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.