Airlie Beach

We thought we would splurge on accomodation at Airlie Beach.  We went to the Big4 Whitsundays, a very pretty and well established caravan park.  We had bribed the kids for the three hour drive that there would be lots to do and there certainly was.  We spent five days swimming in the pool (with two waterslides), playing mini golf, jumping pillow and playing tennis.  There was even an outdoor movie.  You can imagine how excited our kids were.  They started running all morning and didn't stop all day.  Needless to say, they slept well at night! I should mention that school term had finished and we actually were on school holidays.
We had a bit of a look around Airlie Beach.  A pretty scenic area, especially as you drive in but it is so over commercialised.  I would love to have been here thirty years ago before it was taken over by back packers.  The main street of Airlie  is either tourist info centres, takeaway shops or surf shops, about a trillion of each!!!  Apparently there's a new name for backpackers, those who travel with money, they are called 'flashpackers', they stay in cheap hostels but spend the day jetskiing and the nights drinking their or their parents money away.  Now I may sound a little jaded but I really am kinda jealous!!  Plus I had a few chuckles listening to quite a few of their conversations!!
Airlie has a free lagoon swimming area and nice playground.  We went for a walk around to the marina along the waters edge.  The craziest thing about Airlie Beach is that it doesn't have a decent beach, not sure how it got its name?  We planned to take the kids on a day trip out to the islands and to the reef but of course mother nature had other ideas.  It was really windy and 3 metre swells, not exactly snorkelling weather.  Another time maybe.

Out for lunch on fathers day.

We meet some nice people at Airlie Beach and generally spent 5 days relaxing and enjoying ourselves, oh life is truly hard!  Next stop Townsville, pretty excited mum and dad are coming from Tassie to visit.

Mackay

We left Calliope to head to another free camp at St Lawrence but kinda had a few problems along the way.  Not the best day to be traveling with a hang over (me not Mark).  Our bike rack on the back of the van came loose and our bikes got a bit damaged before we made it to St Lawrence.  We secured the bikes and started off again but somehow managed to completely miss the turn off to St Lawrence, buggered if I know how.  We realised when we were further along the road and decided to keep going.  We are trying to head north quickly at the moment as we are meeting up with my parents in Townsville in a week.  
We eventually stopped in Flaggy Rock and stayed at the community grounds for $5 a night. We were greeted by a nice old guy, the caretaker, he even invited us over to his campfire!  We stayed hooked up and took off early the next morning.
We went straight to Mackay so we could access a welder and bike repair shop.  We stayed at the Central Caravan park, a dive but was cheap, wouldn't recommend it unless you aren't planning on stopping long.  From what we saw of Mackay it is a big mining town.  The motels are full and the caravan parks cater a lot for miners.  And to top it off it rained again.  Now I know it sounds like I'm whingeing but I had got used to this lovely winter we've had so far.  Prior to the last week it had barely rained the whole last 4 months!  After a Tassie winter this has been a luxury.  We took the kids to the local library for the morning to do school.  We needed a change of scenery.  They had a ball reading books and playing, ohh and doing school work too.

Jake 'working'

Mackay has a great place to take the kids.  Its called Blue Water Lagoon, its a big water park and its free!  The kids had a ball swimming, climbing and going down the slides.  Am thinking it would be a very busy place in summer.  But it wasn't while we were there, only other people were an Irish family.  Saying something isn't it, a Tassie family and an Irish family the only fools in the water!!!!

Jake and Charlotte fighting for pool space, wow the crowds!

Charlotte is a darling big sister to Jake, she really looks after him, lucky boy!

Mackay didn't exactly warm our hearts. It would be an okay place to live for work but not somewhere I would go on holidays, guess I was expecting a bit more.   We got all the repairs done and are off to Airlie beach next.

Calliope

Next stop for us was Calliope for two nights.  It's a pretty spot by the river, just outside town.  It is also a really popular place to stay, heaps of campers.  The reason for this is that it's free and in a choice spot!  We pulled up in front of the Ellis gang and set up along the top (south) side of the river, we didn't think the kids would swim and the other side was pretty muddy and soft.  As it turned out it rained and rained and our sites got muddy too, oh its all fun!

Not a bad view, apparently there are signs up warning of crocs, lucky it wasn't swimming weather!

We spent a few hours trying to keep out of the rain and generally enjoying ourselves.  The next morning we headed to the markets and did some shopping.  A great little market with lots of crafty stalls.  Charlotte bought some more dolls clothes and Jake bought lego of course!  They spent the rest of the day playing lego with Sam and Will, leaving us adults alone.  The rain finally stopped enough for us to light a camp fire, with metho and wet wood!  Kids did the usual and chowed down some marsh mellows.  We adults had a few drinks by the fire, ending in me having far too many drinks and entertaining everyone!  

We had to say goodbye to Dan, Kaz, Sam, Will and Zacky at Calliope.  Has been wonderful to be able to travel with another family, especially as they are pretty cool to hang out with.  They are heading back down south and we are heading north.  Was a bit sad, but am sure we'll catch up with them next year!

Seventeen Seventy

We had heard a lot of different opinions of Seventeen Seventy, and whether it was worth a visit.  We thought we should check it out for our self!  It is a really pretty little seaside town.  Only two negatives, it rain far too much and the caravan park is really busy.  Would be nicer if so many people weren't there, as with many places.  We still decided to stay 5 nights.  I needed to stop moving for a few days!  Was a good decision, we had a great time.

 Kaz, Dan and the kids joined us and we spent many an hour hanging out.  The kids spent hours together playing lego in our annexe ( we don't put it up very often, so was a treat to get the lego out).  It is so lovely to see them together, they get on so well.  We had another crack at fishing but not any luck, but we weren't the only ones!  Spent a fair bit of time chatting to different people, found out lots of good travel tips.  Its great when people are willing to give good advice. 

Seventeen Seventy (1770) is named after the year that Captain James Cook first landed there (after Botany Bay of course).  1770 was the first place in QLD that he set foot.  There is a stone monument at 1770 to commemorate this.  Good for the kids to get some insight into Australia's history.

We headed to the Joseph Banks Conservation Park.  A nice short walk around the head land, pretty view overlooking 1770.  Jake of course had to wear his safety glasses, can't remember why, am sure there was a reason!

We went to Agnes Water, not that great a place.  Wanted to eat out for lunch, but most places were very lack lustre. But The Tree at 1770 does awesome meals!  We went to the beach and had a lovely walk in the wind, was still nice though.  The kids had an awesome time rolling down the sand and generally being kids at the beach, no swimming though.

1770 for us was about enjoying the beach and hanging out with friends.  So in essence we had a great time.  It is a bit out of the way, a nice spot but we copped the bad weather.  The day we left the sun came out and people were heading to the beach, typical! 

Bundaberg

We decided to stop for the night at Bundaberg.  The only reason being so Mark could check out the rum distillery.  I stayed in the van with the kids and did a days school work while Mark went and sampled the liquids.  He says the tour was great and the rum was tasty!

We left the distillery with me driving the car and van, as Mark had sampled a few too many liquid refreshments!.  I was pretty nervous driving through town.  Did not help that five minutes down the road we blew a tyre on our van.  Luckily we could pull over to the side of the road and Mark changed the tyre.  Not before an old guy from across the road ambled over to see if we needed a hand.  Am thinking he'd had a few himself as he wouldn't stop talking.  He even had to show me how he staggers of the cheap bus home from the pub!!!  Oh the characters you meet....
Next stop Seventeen Seventy, to relax by the beach.

Hervey Bay

We stopped at Hervey Bay for two nights and stayed in a caravan park right on the water.  A nice enough park, but we were complete squashed in, almost couldn't open our van windows!  We were only here to see the whales anyway, so it didn't really matter.  We booked our tour and headed off early in the morning.  We were all pretty excited.

Jake having his morning coffee

We saw a few whales off in the distance but not up close to begin with.  What we did see was this pod of gorgeous dolphins.  They swam right up to the boat and just seemed to hang around and check us out.  When the boat took off, they even raced it, they are pretty fast.  We were impressed!

We had gone whale watching  early in the season in Port Macquaire but didn't get to see the whales up close.  We were a bit worried it would happen again, but it definitely didn't.  We saw so many whales, we couldn't believe it.  They came in so close, we saw them breach, roll over and do tail slaps.  One of the high lights would have to have been when Charlotte screamed in joy when she saw the first big whale up close.  She was just so happy and amazed.  We also got to see a mother and its baby that swam in front of the boat, but we didn't hit them, she just kept parading her baby around for us to check out!

Poor Jake wasn't as excited about the whales.  He had a look, saw a few then was bored.  He spent more time playing under the bench and inside with some toy blocks.  SO glad were paid for a ticket for him (not!).  Whale watching was definitely something we will never forget.  A definite must if you ever get to Hervey Bay.

We went for a walk along the beach in front of the caravan park at sunset.  A pretty place, there were even dolphins swimming right in front of this jetty. 

That's about all we saw of Hervey Bay.  Just a quick couple of nights to see the whales then on to Bundaberg.

Inskip Point

When we left Fraser we had decided to spend a night or two at Inskip Point.  This is a spot our friends Vicky and Craig had recommended, we loved the look of it when we drove past on the way to Fraser.  Our friends the Ellis family also were in the area so they met us off the barge.  Was great to have people waving and cheering for us, felt like we were returning from a long journey but we'd actually only seen them a few days prior!  We set up right next to the Ellis family under some pretty trees, at Inskip Point.
 Inskip is set at the point near Rainbow Beach.  One side is ocean(surf) and the other is a calmer beach side.  It's a great place to stay, cheap too.  You have to bring in your own water, but that was ok as there was a filling station in town.  We spent many an hour chatting by the camp fire, and of course toasting marsh mellows.

The kids found this awesome tree to climb and it became their hideout for the next few days.

Mark and Kaz preparing for fishing.

Dan bought Kaz a surf rod, so of course I had to have one too.  We all set of for the beach and had a lovely afternoon trying to catch fish.  Was very amusing watching us learn to cast with the big rods.  We all caught a fish, nothing overly fabulous except Kaz's tailor that she caught, was very tasty!

 

Note Marks 'fishing outfit' and his huge fish!

The kids were more interested in swimming than fishing.

The kids all had a wonderful time hanging out together.  They even wanted to camp in our tent together.  We reluctantly gave in and put it up in the dark, we were a bit late.  They had so much fun though and looked adorable when they all fell asleep!

Charlotte has this plan of what she wants to do when she grows up.  She and her friends are going to have a pedal powered vehicle/boat/plane that can travel around the world  saving wild life.  She has spent hours discussing the team and how it will all work.  So of course she is very keen to see as much wild life as possible.  Mark had read about how you can feed wild dolphins as Tin Can Bay, so we had to go and see them.  It was lovely to watch them swimming in the water.  You even got to feed them for a whole $5, very cheap, I think its $100 at sea world!  Charlotte was so besotted, she loved it.  Jake, not so much, he was cold and wanted to go back to the car, dear boy!

We ended up spending three very relaxing enjoyable days at Inskip, just hanging out, sitting on the beach and chatting with friends.  What a life!  Next stop Hervey Bay.