Capricorn Coast

The drive to Lake Awoonga was wet most of the way.Β  The Bruce Highway was at times bumper to bumper with the commencement of the eastern states school holidays the day before but luckily there were regular overtaking lanes.Β 

When we arrived at the caravan park Russell was asked if we were part of the Revivalist group so we knew we were going to be in safe company πŸ˜‰ It turns out that they were directly across from our site and entertained us with their singing and ukulele playing as the rain fell for the rest of the afternoon. We played a few games of scrabble with Russell slightly ahead overall but I did manage to use all of my letters for the first time ever and score a bonus 50 points with ‘annotate’ so was happy with that!

The next morning the sky was still grey but dry at least and we had a bit of a wander around the nearby picnic areas on the Lake’s edge. We found this little mum whose joey popped its head out a couple of times. We think she is a whip tailed wallaby, very pretty markings and we ended up seeing quite a few of them.

Besides being a very popular fishing area, the dam which is formed on the Boyne River, actually supplies most of the water for the Gladstone area.

 

 

Given that it definitely wasn’t the best fishing weather we were happy with just an overnight stop and we continued on toward our next ‘long stay’ at Yeppoon. Yeppoon is 38 kms from Rockhampton and marks the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef and the ‘gateway’ to the Keppel Islands.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t improve much and once again we set up in the rain which didn’t seem to bother the hordes of kids zooming around in pedal trikes and happily splashing down the waterslides. Grey Nomads meets school holidays πŸ˜‚ The caravan park turned out to be one of the nicest we have stayed in thus far, with something for everyone from pancakes in the morning to live music some nights and a great site for us. It was actually a little out of Yeppoon at Mulambin Beach, which was almost deserted most days.

Despite not experiencing a great deal of sunshine in our five days stay, we did manage several hikes to nearby headlands, explored the little town of Emu Park and Russell got in another day of bowls.

It also turned out to be quite a good spot for butterfly hunting and evidently winter is the season for it! We had a brief glimpse of the blue Ulysses butterfly which is the symbol of Queensland tourism but didn’t capture a pic so obviously it didn’t really happen πŸ˜‰ We did however see numerous butterflies in general and snapped a few on ‘film’ with varying degrees of success.

Named to the best of mine and Google’s capability – if anyone has better information I’m happy to hear it πŸ˜‚

The other notable event in Yeppoon was a plumbing issue. The mixer tap in the kitchen had become loose over the previous couple of days and was very wobbly when we arrived in Yeppoon after two hours of bumpy Queensland roads. I took the drawer out to try and access the back of the sink, just reached the loose nut and it came off in my hand, the washers falling down behind the other kitchen drawers. You would not believe how difficult the spot was to access, you could literally only get two fingers to the bottom of the tap and trying to get the washers in position proved to be a nightmare. It took us the whole Crows game (on in the background) and some very MacGyver like ingenuity from Russell – involving a Bundaberg Distillery lanyard, sticky tape, Blu tack and kitchen string – but we got it upright again, still loose but workable. Hopefully we will get a more permanent fix in Mackay if we can hand tighten every day to keep the nut in position.

On the whole we had a nice stay in Mulambin Beach, it could have been improved with better weather and our planned trip to Great Keppel Island perhaps but we got plenty of exercise as well as continuing the Scrabble duel. Sometimes I have to remind myself that its OK not to be on the move all of the time.

Leaving Mulambin Beach on Friday we had another overnighter planned at Clairview, a tiny seaside community about an hour south of Mackay. The free camping option had been recommended by several fellow Moho owners but unfortunately the free camp has now been blocked off by council and we were lucky to secure a spot in the Barracrab Caravan Park. Once again it was raining when we arrived and we were more than a little damp and muddy by the time we were set up. The rained stopped in time for us to have an afternoon walk on the beach which was largely exposed by the very low tide. Apparently dugongs frequent this area and as they are on my bucket list we hoped one might magically pop up but alas no.

Clairview looking toward Barracrab Caravan Park

The unexpected bonus atΒ  Barracrab CP was its beach side open air ‘diner’ complete with fire pit and bar. The Friday night special was pork spare ribs and they were delicious! We had a couple of bevvies chatting to two other couples and getting some tips for further north

The next day we even saw a dugong, albeit on the local public toilet wall, but it might be the closest we get πŸ˜‰

Dugong at Clairview

Tomorrow, we have a short drive to Mackay where I get to meet my big brother for the second time 😍

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