A quick trip - only 3800km..oops 5500km trip report

mbr37746

mbr37746

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Oct 20, 2013
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Central West NSW
A couple of little walks the next day, this place is truly spectacular!!

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photo's don't do justice - but...
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Aboriginal art at Balloon cave
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and onwards....
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to this....where most people stop and turn back - because the sign says "end of track"
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but if you keep going - WOW!
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And the little fella was wrapped,
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because he saw lots and lots and lots of these! (which I had to take a photo of for the school journal)
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twscoot

twscoot

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Reliving myself as I scroll through the photos. Thanks for sharing. (Now all I want to do is get back out Lightning Ridge and Nindigully…!)
 
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mbr37746

mbr37746

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Oct 20, 2013
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Central West NSW
So up early (who knew 5 o'clock came in an AM variety?) the next morning to see the elusive Platypus in the creek, we did see it but couldn't get a good photo,
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Then a quick bite to eat and off on the walk. Lot's of creek crossings and 8km later we arrived at the "Art Gallery", a very spectacular, and really spiritual feeling place.
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There is lots of beautiful parts of this walk, we have lots of photos but only putting a couple on here. Every corner we walked around was just another "oh wow" moment. This is the Ampitheater.
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Which is accessed from here
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Carnarvon Gorge is a must do. Also, 8km up means 8km back too! Really proud of the kids doing 16km!
 
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mbr37746

mbr37746

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Oct 20, 2013
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Central West NSW
From Carnarvon we headed up to Yeppoon for Easter where luckily the Easter Bunny found us!
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Nice park, with water slides for the kids both big and small. This was a stop we needed to have as we'd been on the go for the past few days and was great to have a relax and read a bit of my book which I had yet to start.
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We had a drive around the area and noticed there is still quite a bit of cleaning up from the cyclones earlier this year.

We'd made it as far north as we were going this trip and now we start to head south - down to Hervey Bay. The next day we've gone back up to Bundaberg to have a look through the Bundy rum distillery, the Bundaberg soft drink brewery and on the way back, call past Childers to see where Mrs mbr's Great (maybe Great Great) grandmother owned the Grand Hotel many years ago.
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As soon as the history was read - right up to the stories of this pub being haunted, well that was it, we were out of there. This pic was taken before the reading of the haunting history..
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The next day it was a relax day, found a beaut little coffee shop next to a playground where, well, you get the idea.....
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3 coffees later I was up and ready to run a marathon, but decided that a walk around the botanic gardens would suffice.
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lots of turtles
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Hervey bay was good, a couple of down days and then off to the next place.
 

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mbr37746

mbr37746

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..via Maryborough the home of Mary Poppins.
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Hahaha, this statue was taller than Mrs mbr, but I dare not put that photo on here for fear of my life....

There's a town market here every Thursday, where the town crier comes out and fires the time canon. This bloke was entertaining and very helpful, we had a good chat to him about the town and learned a lot of info for out stop.
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A childminding facility was offered near the town hall.
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There was a also dinosaur exhibition on at the time where we had a bit of fun with lots of hands on activities and some cool animatronic dinosaurs.

One thing that was worth the twice the money (all of $10 for the family) was the self guided tours of the bond store, war museum and customs house. All of these are manned by volunteers, these were extremely passionate people who made the experience more than worth it.
I highly recommend Maryborough for a stopover, make sure you're there on a Thursday!
 

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Billrw136

Billrw136

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Carnarvon gorge 1978 with my wife - your photos have brought it all back! Thanks! We had been married just two years, camped in a $29 tent from ?? (Can't remember!). Me with long hair, purple T shirt and white shorts and thongs - ah the memories...........
 
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mbr37746

mbr37746

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Oct 20, 2013
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Tin Can Bay.

Feeding Dolphins - a bit of a wait and a bit too expensive IMHO, but the kids loved it. Even Mr Percival came to say G'Day!
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Then for a bit of a scenic drive through Great Sandy Nat. Park, along Teerwah Beach, across double island point, along Rainbow beach and back to Tin Can Bay. A good way to spend the day.
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Around the sticks...
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Kids having a bit of fun on their bodyboards.
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Convinced Mrs mbr to have her first ever beach drive!
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I wasn't going to get much over 40km anyway on the soft stuff!
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Then back to caravan park for a beer and plan for tomorrow on Fraser Island!
 
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mbr37746

mbr37746

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Fraser Island.
We only had 1 day to explore Fraser and were fortunate with the tide times to be able to have lows at about 6am and 4pm from memory.
Up early to make the 7am barge from Inskip point. We didn't realise how good the camp grounds were at Inskip - note to self - Stay here next time!
On the way to the barge there was 2 cars already bogged, with a 3rd well on its way! It looked like they didn't notice the 764 signs on the way to the sand advising people to let their air pressures down - oops, but hahahahha.
It was a colder, wet morning and there was a bit of a line up for the barge, but everyone in the picture fit on. We were the final car.
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Off the barge, around Hook Point and up the beach toward the Maheno wreck. Beware dingo's. This is the only 1 we saw, it may have been more worried about the plane coming into land.
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Made it to the Maheno, it took about 1hr15min easy driving.
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Then back down the beach to start to explore some inland tracks. Mosltly pretty easy driving with the most challenging parts being the beach entry/exits through the soft stuff. Having a bit of rain did make the tracks a bit more solid as well.

No passing here
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Lake McKenzie - trying to imagine how spectacular it would be on a sunny day.
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Another "glamour shot" of the "Mighty Trito" on the beach. This ute has performed really well so far!
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Back down the beach, around the sticks, counting the sets to have a bit of sand to drive on, then on the barge and back to the caravan park.....
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Via the carwash, dislodging what seemed like half a tonne of sand in the process.
 
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mbr37746

mbr37746

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Oct 20, 2013
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Had another down day then we were off to Maroochy River Caravan Park for the start of the "busy" middle section of the holiday with Zoos, theme parks and other attractions designed to lure kids in.

Had a perfect spot at this park though, right next to the pool, a small camp kitchen and amenities.
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Lets go see the Big Pineapple, I remember this place from being a kid says Mrs mbr and myself...well, it was a case of the older we get, the better it was, as unfortunately it has gone way downhill, it's a pity, but still the kids thought a big pineapple was pretty cool. Walked in, up, down, out and got back in the car.
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Then went to our friend Google and came up with the Buderim Ginger Factory. What a find, this was really good. Mrs mbr - who doesn't, well didn't like ginger came away very pleased with her new found flavour and even some ginger beer cordial, which kind of evaporated - oops.
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There's little train rides, water rides, knick knack shops, on site cafe etc. It could easily take up most of a day if you wanted it to.
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A quick factory tour, very informative. We played nice on this factory tour, compared to the Bundy distillery where we were in a playful mood. Mrs mbr memorised the name of the yeast used to make the rum (saccharomyces cerevisiae) and when asked if we had any questions, we asked about yeast cultures, haccp, lean manufacturing and six sigma, logistic exports and government taxes (specifically why I can buy Rum in Vanuatu for nix compared to Aus.) just to amuse ourselves. The tour guide looked at us with a "bugger" look, said "What are you people" and deflected the comments by complementing Mrs mbr for being the first person she could recall that could remember the name of the yeast. We did tell her we weren't spies and gave a quick run down on what we did for work.

Off to the hills for a drive, someone told us Montville was a good place to go for a drive and have a coffee. Can't remember who it was, but if I ever find them.....I'll say thanks.

Nice Drive, nice views and the little fella loved the hot chocolate.
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