down that we decided to take as the sand was getting soft and then we were bogged. I got out reduced all tyre pressures down to 20psi I tried backing up until it bogged down again then went forward until it bogged down again but I got about 1m further then last time so promising. I had to go forwards and back a few times until I got the car onto firm ground and finally got out with the caravan still in tack lol. We ended up leaving that camp site as the stares we were coping while bogged was to uncomfortable and embarrassing to stay there so we headed up to the next camp site and found ourselves a nice spot on the water with water views to enjoy for a few nights. We had a swim that afternoon and built a huge sand castle that ends up falling to an incoming tide.         

Bit of fun with the kids building a sand castle on a incoming tide

12^th of September

Megan and me spent a bit of time playing with the lego as she was a bit tired and Kate and Jessica went for a walk up the beach. We spent the afternoon with the kids swimming and playing while I sat back and relaxed either on the beach or at camp looking over the beach.

 Our van spot on the beach in the middle

13^th of September

Where off to Brisbane, Kate’s best friend and family friend since she was 5 now lives in Brisbane. We had a great drive down with our first multilane roads in a long time and arrived at Kate’s friends place in time for lunch. We can’t set up our van level in our friend’s house so for the first time have to sleep in someone’s house (beside the time kate had a baby at hospital and was there for a few nights and when I had to go back to Perth to buy a new truck by my self). We spent the afternoon chit chatting before the girls went to the shops.

14^th of September

Just hung out with our friend and I also cleaned the car right out and vacuumed every spot including the roof trying to get rid of red dirt, we went down to the local park for the kids to run wild.

 Kids having a pinci in the suburbs of Brisbane

 

15^th of September

Sea world

We all piled into the Pajero 7 of us and went down to sea world. What a full on day with shows and rides for the kids we didn’t get a chance to stop and you could almost spend an extra day here. The highlights were the awesome dolphin show which the smile on the kid’s faces at the amazement of what a dolphin can do and to tell you the truth I was impressed too, one dolphin would have jumped a good 6 metres out of the water I wish I knew so I could have got that picture. We also enjoyed the seal show and the jet ski show for some action. The one surprise was shark bay we looked from above and didn’t think much but walked underneath to see a huge amount of variety and so many fish with a coral reef and smaller sharks swimming around. Then next to it, the larger sharks and larger fish also enjoyable. The kids also enjoyed watching the Dora show before heading home.