Samford and beyond - Qld

1.7.11

We head off to Samford which is a suburb of Brisbane and need to get Robb's hearing aids tuned up - but wait!! our appt is in Milton ( a stones throw from brisbane central) and the Four X brewery is right at the bottom of the street.
Q. Which is the most important- to hear well or pose in front of the Four X brewery???

You guessed right!!! albeit he did get a hearing aid tune up too.

We also got some boxes made up for the car trailer to give us extra room - I think extra room for most of Robs in case of's :o)

The new trailer boxes

We had a fleeting look at Brisbane Maybe we'll get time to explore Brisbane  city a bit better on our way back down ( Rob Hates the Cities and I love them)

We   moving north as the weather is still a bit cool so we are heading North through caboolture, Buderim  ( the famous place for Oz Ginger ) through nambour and Bli Bli ( those crazy names still keep cropping up) this is also Pineapple country.
On to Eumundi  a historic town with a variety of Galleries and a huge market both Wed and sat with over 200 stalls with Art Craft and fresh produce

Some of the Locals at Eumundi Mkts

We also visited Yandina Ginger factory ( the new factory for everything Ginger in the area)

Rob about to sample this Giant Pineapple at Apple tree creek

 The Buderim Ginger factory  at Yandina

One of the products at the Ginger factory - Mmmmmmmm

WE took a day to go to Noosa and Noosa heads just out to the coast from Eumundi, pretty little place with nice beaches.

 17.7.11

Off still tracelling nth  towards  Rainbow beach, we divert through a Place called Kin Kin and stop off at the Country Life Hotel, Check out the menu, the Hotel and the natural Bamboo outside.

 The Menu !!

 Natural Bamboo

The typical country pub with a country and western shindig going on in the courtyard outside



We stopped at Tin Can bay first before rainbow beach and it was just mudflats and sand flies ( noted the worst place for sandflies), so we free camped in a layby on the turnoff to Rainbow bch and headed off in the morning.

Rainbow beach ia a pretty settlement and we visit the Carlo sandblow - it feels as though you are in a fish eye looking into the Sandblow as its curved - quite unusual.

Off to inskip point  a further 12kms from rainbow bch and has no power or water and only Long drop toilets!! these are a first for me ( long drops have no flush and drop a long way :0), its owned by the state forest and has 4 camp sites of which only two were accessible for us so we stayed at MV Sarawak almost at the tip of the peninsula and within walking distance to the Ferry that goes to Frazer Island which takes all of about 10mins to get there.

The camp Sarawak is really natural and we are almost on the beach, I decided to walk the beach down to Rainbow beach one morning thinking it would take me about 1.5 hrs - it actually took nearly 3hrs with a headwind and walking on soft sand. I can tell you  Rob was the first person I called to come and pick me up!! I was knackered to say the least, I stopped and spoke to a local on the way and asked him how much further to Rainbow beach and he asked where I had walked from, when I told him he said "Fair Dinkum you've walked a long way and you've still got 45mns to go"!!

We also saw a python on the beach albeit a dead one. The other campers were great so we stayed 2wks, it's incredible the types of people we meet and great fun at wine O'clock everyone gathers together for a drink and a chat or someone gets a guitar out and there is a singalong.

I cut someones hair here and news spread like wildfire - next thing there is a que of people waiting - Oh well good for some pocket money.

 Rob & I at the edge of the Carlo sand blow

 Looking over the edge of the sand blow on to Rainbow beach  watching a convoy of four wheel drives

 The beach at Sarawak Inskip point

 Camped up at Inskip

Our Batteries seem to be playing up so we are heading to Hervy Bay to get them checked out , there is a blessing of the fleet so no accomodation so we are camping at Burrum Heads then off into Battery world

Burrum Heads

We make an appt at battery world  and they take all day to help solve our problems and $1100 later were done, so we  spend the night in the carpark at Battery world  and off early and on through to Childers, then Gin Gin and stay at the rest aea there overnight - Gi Gin is another small country town where some of Queenslands oldest cattle properties surround the town which is south west of Bundaberg.

 9.8.11

On through to Boynne river rest area overnight and on to Calliope river free camp beside the Historical Village which documents Port Curtis history in restored buildings.

There  are local markets held Bi mthly, and the fishing is good too.

Out walking at Calliope, this is someones letterbox for real!!

Whilst here we heard about the outback festival at Winton so decide rather than go straight to Cook town which is our real destination  we'll go to winton to the festival so book all the necessary.

19.8.11

We head for Gracemere which is about 9kms from rockhampton and stay two nights before heading west.

22.8.11

We arrive at Duranga which is another free camp with hot showers ( never seen this before!!) and you can give a gold coin donation for the showers. There is nothing to do here so we go for a walk and notice that the old buildings ( Timber frames and clad with weatherboard) are only clad on the outside to help keep the vermin down it seems.

25.8.11

We arrive at Blackwater wes of Rock hampton in the Capricorn region and is known as the Coal capital of Queensland. The trains have 100 carriages and have an engine in the middle too. The cola is then transported to Gladstone near calliope where we have just come from.

Incidentally the name comes from the discolouration of the waterholes caused by tea trees and not the Coal.

We head out to Bedford Weir to another free camp with hot showers and Flush Loo's Yay - There is a donation system here and the $$ goes directly to the caretakers ( Funnily enough the caretakers wife comes from Bristol so there was some reminiscing done here :o))

The camp had only ben open around 5weeks after being completely flooded out during the Dec2010 floods.

Still heading west we ae travelling towards the gemfields - so more about them next post :O)

I'm also missing a few pics of Calliope so will insert them next post