Time to catch up.

After Bluewater and saying goodbye to Mum and Grandma in Townsville, our plan was to head through to Calen near Mackay, however it came over the UHF that a head on collision had occured on the south side of Bowen and so we stopped in Bowen for the night. The next morning we went to St Lawrence, our second free camp! The Recreational Reserve at St Lawrence was wonderful and it backed on to wetlands which turned in to a great walk late in the evening. The next morning (25th September) was Ethan's 7th birthday, after opening presents, our journey took us through to Boyne Island and we road our bikes until our bums hurt!

In Gladstone, on the second day, we had a look at the refinery and informed the kids about bauxite and aluminium.

Our next place to visit was the Town of 1770. Here we stayed at the camp grounds...right on the beach...just gorgeous. We were immediately befriended by a kookaburra and the family that pulled in after us were great with two lovely boys. All boys hit it off immediately and occupied themselves for hours.

 

This is the view from our van!



On our second day at 1770 we expolred Eurimbula NP, which was a bumpy adventure, but once we got to Bustard Beach it was pleasant to see that we were the only ones there. It was so funny to see the boys chase this crab across the sand.

Scrapping oysters off of the rocks 

 

Sunset was very relaxed with everyone meeting on the beach

Our boys

As nice as it was at 1770 it was nice to move on as our van kept sinking in the sand!

The 29th September we spent the night at Ban Ban Springs and it was good to see them flowing again. Our stay here was interesting, as not long after arriving a man showed up in a truck with four little puppies that we all enjoyed playing with. He left and about an hour later a family from Gayndah came through and stopped to let their pets out for an eat at the grass...three chicks and two guinea pigs. We had a great time playing with the animals and chatting to the family.

The 30th was a quick stop over at a free camp in a town called Wooroolin. The spot was ok and it backed on to some wetlands, so we got the bikes down and went for a ride, only to be attacked by a blue heeler on the way back!!!!

At last, a beautiful free camp, in a lovely town with great people and a fantastic playground...plus power and water...yeah!! Kumbia is a definate plus to return to and right at the base of the Bunya Mountains. We shall remember it for many reasons, but especially for the following photo.

On to Toowoomba we moved with the idea of making it for the Millmerran Camp Oven Festival.

The festival didn't have a lot to do with camp ovens, but we had a great time. Both boys got to go on stage and help Ranger Nick with his cooking demonstration and we entered them in the damper throwing competitions and, at last, Andrew got his BBQ liner. There were amazing tractors that had been beefed up (hot rod tractors we called them) and a moke that thought it had the guts to tow a huge machine.

On the 8th of October we left Toowoomba and arrived at a free camp in Wallangarra. It had BBQs, two playgrounds, clean toilets and a large oval. This town is on the QLD/NSW border and we wondered how things would heat up during the State of Origin. It was also interesting to note that the railway line from Brisbane reached Wallangarra in 1887, a year before the Main North railway line reached Jennings from Sydney in 1888. A break-of-gauge station was established on the border with the north platform part of the Queensland rail network and the southern platform maintained by New South Wales. The problem being that the gauge from NSW was larger than the gauge from QLD...please see photo below...we couldn't think how else to show the difference.

 

We stood on the QLD side of the fence at the border to see if the grass was greener on the other side!