Bye Bye Queensland, Our Road Trip Ends.

Check out the people on top of the bridge.

Ben has always been fascinated with hitches.  He loves vehicles that tow things.  Well, he now has discovered that a hitch, when not connected to something, can have a cover over the ball joint that can be quite greasy.  While riding his bike around in the underground parking lot of the hotel, he took one off and put it over his mouth, don't ask why.  We were laughing at him and I think he didn't understand why and was a little confused until we told him to go look in the mirror.  

GG now prefers a bottle of port over her water bottle.

 

Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane a day earlier than anticipated because the weather had turned quite wet.  We were hoping to stay near the Glasshouse Mountains again, but we couldn't see them due to the rain and clouds.  We therefore spent the night at Newmarket Gardens Caravan Park just west of the city centre of Brisbane.  It poured the entire night.  The next morning we left to return our motorhome to Britz and check into our hotel.

The park was becoming a swamp.  Perfect time for our departure.

The river next to the park was rising fast.

That evening we saw on the news that the park was evacuated due to the water rising up to people's knees.

Our Bunnings umbrellas became our best friends. 

Looking up the street from our hotel as we were unloading our bags from the motorhome water flowed like a river. 

After a successful, yet very wet unloading of our gear, we made our way to drop off the motorhome.

Check out this video!

The route to Britz was quite memorable to say the least.

At one point, we thought the engine was going to stall because we were having to drive through some very deep water.

Upon our arrival at Britz, we were greeted outside by an employee saying that their office was entirely flooded and that all we had to do was hand her the key.  She asked if we could sort out the paperwork and any issues the following day. 

The following day was blue sky- shocking.  It's amazing how fast the weather turns here in Australia and how severe it can be in such a short amount of time. 

The last major flood in Brisbane occurred in Jan. 1974 that lasted for 3 days with 580mm of rain falling.  This one lasted only a day with around 400mm falling in and around Brisbane.  At Rainbow Beach where we were 4 days ago, a record of 713mm fell.  A news report said that the dams were at 50% and now they are at 75%. This was a very unusual occurance due to May typically being a dry month.  

Underwater World

On a rainy day, we decided to visit Underwater World which is basically an aquarium.  It has this really incredible tunnel with a rolling carpet that rolls you through the exhibit.  Bennett loved it so much, we spent over 1.5 hours just going round and round on this carpet.  He loved the sharks most.  Bennett also got kissed by a seal!  

Dicky Beach

Shipwreck of the S.S. Dicky

Ben found a skateboard park next to the beach.

Our neighbors at Dicky Beach Caravan Park. 

B working on his backhand

Montville, Glass House Mountains

A local at the caravan park we stayed at described Montville in two words, Gods country.

Carlo Sand Blow, aka "The Dunes"

Our attempt at stitching the sand blow together

From the parking lot, we walked up with these blokes who had these remote control gliders which provided great entertainment for us. In the picture above, they were testing the video hookup on the glider before sending it up.  The clarity of the video was amazing and the distance that you can fly these is even more amazing.  If they become out of site, you use the video monitor to fly it- pretty cool!

Bennett enjoyed dodging and chasing the gliders.

Bennett attempted to walk across the sand blow but only made it 3/4 of the way.  He's a spec off in the distance.  This place was bigger and steeper than the pictures portray.

Making our way back up the blow.

Walking back to the parking lot we saw some amazing gum trees. The bark sheds off these trees every year and then re-grows.

When the gum tree has its bark, moths find there way underneath and lay their larva which burrow around eating the tree leaving these squiggly lines.

Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach is only a few kilometers from Tin Can Bay where we fed the dolphins.  It has beautiful, safe beaches and isn't as built up as the Sunshine Coast.  It was a perfect place to relax for a few hours.

Dolphin feeding at Tin Can Bay

Early morning dolphin feeding

We had a lot of fun feeding the dolphins.  Bennett was scared at first but warmed up later and was able to feed them with a little help.

Hervey Bay, Fraser Island

Catching the ferry from Hervey Bay to Fraser Island.

Off the ferry and in our 4WD tour bus.  Ben loved sitting up front and bouncing up and down from all the bumps.  

This was the most incredible tree.

Ben inside the tree.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world.  It's the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 meters.

Ben playing in the sandy street after lunch with his monster truck.

The two garbage trucks off in the distance were waiting for the tide to drop a bit before attempting to make it around the rocks.  We didn't and just drove right through the waves.  

"The Pinnacles", aka "The Colored Sands" at Cathedral Beach is apparently a sacred spot for aborigial women.

The shipwreck of the S.S. Maheno

We drove to one of the many fresh water lakes on the island and went for a quick dip and shined our rings using the pure silica sand.

We made it back just in time to catch the ferry back.

All aboard!

After celebrating Bennett's birthday, we drove to Hervey Bay which is the gateway to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.  It spans over 120km in length and about 20km in width.  The lumber industry used to be very active on the island, but in the 1990s, all logging ws stopped and the island was declared a World Heritage Site.  We took a guided tour on a 4WD bus.  Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the entire area and he gave us amazing descriptions of the history of the island, the fauna and flora, and the Aborigines who used to inhabit it.  

Seventeen Seventy- Bennett's 5th Birthday

1770 Camping Ground

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Birthday dinner

Birthday cake- yummm!!!

Capricorn Caves

We had one of our most peaceful overnight stays here at the Capricorn Caves- not many people and lots of raw wilderness to roam around in.

face to face with a kangaroo

Entering the caves with our personal guide.

Ben searching for his superhero Batman.

Ben blurts out, "Batman, are you in here?"

They actually hold weddings in here.

Never did find batman, he must be out on one of his crusades. 

Our longest driving day went by quite well.  We left Airlie Beach early in the morning and made our way down 450km to the Capricorn Caves.  We arrived just as the sun was setting.  The Caves had a small caravan park attached to it which was very quiet, in the middle of the wilderness.  It was a refreshing change from the BIG4 caravan parks we'd been staying at.  In the morning, Bennett enjoyed playing soccer with a little boy he met in the park.  We then went on a tour of the caves.  They were quite impressive.  Both Bennett and Glenn enjoyed them too.

A wet Sunday in the Whitsundays

Airlie Beach Marina

Whitehaven beach

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Back on the boat and off to Hook Island for our underwater adventure.

Glass bottom boat ride from Hook Island.

Underwater observatory on Hook Island.

Bennett and Glenn rinsing off the snorkel gear.

After the Billabong Sanctuary, we drove down to Airlie Beach. Arriving in early evening, we just had time to plan our trip for the next day.  We took a boat ride through the Whitsunday Islands.  The weather wasn't great when we left.  With winds of 15-20 knots, the ride out was a little rough.  Bennett had to lay down and he actually fell asleep, trying to avoid the seasickness.  About an hour after departure, we arrived on Whitehaven beach - a 5km stretch of pure silica sand.  This was the most amazing sand we'd ever seen.  It was soft and pure white. The weather was cooperative thank goodness. We spent an hour on the beach, building sand castles, kicking balls, playing cricket and taking some fun pictures.  Back on the boat, we had lunch and made our way to Hook Island for a glass bottom tour and a little snorkling (Rob did this) on the reef.  We saw some pretty colourful fish, and the corals on the reef were quite diverse. The water was merky though because of the rough seas.  Our last stop was Daydream Island which has a small resort on it.  The rain come down there so we didn't do too much. Bennett enjoyed watching and playing some cricket on a tennis court with some men.  We finally made it back to shore around 5:30pm.  It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

Billabong Sanctuary

wombat

Blue tongued lizard

baby croc

Emus

We left Townsville early in the morning, in order to have time to stop at the Billabong Sanctuary.  This was such an amazing place.  First of all, it wasn't a very busy place, which always makes things easier to see stuff.  We bought a small bag of animal feed thinking we could feed a few little creatures along the way.  As soon as we entered the grounds, six kangaroos came hopping over to us, looking for food. We fed them straight out of our hands and from Glenn's stroller tray. They were soooo cute.  Then we walked around and saw some massive crocodiles.  We saw emus, wallabies, and birds.  The park rangers gave us a talk on koalas that we got to pet, on wombats that we got to hold and on snakes and lizards.  Bennett did really well at holding the snake, the baby croc and the blue tongued lizard.  The grand finale was when the rangers fed the crocodiles.  They made them leap out of the water to catch their lunch.  It was quite impressive.  We highly recommend this stop to anyone who is in the area.

Townsville, Magnetic Island

Walkabout Palms Caravan Park-  Bennett playing around and making friends with the other kids in the Park.

Ferry to Magnetic Island.

Moke rental

Beautiful drive around the Is.

Crossing paths with a kangaroo.

Picking up lunch

Picnic at Picnic Bay

We left South Mission Beach in the rain, just as we arrived.  We made our way to Townsville where Joelle was meeting a patient and giving a presentation to the gynaecology department at the Townsville hospital.  Rob and the kids stayed at the caravan park (another Big4 resort) and enjoyed the facilities there.  The following day, we took a ferry ride to Magnetic Island and rented a Moke to drive around this small but pretty island.  We had a picnic at Picnic Bay and then came back on the ferry.  We were luckier with the weather because the rain waited until we had returned to the caravan park.  That evening, the gynaecologist who had invited Joelle to give that presentation, invited us to his house for a BBQ with his family.  They had a lovely home with an incredible view of the harbour.  We had the best steaks ever.  Bennett had fun playing with the 8 and 11 year old girls.  They wanted to teach Bennett to use a Ripstik, but it was a little too advanced for him.  Rob took his place and requested one for his birthday and is determined to teach Bennett!  We were sad to leave. It was a real pleasure to sit down to a phenomenal meal and escape the cramped motorhome for a night!

On the road to South Mission Beach

sugar cane fields

Let it rain...

bush fire aftermath 

banana fields

Beachcomber Coconut Village.  The kids favorite puddle was this one in front of the motorhome.  They spent more time in it than in the pool. 

South Mission Beach

We left Paronella Park early in the morning and made a stop at the Murdering Point Winery which sells wines and port made from different kinds of fruit - mangoes, lychee, Davidson plum, lemon aspen, black sapote, passionfruit.  We bought three bottles.  We then made our way to South Mission Beach hoping for a relaxing beach day.  Unfortunately, the skies were against us.  It poured the entire day.  Bennett enjoyed riding his balance bike though through all the puddles and on the beach while Glenn enjoyed walking and splashing around.  It was still nice to relax and not be on a schedule.

Paronella Park

Feeding the eels and turtles.

Ben having a look at the bats in the tunnel which led us to the waterfall below. 



Originally scheduled to spend the day on Green Island – part of the inner Great Barrier Reef – we decided to skip it because the waters were too choppy.   There were many reports of sea sickness from people who had gone in the past few days.  We drove down instead to Paronella Park.  What a magnificent place.  Voted #1 of the 150 Must-Do’s in Queensland, It’s an old ruined castle built by a Spaniard in the 1930s.  It offers a wonderful tour of the grounds with its old castle, water features, foot paths, and tunnels.  There is a night tour as well.  The entry price also includes a night’s stay in their caravan park.  The history, design and architecture that went into building this site was magnificent. 

Kuranda Scenic Railway

car 7

car 6

Joelle receives a call from work and says, sorry, I'm off call for the next 3 weeks, YES!!! 

GG hanging out enjoying the ride

Hey Papa, look at me!!!

Joelle running to get Big Ben. "Ben, you need to stay with us..."

Lunch at the station

Skyrail down

Rainforest below Skyrail

Waking at 7am, feeling human again, we decided to embark on an adventure:  the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail.  Kuranda is a small tourist village 334km above sealevel and ??km from Cairns.  The train has a scheduled departure time of 9:30am.  We arrived at the station at 9:20am.  Scrambling to find parking for the caravan (clearance of 3.4m required), we ran to the office to buy our tickets.  We misread them and told the guide we were in train 7.  Not looking at them, she escorted us to train 7 – the Gold Carriage!!  About 20 minutes into the ride, we realized we really weren’t supposed to be there.  We showed our tickets to the train personnel and instead of bringing us up to train 3 (budget class we had bought), he stopped at train 6 because it was mostly empty.  Train 6 was also a gold carriage!!  So we rode the next hour and a half in luxury, able to amble up down at our leisure.  The ride was beautiful with breathtaking views of waterfalls, mountains and valleys and the ocean.

At Kuranda, we had lunch and walked a little ways into the village.  We then took the Skyrail down – this is essentially a gondola.  It took 40 minutes to get down.  At the bottom, our luck was still on our side as we caught a bus back to Cairns (18km away), which wasn’t scheduled to go there, but took us anyway.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the caravan park. Unfortunately, that night was Rob’s turn to experience the stomach flu.  Curse that daycare of Bennett’s because he was the first to get it last week.

Cairns

Living on only a few hours of sleep because of Glenn’s stomach flu which had her throwing up every 30 minutes until 3am the night before our flight, we made our way to the airport at 6am.  Glenn puked in the taxi down Joelle’s top and onto the poor cabbie’s back seat.  Rushing to clean ourselves up, we made it to the gate on time.  The 3.5 hour flight could have been worse, but there were definitely some tantrums thrown by both kids who’d had enough of being buckled in.

Arriving in Cairns, it was hot and humid (30C).  We got to the caravan rental place only to discover that the caravan we had booked was not available, so we were given an upgrade.  Although usually a good thing, the new caravan wouldn’t fit Glenn’s portable crib.  Two hours of bargaining and hunting another caravan dealer later, we were on our way in the upgraded caravan with a 50$ gift certificate to a grocery store from Gary the manager for our troubles. Glenn's crib will rest on top of the bed in the back- we'll make it work.   

We stopped at Subway where it was Joelle’s turn to get sick with the stomach flu.  Finally we reached the mother of all caravan parks – Coconut resort.  This place has 2 swimming pools, a big playground for kids, a huge bouncing pillow, tennis court, a mini golf, pedal quads and trikes, amazing facilities, BBQs and a mini-mart.  It took us a little while to figure out the caravan – how to get the power hooked up, how to use the DVD/TV, how to get water pumped in, how to dump the waste water, and how to set up the beds.  Finally after a family shower, Joelle (still sick) and the kids crashed.  Rob the superman, stayed up til 1am organizing all our stuff.