Our Australia trip

Before taking to bed we washed off the smoke from our camp fire that all evening knew how to find us.
Not too happy with the lurking crocs and the history of the traveling crab fisherman we decided to take our leave from Endeavour River Escape.

Because Axel wanted to see the place Cook spent so much time on his adventures we went to Cooktown proper. We did our own landing with Marjo being Captain Cook and the dogs her sailors.

Somehow that didn’t create the desired effect, and luckily the Cookerians (Cooktowners?, Cookie Monsters?) provided enough photo opportunity to remember that moment. I must say that it feels kinda special to know that about 240 years ago the official discoverer of Australia set first foot on land here (everyone knows that already more than 150 years earlier the dutchman Willem Janszoon of the Dutch East India Company set foot on land in north Australia but we’re modest about that fact).

On the way back from Cooktown we stopped to catch again some of the sights, this time of a Billabong and some termite hills that are everywhere.

It shows to be a dry and hilly country.

And then when getting past Mount Molloy thing suddenly turn lush, and we found a camping near Julatten.

It worked out a relaxed, budget, friendly camping. So we decided to make this home for 3 nights,. We checked out our horoscope

did some repairs, walked with Nossi

And overall had a nice relaxing time.

Posted from Julatten, Queensland, Australia.

Endeavour River Escape is a camping just north of Cooktown, the place where Captain Cook landed his ship “The Endeavour” for repairs after he put a dent in the Great Barrier Reef.

We made the 300 km trek from Mareeba to Cooktown with a few stops. The road is not very attractive and the campsites along it in Mt Carbine (originally planned) and Lakeland are straight along the highway (well there is only one road really). The road is in very good nick, very different from the Bruce Highway on which you have to continuously be weary of – sometimes pretty serious – potholes. Our first stop was at the Mareeba mechanic to make an appointment for next week when we stay again at Granite Gorge with Berna and Jos. They will then give the bus a service before heading inland.

Then it’s off to the Coffee Works, a very touristic coffee shop, actually very nicely set up. Prices are very touristy and Marjo made sure she nursed her large skim cappuchino over about 150 km so it cost only 4 cents per km.

Then we stopped at the Mango winery which just doesn’t work. I understand now why most wineries use grapes instead of mangoes. Still when there’s free wine tasting we’re there. So the disappointment was understandable when we had to pay for the mini gulps of dry, medium, sweet and sparkling mango juice (wine). In the end we bought sweet mango dessert wine. Not bad.

Then it was on the road to Cooktown. We still had 300 km to go and with the few hills in between where the bus slows down to 40 kph or even 20 kph at 10% steep hills. A very dry landscape with a perfect road across massive paddocks (including cattle grates). Also there were picture moments that we didn’t miss.

It was about 4 pm when we arrived in Cooktown and we headed straight for the camping. Everything’s called Endeavour here so no surprise that the Endeavour River Escape camping was in the Endeavour National Park along the Endeavour river.
It is a nice camping with massive sites (you could fit whole campings we have seen on a single site of this camping) and it is well organized.

We had a walk down to the river, a bit nervous because after the 10th sign explaining that crocs lure everywhere along riverbanks and here we were in half dark exploring the riverbank. Certainly when we reached the spot where the fisherman was taken by a croc, Marjo had enough. No tempting faith.

So we went back to the camping site, where the dogs feigned no interest in a third one.

Or did they?

Then we had dinner, lighted a campfire and imitated salmon. The smoked variety.

Posted from Hope Vale, Queensland, Australia.

I broke my own rule and published Granite Gorge and then we decided to stay another day. I can always say that we only decided to extend this morning, but in truth we decided that last night after seeing the weather forecast. In Mareeba it would be sunny all day where everywhere else it would be raining. Easy choice, right?
So we woke up with enough wind to fly two kites, but no beach, ocean or lake or even open field to utilize it. So a slow start, breakfast, dogs dinner. Then to the office to extend with another day and this time it was my turn to have a look at the rock wallabies. Really nice little creatures, a miniature roo and they are really comfortable on the granite boulders that are here in abundance.

Then I saw Marjo with the two dogs and together we went back to the bus for a coffee and to drop Dotti off. She didn’t mind to stay “home”.

Then Nossi, Marjo and I set off on one of the trails around the place. Words are not required as pictures say more than the words I could write.

Back bruised, battered and tired after an awesome walk, we rested and sheltered a bit from the cold wind. Although the temperature is 20 degrees, the wind makes it feel much colder.

So after first snapping a picture of the cassowary turkey that walked up to us we went inside, had dinner in the bus, watched the TV series Bones and went to bed.

Posted from Chewko, Queensland, Australia.

We woke up close to midnight and Marjo said “burglars”. Now is there not a lot to steal and if it actually was a burglar (s)he would have bumped any part of their body three times, stepped on the dogs and landed in our bed. Unless they of course wanted to take our chairs or dog beds. So I went out, put undies on and with a torch saw a bandicoot who found the biscuits in Marjo’s beachbag.

The weather forecast (which I seem to use a lot) says, lots-of-wind, the trees say I-don’t-think-so. Unfortunately the trees win. So after breakfast (plenty of time for an egg) we pack up and leave. We wanted to thank Vanessa, who runs the camping, for not turning on the lights in our row (as we camped right beside it) but she must also have seen the lack of wind and seems nowhere around. Or as Jenny commented, there are people who sleep in on a Sunday.

At 9.30 we’re on the road, first restocking at Woollies. Error. Somehow not everyone in Australia has gotten the memo that Sunday is a normal day for retail and in the winter in North Queensland they just keep the doors closed and sleep in. Hmmmm.

So we continue. First we discussed whether we should follow the Bruce Highway to Cairns and then turn off to make the loop to Cooktown or otherwise turn inland first and follow the Kennedy Highway more inland. First to Innisfail for the shopping at Woollies, because without my muesli I won’t be much. Innisfail is ok, but nothing spectacular. It has all the shops of a regional town, but no real heart. Here we turn off the Bruce Highway and go towards Millaa Millaa, 800 meters higher than Mission Beach.

Immediately the roads turn different. More lush, and definitely more hilly. No Cassowaries and less cane sugar (well we saw the train with chopped cane). More bananas and red earth! We have been looking for that, showing that we are really in Australia, without actually having to go to the red centre.

We pass pittoresque places and views and stop at the Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway to have a look at the local flora and fauna. Not. Apparently they need two cash register ladies, an office and $20 pp. The killer was that the dogs are not allowed so we turned around and made a move. Marjo finally spotted a Cassowary.

From there we had the sight seeing bug and stopped at a close by view of the valley.

Then we stopped at Ellinjaa Falls, which were surprisingly nice, just in the middle of the hills.

Later we stopped at the Malanda Falls as well.

And made a stop on the side of the road fur lunch, yummy sausages on bread. The dogs thought so too and after lunch they did a little nap.

Then Marjo made a sidestep to South America and visited a crystal heaven. In Atherton lives a woman with the world’s best collection of crystals that she has turned into a cave open to the public. Some of the pictures:

Meanwhile Axel and the dogs passed time in the local Rotary park and viewed art.

I had no clue what it was and zooming in on the sign that was the idea.

By now it got too late to go to our planned location at Mt Carbine, so we looked at campings.

But decided against the easy options and then decided to go off the highway and ended up at Granite Gorge (with actual mini rock wallabies), this is a really nice place:

So we had our dinner over a nice wood fire and slept like roses.

Posted from Chewko, Queensland, Australia.

Instead of writing every day, I figured I could just write per location. You probably don’t read every day and then you can read all about our experiences in one, longer, post instead of over several days. I’m sure we’ll read the comments if you don’t agree with this new, unanimously accepted, policy.

Leaving Toomulla was not very difficult. Not only wouldn’t we miss the generator concert but also we ducked every minute or so as we could hear gun shots. This continued all night (the shots, not the ducking) and in the morning Marjo asked the ranger who told her it was an automated noise gun to scare the birds from eating the prawns from the prawn farm.
We packed up, started the bus and were on the road. The forecast was good, nice weather, wind (!) and a nice location: Mission Beach. One advantage we had in staying at Toomulla and that was some of the people. One couple just came from Mission Beach and stayed at the council camping and we were to aim for site 15 as it was the prime of the camping. Another couple with the same type of bus (Toyota Coaster) and towing a working coffee trailer for earning money at events, told us of places that we could not miss if we have any brains. Argyle Lake and Banrock Station were amongst them, so keep an eye out for our reports on those.

One of my main reason to go to Mission Beach is the endangered Cassowary; there are about 1,500 left and most of them here. So all the way I kept a keen eye out for these birds that can grow 2 meters tall. And we saw a few:

With that out of the way, we could concentrate on our second mission. Fly that kite!
Before it got sofar though we had to look for site 15 on the council camping. We drove along the tourist route to not miss it and the GPS helped us (well not all the way).

After three more missed tries, 29 Cassowary signs and a Marjo who was convinced we should have gone straight for the Hideaway Camping in Mission Beach, we arrived at Dunk Island View camping and actually ended up with a nice site.

We walked along the beach with this time no long stretched low tide but a ‘normal’ 30 meters of sand to the water and some grass and sand growth and the camping across a small road. All very nice and appealing. No wind though 🙁
To make up for the farting around on finding a non existing council camping (no idea what the people had been smoking but it must have given good hallucinations) I decided to cook for Marjo. Nothing but the best for my lady.

Day two

The second day in Mission Beach we had an inkling that it would be good wind. While going through the food process last night, people were talking about a change in weather and I was afraid that this meant rain. Looking it up on the iPad showed that nothing less was true. Wind was forecasted and 15 to 20 knots of it. For my kite (12 m) and muscular structure (read weight) a wind of between 15 and 25 is ideal. So this is right in the sweet spot.
You can imagine how well I slept. Marjo dreamt of Cancel / Save Draft after she lost an email last night. She will say that I has to do with my failing instructions but I think it has nothing to do with that.
You will notice that Marjo is a regular victim of my ‘jabs’ but that is because she reacts so nicely and the dogs can’t read what I write, so not much fun there. In a couple of days Berna and Jos will be visiting Australia and we will catch up with them for a week or so. That will give me a new set of ‘victims’ 😉

Back to the subject of wind. You can imagine my disappointment when I woke up and could hear nothing, no generators, no road, no train, NO WIND! With a forced smile I made breakfast and when Marjo said, did you see those trees sway that she could see from her bed through the open roof vents I thought she was pulling my leg. I turned around, bumped my head (a daily occurrence, my head looks like an overripe tomato with all the bumping in the undersize bus) and, looking in the direction of the beach, I could see the wind move the trees. The smile turned genuine and after a quick breakfast (Marjo wondered why I skipped the egg, but I couldn’t wait for the 5 minutes it takes to boil) I walked to the beach to see for real.
Indeed the wind had picked up and was probably in the 15 – 20 knots range. The Anemometer I got from Berna for my birthday confirmed that it was between 14 and 16 and I went to get the kite gear.
Marjo meanwhile had fed the dogs, made coffee and got ready for the beach.

After we got there I unpacked the gear, dressed up with rash shirt, safety vest and harness, pumped up the kite, connected the lines and untangled them.

Because it was a few days I wanted first to get familiar with the kite again and went first body dragging. Not only the wind had picked up but also the waves, so through ears, nose and mouth my insides got a nice cleanse too.
I worked out that if I bring the kite too low (at or below 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock) the wind is less and the kite has a tendency to drop in the water. I dragged a couple of times out to sea and back again.

Then it was time to practice with the board. First a sit jump, that is bringing the kite quickly from 12 to 2 o’clock which generates a lot of pull and it will pull you off the sand in the air for a long jump. That to see if there is enough wind to pull me out of the water. It worked although the landing could be more elegant. Marjo took some great pictures. Luckily she missed that moment.

Then it was time to try with the board. Nossi thought a couple of times that I drowned and jumped after me in the waves, something he rarely does and Marjo had to call him back every time.

It is all because of my great kiteboarding skills and has nothing to do with Marjo’s art of taking a picture at the best moment so this is where I’m at (luckily she was not filming).

Oh, that last one might have been swapped with what really happened.

All in all a great day.

Day three

I woke up early, well for an unemployed homeless person, at 7.15 am, pumped to dish out breakfast and get on my board. By 8 am, all alone, even for Nossi it was too early, I was on the beach but……no prices for who guessed right….no wind.

I went back and we had a coffee first. Then I booked campings for when Berna and Jos arrive at Cairns. Because they need a cabin, we need to book in advance. At around ten we all went to the beach. Optimistic I brought he kitebag and measured the wind, I figured out that when you blow in the Anemometer you can create hurricane strength winds. In short, I was bored.

We went for a swim, Marjo and Nossi walked all the way past Mission Beach and back and I did some repair work. Then some time to rest.

We had a shower and really a lazy weekend day.

Posted from Wongaling Beach, Queensland, Australia.

Hydeaway Bay was nice but we need to move on if we want to see the rest of this continent. We have now more than 4,000 km covered but it feels we have not done a lot, apart from writing blogs. No, that is not true, we have seen actually quite a bit and enjoyed the scenery, the people and each other.
About that scenery; there is quite a bit of variety between flat and farm like, urban, coastal and hilly with one common thread though: sugar cane. Geez, kilometer after kilometer of fields with sugar cane. And the associated narrow gauge rail tracks that it is transported in. To the young readers, I suggest you consider becoming a dentist or alcohol addiction therapist or own a bar, because this cane must make an enormous mountain of sugar or bundaberg rum that is consumed.

We have several sources for campings and some of them have pictures. The picture of Toomulla Beach seems to come from the imagination of the writer of the article in Bush Camping with Dogs as there is no link between the actual spot and the picture. Still we had a nice time when we eventually reached the beach.

Marjo and Dotti struggled to wade through some of the lagoons formed by low tide.

And Nossi had his own way of dealing with it:

Followed of course with zoomies:

What we suddenly realized that if already at low tide we would struggle with the tide coming in, it would only get worse on the way back. We rushed back and made it with wet pants and dresses.
The higher tide made the sides of a channel on the beach collapse which scared Nossi and he had to very carefully investigate and by doing so caused to collapse more and that scared him more. A nice thing to watch.

Then we got treated on a falcon trying to get a meal together and he kept coming back to dive.

Our final view was of a lone fisherman:

When we came back on the quite full camping, we were accompanied by an orchestra of power generators owned by people to charge their batteries. That is ok for 5 minutes, well perhaps 4. But after two hours you’re about ready to #|~>€%^]@&$ or as Marjo suggests put earplugs in with some music. that worked too. I wished she had those ideas two hours earlier.

We had a very nice dinner with Coral Trout (local fresh), salad and sweet potato.

Tomorrow a less noisy camping 🙂

Posted from Wongaling Beach, Queensland, Australia.

Well, we slept good. After a noisy evening from the surrounding caravans, we had an actually very restful sleep. Nevertheless we were not regretful to pack up and leave early. We had our mind set on Hydeaway Bay and Dingo Beach. The GPS tried its trick again and almost succeeded. It wanted us to continue straight (purple line) where the road ended in a cul-de-sac.

We tried to buy some food at the Woollies at Bowen but found that it was closed on Sundays. That decided it and soon we left Bowen, which has a strange access road. It is very messy with unkempt properties, muddy roadsides and industrial properties. Then the town itself is not too bad. Well, enough of that. Dotti felt that it was time she sat up front with Marjo and just pushed Nossi aside.

Then we drove back to Proserpine to do the shopping. When we left we passed a garage and reversed back to it (I’m getting pretty handy at that) and asked if they could have a look at the gearbox oil. I didn’t like the sound of it (the gearbox that is). It was all fine though and since then we’ve worked out it is the engine making some sound at a certain speed. Something to keep an ear out for. Marjo will say it was her that picked that up,but of course that is just nonsense. We then drove onto Hydeaway Bay Caravan park, parked and setup the bus and went to the beach. The beaches in North Queensland seem to have tides that expose large parts of the beach. At high tide this gives a long ocean floor that prevents high waves and allows you to stand for hundreds of meters offshore and at low tide it exposes the coral, rocks and shells. A smorgasbord for Marjo. Also the dogs loved this as it leaves large pools to wade or run through. Nossi had his zoomies and loved it there.

Dotti did aquarobics for her sore back leg.

Marjo did Fossicking, made beach art and had fun with Nossi and Dotti.

Axel did an attempt with kiteboarding but found the wind too little. Meaning that I could get it up, but had no staying power. They say that age has someone to do with it and that blue pills help, but for me it was just the lack of wind.

Marjo wanted to play with Nossi but again Dotti thought it was her turn.

So we just enjoyed the beach. We stayed for 3 nights at Hydeaway Bay, the place is really nice and the dogs loved it too and by the end of the day we all chilled out.

There were even roo’s on the camping ground.

Every evening we knew it was 6 pm because a group of King Cookoobaras let themselves hear loud and clear, the last evening just above the bus. They say that the birds make the racket every evening and morning at 6, we hope they find another tree in the morning.

The camping also had a communal campfire that we attended once, it is not so my thing to sing along to Neil Diamond and listen three times to the same story of how Sue had her friends from across the street in Hawthorn (Melbourne) come tomorrow at the same camping about 2,500 km north. She was clearly excited and I suspect also slowly developing dementia or had too many Bundy and coke.

The weather was a mix, the first day overcast, then a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures varying from 25 to 16 degrees. Still warm enough to explore the beach every day.

Strange day. It started with rain, again.
We packed up, Marjo made breakfast so I could get up a little later. Fed the dogs, had a shower. While Marjo prepared the inside, I packed away dog beds, chairs, table, rolled up and stowed the fly screens, packed away the tarp to avoid mud in front of the door, the mat and turned off the gas. Then a 3 minutes shower and we were on our way. Close to the amenities we emptied the toilet cassette and took new fresh water on board.
That job takes about 2 minutes and we kept the motor running to warm the diesel engine. This was a about 10 am. Soon a grey nomad came around the bus in evening gown, pyama’s and bed slippers and said “can you turn that off”. Marjo thought he was talking about the tap and she said “it’s almost done”. Then he made a gesture at the bus as if to say “I mean the engine you silly sod” and I said “we’re almost done and leave then”. Friendly crowd. Perhaps we disturbed him in some important pyama and bed slipper activities as his parting words were “people have to work here”.

The constant rain didn’t make it better. Our next stop is Bowen, I thought Marjo wanted to snorkel from the beach and horseshoe beach is the raved about location. The closest camping that returned my call and allows dog is Wangaratta, about 4 km from horseshoe bay.
We stopped at an information desk next to the Big Mango and Marjo got some local information, also about crocodiles. She read that crocs can run fast but if you’re reasonably fit you can outrun them in a straight line. Don’t zig-zag as the croc is smarter and will cut corners and get you.

To get fit we walked the 4 km along the beach from Wangaratta to horseshoe bay and back. I think we are fit enough to outrun a croc now. We need to put something on Dotti though, like hot chili so the croc won’t eat her. She was too tired/painful leg to join us. Nossi will have no problems outrunning all of us.
The weather turned perfect, sunny and warm. Marjo snorkeled and saw some reef but was spoilt by our snorkeling in the Whitsundays some years back. So although nice, nothing to write in a blog about.

The camping is horrible. People stay here from June till August/September and know each other. It’s a bit like Payton Place or some other tv series where people have nothing to do then talk about each other and have so much time on their hands that everything is discussed in minute detail. Oh no, I hope that’s not what I’m doing in this blog. Please tell me I’m not becoming a grey nomad….

Well, tomorrow we’ll go to a more secret place…..hydeaway bay (I know, weird spelling).

Oh and we forgot to take any pictures today so just a few oldies…..

Posted from Bowen, Queensland, Australia.

The rain had stopped in the morning and we decided to celebrate by a second day at Travelers Rest. This is actually a nice camping, the grey nomads keep to themselves at the powered sites and sit in the camp kitchen to talk about the hippies (us). We are the only campers on the grass, close to the beach. The amenities are great and no one complains about our unleashed dogs.

I had a lazy day, after making her majesty her breakfast with egg (that she deserves, so no complains from me) I read my ebook and dozed. Dotti did too and Marjo and Nossi went on a long walk and took some nice pictures.

Meanwhile I shaved (cheeks only), showered and when they returned I baked on request mini pancakes with raisins for lunch. I forgot to add an egg, but Marjo had one that morning and too many eggs seem to be not good or so. So Nossi did a nap and Marjo waited patiently for me to finish cooking.

In the afternoon we looked at the forthcoming itinerary around Bowen (to snorkel from the beach) and Dingo beach/Hydeaway (I know, strange spelling) because it seems to be nice and on the way to a nice waterfall.

In the late afternoon a drizzle started and Marjo and Nossi went for a long walk again around a small island. Nossi discovered fishing, waiting patiently in belly deep water for the fish to swim by and then hoppa missed! And that over and over.

Posted from Midge Point, Queensland, Australia.

The days become a bit of a blur. Must be the alcohol.
To be honest, we have been very modest with alcohol. One drink a night and not even every time.
Our memory still works though and we can remember the trucks and sugar and coal trains passing by the camping very well. Don’t these people sleep?
Although a nice camping, we love our nights rest. It didn’t bother us too much actually, when I hit my pillow and am not distracted, I fall asleep within a minute. Enfin, we decided that Clairview was nice for one night and move on.

We want to have a look at Mackay and drove there. On the way we see a sign for Armstrong Beach and because I saw the man set foot on the moon when I was 7 and we read about a camping on the beach we turned off from the Bruce Highway. Armstrong Beach must have been able to dip deep in the Economic Stimulus program as all the houses and roads look like they were put up yesterday. Very different from the paint hungry houses (if we may call them that) in Mount Moran or the various little townships we pass. We drove along the beach and then see that one has missed out, the camping! An overcrowded, weird organized plot, cramped with cars, caravans and campers. We didn’t even stop but kept going and did an uwie (u-turn) half on the road and half on the grass. Then we went back past the campyard and stopped at a beach access, to give the dogs and ourself a little stretch. The ducks and a mother and child led the way.

Again the ocean was far from where the beach started. All the sand that has been washed from the NSW beaches such as Smiths Lake must have washed onshore here. The slope of the beach is so gradual that you have to walk hundreds of meters to get to the water. Strange.

Then an uneasy feeling overcome us. We felt watched, observed even. We looked around but nothing or no one else but the four of us. So we thought. Nossi spotted the armies first.

Not only were they well organized and had troop maneuvers to surround us.

Also they went in sentries as soon as we came in close range.

We felt overpowered and made a honourfull retreat. It could also be that the rain picked up and we didn’t want to get wet.

We drove back to the Bruce Highway and looked for something like fish & chips. What we found was an overdone tavern and decided to park next to it instead and have a home made lunch. For me egg on bread with ham and cheese (yummie) for Marjo noodles in a cup (ok, I guess). By then the rain came steadily down and everything starts to look the same. Then onto Mackay where we saw the trivia answer.

In Mackay we stopped to get some essentials (coffee, dog food and chocolate for Axel). Then we went onto Midge Point where we saw a nice camping. Our sources are now multi fold with all kind of websites where people give reviews and leave pictures and this looked quite nice.
That it is indeed. We arrived in the pouring rain, found a spot on the empty grass (we like it better there, more room and privacy and you save $4 a night). The downside is that in rain it gets a bit soppy but with thongs it is not too bad. We walked the dogs on the beach (that is endless, with the ocean about a kilometer out at low tide, no joke) and then sat under the awning listening to the rain.

When it got too dreary, we went inside and looked at next camp sites and the weather. Great. A week of rain forecasted for the whole of Queensland. Nossi didn’t care.

Posted from Midge Point, Queensland, Australia.