Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

 Day Twenty Two - Friday 9th May, 2025

Lake Monduran Holiday Park - Woodgate Hotel

We are off today, decided on Woodgate Hotel a pub camp for our last night.  We haven't been to Woodgate for 16 years 😯 when we last camped there. Said farewell to Rob and Kel, they are heading off on the weekend for a week off.

Wasn't a bad drive to Woodgate, we stayed off the Bruce Highway, less traffic more pleasant drive.  A bit drizzley and very windy thought today.  We did a drive by check out of the pub and drove to the boat ramp for a sticky beak, they have certainly updated that area since we were here last, it last really great.  We also drove past the Caravan Park which is our Plan B, then checked out the other boat ramp.  Gave he pub a call to see if we could book a camping spot - all good 👍so it's Plan A.  We headed back to the pub to book in for camping,  a beer, wine and lunch will be first priority as Barney has had a shocker today.  So booked in, went an parked in our site, had to unhitch the car as they are not drive throughs,  could be interesting hooking back up due to the big curb we have to step the car over - we'll figure it out.  Camp ground wasn't full thankfully, so we didn't feel like sardines.

First things first,  we headed to the pub for some lunch.  Craig went in and grabbed some drinks while I walked around to the front of the pub to find a shadey seat for us.  We unfortunately had to walk past some people with a Collie that was quite agressive and scared the crap out of Barney and myself.  Found a table on the other side to the Collie in the shade looking out toward the ocean but sheltered from the wind.  The area we discovered later under cover is also dog friendly.  They have water bowls around the place and ask if you would like one for your puppy dog too.  Now lunch, WOW it was absolutely delicious we were both very happy!

After lunch and a couple of drinks we headed back to set up camp.  

The people with the Collie happened to be camped across from us and she came over saying "he's really friendly, he just wants to meet your dog" and we don't mind socialising Barney, however were quite sceptical after watching their dog at the pub being aggressive to anyone or anything that walked near by.  Craig grabbed Barney and she came over, holey shit her dog just launched at Barney bearing his teeth and trying to take a bite out of him.  Ol' dumb Barney just thought the other dog wanted to play 🤦‍♀️  Anyway, Craig suggested that she should take her dog away because he doesn't look like he's so friendly.  I can tell you now, that the entire time we were camped there all that dog did was be aggressive toward anything that moved around the campground.

After setting up the awning with the anti-flap due to the gale force winds 😆 the males in our family went and had a nap, which again gave me quiet time to write my journal, win win for everyone!

So there are raffles tonight at the pub, guess what our decision was... yep up to the pub for raffles and dinner, makes it easy with this blastard wind.  Decided we'd take the awning in, don't need another awning damaged like in Stanthorpe.  Had absolutely no luck with the raffles 😆 but it was fun and dinner, well what can I say, it was absolutely fabulous!!

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

Day Twenty & Twenty One - 7th & 8th May, 2025

Dawson River Donation Camp to Lake Monduran Holiday Park

Only a few days left of our holiday now ☹️  wish we had a few months off!

I have to do some work this morning before we pack up and move on from Dawson River, Craig took Barney for a walk while I necessary work completed.  Apparently Barney dipped his feet in the Dawson River at the boat ramp and drank the water, which unfortunately we will find out later upset his belly and gave him the poops.

We packed up slowly and hit the road to Lake Monduran Holiday Park.  Gave our mate Rob a call at Monduran (he and his wife Kel own the Caravan Park) and asked if we could get a powered site for 2 nights and of course it was not a problem.

We passed a huge 8m wide load as we were leaving Biloela, pulled off the road  she was that big

We stopped in Biloela and grabbed some beer, bit of groceries and a couple of pies from the bakery for lunch - not bad pies either and the only pies we've had on this trip!

We stopped at one of those really decent rest areas that have toilets, shelters, bins and parking areas that you find nowadays and this is where we discovered Barney had an upset belly, he had done so well holding on and hadn't even cried or whined in the car.

Of course there was a stop in Miriam Vale firstly for fuel but Craig took the opportunity I more so to get a crab sandwich, it's sort of a tradition whenever we come up this way.

Finally arrived at Lak Monduran Holiday Park at 4pm, went to the office to book in and Rob had left our names with the lady at reception and the bugger won't let us pay....  as Craig says when I tell him,  ooh we will pay don't you worry about that 🤣🤣🤣  We hadn't even finished setting up the van and Rob arrived, Craig got a couple of beers as you do and so it had started 🍻🥃  I think it was the rum that will eventually get them.... Kel, Rob's wife eventually  joined us for drinks and late nibbles and by the time they left Kel had to drive Rob home and leave her car at our site overnight.  I think I remember Craig picking Rob up off the ground or though I'm surprised they both weren't on the ground together during that act 🤣  I suppose this is what happens when 2 mates only get to catch up every few years, we'll run with that shall we 😉

For us it was a really enjoyable night being able to catch up with Rob and Kel again.  Craig and Rob worked together many years ago and Rob left the profession so he and Kel could do the caravan park thing.  We don't get to see them that often, so it's always big!

Thursday is a day of rest, relaxing, tidying up the van, washing and of course a little more sedate catching up with Rob and Kel.  Mid afternoon Rob, Kel and their 2 dogs Huey and Alfie (Huey being a blue english staffy life Barney and Alfie an American Bulldog), grabbed Craig and Barney and went up to their block of land and let the dogs run free and stupid.  Apparently Alfie didn't want anything to do with Huey and Barney, so Barney spent his time chasing Huey around aimlessly LOL.  I on the other hand was quite happy to have quiet time at camp and catch up on my journal writing, which I am very much out of practice in.

Rob and Kel came back for dinner at ours tonight,  a bit more of a sensible affair.  Entree was some of the fish wings Craig got on his fishing charter deep fried, followed by slow cooked smoked Pork Ribs in the camp oven, chicken kiev for me of course, wedges and waldorf salad (well I forgot the Wal's so it was macdorf salad with Macadamia nuts 😆)

Pretty early night and relatively calm on the drinking, I think the boys were a bit puffed after last night. 😵‍💫😉

Lake Monduran Holiday Park, is a lovely park to stay in.  You have a couple of powered site areas, a heap of unpowered areas which are grassy, a truely great camp kitchen, putt putt course, they do movies during school holidays, there is a dog off leash area not fenced, 2 amenities blocks that are modern and very clean.  And I'll be biased here, Rob and Kel the owners are wonderful people!   You don't overlook the dam, but the boat ramp is a short drive away, the campgrounds a really pleasant, I love staying here.  They also have a few cabins and holiday houses you can rent, plus a houseboat you can hire!  Rob also does fishing charters.

www.lakem.com.au

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

Day Nineteen - Tuesday 6th May, 2025

Duaringa Hotel to Neville Hewitt Weir Dawson River Donation Camp

It has been interesting travelling through Blackwater area, seeing the mining sites and infrastructure.  We haven't been out this way for over a decade I reckon.

Today's destination we've decided is Neville Hewitt Weir at Baralaba.  We've never been there, so see how we go.  We stopped at the Free Camp Rest stop in Duaringa first because we have phone coverage there, so I could do a little snippet of work.   Craig walked over to the truckstop and got us a coffee and got 2 free donuts because it's Tuesday and they were delicious.

Off we went down the Fitzroy Development Road, holey crap we were not expecting it to turn into the dirt road from hell!!  We passed an ambulance and car going the opposite way to us and wondered why they were crawling along at snails pace....  well slap me silly we found out why!  then Craig announces we should have got fuel at Duaringa and asked if Baralaba had any - which it did not seem to have fuel from what I could find out online, so you guessed it, change of plans.  We would need to keep going south to Bauhinia to get fuel, we didn't have enough to get to Baralaba and back out to Bauhinia and this road was not helping with our fuel consumption - WOW!  So, Craig is used to driving his Hilux which has a 145lt fuel tank and is what we used to do all our holidays in, he forgets my Hilux has a standard size fuel tank 🤦‍♀️

Near destination for tonight now is Dawson River Donation Camp west of Moura.  We've stayed here before about 10 or so years ago and remember it being a good camp.  Pulled in about lunchtime, parked and walked around the camping area to find a spot.  Set up in a nice little spot away from everyone, looking into the bush and had a firepit. 

 After we had lunch we watched these 4 big caravans obviously travelling together, roar into the camping area kicking up dust over everyone, driving around looking for a big enough area for all of them to set up.  Once they stopped moving, we took Barney for a walk around the park. 

Arrving back at camp after our walk I said to Craig "um, our firepit is gone", he said "no we didn't have one",  I assured him we most definitely did, it was right there where that pile of ash is.  He went over and sure enough there was a trail of ash leading away to guess where..... yep the 4 big caravans, the cheeky pricks cam and stole our firepit while  we away walking Barney😯  talk about rude!  Luckily we have our own firepit because we planned to cook on the fire tonight for the first time all trip.  The place is starting to fill up by late afternoon, when we arrived there were 2 vans, a car and tent and there are probably another 13 - 15 campers now.  We cooked a wonderful meal over the fire tonight finally - porterhouse steak, chicken kiev, wedges, blistered vine rippened tomatoes and asparagus, so yummy

Sat around the fire after dinner was cleaned up, it was a lovely relaxing evening.  Barney saw his first horse this afternoon in the paddock next to us, wasn't really sure about it, so woofed and growled alot at it.

Dawson River Donation Camp is the Moura Apex Park and as the name suggests, you make a donation for the upkeep of the park.  There are rubbish bins, toilets, showers, kids playground, boat ramp, day use shelters/picnic tables.  We put $15.00 in the donation box, well worth it.

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

Day Eighteen - Monday 5th May, 2025

Capella to Bluff Hotel Duaringa Hotel

Today the plan is to head to the Bluff Hotel or an overnight pub stay.  Some friends of ours recommended it after staying there themselves, so we'll give it a go since it's in our path now.  Emerald, Blackwater then Bluff Hotel, in theory we should be there before lunchtime and it is a public holiday today, so I am slightly concerned that the pub might not be open, so fingers crossed.

Between Emerald and Blackwater is the little town of Comet, the pub there also has camping.  It is a pretty pub with about 3 vans out the back but we couldn't really tell if the pub was actually open as we went past. Onwards to our destination........  we pulled up at the Bluff Hotel about 10.30am I think, it really didn't look open but had I think about 2 lots of people camping out the back.  We jumped out and had a walk around the pub, tried the doors which were locked.  There wasn't any sign to say they were opening late today or anything and Craig was not impressed with the place overall.  We came across a local gent who didn't seem to be aware that the pub was closed as he asked if we were going in for a drink.  Craig informed him the pub was closed, which he didn't seem particularly happy about and informed us he would sort that out 🤣🤣

Craig said it was un-inspiring and didn't want to stay here, so once again I jumped on Wikicamps and found about an hour east of us was the Duaringa Hotel, which had camping, was dog friendly and had lovely reviews for the new owner's that took it over about 4 months ago - Sarah and Marcus.  Off we go then to Duaringa.  I did indeed give them a call to make sure they were open. 👍

The Duaringa Hotel is back from the highway about 2klm, so road noise won't be  a problem, it is next to the train line that the coal trains run 24/7 on.  We pulled up and I went in to ask where Barney could go, told Craig so he could relax, asked about the camping and Marcus took me out back to show me, then got a beer for hubby 👍We were able to sit on what is like an internal veranda between the bar/dining room and kitchen that has a roof and is protected from the elements, where we enjoyed a couple of drinks and filled out the camping form Marcus gave me.  

Camping with power is $20/night.  We pre-ordered lunch for 45mins time, while we went and set up camp.  Nice big camping area at the back of the pub, a few powered spots.  The campground amenities block is currently being renovated, but you have access the the pub accommodation toilet and showers.  Lunch was simple, delicious and not expensive.  After a post lunch nap as you do, we took Barney for a walk around the grounds off lesh since there was nobody else around.

Yep, it's still raining off and on.  Barney was happy when he found a palm tree leaf 🤦‍♀️ Craig, not so much 😆  We headed back into the pub about 5.30pm.  I decided to try the pizza and Craig the pork chops - both were again delicious.  Craig had a chat to Marcus for a bit about the history of the pub and we chatted to Sarah a bit s she wizzed in and out.  Dinner service became quite busy for her.  Not a late night again for us.  I can say that even though the train line was right next to the pub, we didn't find the trains disruptive during the night while we were sleeping.

What will tomorrow hold for us........

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

Day Seventeen - Sunday 4th May, 2025

Railway Hotel, Ravenswood to Kimchant Waters Dam Capella

So we learnt last night from the locals that the weather has thwarted our plans yet again, with the road under the dam wall being closed due to damage from flooding, which has made our plans to travel to Kimchant Waters Dam a little more complicated.  The locals did say there was another road but if we were towing a caravan they would not recommend taking it.

We decided to drive back into Charters Towers so we had phone reception and could have a look at Wikicamps to find somewhere else to go. Found a little cafe that was dog friendly and the regional council had free Wi-Fi, so we hooked up the tablet.  The cafe was in a really old and cool looking building.  We had a look at Lake Elphinstone, read some reviews but decided no, thought about Theresa Dam but had read somewhere they had a bit of a locus plague going on out there through Clermont, Alpha, Jericoh so decided we'd pass on that area.  Not sure if we actually decided on somewhere to go, but we headed toward Belyando Crossing where we stopped for a beer and had a break, checked out the caravan park there but it's sort of like a nowhere place and it would be the place you stayed overnight because it was the end of the day and you needed to stop for the night.  We ordered a couple of toasted sandwiches for lunch and continued on southward.  I found a little place called Capella and the caravan park had great reviews, it was dog friendly and even had an off leash fenced area.  So I gave them a call to make sure we could get a powered site - all good.

Arriving about 4.30pm it had been another long day especially for Craig on these terrible roads.  The lady Jodi at park reception was lovely, she showed us to our site so we could stayed hitched up, gave us the run  down on the amenities, off leash dog area and that happy hour started at 5pm with live music, which we could already hear performing.

We set up, grabbed a drink and headed over to the off leash park with Barney.  He had a fat time playing with a deflated football that was in the park, we didn't have to do anything after the first throw, he just pranced around with the football in his mouth and tossing it around by himself 😆  It's a quiet night for us after the lengthy day of travel, Craig is buggered so nice hot showers, dinner and bed.

Capella Caravan Park is  quaint little park, quiet, neat and tidy.  $40/night power and water.  Very pleasant place to stay.

Cairns Fishing Charter Trip - April/May 2025

Day Sixteen - Saturday 3rd May, 2025

Pinnarendi Station to Three Rivers Hotel Railway Hotel, Ravenswood

The temporary plan for today is to head to Greenvale, there's a pub camp there at Three Rivers Hotel, so we'll have a look at it, grab a toasted sandwich and work it out from there.  Upon driving past the pub we decided it wasn't for us, yes I have read many great reviews about this pub and the camping there, I am not saying it isn't a good stop, just that we decided not to.

We decided to move onto Charters Towers and find somewhere to vote for the Federal Election, easily found somewhere online and headed straight there.  After that little job was taken care of, we got fuel and milk and headed out to tonights camp I found before leaving Atherton.  It is still raining in Charters Towers, we can't seem to escape it at the moment unfortunately.

We are heading to Railway Hotel in Ravenswood for a pub camp tonight, decided to give them a call and make sure we could get a camping spot with power, I spoke with Michael the bar keep/chef the the day and he said not a problem.  Apparently they have a cellar and ghosts 👻, probably don't need to meet those!  We pulled up outside the pub around 2.45pm, went in to see Michael the bar keep and grabbed a couple of drinks of course. 

Had a chat about the camping area and wandered down the back to choose a site as there was another big van staying as well.  Craig went up got our van and reversed into our little site ready for set up later.  

Our campsite

The nice bloke in the other van came down, had a chat to Craig and choose his spot that would fit him in and while he went back up to bring the van down, a motorhome came in plus there was already  camp set up.

We headed back into the pub for another drink.  I noticed some steps behind the bar that disappeared down underneath, so asked Michael where the steps went.  

Michael tried to explain to me that they went down to the gimp, which I did not know what he meant - apparently a gimp is  sex slave, who knew!  😆  I know everyone else except me.  Michael told us to grab our drinks and Barney, head down the back stairs and turn around underneath and go through the steel gate...OMG it's a speak ezy cellar and it's AWESOME!!  I want to book out the whole pub & camping and have my birthday here - WOW!!!!  except my birthday is in summer, so could be a little bit hot 😃 

We had a look around upstairs in the pub as well at the accommodation rooms and verandas, such a cracking pub.

After our tour of the pub, we went back and set up the van and sat for a minute.

Back up to the pub for dinner at our window seat and the food was delicious.  

Was a great night chatting with fellow campers and locals and Michael was so friendly and a great cook!  Barney was allowed to sit inside the public bar, which was really great and made socialising with everyone much easier.

Cost us $15.00 for the night in camping fees (powered site), Dinner and drinks, well that cost a little bit more 🤣 but worth every cent.  Highly recommend doing a pub camp at Railway Hotel in Ravenswood.