Campy

Playground #8 - the best yet

Drove from Airlie beach to Townsville via Home Hill. In Home Hill we passed a Variety Charity Club Rally and two Elvis's impressed Thomas with a Lolly and free T-shirt.

We then went on to Townsville and found the best playground on the shorefront with water everywhere. Even Simon and Alison went on the playground. Minor injury sustained by Thomas.

Whitehaven beach

Went out on a boat today around the Whitsundays - went to Tongue point to look down onto Whitehaven beach, then had a BBQ on the beach, and finally off for a bit of snorkelling (Simon) or a trip in a glass bottomed boat (Alison, Anna, Thomas).

Airlie Beach

A great day in the sun (maybe a bit too much). After a pre-breakfast bounce on the jumping pillow (and then breakfast) we went into Airlie Beach. Rather a lot of English accents around. Spent most of the day at the artificial  lagoon which is Stinger free with Thomas getting increasingly brave about going up to his neck in the water and playing with his new ball. Anna enjoyed splashing her hands and feet.

Playgrounds of Queensland .... so far

1. Noosa shorefront
2. Hervey Bay next to campsite
3. En route to Rockhampton
4. Gladstone, Auckland point
5. Rockhampton Big 4 campsite
6. Mackay, near Blue Lagoon.
7. Airlie Beach Big 4 campsite

We will ask Thomas to vote....

Mackay to Airlie Beach

Left a bit of a depressing campsite in Mackay and headed off to the Blue Lagoon waterpark in the centre of town. Ended up in a great playground (no. 6) before trip to Airlie Beach and the best campsite yet - water slides (Thomas not keen), jumping pillow (very keen), playground (no. 7), swimming pool (very keen).

Ate in the camp kitchen although Thomas found the Australian Big Brother on TV a little distracting.

Planning a few days with less driving and maybe a trip to Whitehaven beach

Finch Hatton Gorge

Another log day on the road trying to get some of the miles done.

Spent hours driving through sugar cane fields and eventually got to the Finch Hatton Gorge for a small hike (half of which was on Simons shoulders). Even had to drive Campy across some shallow rivers to get there.

Thomas and Simon went paddling and then Simon went for a swim. Saw some huge lizards en route.

Drove on to Mackay again late on. Campsites all full but managed to squeeze in next to a workshop on a site that was a bit 1950's.

Capricorn caves

 

Tried to go to the Dreamtime cultural centre today to show Thomas some Aborginal culture and boomerangs. They were closed on Sunday so we went to the Capricorn caves - all good fun. Thomas as you can see above got into it (after a suspicious start).

Doh!

Set off early from Hervey Bay and was making good time towards Rockhampton when just past Mt Larcon Simon accidently put Unleaded petrol in Campy. He realised as he was doing it so not an excessive amount but tank was pretty low on diesel. It meant Campy had to be lifted onto a tipping tow truck (Thomas very interested) and taken back to Gladstone where the tank was drained out. It meant an inadvertent stop around a very industrial town, a trip up to Auckland point, another playground and some take away pizza. The towing company lent us a car (a real hot rod with a whole in the exhaust, see below) to tour the town. They managed to fix Campy quite quickly and we made it to Rockhampton late. The stars of the day were Anna and Thomas who coped with long periods of time in various vehicles.

Whales

Went off early this morning (from our unplanned detour to Hervey Bay) whale watching. Started off quiet with only a few pods surfacing and then had an amazing display of tail slapping and breaching right next to the boat. Even Thomas was impressed. Proper Octonauts now.

Tin Can Bay and beyond

Up at 5am to get to Tin Can Bay by 7am and the Dolphin feeding. A pod of dolphins has learnt for over 60 years (3 generations of dolphin) to come to a spot at 8 am to be fed fish. Thomas didnt want to feed a dolphin but was very interested in getting in the water with one.

Another day in Noosa

Anna started off with a relaxing outdoor bath and then we all went off to first Noosaville and then Noosa Heads. Thomas was not all that impressed with kayaking despite pretending to kayak ever since seeing at the Olympics and building countless boats out of chairs. The was lots of crying "take me back to mummy" but after a brief rest ashore we stealed ourselves up and went to explore some nearby boats. The afternoon was spent on the beach.

Crikey!

Went to Australia Zoo, of Steve Irwin fame. Crocs were everywhere and Thomas loved the show (snakes, birds of prey, crocs) and was particularly concerned about the man who pretended to be bitten and then needed a bandage. Crocs certainly move fast in water and can leap out quickly. Brilliant day spent seeing tortoises, turtles, zebra, giraffe, more kangaroos, more koalas, snakes, tigers, tasmanian devils, and Sabu the elephant who we got to feed (all of except Anna that is.... see below).

Awesome day. Thomas asleep on the way home back to Noosa, Simon asleep moments later.

Donne, Jonathan, Kingsley, and Emily

Contacted Donne et al from  our old NCT class at the last minute. They have emigrated to Brisbane and came to meet us on the beach at Noosa. Thomas and Kingsley had a whale of the time with bucket, spade, paddling, and dad building cars out of sand and digging holes.

Campy

Wandered around Brisbane this morning (Botancical gardens - maybe we should have stayed in Brisbane longer?) and then collected Campy (Thomas's name for our Campervan) in a dreadful 3 hour administrative ordeal and then drove to Noosa via Woolworths (Ozzy Asda). Beach tomorrow....

Cuddly Koala

Well we survived the flights. No tears just excitement and sleeping most of the way. We cant quite believe it - could have taken less than half the toys that we had packed in our hand luggage!

In a mission to keep Thomas awake to try and correct his time zone we went off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary 90 minutes after landing in Brisbane. It needed a quick dash across town to the Mirimar II boat which took us there. Ever dutiful tourists - we had photos kuddling the koalas, and enjoyed feeding and stroking the kangaroos. Thomas was a bit suspicious of the Koala, liked the Roo. Anna has take to turning on all photographs.

Cow on tour

(with Whinnie and Bartlesham)

The Trunki is visiting Singapore

First bit wasn't too bad - hope we aren't lulling ourselves in to false sense of security. Thomas slept a good 8 out of the 12 hours.

Our plane