Central Coastal Queensland and the Whitsunday Islands

We drove up the north coast of Brisbane called the Sunshine Coast. Much of that area is an extension of Brisbane’s urban sprawl, so although it was pretty we just drove through it. After an overnight stop in the little village of Gympie we found ourselves in the twin hamlets of Agnus Water and 1770. The latter was named a number to commemorate the landing on that spot of Captain Cook in the year 1770. It had lovely inlet and cove, but the main reason for their popularity was for the boatie clan and because they were the ports for the two Coral Cays of the southern Great Barrier Reef.... Lady Musgrove Is and Lady Elliot Is. It was expensive to get to these Islands and it was windy so we only stayed there for 2 days and moved on. We passed a sign for a large Dam on the way called Lake Awoomba where they advertised catching huge Barramundi and other fish. We decided to spend a day or two having a look as it was a pleasant bush camp with views overlooking the pretty lake and surrounding mountains. The fishing unfortunately had been bad since the floods (this dam had risen by 6 meters), so we again decided to move on. So after only 5 days out of Brisbane we found ourselves in Rockhampton and into the Tropic of Capricorn. We found a little park in the centre of the city with large trees and on the banks of the big Fitzroy River..the one that had flooded the whole area only weeks before. There was debris hanging from impossibly high branches in trees, and photos of the caravan park under water! Couldn’t believe how nice and normal everything looked considering. We were amused by the sign on the bank of that river advising that there were crocodiles in that river and not to venture too close to the bank. We laughed at how the council could be so overprotective of tourists; after all, this was the centre of a large town. Then we heard that a croc had taken a man only weeks before...... The tropics are attractive with lots of lush vegetation, palm trees, native Hoop Pines ....large flowers,large butterflies, large mozzies! The main “wet “season is almost over, but the temperature is still warm and humid.
From Rockingham we detoured to the small coastal strip of Yeppoon, Causeway and Emu Park. We tried fishing but the water is so shallow there because of the Barrier Reef that you can walk out many meters in low tide on vast sand flats. The area was pretty but the beaches were on the whole rocky and muddy. So once again after only a day or so we moved on.
Near Mackay we went inland to the Great Dividing Range again, this time to see the Famous Finch Hatton Gorge and Escarpment overlooking the Pioneer Valley. This area is known for its bird life, and for Platypus in the Rivers. The road was flanked with miles of high, green sugar cane, which contrasted with the blue of the surrounding mountains.
We are now at Airlie Beach which is the very touristy gateway to the famous Whitsunday Islands ...a dream area for sailing and boating, and some of the most exclusive resorts in Australia. We decided we would try a boat cruise and see what the Whitsunday Passage was like, and booked on a fast boat which took us to Border Island for some snorkelling, and then to the famous Whitehaven Beach which is the third most photographed place in Australia and voted one of the most pristine beaches in the world. The Whitsunday Islands look just like a submerged mountain range (which of course they are..volcanic mountains which were once part of the mainland) set in the most gorgeous azure sea. The passage between them is perfect for sailing charters and there are thousands of yachts, tall ships and schooners in the many miles between the 74 Islands. Some are high enough to have a cloud cap, others mere rocky outcrops. The day was wonderful..we enjoyed our snorkel for an hour and half and saw many amazing coloured fish. The visit to Whitehaven Beach breathtaking, especially swimming on the beach and walking on the white, icing sugar sands. It was a really great day.We decided not to go to the outer reef from here as it is still 90 miles away so expensive, but will wait until it is closer to shore in Cairns.

Beautiful Brisbane

Crossing the border at the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise we drove through the busy, touristy Miami style beach front as quickly as possible. This is the place of the Great Theme Parks like Sea World and Movie World, and we were glad not to have children with us who would have wanted to do all those gut wrenching rides. Instead we went to Mt Tambourine, a piece of the scenic rim which rises over 1000 meters from the coast and is very scenic and pretty. It is actually flat on top so there is a small, arty town on the top, lots of pretty walks and lookouts, and wonderful patches of rainforest. We did some hikes to waterfalls, visited craft shops and also went to a mine which had “thunder rocks”..those rough egg shaped rocks which reveal wonderful crystals and topaz when cut in half.
From there we went to my brother and his wife who live south of Brisbane. We spent Easter with them and their delightful children, fished in the Logan River, and went on some pretty walks along the creeks. The following week they moved house so we were able to help them pack and then unpack into their lovely new home..busy time! We found Brisbane to be a young, vibrant city and we were very lucky with the weather which was cool and pleasant. My other brother and his wife from the UK were visiting their daughter and stopped over in Brisbane ...we were so lucky to have been able to meet up with them and that our itineries coincided as we had not seen them for over 10 years. It was a great family reunion.
Brisbane itself is not big; the city is built around the winding Logan River with several bridges spanning the two banks. We took a bus into the city and the fare included the very efficient ferry service up and down the river so we took a ride up the river one day and down the next time we went in...that way we got a good view of the houses along the banks. We also managed to see the very good art gallery and Museum, and other sights in the city. One Sunday we met up with some friends of ours from Perth who were visiting their son, and together we went to Mt Coo-tha and Brisbane State Park for a picnic..the former giving views of the whole city and surrounds. A lovely day in very scenic surroundings ..even though it was misty and some of the views were guesswork!
Our stay lasted 3 weeks and it went very quickly..we were sorry to leave the dear family and continue the circumnavigation of Australia again. After hugs and goodbyes we set off for northern Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef, and more adventures.
Photos:
Paul on Ferry in Brisbane
Fishing with family
Family reunion
New house
Brisbane Nat Park...Aboriginal Humpy

Farewell to NSW

We loved out visit to NSW and the northern section was just as pretty as the southern coast. We stayed at lovely beachside bays called Lauriton, Hat Head, and Evans Head where large rivers flowed into the sea leaving lagoons, estuaries, sand banks and idyllic beaches. The “Heads” were large hills jutting out to sea at the river mouth, forming protection the beaches and scenic backdrops. We had lovely camps sites virtually on the river or beaches, and the weather was perfect. This was our opportunity to test the fishing of the region, so each evening we would set out with our rods and bait and spend some pleasant hours in the sunset watching the pelicans and waterbirds and feeding the fish! We did catch a lot of Bream, and Whiting but most were under the legal limit (35 cms) so were throw backs. We did eat a couple of our catch, but really we did it for the enjoyment......
We also went to the Dorrigo Tops World Heritage park (another part of the volcano system) and related to the Barrington Tops area. Lovely mountains with forests, rainforest walks and impressive waterfalls. One of them, the Crystal waterfall, has the path going behind the actual waterfall.
So goodbye NSW, we loved every minute of the time spent here (from mid Dec until Mid March) and will definitely be back! Our adventure continues as we head into the Sunshine State (Queensland).
Photos;
View if the New England Nat Park from lookout near Dorrigo Tops.
Crystal Waterfall in the forest at Dorrigo Tops..you can walk behind the falls
One of our camps on the river bank..we could almost fish from our annex
View from Pt Macquarie looking over the bay with Hat Head in the far background

Mt Warning and the Border Ranges

One of the things we had wanted to do on this trip was visit and climb Mt Warning. I guess we had seen it once on National Geographic and it looked like an awesome place. Mt Warning is the central Magma chamber of a HUGE volcano that erupted 2o million years ago. It was almost twice the height of the present Mt Warning but after years of eroding it now sits at 1157 meters from sea level (which is the surrounding country). Its lava flows covered 5000 sq kms and as far as 100 kms out to sea. Its caldera is the second largest and best preserved basin in the world, and it forms a huge sheer escarpment of mountains surrounding the central plug of World Heritage Rainforests which have hundreds of species of animals, birds and plants. Mt Warning was named by Captain Cook because he could see it way out from the coast and it warned him of a treacherous coastline. The Aboriginals named it Wollumbin..meaning “Cloud Catcher” because its height means it is often covered in cloud and rain, and it is of spiritual significance for them.
Well, why would we want to go there and climb this awesome feature....I don’t know, must be some sort of masochist part of our character. The topmost central cone of this mountain rises 200 sheer meters and the top can only be reached by climbing with a chain ....1157 meters up in the air! The bottom slopes to the vertical top are a steep climb of 4.4 kms, going through different kinds of Rainforest until the top is fairly rocky and scrubby. The grading is “Strenuous for experienced climbers only”...I am NOT one of those. Anyway, we decided to give it a go, even tho I had stubbed my toe a day earlier and it had swollen up and gone black....
The Camp Park was lovely, set in lovely big rainforest trees, with a little creek running thru it..we were almost the only campers because it is out of season. There were lovely birds, Brush Turkeys and different butterflies.
Well, the day dawned clear (the first fine day without clouds for ages) and we left after a breakfast of egg and bacon for energy...All I can say is it not for the feint hearted! The 4.5 kms going up is a constant climb, getting steeper and rockier as it neared the top. Most of the hike is in forest which is very pleasant, but even so it was sweaty work. After 2 and half hours hiking, we got to the vertical part and then had to scramble up steep rocks with the help of a chain rope which waves around as you cling to it. Fortunately the chain was on the right hand side and I could hold on to it with that hand because my left shoulder was not strong enough to haul me up..I used a walking stick to balance myself! That seemed to go on forever, but at last we got to the top where a lookout platform had views 360 deg and right into Queensland and the coast ..Byron Bay 42 kms as the crow flies. The weather was clear and although there were cloud s on some of the other peaks we could see for miles. The hike down the chains was not pleasant, going down backwards and for me a lot of it on my bottom, and after the 9.8 kms there was not a part of me that did not hurt. I am glad that we did it but won’t repeat that again in a hurry!
The next day we drove the surrounding mountain range called the Border Range which is the edge of the caldera..a huge escarpment surrounding Mt Warning in a Shield shape. The slopes were covered with thick forests of temperate and sub tropical Rainforest, huge trees with vines, palms, ferns, moss and very very beautiful. The views from the lookouts over the valleys and Mt Warning were breathtaking. One of our highlights was seeing a 3 meter Carpet Python lying sunning itself by the side of the road..
Photos:
View from the top of Mt Warning
Warning about Mt Warning!
The climb
Paul looking at the Carpet Python in the forest
View of Mt Warning from the edge of the caldera rim..Border Ranges. That view of the mountain is 15 kms away and it juts out into the sky in a pointed peak..nearly always covered in cloud.

Beasties, Creepies, and Leeches!

The Question I get asked most often by the overseas folk is “But what about the SNAKES???” Now I know that Australia is known to have 20 of the 25 most poisonous snakes in the world, and spiders that are lethal, and other dangerous fauna that can make humans crook. Books like Bill Bryson’s “Down Under” go to great pains telling about the many Dangerous Australians lying in wait for the hapless traveller, and even the humble Stingray managed to spear our famous Wildlife Warrior Steve Irwin. In the Ocean there are more lethal creatures like the Box jellyfish which kills by stinging a person to death in agony, the Stone Fish, the Blue Ringed octopus and of course the Saltwater Crocks. If you worried about all of these hazards I am sure that no one would leave home, but in fact the country is teeming with grey nomads and backpackers all having a ball.
So far our tally of sighting fauna is abysmal. Maybe it’s because we come from Africa and are used to the bush being alive with big animals, but we find the bush very quiet and seemingly empty. Many of the Australian animals are quiet, small, gentle marsupials which are nocturnal. And the nasties really don’t want to get you either. Our tally so far is:
Many, many kangaroos, including the small, furry Brush Tailed Wallaby which is dark and lives in mountainous areas.
Many Emus
2 dead snakes on the road in SA
2 Echidnas
Few Dingos
A newly dead Wombat on the road
Lots of spiders webs, but nothing looking like it was out to get us
2 large lizards/ goanna things, which were about 2 meters long.
There are many wonderful birds and we are always seeing new types of parrots and kingfishers, water bird, doves, and the Whipbird with its strident call. We see many majestic Sea Eagles, Ospreys and heard the Cat Bird which Meows like a cat.
There are also many wonderful trees and plants, especially now that we are going into the subtropics. My favourite wildflowers so far are the Flame Lilies which are growing wild in this area. Also St Joseph Lilies seem to grow wild along the sides of the road, as well as Status and what looks like yellow Cosmos.
The worst experience we have had was when we were hiking in a rainforest in the High Plateau. It was a misty, drizzly day and the rainforest was breathtaking with huge buttress trees, ferns, and birds nest ferns growing on tree limbs. We hiked 3 kms down a steep slope which was muddy, and covered with a mat of dead leaves. We finally got to the waterfall we were going to see, and stood on the wooden lookout gazing at the 200 meter spout falling into the ravine in awe. After a minute or two I looked down at my walking shoe and saw that it was covered in....LEECHES! I squealed and immediately pulled my shoes and socks off to see a few attached to me and many more wriggling towards my foot...Paul looked at his shoes and saw that he, too ,was covered in the horrible little slimy , big mouthed creepies. I realised that there were many more coming for me, literally, and I tried to shake out my socks while dancing en pointe and balancing with as little of me touching the ground as possible. Every time my hand touched one it sort of stuck, and I’d squeal to Paul to take it off (which he heroically did) even tho he had problems of his own. I could not believe my eyes, these little worm like thingies came humping towards us from every crevice on the platform, as if drawn by the smell of blood. Paul even found one more than half way up his leg, enough to make a grown man weak just thinking about the possibilities. Finally we got our shoes and socks back on and started back up the steep and slippery path...and made it back in half the time we took to get down! Each time I stopped for a breath ( on a flat rock) I would suddenly see lots of tiny heads rear up through the damp leaves and then start their wriggle towards me....Horrors. Even tho they are not harmful the mere thought of them sucking my blood was enough to keep me almost jogging up the hill. They are masters of gaining entry, as we saw them make themselves thread thin and wriggle through the stitching of our shoes, and through the weave of the socks..only to grow to bloated slug like sizes once they attach themselves. They inject an anti coagulant so you bleed profusely, but other than that there are no side effects. We now know we must spray personal repellent on our feet and legs before a hiking in wet, foresty places next time as that deters them.. That, and some quite voracious sand flies at the latest campsite are the most lethal things we have had to contend with.
But the trip is not over yet.........

The Central Coast, Barrington Tops and fishing at last

We wanted to continue our journey along the coast road and the circumnavigation of the country. The area we were aiming for looked lovely on the map...two huge lakes with a small entrance into the sea, bays, lighthouses and beaches! The area was called The Entrance, and we drove eagerly looking for an isolated beach for some fishing and beach walking. What a disappointment...the whole area was just an extension of the Sydney sprawl and was built up, expensive, overcrowded and BUSY! The coast was lovely, but after one night we decided to move on to something more peaceful and unpopulated. We moved to a small hamlet on the northern banks of Port Stephens called Hawks Nest. Port Stephens is a huge bay ( twice as big as Sydney Harbour) with two rivers flowing into the bay which then flows out to sea between two large headlands and numerous small islands...very beautiful. The beaches inside the bay are peaceful and turquoise and there are many playful dolphins in the shallows. The open sea side beaches are long stretches of golden sand and huge waves. We stayed on the quiet side of the bay in a small caravan park right on the beach and surrounded by huge trees and national park and it was so peaceful we stayed there a week (also it rained a lot so then we had to stay indoors). The opposite side of the bay are the trendy and busy touristy places like Nelson and the pretty Shoalwater Bay. There are ferries across the bay hourly so we took one to see the other side and then took a bus to the various little bays across the peninsula. The whole area is green and lush and the beaches are crescent bays with picturesque headlands at each end. We were entranced, but have since realized that this is also the case on the whole central and northern coast of NSW, i.e. big rivers flowing into the sea making estuaries, lakes and bays, with lovely beaches. Since the whole area is volcanic and the Great Dividing Range extends to the sea, the surrounding bays are framed by these wonderful green lush mountains. We did a bit of fishing on the river, and walked in the Nat Park where we saw a few wild Dingoes wandering around and many different bird species. There were even some Brush Turkeys in the camp site.
We intended to meander up the coast, but decided to make another detour inland to see an area called Barrington Tops. This is a World Heritage Area which rises to 1600 meters pretty much from sea level. The “tops” are a series of rocky outcrops on the tops of mountains formed by the huge volcanoes which dominated the area millions of years ago and which have now eroded leaving only the lava cores. The valleys and slopes are covered in subtropical and temperate rain forest and have many endangered species of plants and animals. We stayed in the nearest town which was Gloucester, which had the fast flowing Gloucester River flowing through the caravan park. It had been raining on and off for days but on a day that “they” promised would be clear we started driving to the Nat Park 60ks away. The dirt road was terrible, made worse by recent rains..potholed and slippery. Still we slowly (12 kms an hour) pushed on by the promise of views and hikes. The road climbed and climbed, and when we got to the first lookout we hiked to the edge to look at the view and saw.....milky white cloud!! Only tantalising glimpses of the steep gorge through the mist now and again showed us what we were missing. We drove a bit further, but it started to rain heavily, so we drove all the way back slipping and sliding in the mud without even having had the experience! Still the forest had been wonderful, and we did see a glimpse of what we will see next time. It continued raining ( records broken and floods all over the country at this time), and we nervously watched the big river rising nearer the bridge knowing that only a week before it had covered the bridge and the town was cut off. A walk along the river bank had a memorial erected to the “big flood of 1960 which had the town one and half meters under water”..the town was one km away and on a hillside!! We decided to move on back up the coast.....
Next stop was another lovely collection of Hamlets near Port Macquarie where we stayed in Laurieton. Again, it was at the mouth of a large river and the estuaries and lakes made the area perfect for fishing. There was a steep mountain at the edge of the town called North Brother which rose steeply from the bay to 600 meters and had wonderful views of the area..they did hang gliding from the edge! Paul and I did a lot of fishing in this area as it was so peaceful sitting on the lakes edge watching the sun go down, the pelicans cruising around us, and the bird life. I am getting quite good at casting, baiting, and even rigging the rod..still have nothing edible to prove it though. Caught a lot of Bream but the legal size for them is 30 cms. Paul caught a large long fish with a long beak and nasty teeth..we think it was a type of Barracuda called a Long Tom. We did a trip into Port Macquarie and saw the scenic little bay towns along the way like Bonnie Hills. Lots of rain..but when the sun did come out it was humid. A sure sign that we were heading closer to Queensland and the tropics!
PHOTOS: View of the beach at Shoalwater bay showing the headlands
Paul holding up a Beach Worm we found on the beach being attacked by a crab (normally they are hard to find) ...they grow larger than this one and the fish love them for bait. This beach we found in a Nat Park was about 4 kms of perfect flat white sand....and we were the ONLY people on the whole beach!!
Colleen looking over the lookout in Barrington Tops trying to see the view of the gorge through the mist.
Paul holding up the pine cone of the Bunya Pine tree which is native to the East Coast. The Pine grows to about 45 meters and the cones can weigh up to 10 kg. The kernels which are found in the ripe cone are as big as plums. One has to be careful sitting under these trees as they are quite prolific!