A Bit of a SE Qld Holiday August 2014 - Day One - Four

Finally 2 weeks off - excellent!  This is a holiday to nowhere in particular, that's what we're calling it.  We have no end destination to speak of like Cape York, Simpson Desert or Karumba, rather we just have a couple of places we want to stay (Boonooroo, Baffle Creek and of course we'll drop in to see Craig's mate who runs the Lake Monduran Holiday Park) and the rest of the time we'll figure it out with the help of our Camps 7 book & wikicamps app.- or hold the phone, we'll actually talk to fellow campers!  The only other rules for this holiday are:  3 hours of driving per day and stay off the major highways where possible using secondary roads (bitumen or dirt - dirt preferable of course).  Righto, I think that covers the outline of this holiday.

Saturday 9th August, 2014
The camper's been at the canvas dude all week getting some repairs done finally to the tent. Craig picked it up last night (Friday), so we haven't done any packing as yet, that's this mornings first job.  We hit the road about 11am, first stop is Craig's shed so he could grab a few things to do some maintenance on the camper along the way, then onto the canvas dudes shed to pickup the awning he forgot to grab last night.......

Finally we headed north to Boonooroo around 12pm.  Had a bit of a light shower along the way, hopefully we won't get any showers once we setup camp.  The new bit of highway they are building from Cooroy northwards is going to make it so much easier/faster in the near future, very impressive bit of construction.

Heading north on the Bruce

New highway roadworks

Huge project

Hmmm, showers....

Arrived at Boonooroo Caravan Park about 2.15pm and we find the office closed until 3pm. Luckily a park resident walked past and said to give Ray a yell at the back door of the house and he'll come out.  Ray wasn't there but his wife was, so into the office we went to book in.

We were a bit concerned when Ray did come into the office and said "is that your staffy out there" and we said "yes" and his wife said I've told them it's okay to camp with him - well Ray looked at us and said "no, not a staffy".  We looked at him and told him he was friendly to other dogs & humans and well behaved.  After a bit of indecision on Ray's behalf, he finally said alright but just one night, that's all and he's not to bark.  I tell you what I nearly turned to Craig and said forget it we'll go to Poona or Maaroom instead.   Anyway, Ray went back off to finish cleaning the toilets and as we turned to see him walking past the truck, Ray stopped stuck his hand inside our truck and started patting Boris - lucky he is a friendly dog, hey.....

Got the booking squared away eventually & found our designated campsite.  It's low tide so not a picture perfect outlook this afternoon, but that's okay we're away and it's pleasant enough here.  We were setup by 3pm and we'll just relax this afternoon. 

Our campsite at Boonooroo

Ray came over and said hello to Boris and had a chat to Craig - seems all is okay now with us....  Took Boris for a walk around the perimeter of the park, stopped in and chatted with a couple of the park residents at what seems to be a "meeting place" that they have setup like a rustic shed, complete with fireplace which they had stoked up (it's the only fire allowed in the park).  We headed back to our camp for afternoon drinks.

Water tank cartoon

Low tide

Walking around the park

Menacing looking sky

You'll find showers & toilets (old but clean and you need a key which you pay a $10.00 refundable deposit for), small kiosk shop, grassy campsites (all powered sites) and that pretty much covers it (there used to be bar-b-ques, but they have been taken out).  The park could be so much more, but you get the impression the owners don't want to do anymore then they have to.  Still, it's a pleasant camp and easy to relax.

Dinner tonight is Caramelised Onion & Camembert Chicken Sausages with salad.  Pretty early night, we only put the side awning up and it stated to shower after dinner, so we retreated inside. During the night the showers turned to rain and we had a catastrophic failure on our new side awning - the water pooled on the awning & the side pole just bent like a banana & broke, also twisting the ends that it connects to.  It make quite a noise when it happened and Craig jumped up to see what was going on.  Saw what had happened (no point standing in the rain in the dark trying to fix it now), so lowered one side right down so the rain would run completely off and came back to bed.

Sunday 10th August, 2014
We were up about 6.15am this morning - what the!  Tide was in this morning, so we took the opportunity to take some photos before breakfast.

Little Rainbow in the sky

Reflections

People gathering bait

Looking across the bay

It's cool this morning

Looking back at camp made for a nice photo, the sun gleaming through the trees, the dew on the grass in the sunlight and a bit of mist in the air.

Plenty of Cockatoos around

Ray came around yesterday afternoon taking orders for the Sunday Mail, so we did.  While we were having our exciting breakfast of muesli & cowboy coffee, Ray delivered our paper and stayed for a brief chat.  We were going to stay another night, but after listening to our neighbour yelling at his poor wife all yesterday afternoon/last night & again/still this morning, we decided we really didn't want to listen to him any longer.  God it was horrible, felt so sorry for his wife.

Craig repaired/modified our side awning this morning after our breakage last night.  He modified one of our Supapeg poles for the camper awnings to be the new side pole for the Darche awning on the side - clever boy he is :)

We were packed up and on the road by 10.30am.

STAYED AT:  Boonooroo Caravan Park
WEBSITE:  No
COST:  $28.00/night or $33.00/night for waterfront (powered sites only)
FACILITIES: Toilets/Showers ($10.00 refundable deposit for amenities key).  Pet Friendly owners discretion

We don't have a plan today really, decided we'd head into Hervey Bay as neither of us have been there for many years.  Popped into River Heads first, such a lovely spot & not really busy. Wish they had a campground there.

We headed into Urangan to look for a campground to stay and/or a park to have lunch in. Ummm, didn't realise the Seafood Festival was on this weekend did we, bloody hell there were humans everywhere - Nooooooo!!  Found a spot to park in some shade, so that I could feed the boy before he got grumpy as he does when hungry, decided we'd head to the nearest info/tourist centre to ask about pet friendly campgrounds.  Finally found the info centre and talking to the lovely helpful ladies there, it was apparent pretty much everything was booked out for the festival - great boy is going to pop his foo foo value shortly at me for not having already found somewhere to stay this morning. Luckily I left Craig searching the net on his phone for Burrum Heads/Burrum River area for a campground.  Thank goodness he found one at Burrum River that is pet friendly.  It's not a bush camp or free, but hey right now I'm happy just to find somewhere and at least he can go down to the river, relax and have a fish.

Off we went, arriving about 2.45pm & they only had 2 sites left.  Charlie & his wife who run the park are very friendly, helpful & cheery people.  Charlie took Craig off in his golf cart to show him the 2 sites, so we could choose the one we wanted.  Campsite chosen, booking in completed, lets get setup.  We could only get a powered site, that's okay we'll charge up the camper batteries fully and charge up the laptop, phones etc.  The park is right on the Burrum River, Craig wandered down to have a fish after we'd setup, but no luck for him.  I got dinner marinating while he was away. Dinner tonight is worms with Bok Choy Noodle Salad.

Our campsite

Getting fishing gear ready

Again we had a reasonably early night, this travelling only a couple of hundred klms a day is exhausting!

STAYED AT:  Burrum River Caravan Park
WEBSITE: Burrum River Caravan Park
COST:  $33.00/night powered site
FACILITIES:  Toilets, showers, Bar-b-Ques, Camp Kitchen, Pet Friendly.


Monday 11th August, 2014
7am and we're just getting up, pretty cruisey I could get used to a lifestyle like this!.  Crumpets for breakfast this morning, while discussing where our stop for tonight will be.  We decided first to drop in at Pacific Haven to say hello to Craig's mate Sandy and then we will be heading out to Paradise Dam to camp for the night.  Okay, so it fells good to know where we are heading today.

Craig got his moon shot finally
last night

Packed up and on the road by about 10.30am again and heading to Sandy's for a cuppa.

Bender mailbox on the way to Sandy's
(character from TV show Futurama)
Craig likes it.

Visiting done, we're off to Paradise Dam which is north west of Biggenden.  Our Hema GPS was trying to take us along all these dirt roads, 

Dirt road to nowhere

don't get me wrong that was fine BUT none of them were actually leading us to the dam rather they were leading us to the front door of a couple of homesteads!  Canned the Hema being in charge, headed back out to the highway & north until we saw the sign for Paradise Dam.

Finally we arrived about 2.30pm, went in and booked us in with Richard at the office for one night, plus got a fire bin & box of timber.  Richard is nice enough to drop the fire bin & timber down to us when he closes the office later, as we can't fit it on/in the camper.  That's service for you.  Richard suggested a couple of sites right at the end for us, which were great.  There was only 2 other lots camped when we arrived - 1 caravan at the opposite end to us and an Ultimate Camper in between us, everyone is nicely spaced out.  We got opened up, admired the view & dam wall, then went to check out the facilities - no showers, drop toilets which are very clean, picnic tables & shelters, Bar-B-Ques and wait for it........  a wood fired Pizza Oven!!! (no we didn't use it, but if we had of stayed another night we most surely would have used it).

Paradise Dam campsite

Paradise Dam camping area

Dam Wall

Good facilities - including a
wood fired pizza oven!

Time for a couple of afternoon drinks in the shade of tree while looking out enjoying the view over the dam - god damn it's hard work :)  We got the cameras setup in readiness to capture the sunset, while we waited for the fire bin & timber to be delivered.  Nice and relaxing afternoon really.  We had another caravan & 2 campervans arrive, but thankfully they all parked at the opposite end.  Richard arrived while we were taking sunset shots & had a beer with Craig.

It is time to get the campfire going, we're having hamburgers on the Bar-b-Que plate tonight, we're talking rissoles, onions, salad & toasting the bins - yum!


Dinner done, we were sitting around the fire enjoying the ambiance when this retched wind blew up.  It wasn't the coolness of it that bothered us, it was the strength, made it very unpleasant I have to say.  Righto then, time to re-tire inside to bed and have a read of some magazines.

STAYED:  Paradise Dam
WEBSITE:  Paradise Dam
COST:  $20.00/night + $5.00 Fire Bin + $10.00 Firewood
FACILITIES:  Drop toilets, Gas Bar-b-ques & shelters, wood fired pizza oven, bins, boat ramp.
(There is an information hut up near the office which tells you about the township of Paradise that was situated on the ridge where the info hut, office & upper camping area are, plus it sprawled out down along the lower camp area where we stayed.)  Very interesting read people, if you go out there take the time to read about it and have a chat to the Ranger/Manager Gary as well.

Tuesday 12th August, 2014
Again it wasn't an early rise this morning.  Boris the dog is getting plenty of cuddle time & loving it!

This morning will be the trusty bacon & egg roll for breakfast along with the cowboy coffee of course.  Decided where our destination was going to be this morning & packed up, we stopped in at the office on our way out (9.00am) to let them know our fire bin was still at the campsite as we couldn't bring it up and Richard said the boss would pick it up - turned out I was telling the boss himself.  Gary introduced himself & came out to tell Craig about a short cut that would take us along some dirt roads out to the main road.  45mins later we left!  Nice fellow Gary is and a wealth of local information, well worth spending the time chatting to him.

Our short cut

Nice drive

We're heading off to look at Chowey Bridge via the dirt road short cut Gary told us to take. Chowey Bridge is an old railway bridge, Queensland first long span concrete railway bridge with an 88 foot arch with a series of flanking arches supporting the super structure.  It was built in 1905.  

Information Board

The line

Below the bridge

Looking down the line

Spectacular bridge in the middle of nowhere, it really belongs somewhere like London or old Sydney town where it can be appreciated for it's beauty.  The line isn't used anymore and Qld Railways was there fixing the fence, but they asked if we wanted to walk across it to take some more photos, which was really nice of them.  Awesome looking bridge.

From here we travelled to Mt Perry & then turned off to have a look at the Boolboonda Tunnel, which is a hand cut unsupported 192m tunnel picked through rock.  Now this, this was an awesome thing.  We had to follow Tunnel Road through some of the prettiest countryside, just beautiful.  

Tunnel Road

Pretty countryside

Gary at Paradise Dam was telling us that the same crews that built these types of tunnels in the Snowy Mountains built this one.

The tunnel

And a few more photos for you, because it was just an awesome thing.

Looking through the tunnel

The rock wall inside the tunnel

Yep, they're bats

Here's a closeup for you

All those light came in handy for once!

At the end of the tunnel there is a great information board & audio recording you can listen to. It's worthwhile taking the time to read it & listen to it.

Audio Board

Looking back toward the tunnel

Oh, did I tell you today's destination yet?  It's Lake Monduran of course, Craig wants to catch up with his mate Rob who runs the campground there, it's been about 3 years I think since we last called in.  First we'll pop into Gin Gin to get lunch, beer, wine & topup with fuel.

We arrived at Lake Monduran campground about 1.30pm ish and while we waited for Rob  we entertained ourselves with a game of mini golf - love mini golf!  We had an enormous amount of fun playing our 9 holes, Rob arrived at the 8th Hole.  We had a quick chat as all of a sudden it was pick hour traffic with caravan after caravan arriving to book in, so Rob went into to give a hand.

He's sent us up to their private property to camp at this time, pretty relaxing and overlooks the campground.  Rob's built a shed, shower/toilet, manland, fireplace & Boris can run free up here and burn up some of the pent up energy he has from sitting in the car.  We ended up setting up twice, my spot wasn't right I was told so Craig moved around to the grassier bit just in front of the fireplace, which is where Rob thought we would have set up also - I admit it was a better spot, but don't tell Craig I said that.
Rob did a quick pop in to drop off his charter boat before heading into Gin Gin.  he was back in no time at all and their larger frenzie began and talk about talk, they reckon women can talk, these two blokes don't do too bad!

My spot out of the wind

Manland

The girls wandering around....

Craig & Rob's spot

Tonight I'm doing a spagetti bol over the fire, it should fill the boys bellies before they move onto the rum frenzie which usually follows the larger frenzie......  Just love cooking over an open fire, it's the best thing.  What can I say, dinner was delicious & seconds were consumed, boys helped with the dishes afterwards.  Sitting around the campfire was enjoyable for a bit, then Boris & I went off to bed to leave the 2 housewives to continue chatting.  At some late hour the boys went to bed.

WHERE TO STAY:  Lake Monduran Holiday Park
COST:  Check Website
WEBSITE: Lake Monduran Holiday Park
FACILITIES: Powered & unpowered sites, 2 x Amenities blocks, 2x Camp kitchens, campfires allowed in fire rings, dog friendly,mini golf, boat hire, kiosk.