We are finally home. We have been away for nearly 17 months travelling 42,500kms.

Been to some amazing places, seen some fantastic sights, met some great people but its great to be home. 

Had to spend the first night in the caravan as all the furniture was locked up in the garage. It’s been a long week moving everything back in and getting the garden under control. 

Great to be able to sit on a proper sofa, have a bath and have a proper kitchen to cook in.

That’s it for now for our travels until our next adventure.

THE END

Last stop before heading back to Brisbane for Xmas. Will definitely be back to Hervey Bay. Beautiful but driving around is hectic. Extremely busy.

We travelled 12,100kms to complete our Queensland loop. We have officially left the ‘all the gear and no idea’ group and now have a very good idea!

That’s it for now will be back on the road sometime in February going south.

A big thank you to my friend Lynne Anderson ‘Editor of the Year’ who has been checking all my posts for typos and grammar before I publish. 

Stayed in Bundaberg but didn’t visit the rum distillery this time as we have been there before.

Went to Bargara for a swim the last time we were here was for the kid’s cross country competition years ago. Lovely little town. I visited Mon Repos and watched the film show. They are doing lots of research here. Apparently with global warming more and more of the turtles will be female as the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the turtle. So, they have this watering system where they are researching how much water is required to cool the sand enough to produce male turtles. They also have shaded areas set up to reduce the temp. I walked down to the beach, and you could see the turtle tracks of the females who had come onto the beach the previous evening. Loved their Christmas decorations in Bargara lots of turtles with Santa hats.

Finally, we arrived somewhere you can swim where there are no jelly fish or crocs so off we went to the beach only to find it closed. The sea was black with bait fish and there were sharks everywhere the water was a frenzy of activity. The beach was very busy with everybody watching the fish jumping and fins popping out of the water.

So we moved around the point to Seventeen Seventy where we could swim. Walked to the point beautiful views and swam again in a small cove. 

Had to stop for Simon to go and see the port and where the trains unload. I enjoy the nature and walks and Simon loves the trains, the ships and the docks. I was pleasantly surprised by Gladstone the park along the front is beautifully done they even have a waterfall. 

Our first downpour of rain since we left in August, and it poured for a few hours and then the sun came out. Visited the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens, the wetland are amazing so many birds and water lilies. Unfortunately, a lot of it was screened off as they were setting up for a light show for December we were a day too early.

Did a day trip over to Great Keppel. It has been raining off and on since we arrived in Yeppoon so we were lucky that the rain held off for our day trip. This is the first decent rain we have had since we left in August.

Everywhere we have been there is a terrible history of how the Aborigines were treated. Great Keppel was no different. Apparently in 1866 a guy called Robert Ross arrived in Great Keppel and began to ‘prepare’ the island as a cattle property by driving 84 indigenous people into a cave and murdered them. In 1882 he acquired secure tenure for Great Keppel!

Great Keppel was lovely with pristine beaches, we walked to Long Beach. Monkey Beach and back to Fisherman’s Beach. It was a very steep rocky climb from Long Beach with ‘Dangerous Path’ signs everywhere. You would think they would have that on the map so that we would know before starting! It was a bit of a workout, was glad to jump in the water. Sea was lovely and clear but much cooler than we have had. Had a picnic on the beach before returning on the ferry to Rosslyn Bay. The marina at Rosslyn Bay is huge and very popular the place was extremely busy.

Stopped at the Pinnacle Hotel for the night. Simon was very happy as the camping area was right in front of the cane railway so there were multiple cane trains going past. A pub and train track he was in heaven.

Went up to Eungella Chalets we stayed here in 2008 with Simon’s Dad. Excellent views over the valley even though it was a bit cloudy. This valley has now been designated for a big hydro electricity plant and a good two thirds of it will be flooded. One whole village will disappear under water. There were signs everywhere so obviously a lot of bad feeling about the dam. I feel for the people who have lived here their whole lives it must be very sad for them.

Went on a day trip to ‘Maggie’ as the locals call it. It was a very fast 20 min boat ride and once you get there a bus meets the ferry and you can do hop on and hop off. We went to Horseshoe Bay and had a swim, then onto the bus to Arcadia. My favourite was Alma Bay but there was no swimming enclosure here but there were heaps of people in the water. So I figured there is safety in numbers and joined them. Next was Geoffrey Bay and there was nobody swimming which was odd but then a local told us there are Banjo sharks and little reef sharks in this bay. You could see them clearly just darting about so no wonder there was nobody swimming. Last stop was Nelly Bay which is next to where the ferry comes in. A great day out.

A tiny little bay surrounded by densely forested hills,  a very beautiful place. This bay is known for cassowaries and it didn’t disappoint. There was a very cheeky cassowary who went around the campsite trying to steal any food left out. Our neighbour left some bread rolls out in a plastic bag and he wanted them badly. The neighbour managed to get them back so off he went down the beach to hassle anyone who was sitting at a camping table having some food. He came every day he was not shy.

Played a round of golf at Innisfail Golf Club.