A few days........ later

Well, time to fill in a few days.

Stayed at the Gateway Village Resort in Rochedale for a couple of nights where I had my cousins come visit which was great for a catch up over dinner at the local pub. On the Saturday we drove up to Samford Village to visit an old school friend who I hadn't seen in years. It was great to catch up and meet the rest of the family and also check out their (relatively) new pad which was great as was the roast done up especially for us! Thanks!

Sunday we packed up and drove on through to Australia Zoo. It really is a well set out Zoo however both Trish and I thought if you'd already been to a few Zoos around the place already, there wasn't really that much more to offer in the way of animals but I think the highlight for us both was visiting the hospital over the other side of the car park. They did have some good demonstrations though which you may not get elsewhere and I think the croc feeding and info was an eye opener for the kids.

That night we stopped at a free camp in Kangdanga. Wasn't sure what to expect but it was really well set up with a fire, running water and access to clean toilets by the rugby grounds. There were around 10 other vehicles there, large 5th wheelers and caravans but no camper trailers. As we arrived late we just set up the 4 man tent we have and as this was the first time we set it up were pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick it was to set up. Up early for the 90min drive to Inskip Point where we caught the barge across to Fraser Island.

I had let the tyres down (16psi) prior to getting on the barge however once we got across they would have easily been left at about 20psi or maybe a bit more. So after about almost 2 hours of hooning driving along the beach (which is classed as a road, speed limits and all) we arrived at the Dundubarra campground. There is no phone or power and the closest shops are about 45min away down the beach so it was great to get away. The camp ground was about half full and was excellent with good facilities which did include a dingo proof fence as there have been a few issues of late. We did have a few goannas roaming about the place which the kids thought was great.

On Tuesday we managed a drive to Lake Mackenzie and a swim, well, three of us did as it was not the warmest however it was a nice warm sunny day. Driving inland is interesting as all the roads are sand so while there's fairly heavy traffic and quite compacted, it would still be possible to become bogged and you really couldn't get out of second gear for most of the way and often had to use first as some parts were very rough. On the way back we had to ford quite a deep wash out (Eli Creek) but luckily for us we watched someone else go through so I had an idea of how deep it was.

We were up early today (Wed 9th) to visit the Champagne Pools near the north which were really very nice with the sun beating down and the many whales making their way past, some even breaching.

We then had to head back to camp, pack up and then get back to the barge to the mainland before the tide came in as there are some parts which are impassable if the tide is up.

After about a 90min drive we arrived into Hervey Bay which is where we'll spend a couple of nights before heading off further north. It's Emily's birthday tomorrow so I think we're off out to dinner and then a movie.

Link for where we are CLICK HERE

Link for photos, will be updated from time to time. PHOTOS LINK There are many more photos so will update when I get time.