A site for sore eyes



The boys trying to open a coconut

After a big day of driving through bad weather, we arrived about 20ks out of Mackay and were planning on staying at a little rest area outside of a hotel. But when we got there we decided against staying. It was a dirty little car park behind a dirty little pub. There was broken glass and mud everywhere and it looked as though it was the local hang out and drinking area. They have had a lot of rain recently so the area to camp in was at least two inches under water.



Zaccy playing cars in the sand

We went to call some caravan parks to try to get into one, only to find we had no phone service. W need phone service for Dan to contact his clients so we had no choice but to move.

On the way into town I was calling all the caravan parks to see if they had vacancies. Not only were they all full but most of them didn’t allow dog to stay. We are travelling with Marvel, our Labrador so we needed a dog friendly park.

We finally found a vacancy at a little caravan park north of Mackay in a town called Bucasia. They only had one site left because the power box to that site was not working. We have solar power so we didn’t mind. By this time it was getting late and we were getting a bit desperate.

We were really lucky because the site was beautiful and backed right onto the beach. We just had to walk a few metres under the coconut palms and we came out on a beautiful, almost deserted beach.

 

The view from our caravan. It was magical!

 

We had the beach to ourselves - it was too cold for the locals!

Sam took Marv for a run on the beach every day.

We were told that there are crocodiles in the river on the other side of the caravan park, but the beach was ok to paddle in. I was nervous about the crocs and very worried about Marvel getting taken. After walking along the beach and making sure I couldn’t see any trace of crocs we went for a paddle and had a lovely time. From then on we spent a lot of time at the beach and Sam took Marvel for a run along the water’s edge every day.

There are a lot of families staying in Bucasia beach and the kids quickly made friends. They all did their school by distance education in the morning, then played on the beach and built cubbies under the palm trees in the afternoon.

We spent an afternoon in town at the Lagoon. Unfortunately the waterslide was closed but he kids still had a wonderful time cooling off in the pools.

Zac was so excited he went in fully clothed!

We drove out to Eungella one afternoon to try to see the elusive platypus at Finch Hatton Gorge but when we got there the rain had set in. It became so cloudy that we could hardly see the road in front of us let alone anything in the river!

Crossing a causeway in the National Park

We drove up to the top of Mount Eungella but once again we were in cloud so didn’t have a good view. It was beautiful coming back down through the clouds though.

We stopped off at the Pinnacle Pub to try their world famous pies on the way home. We were sitting waiting for our dinner to arrive when we thought we heard a familiar voice. There was a guy at the bar that sounded exactly like a really good friend back home, Nathan. It was hilarious to listen to this guy and it got us talking about home.

We really miss all our family and friends but we are just not ready to go back yet. We are travelling around Australia really slowly so that we can see as much as possible, but we are not even half way yet. There is still so much more to explore!

Not sure what the boys were up to!

Every morning these ducks came over for breakfast

Dan found this stingray on the beach - Marvel thought it was dinner!

More beach treasures

Zaccy's first self-built sand castle!! Very proud of himself.

 

Monkey Business

It is great to be back on the road again after staying in Caloundra for nearly a month. We drove past all of the places we visited last year until we got past Gladstone. From Gladstone heading north we entered new territory. The kids were all very excited to be further north than we had ever been!

An overnight stop at Childers

We spent a week in Rockhampton staying at the Gracemere Caravan Park. From there we did day trips in and around town.

the view from our carvan!

 

 

 

We had been advised that the Rockhampton Zoo wasn’t very good but we thought we would check it out one afternoon anyway. We were so glad we didn’t listen to those people - the Zoo was wonderful. It is located in the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens and is free to go in to. There are beautiful bird aviaries, lots of native animals and birds, and a big reptile house. There is also a big enclosure with four beautiful chimpanzees living there. The two big males have been there for over 25 years and they have recently introduced two females to try to encourage breeding.

We watched eagerly as the zookeeper arrived with a one litre tub of yoghurt and four fruit juice boxes. He scooped the yoghurt into four bowls then passed the bowls under the fence. The chimps each put out their hands and received a spoon from the keeper. They then proved that they can easily eat using cutlery buy scraping the bowls clean with their spoons. The keeper then asked very politely for the chimps to return the bowls and spoons which they all did except one. She was a bit grumpy and threw her bowl and spoon on the floor. The keeper politely asked one of the males to collect her bowl for him and he obliged. The keeper then passed the fruit juice boxes to each chimp which they all pierced the boxes with their teeth, inserted the straws and finished their drinks.

It was wonderful to watch this interaction between the chimps and their keeper and to watch the chimps eating and drinking the way we do. The keeper explained that we share over 98% of our DNA with chimps and the only reason they cannot communicate vocally is that the chimps don’t have vocal chords. They understand most of what we say and defiantly understand our tone. The keeper said that if you don’t speak nicely to them, they will never do as you ask.

Zaccy sharing his icecream

Sam and Will playing in the Botanical Gardens

We spent and afternoon the Capricorn Caves north of town. The caves are different from any we have seen before. They are classed as dry caves and instead of going down underground into the caves; you climb into the side of the mountain to enter them. They are a unique system of above-ground caves in a limestone ridge.  The caves were first discovered in 1882 by a Norwegian migrant John Olsen and is today one of the largest privately owned caves system in Australia.

We were welcomed by this mum and her baby

Inside the undeground chapel

Exhausted after all that exploring in caves

We were told that the best fish and chips in the country were from a little shop out in Yeppoon. We drove along the Emu Park Road to go and try them for ourselves. A very pretty drive out there and the view from the park opposite the shop was lovely, however the fish and chips were far from the best we have had! We made a deal that day to not listen to other people’s opinions. We agreed to make up our own minds about the places to visit and the food to eat!

Eating the 'not so fantastic' fish n chips

 

Marvel enjoyed the day out too!

Yeppoon Marina

Some fantastic rock formations

The boys clambering over the rocks