Are you ready to hear about the best ‘bush’ camping we have ever done to date? As you already know, upon leaving Adels Grove campground, we decided to head back towards Gregory Downs and spend the next five nights free camping in a nice secluded spot on the Gregory River, in a place we had previously located on our way through to Lawn Hill earlier in the week. Matt really doesn’t like caravan park/campground camping and after having a busy, nearly twelve months on the farm with lots of workers and family around, we were really hanging out for some quiet, relaxing family time. That is exactly what we got on the Gregory River! Continue reading
Posts Tagged With: Camping
Gregory River
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: Bush Camping, Camping, Camping with kids, Canoeing, Gregory Downs Camping, Gregory River, Kayaking Gregory River
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Adels Grove
Oh dear – I have just realised that we never finished telling you all about our two week trip away in June/July!! Ooopsy Daisy!!! Right, back to it then – there’s a couple of awesome posts to come! So, while we explored Lawn Hill/Boodjamulla National Park we set up base camp at Adels Grove Camping Park. It was a lovely shady campground with plenty of room for everyone. No designated sites – just find a spot wherever you liked. As we mentioned in our Lawn Hill post – there is no internet connection available at Adels Grove but the shady sites outweighed that for us as even in winter it was very hot at the National Park!! Just a word of warning though – it would be very difficult to get much sun on your solar panels in the Adels Grove Campground as most of the park is covered by the leafy tree canopy! The Top Campground at Adels Grove does allow pets and generators, but it is much hotter and no where near as pretty and leafy as The Grove campground.
Here’s a little bit of trivia for you – the Adels Grove Park was originally taken up by the owner as a Botanical Garden and over 1000 species of exotic and native plants, shrubs and trees were planted there. The Botanical Gardens in Brisbane still has 536 different samples of seeds sent to them by the original owner! This really explains the beauty of the campround here! We camped for three nights at Adels and really enjoyed it. Continue reading
O’Briens Creek, Mt Surprise.
We finished off our two weeks away last weekend with a few nights camping with family at O’Briens Creek and doing some gem fossicking. My Aunty Leanne wrote a post about it on her blog ‘Travelling is An Adventure”. I thought I would share the post on our blog too as it will probably be a week or so until I get a chance to do our post about our time at O’briens Creek. It was a great weekend and a really lovely spot!! Leanne has some great photos of our time there in her post so check it out!
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: Camping, Camping Mt Surprise, Gem Fossicking, O'briens Creek, Topaz
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Flashback Friday – “Free”
Well, seeing as we finished all of the posts about our trip yesterday, it seems only fitting that this week’s Friday Flashback be dedicated to a small photo montage of our adventure. Using our theme song of course, “Free” by Zac Brown Band as the background music. Man, we had a great trip! Just click play and watch the video! If you are thinking about a trip like this – JUST DO IT!!!
Categories: Camping, Zac Brown Band
Tags: Camping, Travel Around Australia, trip around australia
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Bribie Island Camp
Probably my favourite ‘practice run’ camping trip leading up to our big trip around Oz has been our long weekend away at Bribie Island in late November last year.
Bribie Island is less than an hour’s drive north (65km’s to be exact) of Brisbane. It is linked to the mainland by a road bridge. It is beautiful, with lots to see and do and such an easy camping weekend away!
We camped at site ‘K’ in the Ocean Beach Camping Area which was a site suitable for a camper trailer and a tent – perfect for us and Ben, Amy and the kids who joined us on this camp. It was lovely and secluded and we had our own private stretch of beachfront! This was our first experience camping without any amenities, and our first attempt at taking Karen Camper on to the beach. We were very nervous! Especially when we stopped in the car park entrance to ‘air down’ (drop the air pressure in the car and camper tyres to a suitable level – about 20 PSI – for sand driving) and we had some people come over and say to us that they weren’t sure we would get the camper down onto the beach – eeeek! But we decided to give it a go anyway as the whole point of this camp was to test out the camper and ourselves with some beach driving/towing. We were fortunate that a nice man offered to drive ahead of us down on to the beach and make sure we made it through the ‘cutting’ okay. We were chewing our fingernails even more when we hit the cutting and saw a Prado bogged in the sand in front of us and they were not even towing anything!!! But – we followed the car in front who had visited Bribie many times and we made it through just fine – phew!
On the beach in front of campsite ‘K’
The next challenge was then getting the car and camper up the sand dune and into our campsite! It took two goes for Matt to get the camper in after backing out on the first run when he realised he hadn’t given himself enough of a run up and power to get up, and managing to reverse out! It is very nerve-wracking being on the beach, knowing the tide is coming in and not being sure if you are going to be able to get your camper off the beach and up into your campsite – I had visions of our camper having to be left on the beach at the mercy of the ocean while we watched from the top of the dunes! I guess this is what doing something new/having an adventure is all about, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get stressful sometimes!! The campsite was quite small so it was definitely a test for Matt’s reversing skills to finally get the camper in to position for the weekend. We suffered a small dent to the front of Peter Prado when Matt hit one of the National Park ‘bollards’ (posts that mark out the campsite) so we didn’t entirely avoid a small amount of swearing!
Great view from our campsite
Our setup – there wasn’t a lot of shade
Kids having their before breaky swim at 7am in the morning
Over the course of the weekend we tackled the ‘Fort Bribie’ walk which was a 5km return trek that ended up being quite tough for the kids but they managed! The walk wasn’t very well signed so we got a little lost a few times but did make it to the Fort in the end with hot faces and scratched arms and legs! This is an extract about the walk from the National Park website;
“Near the northern tip of Bribie Island, you can take a walk through coastal plant communities featuring casuarinas, melaleucas and some rainforest species to heritage-listed remains of gun emplacements and searchlight buildings. Wayside signs provide information about the forts and the men and women who served here during World War II (1941–1945).
During World War II, Fort Bribie was strategically located near Bribie Island’s northern tip to secure the passage south. Moreton Bay’s shallow waters are scattered with small islands, banks and sandbars, so large ships are limited to the main north-west shipping channel that runs close to shore near Bribie Island.”
A bushwalking challenge!
Jack having a look at one of the gun emplacements
Fort Bribie
We were pretty cranky to find that we could have just driven up the beach to the Fort rather than bashing through the bush!
We opted for the walk home along the beach rather than through the bush again!
We also had a fun afternoon four wheeling driving along the Northern Access Inland track and checking out the Poverty Creek camping area.
An afternoon of 4wding along the inland northern access track on the island – Roma Rav bogged!
Can you tell that Matt is just a little happy to have a chance to use the brand new ‘snatch strap’ and get bragging rights over Roma Rav??
Afternoon stop at Poverty Creek – beautiful Glasshouse Mountains in the background
Amy at Poverty Creek
And other than that we just spent time lazing on the beach and cooling off in the Welsby and Mermaid Lagoons on the island. The lagoons were very shallow and lovely and warm – perfect for young kids!
Mermaid Lagoon
Welsby Lagoon
Cars on the beach in front of Welsby Lagoon
Another great weekend getaway so close to Brisbane – I think Bribie Island would even be an awesome day trip! We loved it and just wish we had more time to go back again. The kids, and me, even survived our first bush toileting experience of digging our own ‘bush toilet’ hole! If you live in Brisbane and have a four wheel drive then definitely go and check out Bribie Island!
I cooked my first chocolate cake in the camper oven while we were there – going to take some getting used to cooking with but tasted ok after we cut the burnt bits off!
Kangaroo visiting our camp site
Evening fishing on the beach – very quiet and peaceful
Tackling the cutting after racing the tide up the beach to head home
The worst bit about beach camping – the cleaning up and hosing down when we get home
Very thankful for ‘sand grabber’ floor mats!
Elanda Point Camp
Elanda Point November 2012
We still have so many blog posts to add about our lead up camping forays before we head off, but time seems to be galloping now!! We really should have been blogging as we were doing these things like we planned, but hopefully better late than never!
Our third trip away with Karen Camper and Peter Prado was in November last year to Elanda Point which is a one and a half hour drive north of Brisbane. We camped at the Elanda Point Education Centre and Adventure Park which had great facilities but unfortunately no campfires allowed – bummer! The campground is set right on the edge of Lake Cootharaba. When we arrived it was very windy so despite the fact that I desperately wanted to camp right on the water, we opted for a quiet spot at the back of the campground after several campers who had been there the night before showed us the damage that had been done to their annexes and awnings – we couldn’t risk having that sort of damage to our camper. Apparently it is very common to have severe winds down on the water at Elanda Point.
Our 3rd setup – Elanda Point
Heaps of kangaroos all over the campground
Kangaroo
We had Matt’s brothers and Amy join us on this trip, along with the Fealy cousies. Elanda Point is great for young kids as the water in Lake Cootharaba is very shallow – basically knee deep for hundreds of metres out and very warm. Our kids had a ball playing in the water – especially on the Monday when we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves!
Gotta love Uncle Jimbo!
Lexi Lou!
Helping to set up Uncle Ben and Amy’s new tent.
We camped here for three nights and could have easily stayed longer. There was heaps of room for the kids to run around and lots of lovely shady spots.
Took the hammock this time but I think the kids were the only ones who got to use it!
The kids doing some ‘rest time’ activities in the shade
Jacko spent the whole weekend rescuing baby birds that kept falling out of their nest in the tree – and trying to bring them home!
Lace Monitor
There are a few great walking tracks that you can tackle from Elanda Point. As our kids are still quite little – we choose a walk that left from the campground and which was just a short 3km return walk to Mill Point, the place where a timber mill township flourished from 1862 to 1892. It was a really easy and scenic walk with quite a few interesting spots to stop and see along the way – a fun way to give the kids a bit of a history lesson!
An afternoon walk to the old ‘Mill’ site at Elanda Point
The ‘Family Tree’ – Fealy Cousins at Mill Point
We used Elanda Point as our base to try out the first of our 4wd tours from the ‘Dirty Weekends’ book. It was a bit of a disaster! We blew a fuel line on Peter Prado at about 20kms into the drive so spent the rest of the day worrying about how much diesel we were losing! Then we got a bit lost and couldn’t pick up the track that the Dirty Weekend’s book was directing us to (a first lesson for us that we are not going to just be able to rely on our iPhones/Ipads for help when lost as we had no reception!!!) so we ended up driving all the way to Rainbow Beach along a forestry track, which was not the scenic 4wding experience we were hoping for! We would definitely like to go back and do a bit more exploring of the Cooloola National Park! Despite the frayed tempers, frustration and disappointment, we still managed to have a pretty good day and see some beautiful spots!
Time to go 4wding!
We found the first stop on the 4wd tour ok – Harry’s Hut. It all went down hill from there!
Noosa Everglades at Harry’s Hut – beautiful – would love to go back with Kayaks.
Group photo (credits to James) at Freshwater Campground – Rainbow Beach, where we stopped for a very late lunch!
A bit of beach driving back from Rainbow Beach to Noosa North Shore – it was a spectacular afternoon! We drove past the beach camping at Teewah Beach – it looks great, definitely something we would still love to do!
Red Canyon – Rainbow Beach
Red Canyon
The car ferry back to the mainland at Noosa North Shore
Zip tying the fuel hose back up with the assistance of a very helpful man at the Noosa North Shore car wash.
A pretty good weekend away but we did blow our first tyre on the camper on the highway on the way home, which was a bit of a downer way to end the weekend, but all a learning experience for us!
We blew our first tyre on the camper coming home – this is where we discovered we had no tools – not even a tyre iron that fit! Definitely a wake up call and thankful for our RACQ membership!
Somerset Dam Camp
Somerset Dam Camp October 2012
When we purchased ‘Karen’ Camper we made a decision to get away camping once a month right up until we departed for our trip. This was mostly to get as much experience towing and setting up the camper in different environments, as well as getting us all (kids included!) running like a well oiled machine with our set camping jobs, but also to make sure we got as much use out of our investment in the camper as possible. We are thinking that once we have finished our trip around Oz, we will have to sell the camper to put the funds back onto the mortgage so it was really important to us to make sure that we got to do as much camping as possible while we had her and see some of the many great spots around South East Queensland!
So, with that as our goal, our second camp after our first hit out to Flanagan Reserve was in October 2012 to Somerset Dam, which is a 1 hour drive from Brisbane. We camped for two nights at the SEQWater Somerset Park Campground as it was very cheap at only $20 per night per site! Adam and his two boys joined us on this camp which made it heaps more fun for us all as they bought all the fishing experience and know how, along with a boat and kayak!
There wasn’t really anywhere for the kids to swim at the campground, but plenty of room to ride their bikes and run around, along with some great spots to fish from the banks of the Stanley River.
Our setup!
Beautiful Jacaranda trees around the campground.
Boys off for a walk at the campground to check out the fishing possibilities at the river
Great spot for fishing and Caleb even caught one on his first cast!
We spent most of our time at ‘The Spit’ at Somerset Dam, which was about a two minute drive away from the Somerset Park Campground. It was nice and shallow off the bank for the kids to swim (but the bottom was very muddy!) and there was a roped off area so the kids were safe to swim out of the way of all the ski boats. It was pretty busy with all the water-skiers but we quite liked just sitting and watching all the action!
Having an afternoon swim at ‘The Spit’
Adam & Matt took all the kids out in the boat for a spin around the dam
These boys even fished while the boat was anchored at the bank and we had lunch!
Lach taking the kids for a Kayak
Lach spent most of his time paddling around in the kayak and fishing from it!
A really enjoyable spot for a quick weekend getaway out of Brissy! We came home via Mt Glorious which wasn’t the best idea as it definitely gave the poor car and camper brakes a good workout coming down the windy section of the range – we wouldn’t advise taking a car and camper that way!
Always have to toast some marshmallows on the fire!
Peter Prado & Karen Camper – Camp No 2
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: Camping, Somerset Dam, Somerset Park Campground, Stanley River, The Spit Somerset Dam
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Flanagan Reserve Camp
I’m back tracking a little tonight to record on the blog our ‘maiden voyage’ camping trip with Karen Camper!
The week after we brought Karen just happened to be the start of the September school holidays so we made a snap decision that we would take off for one night away camping to test out the camper and kick start the school holidays (yes – this is the trip we did without a brake controller – eek! See this post if you’re not sure what I’m talking about). We roped Ben & Amy and the kids into coming along with us to celebrate our very first adventure.
As we were only heading away for one night we wanted to go somewhere close so we opted for Flanagan Reserve http://www.flanaganreserve.com.au. Flanagan Reserve Bush Camp is less than two hours from Brisbane, out past Beaudesert on the banks of the Logan River and you are able to take dogs, so Jerry got to come with us on this trip too!
It was a nice spot but the campsites were a bit too dusty for our liking. The camp ground is large though so we got to spread out and not have neighbours right beside us and the kids loved playing in the creek! There were toilets and showers (coin operated) and you could have your own campfire which was great as it was quite cool even at the end of September!
Anyway – I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story – we had a fun time (despite the fact that we discovered the camper fridge was not working!) and it was a good first test run!
All hitched up (yes it did take a few goes and some yelling at each other!) ready for our first ever trip away with Karen Camper!
First setup – this is where we learnt that it is important to put the handbrake on the camper FIRST, before unhitching!!!
Fealy Kids terrorising the campground.
Dad and his girl off for an evening stroll around the camp.
Hours of fun to be had in the creek
There are plenty of spots along the creek to explore and swim in.
Girl Fun – making ‘sand cakes’
Leaf boat racing – the best fun for a boy!
The creek does get busy but there is plenty of room for everyone.
Mt Barney – plenty of hikes to be done around here but we didn’t have time to check any of them out.
Lizard of some description! Anyone know what he is??
Agnes Water Camp
In attempt to cheer myself up from the fact that we are not spending Easter with all the family this year and Matt is off at work trying to do as many hours as he can over the long weekend, I thought a bit of blogging distraction might help! Oh, and I can guilt free let the kids scoff themselves on chocolate so they are happy and I can type uninterrupted!
On our way home from Easter at Emu Park last year, we stopped in and had two nights exploring Agnes Water and 1770.
We camped at the Agnes Water Beach Caravan Park which was a lovely spot right on the beach. The caravan park was packed given that it was the Easter school holidays and Matt doesn’t like camping in caravan parks at the best of times, especially not when we are jammed in like sardines! However, the park had nice grounds, clean amenities, a very basic camp kitchen and the kids really enjoyed the outdoor movie at the park where they got to see ‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’ lying on grass in their sleeping bags with the sound of the waves crashing in the background!
Our tiny little camp site – we had to leave our trailer in a designated trailer area.
View from our camp site
The camp kitchen had a great view!
Agnes Water and 1770 are about 5-6 hours drive north from Brisbane. They have the northern most surf beach on the east coast of Australia. The beach at Agnes Water was a bit too rough for our littlies while we were there – the kids just kept getting dumped and swept towards the rocks, but the beach at 1770 did look much calmer with lots of boats moored there.
On the beach in front of the Agnes Water Caravan Park
Walk on the beach Agnes Water – Tobes had the kindy monkey visiting on this trip! Thank goodness the monkey made it back to kindy in one piece!
We walked along the beach for an hour one morning – very peaceful
The townships are very small and quiet and are nestled between two National Parks; Deepwater and Eurimbula. We spent a whole day exploring Deepwater National Park http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/deepwater/about.html#features and wished we had more time to explore Eurimbula.
Four wheel driving in Deepwater National Park – I need to improve my 4wd Action photography skills!
On the beach in front of Middle Rock camping area – bush camping only – no facilities
A walk along the beach – Middle Rock
We spent most of the day relaxing on the beach in front of the Wreck Rock camp ground. The Wreck Rock campground has 14 numbered and defined sites which are all quite shady. There are picnic tables, composting toilets, rainwater and bore water (must be boiled) and one cold shower. Unfortunately no open fires are allowed otherwise the spot would be just about perfect!
Wreck Rock
Kids playing on the beach
The boys loved playing in the sea foam
We found a nice shady spot in the dunes for a picnic
And an even nicer spot for an afternoon nap!
Definitely a place to add to your ‘must visit’ list. I think 1 or 2 weeks here would be a great way to really wind down and enjoy the slow pace for a while.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Oh – and just a photo of the wedge tailed eagle we spotted on the way home – quite an impressive bird!
Wedge tailed eagle somewhere on a country road outside Bundaberg
Categories: Camping, Qld Camping
Tags: 1770, 4wding, Agnes Water, Agnes Water Beach Caravan Park, Camping, Deepwater National Park, Middle Rock, Wreck Rock
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