Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

 Day One - 18th April, 2025.

Home - Calliope Rest Area Miriam Vale

Our big 3 week adventure is finally here.  We're heading off the Cairns, so Craig can go on his 6 night Fishing Charter with his mate Dave and eight other punters (it was his Christmas/Birthday present).  We are working our way up to Cairns over the next 4 days to arrive in Cairns on Tuesday, where I will stay and work remotely while hubby goes off to catch da fish 🐋🐟

I know what you're thinking, you're leaving on Good Friday are you mad - well yes, but it is necessary to get up there for the charter and it's okay we made sure we have covered all the public holidays Easter, Anzac Day and Labour Day 👍

We had a few things to finish up around the property before we head off, including mowing at the last minute so we didn't come home to a jungle full of slivering 🐍😮 and yes, we left about  an hour late.  Quite surprised at how quiet the roads were heading north from the Sunshine Coast, not that we were complaining, trust me.

 

I have plotted our course up the coastline to reach Cairns Tuesday morning, which will give us until Thursday morning to set up, go buy a few things for his charter (Oh, I don't know like a new fishing rod, tackle, alcohol and ear plugs apparently😂) and for me  and Barney to eat and drink, you know just the basics.

We got away at 12pm, traffic was reasonable northbound on the Bruce.  Stopped at Gunalda United for some fuel, lunch and to release the hound for a wander so he stops whining and whinging in the car (does it for about for the first hour, get him out and then he's good - weird).  Geezus, it was busy and people were so rude, it reminds me why normally we would not go anywhere over Easter.  I did come across a little old Staffy tied to the post near an entrance to the shop patiently waiting for his/her owner.  Gave him/her a scratch and made sure the knob pulling into the park in front wasn't going to hit him/her.

Crickey I'll be glad to get out of here!

Back on the road, knocking off the kilometres until we reach good ole' Tiaro.  We stopped not far after leaving the servo, the traffic was crawling.  Half an hour it took for us to reach Tiaro finally and there was just no reason 😡 Since it was Good Friday Tiaro was dead absolutely nothing open, nobody there, no one crossing the road, no roadworks were going on, so I have no idea WHY ?

Due to this little set back to our plan, we re-assessed our arrival time at Calliope would be around 6pm and decided we would stop at Miriam Vale for the night, since it'll be near on 5pm by the time we get there.  I haven't made our journey each day any longer then about 4 1/2 hours, we stop about every 2 hours to give everyone a break, but especially Craig as he is driving.  I'm going to put my little soapbox down on the earth for a little moment and just have a wee little whinge about the Bruce Highway!!  Holey Crap it is in disgusting condition, from rattling your teeth out of your head, giving you a headache and neck ache to making the dog look like he's continuously having a head tremor, the poor little fella, they really do need to fix this road up for crying out loud.

Right, soapbox put away again.  

I called ahead to the Star Roadhouse and Caravan Park in Miriam Vale to make sure we could get a site, yes I know it's not exactly a destination but it is Easter.  I would have preferred to have stayed at the Miriam Vale Pub, but of course it wasn't open being Good Friday and the RV park which is basically a bitumen car park didn't excite us, so for the sake of paying $25.00 and we'd have power and water, plus a lovely hot shower and sit down flushing loo, caravan park it was.

It's a small Caravan Park with a couple of cabins and about 8 sites, pool, dog friendly and updated amenities.  You can get pizza, burgers etc., from the servo for dinner if you choose until 8pm.

We just had an easy dinner of hot dogs, enjoyed our hot shower, then retired to bed.  Craig was somewhat tired and Barney is over stimulated and being a complete pain in the a*#e.

Getting Barney to go to sleep and stay asleep was difficult and it's not what you would call a quiet park, being it's on the Bruce Highway.

It's all good, just a part of the adventure!

Blue Gums River Retreat

14th March - 16th March 2025

Stopped in at Tiaro for lunch of course on our way, we initially stopped at the pub in town but unfortunately they didn't have gas and a limited menu, so we headed over to the Hideaway Hotel again which was on the way to our weekend camping ground anyway.

Blue Gums River Retreat is our destination this weekend with our good mates The Razzles.  We have seen this place on the Camping in Qld facebook page and had earmarked it to try.  We booked Site 4 which was big enough for both caravans and our other mates Tommy and Jill in their campervan, but unfortunately they weren't able to make it due to Jill not feeling well.  The sites are massive, there are 7 sites in total, with Site 6 and 7 being on their own over a little gully.  There is a loo to service Site 1 - 5 and another over at Site 6 and 7.  You camp right on the river, lovely and grassy, each site has a firepit and you've got a pontoon to fish from, swim off or throw your kayak into the Mary River.  It's also dog friendly

We really enjoyed our stay here, very peaceful and pleasant.

We both did lamb on the fire Saturday night, Razzles in the camp oven with roast veg in the other camp oven, while we did a rotisserie and roast veg in our camp oven.

Plenty of room to play a roaming game of bocce, or kick a football, throw a ball for the dog (they do have to be on a leash at all times. 

We stayed Friday and Saturday night and basically just had a relaxing weekend.  The owner Tracey popped in for a chat, lovely friendly Lady.

Hideaway Hotel

A lovely crossing over the Mary River

Blue Gums River Retreat

We will come back.

www.bluegumsriverretreat.com

Cost:  $17.50 per person per night.

Swinging Bridge Park - February 2025

 Friday 28th February, 2025

This weekend we are off camping with our mates Doreen and Razzle, who have picked up their new Swag Caravan pop top SCT16 and we are off to Cooyar for the weekend.  

Swinging Bridge Park is a free camp (there are a couple of power hook ups, that you pay for at the Cooyar Hotel, I am not 100% sure but I did read somewhere it's $5.00/night but don't quote me on that).  There are no toilets at Swinging Bridge Park, however the rest stop across the road from the pub does have toilets which are about maybe 150m from the entrance to Swinging Bridge.  You'll find bins, workout equipment, playground and of course the Swinging Bridge.  There are heaps of spot to camp and level.  You can have a campfire in a firepit  that is elevated off the ground.

Firstly though,  we will par take in lunch at The Exchange Hotel in Kilcoy since we have to go right past it - be rude not to!!

Arriving around 2pm ish at Cooyar, we drove through the park the find a spot for our 2 night camp.  I like the first area on the right as you drive in, nice open area not too many trees and lots of sunlight for the solar but someone was already camped there right smack in the middle.  We ended up right down the end of the park, nice spot on our own with good distance between us and the next camp and big enough for 2 vans 

Set up was done at a leisurely pace with a beer in hand for one of us.  The Razzles arrived about 3.30pm and of course the first thing Craig did, was hand Razzle a beer so he could get into the camping relaxing groove 😆 Helpful isn't he......

What do you call a couple of Swags in the wild 🤣  I call spotto, spotto, spot toe 🤣🤣  Swag caravan owners joke LOL

Swinging Bridge Park is a very relaxing place,  it had been mowed recently so the grass wasn't overgrown.  There is an information board about the swinging bridge, which is an interesting read.  Also the grave of a little girl, who drowned in the creek ( I did not feel right taking a photo of her grave).

Tried Lasagne on the Baby Q tonight, pre-made the Bol sauce during the week, took fresh pasta, bechamel sauce and the grated cheese.  You know what,  it worked out pretty good 👍  The evening is so peaceful sitting around the campfire and chatting with good friends.

Saturday 1st March, 2025

There was no real desire to rise early this morning, however Barney does seem to get excited to greet everyone in the morning and have everyone join in with him to start the day - bless is little cotton socks, he's such a cutie. 🥱😴

Nothing spectacular was going on today, keep Barney getting used to being on his long rope, give him some playtime and games - this takes up a fair amount of time.  Razzle and Craig mucked around with the caravans, Craig putting a few saddles around the van to attach shade walls to and playing with Razzle and their new van.

We did take Barney for a walk up to the swinging bridge.  The bridges history is interesting.

The playground, exercise equipment and shade shelter are just near the bridge. 

Here are some photos of Swinging Bridge park

Where you plug into the power is just near the bridge.

Tonight's dinner was going to be on the rotisserie over the fire, however the low off the Queensland coast is whipping up a bit of wind today, so we'll change tack and do the chicken in the Baby Q with the roast vegetables and broccolini.  Turned out really good, but unfortunately I forgot to take photos 😆

Another peaceful night sitting around the campfire and chatting.  A bit windy tonight, so we pulled the shade walls down before nightfall came just in case we had to get up and quickly wind the awning in.

Sunday 2nd March, 2025

As usual today is pack up and go home day.

Overall, another enjoyable camping spot.  While we didn't go to the pub (yes I know, how could we not go to the pub that's just not Australian), we have been to the Cooyar pub before and had lunch there, which was good.

We will come back and stay again here one day

See you around the campfire again soon.

Trinity Island Holiday Park - February 2025

 Friday 7th February, 2025

We are out of here for our first camping weekend since last year - woohoo!!

A little update on our little family.......  we got another puppy at the end of October.  We missed having a puppy dog with us.  So,  we got a Blue English Staffy who was 11 weeks (poor little buggy had been overlooked), and we have called him Barney!  As you can imagine, Barney has quite a lot to learn, so still has his "L" Plates on and is 6 months old as I write this and still so cute.

Now, back to our camping weekend.  We went to somewhere new this time and our mates came along in their T-Van (they were supposed to have picked up their brand new Swag Hybrid caravan earlier in the week, but unfortunately the pick up had been delayed until a few days after our camping weekend).

We're heading to Trinity Island Holiday Park this weekend, staying in a powered site on their Pelican Island (our sites will face south).

After departing home though, the first stop is lunch at The Railway Hotel in Tiaro where we'll meet up with Doreen and Razzle.  Didn't even know this pub was in Tiaro, I came across it on a facebook site called "Country Pub Camping".

Beaut litte pub, oh so friendly bar staff (and she really loved little Barney, even had a couple of treats to give him 💖)  Lunch was enjoyable and filled the void that had appeared after breakfast 😂, now it's onwards to Trinity Island in Burrum River.

Arriving at Trinity Island we were greeted with a relaxing and pleasant campground, from the moment we turned in through the gates.  Stopping at the office to sign in (we were fully paid for when I did the online booking), we proceeded to our designated campsites on Pelican Island right on the water.  If you are not familiar with Trinity Island Holiday Park, it is a man made lake that has 3 islands created on it (2 with facilities) and campsite around the outside edge of the lake also.  They were building some more cabins when we were there.  They also have a wonderful Camp Kitchen, kayaks to use, sandy beach in front of the kitchen and amenities scattered around the camping areas.  Dump Point, powered and unpowered sites.  The is catch and release and you could catch Barramundi, Silver Perch and something else and of course it's Pet Friendly.  Powered site is $50/night.

We were set up by mid afternoon, so plenty of time to relax, afternoon drinks and nibbles.

Massive campsites

Individual Toilet/Shower Units/Fresh water tap

There are firepits at the sites.

Saturday 8th February, 2025

Our recently retired friends Razzle and Doreen, we quite happy to just have a relaxing weekend, so we didn't go for a drive or visit the Burrum River Pub - just opted for a slow relaxing day around the campsite.

Well Craig and Razzle did go for a paddle on Craig's kayak that we hauled up here (though the lake was a safe option for Craig to reacquaint himself with his kayak and not be washed out to sea or something.

Oh,  you can also go for a walk through the property to the Burrum River, where they have a deck over looking the river. 

View from our caravan

Afternoon was walkies time for Barney, who was getting a little frustrated being on a rope all weekend.  We took a nice little stroll around Pelican Island then over to the camp kitchen.

Camp Kitchen is a great area.

Drinks and Nibbles are sunset as you do and start the fires

They do make a lovely couple.......😆

Sunday 9th February, 2025

Sunday is of course heading home day, but we did duck into Burrum Heads for a quick sit by the river and plan our next camping weekend with these guys, who will have their new Swag Caravan!

I'll leave you with a lovely shot of the Craig and Razzle admiring the Burrum River, until we camp again shortly.

Overall, we were all really impressed with Trinity Island Holiday Park (the couple we met at Millmerran Deb and Mark, actually gave us the recommendation to try this place 👍).

We will probably head back there at some point with the rest of our camping group when everyone is available.

See you around the campfire soon!  🔥

www.trinityislandsholidaypark.com.au