A short five week trip into Qld!

[BJM]

Well this year our usual long trip into Qld from Yamba was held up my wife getting two jury call ups in four weeks !no trials eventuated but put us back till early August.Usual run up to Toogoolawah Showgrounds,onto Cania Gorge ,very dry, night at Biloela Heritage Machinery park,Bilo where the bakery serves fresh cream donuts ,and apple turnovers ,fresh made sickly false mock cream ,yuk!On up to Rubyvale for a week where we again got some reasonable sapphires.Clearmont has a top bakery with real cow cream in monster apple turnovers!Road down past Moranbah to Blacks Beach Mackay is all over the place ,just shows what mining money can build?! Blacks Bch Caravan pk blew a SE gale for
four days ,this park has more leaf blowers all working together than anywhere.Idiot upwind of us thought it was a great idea to fire up and blow more c….p onto our site ,untill a few words where I would stick his blower sorted things out.Onto Bowens Queens Tourist pk for a week to see a mate,then via Airlie Tasman Caravan pk to see a mate who forgot tell mention he wouldnt be there ,one night at Cape Palmerston
then on to Emu park CPk now another Tasman park.On to Agnes Water Reef Caravan Pk did the LARC trip up to Bustard Head greatvday out ,,Inland to Joe Bielke Peterson dam for a one night stop too hot.Long drive to Glen Innes .three days there ,icluding a frost!Then home.
Observations! Young couples with kids now in Rams,and Chevs towing huge vans the norm up the coast!Know two park owners who are at wits end with kids running amok ,ie electric scooters ,etc being abused by parents when asking them to control kids.Same problems with dogs! Bruce Highway still a disgrace ,even near new sections breaking up .Dare I say ,Vics hogging caravan parks for now upto four months,!
Rubbish on Qld roadsides getting worse.Qld now at saturation point with RVs etc. ! The Jeep towed the J 17.58 Poptop Outback with no problems.

 

[Hitting the road]

Young couples with kids now in Rams,and Chevs towing huge vans the norm...

Great summary BJM. Yep, same deal up the north coast of WA...FiFo workers all trying to outdo each other..."mines bigger than yours"...

It seems kids don't have to go to school any more either...almost everywhere we have stayed all over the country the Parks are over run with kids, school holidays or not.

We are in Mildura ATM heading back to the East Coast...Port Macquarie first stop...sorta not looking forward to the madness...

 

[Drover]

Interestng run but we stay away from coast, crowds and prices just too much............ Love it around the Gemfields, overdue for a return............... Freezing bums off here in Canberra at the moment.... Epic is chockers and Canberra Park is full but still better than the Epic............... hopefully the Victorians will have gone home for the return trip......... Your jeep wouldn't know it had the van behind..............

 

[chartrock]

We are in Dubbo tonight on our way to Victoria for a run along the GOR. It is cool but still sat outside till 9:00 watching satellites. We have seen similar with young families in Rams and Land Cruisers etc pulling large vans and lots of kids. Admittedly, NSW only goes back to school this week so things might improve. Van parks are very full but can’t convince Mrs CR to hit the free camps.

The Newell hwy has been very quiet heading south but a lot of semis heading north with plenty of caravans.

 

[BJM]

Interestng run but we stay away from coast, crowds and prices just too much............ Love it around the Gemfields, overdue for a return............... Freezing bums off here in Canberra at the moment.... Epic is chockers and Canberra Park is full but still better than the Epic............... hopefully the Victorians will have gone home for the return trip......... Your jeep wouldn't know it had the van behind..............

Dont like the crowds either,not much choice sometimes.Love to know how many vans on the road in Qld in peak times?
Tasman now taken over many parks ,At Airlie Bch real dusty dirt site covered in leaves $60.00 per night,same price as Tasman Emu Park no slab, dirt sloping site! They are just lucky things still busy,one goes another in.Only plus now most parks let you in around 1100am.

 

[Drover]

Wow, is that school holiday gouging or normal ? The free camps we stopped at or drove past have more in them than usual for this time of year we noticed but again it ebb and flows every couple of days, here in Canberra no choice so Park is the only way to go, $60/ny, kills me but at least we got it for $58, massive savings ............................... be off grid all the way home to try and not blow the budget I think... The run down here was pretty direct and that was about $600 in fuel for the 1500 odd kms ..................... Depending on the terrain and wind Jeep is returning between 16 and 17.8l/100 .............. Been lucky with the wind mostly back or rear quarter.

 

[BJM]

Wow, is that school holiday gouging or normal ? The free camps we stopped at or drove past have more in them than usual for this time of year we noticed but again it ebb and flows every couple of days, here in Canberra no choice so Park is the only way to go, $60/ny, kills me but at least we got it for $58, massive savings ............................... be off grid all the way home to try and not blow the budget I think... The run down here was pretty direct and that was about $600 in fuel for the 1500 odd kms ..................... Depending on the terrain and wind Jeep is returning between 16 and 17.8l/100 .............. Been lucky with the wind mostly back or rear quarter.

$60.00 was school holiday price.But all the parks Tasman have taken over have increased fees a lot.! We had really strong SE winds for three weeks , always on my favourite stretches !back down from Bowen to Airlie ,Mackay.,Cape Palmerston to Emu park .Saw a couple of 20l /100 rest was around 15.6 .to 17. Day temps were up around 29.c

 

[Hitting the road]

...for eye watering costs...we are being gouged $90.00 per night at White Albatross at Nambucca Heads...on the lake. We have stayed there before, sites not on the lake are cheaper, but imo it's worth the extra...lake side sites are really really nice.

But, all that said, insurance costs for Parks is skyrocketing, that along with Council fees and charges. Also, many people are understandably opting to free camp anywhere, only booking a Park to do the washing....which will only encourage higher Park pricing imo.

(Fuel for my Jeep has averaged 15.6 L per 100km over the past 22,000kms on this lap...)

 

[BJM]

Friend in Blue Dolphin CP in Yamba I think paid around $140.00 per night for a powered site with two kids overvXmas last year ! yes insurance for parks is now a big problem.No more bouncing castles etc. Plus in Qld problems in flood ,cyclone areas.Our house insurance in Yamba went up 30% a few months ago due to new flood zoning.Also now effects caravan insurance premiums!