Boyne Island to Lucinda

Hi all, sorry for the big delay in posting this blog We've had problems with our wireless access, so also haven't been sending emails to family and friends recently - sorry if you've emailed and we haven't replied! This blog takes us up till about July 10, will post the latest in a week or so...

Lots of travelling since last blog, we've now stayed at 11 campgrounds, seven since Fraser Island so are becoming accomplished at putting up/pulling down the campertrailer. After Hervey Bay we were planning to head to 1770 (they named the town after capn cooks landing in 1770) but being school holidays had problems getting into such a popular area at last minute. So we headed up to Boyne Island and spent 5 days there. Really pleased we did, it was a great spot on the side of the river, and short drive to nice beach and seriously cool playground (castle structure, flying fox etc). Took the boat out on the river every day, crab pots out every morning. Only one mud crab to show for it and it was huge, but unfortunately a female in berry (ie babies) so back it went - all three boys disappointed.

damming the creek at Boyne Island

Next on the agenda was Platypus Bush Camp at Eungella National Park (inland from Mackay). We felt like a change from the beaches and the camp was on the edge of a creek where the platypus live. We were going to spend two nights here but found it not to our liking, the promised platypus hadn't been seen since the last floods although a woman at the campground thought she saw one the night we arrived. Nice spot, rustic (Rob's word for it was feral), but not great for young kids - couldn't go down to the creek beside our tent because the rocks were very unstable, and the nearby walks all too long for us. The 'outdoor' showers were strategically placed so the manager 'wazza' could see straight into them from his treetop house! So, packed up after one rainy night (the guy next door played heavy metal all night which was probably the deciding factor in the end - who wants to be woken up by ACDC at 4 in the morning!) Gorgeous area though.

So onwards to Airlie Beach where we had bad luck again in our choice of accommodation. Stayed at a campground right in the centre of town, awesome spot and in its heyday would've been the most fantastic campground - had a bar (closed) with garden bar and waterfall (not running), mini golf (we played, it was great - so rundown it didn't matter that Ruben broke the edge off on number 8), tennis court (fairly unusable). The worst of it were the amenities, big areas of tiles broken, mould growing in all the dark corners, floors really unclean. They hired backpackers (Airlie is a backpacker town, gateway to Whitsundays) to do their cleaning - lets just say it didn't cut into much of their day! We shortened our stay to two nights, although did really enjoy Airlie itself. Council have built an awesome set of pools next to the beachfront, from wading pools to 2m deep swimming holes. Crowded with bodies enjoying the sunshine. Also a great little playground and bbq areas right there. Nice.

Swinging at Airlie Beach Campground

The 'kitchen sink' at Airlie Campground (the size of a bathtub!)

The kookaburras met for a chinwag each morning

The campgrounds friendly (we hope) goanna

From Airlie onto Townsville, but bad luck again with accommodation - still school holidays and seems Townsville is a very popular place to go. We headed 50km north and found Rollingstone, beautiful beachfront campground - only 1/3 full (and at that point, the most important thing - seriously clean amenity blocks). They also had a couple of lagoons which were stocked with barramundi, milk fish and eels (among other things). We were given a couple of bags of fish pellets to feed them which was great fun for the kids, and good practice for their overarm! Stayed three nights here to get a break from the setup/takedown.

a short walk and we had the beach to ourselves at Rollingstone

Ruben feeding the eels at the campground lagoon

milk fish in the lagoon (da nuh da nuh da nuh)

Rob tries out his new castnet

Spent a night at Lucinda on the way up to Kurrimine Beach. Wish we'd been able to stay longer. Lovely little township, with a bizarrely long wharf. Campground very cool - we got the last site and can see why its so popular. That night they had a free sausage sizzle and three piece band playing all the old country/rock and roll. A bit of fun although we had to leave early as the kids played up. Awesome fishing spot too we found, although we didn't have time to go out in the boat. Hitchinbrook Island was just offshore and home to some great fishing. Oh well next time. Now we've arrived at Kurrimine Beach, Rob's heading up to Cairns today to pick Dad up from the airport - he's going to spend the next leg of the trip with us, to 'the tip' (Cape York).

Golf cart at Lucinda Campground

6km long wharf at Lucinda

Hitchinbrook Island, just minutes from Lucinda... but not this trip