Five sunny days which started with a family reunion on Stradbroke Island where we enjoyed lots of beaches and watersports.  Then up past the Sunshine Coast to Rockhampton, with a couple of stops for whale watching.

Day 15 – Stradbroke Island – a beautiful beach, freshwater creek and tea tree lake

We had to get up and out pretty quick this morning.  I think we’re getting better but there’s still a lot of phaff time that we need to cut out.  Luckily there was no traffic heading into Brisbane so we made it in time to meet Chris’s cousin Garry at the Stradbroke Flyer terminal on the coast in time for the 9.55 ferry over.  The Flyer is a passenger ferry which takes a speedy 25 minutes to cross the bay to Dunwich.

We had literally just stepped off the boat when we noticed people looking up into a tree.  Evie called it – koalas!  A great view of wild koala’s sitting in the tree.  One was even awake and having a scratch.  They weren’t moving but that’s probably too much to ask. 

Garry’s transport turned out to be a big blue 4WD bus which was a massive hit with the kids. 

We headed back to his house initially to dump bags.  We’d only brought a couple of the smaller ones over and left the rest in the car on the mainland thinking that there might not be space in the car for us and all our bags – we were so wrong!

Then we were off on a tour of the island, starting with a trip to Myora Springs creek.  This is an old aboriginal place where they used to wash in the stream and have been shelling their seafood here for thousands of years (there’s quite a shell collection there).  When the tide is in dugong and dolphins come into these mangrove swamps, but at low tide (which it was for us) you can wade out down the stream to the beach.  The stream flows out from the aquifer that sits under the island so the water probably fell initially as rain some 30,000 years ago and has been underground since.  It’s pretty cold and very fresh.  This is why the dolphins and dugong come here apparently, they seem to like the freshwater mixed with the sea. 

Down on the glorious empty sandy beach there were herons, spoonbills, ibis and other waders.  There are also soldier crabs which are only a couple of cm across and have a blue/green iridescent shell.  They bunch together (like a little army) and when you go close they all run together and then do a sideways wiggle dive into the sand, disappearing in seconds.  Chris’s favourite thing so far!

Back in the bus we headed up to the Northern point of the island to walk the boardwalk along the coast and around the gorge (coastal inlet).  Normally there is the chance to spot sharks and Manata rays off the boardwalk, but the weather continues to be odd and the wind was strong so the waves were coming in hard.  We did spot dolphins surfing in the waves and an osprey in the trees, but we couldn’t see anything below the water.  Even the crazy surfing turtle which Garry has seen frequently was put off by the wind and didn’t make an appearance. 

The walk around was lovely though, even without all the sightings.  Blue seas crashing on the rugged shoreline with the sun sparkling on the water droplets. 

After the short 1km boardwalk we stopped in Fishes for fish and chips – an epic family bucket which did the five of us easily.  Battered Barramundi, scallops, prawns and calamari.  Eaten sat in the shade on the sea front watching whales breaching and dolphins surfing.  Happy days (except for the wind blowing sand and bark in it – even that couldn’t ruin the fun).  We followed up with delicious gelati ice creams from the shop two doors down.

Time for a trip to the beach as part of our whirlwind tour.  But first tree climbing.  At the car park for Cylinder Beach there are a load of Cottonwoods which have grown up in an amazing web of branches up to 20ft high!  Epic for climbing – when Aiden saw it he thought all his birthdays had come at once!  Clambering around barefoot along the trunks together was one of my holiday highlights so far – I really enjoyed the feel of the bark and even though we were high up there were so many branches that it felt pretty safe. 

The beach was virtually empty, white sand with big waves and a lagoon at the back with some white faced herons to keep me entertained.  It was a bit cold for a swim so we didn’t linger here long but did some classic wave racing on the almost empty beach.

Back to the house to change into swimmers and pick up boards.  The kids were after body boards after their fun in the previous tea tree lake, Garry produced a body board and his rescue board which is a sort of kneeling only paddleboard with lots of grab handles.  The big bus has 4wd so we were able to head down the off road track to the bottom of the lake for a more private beach. 

When we were nearly there we came across a stranded vehicle.  They’d been there for an hour and a half as their 4wd was not engaging.  There can’t be many other cars which come down there, not at nearly 4pm and especially not a big truck like ours which could pull them out easily.  We helped push it out from the other side.  Not sure whether we were needed but I was rewarded with stubbing my toe on a hidden log.  Awesome.   Now my toe is covered in blood and sand.  Isn’t that a George R.R. Martin book?

The paddleboard was quickly a hit with the kids, especially Aiden.  Despite being a bit nervous at the start he put his new paddling skills into practice.  His first go out he was blown into the reeds – it’s all very well being able to paddle forwards, but steering and braking are pretty important too!  We were a little nervy as he had no life jacket and can’t swim very well, but the wind was so strong he could barely get 4m from shore before the boat was blown back in again.

We all had a go and miraculously no-one went in – Chris tried going on with Aiden but they were so wobbly that Aiden started screaming at him to get off and refused to paddle any further. Haha.  I think I am actually marginally better at paddle-boarding than Chris, which makes it the one and only sport where that’s the case.  He’s a natural sportsman, I may have had potential but barely played sport as a child (we walked a lot instead) so am very un-practiced.  I am good at walking though!

With the sun setting and the wind strong the temperatures were dropping off quickly so we headed back for some more chatting and pizza take out when Chris (marrying Garry next year on this beautiful island 😊) got back from working on the mainland. 

What a day!  The kids were beat, and our hosts get up very early so we all hit the hay before 10. 

Worldschooling:

We learned about the ancient groundwater pool, about the Aboriginal culture and how to paddle.  We were also on the second largest sand island in the world, which is interesting in itself!

Bird species seen: 83

Day 16 – Stradbroke Island – Blue Lake

After our early night we were all up at 7.  As my allergies were playing up I headed out onto the balcony with the duvet to enjoy some fresh air.  It was really lovely – I should do that more often at home (maybe just in the summer though!). 

My toe was not feeling good, or looking good for that matter.  Rather purple… Hopefully it’s just bruised…

It was manageable though, so I plastered it up and decided to man up and go exploring.  After breakfast Garry sent us off in his car to the Blue Lakes (Kaboora) National Park.  Kaboora means deep silent pool.  The Blue Lake is a sacred aboriginal site which the stories say is the resting place of a huge carpet python spirit.  The elders would check that approaching the lake was ok before others could approach.  Calm waters were ok, but any ripples were seen as a warning not to proceed.  

We started up the Kabul track which goes up the hill to the right of the car park, planning on taking this 3.5km trail to the lake and the easier 3km Kaboora trail back.  Initially we were climbing up through forest with many grass trees.

Aiden in particular loved the grass trees.  After being told that they grow only 1cm per year so the 3m tall ones are 300 years old he was determined to find the tallest in the forest!  They wait for the forest fires to burn them and release their seeds.  Hopefully this one will be waiting for a while as I think there are enough fires in Queensland right now!

The walking was a little difficult as, being a sand island, the paths are all sand so it’s a bit like walking up a sand dune in places.  As we hit the top of the hill there was an unexpected fork in the road which was not on the maps!  After exploring a few hundred metres up both and much debate we ended up with a 50/50 and picked the right one on the basis that the other goes downhill and the description said we should be following a ridge.  After walking through shorter tree growth in the sun for what must have been 2km we realised we’d picked wrong.  Time to head back.  By the time we reached the turning again we’d already taken longer with the walk than the whole thing was meant to and my toe was starting to throb from the speed walking back.  Decision time – head back to the car and try to get back in time for our planned ferry at 2.25 or refuse to be beaten and go and find this beautiful lake (and get a later ferry – who needs a nice peaceful evening anyway?).  We went for the second and pushed on down the path, hoping that this was the right one this time!   The kids weren’t impressed.

I think our slightly stressed approach may have dulled our enjoyment of the lake, which was beautiful. 

There was a stiff breeze though so there were definitely ripples on the surface.  Perhaps we shouldn’t have got so close!  The path back was much easier underfoot (as it was pretty much flat).  We played 20 questions with animal species to distract the kids from the fact that it was nearly 2pm and they were hungry and had walked a long way in the heat.  Worked a treat! 

Fell on the cold pizza back at Garry’s before loading up the paddleboards for another trip to the Brown Lake for more watersport fun.  Chris got to drive the jeep in 4wd down the sandy road to the bottom of the lake as there were 30 kids having a class at the top – rather busy for us. 

It was even windier than the day before and hard to get off the shore.  After paddling hard we could only get a few metres forwards when the wind was strong.  At least it meant when the kids got tired or fed up all they had to do was stop paddling and they’d be back on shore in seconds!

We had the stand up paddle board (SUP) as well as the kneeling board this time which is more stable.  Neither child was willing to have a go standing though. 

Aiden carried on his good work from the day before and was learning to put the oar in on one side and do ‘handbrake turns’ and getting much braver and stronger in his paddling. 

Evie was really put off by the wind though as she thought she’d fall in.  This was something I can totally relate to as although I’m not as much of a worrier as she is, I always think a few steps ahead.  So my mind was also saying to me that if I join in with this I might fall in and my jacket would get wet, so what would I wear on the ferry etc home.  I used to let this stop me from trying things all the time.  The last few years I’ve started ‘saying yes more’ and ignoring that voice in my head and just doing things and having fun.  I’ve never regretted it yet.  I was just explaining this to Evie and saying that the paddleboard was super stable when Chris fell in – haha.  Impeccable timing!  A strong gust of wind hit apparently. 

Despite Chris trying to derail my pep talk I convinced her to come on the SUP with me (and under no circumstances with Chris!) and, although she was worried, she did admit that she had fun 😊.  Proud mum moment. 

Time to head back to Garry’s and pack up for the ferry.  We had a few spare minutes so stopped at the Fire station on the way back (where Garry works) where he pretended that there was a fire and so Aiden had to rush in, get the clothes on, run (shuffle slowly) to the truck and climb (get lifted) into the cab.  We got to put the sirens on and everything.  Good fun for a 7 minute experience!

The ferry journey back was rough with the wind and the kids loved it, Aiden was rocking and rolling about in his seat and Evie was giggling at the bigger rolls. 

A hour after landing we were at our place in Petrie, which is lovely.  The owner has left so much food here, it’s big and clean with lovely forest views from the balcony and there’s a pool.  Such a shame that we have to leave in the morning ☹

Worldschooling:

More kayaking and perhaps keeping calm when you’re lost in the bush?  Haha. 

Actually. Getting Evie on the board was a great milestone for her in overcoming her fears and those little voices of doubt and was probably the most important learning item of the week, if not Aus. 

Bird species seen: 86

Day 17 – Bauple and whale-watching at Hervey Bay

Chris set his alarm for 5.45 to watch the second half of the football so I got him to wake me up too for a dawn bird hunt in the park and reserve at the back of the property.  There were loads of birds around, and fruit bats roosting in the trees, but I’m getting to the point now where I’ve seen the easy ones so I only got a few new spottings.  Still a pleasant morning amble, except for my run in with a crazy dog and it’s awful owner.  It kept charging me and barking and leaping at me.  Totally ignored its owner and kept coming back to harass me.  The owner wasn’t even particularly apologetic and seemed to imply that he was behaving like that because I didn’t have a dog – like it was my fault!  Very glad I didn’t have the kids with me as they would have been in bits.  It’s taken years to get Evie over her initial dog fear after some negative (over friendly) dog experiences when she was little.  I have nothing against dogs (except that I’m allergic to them) but if you can’t control them they have to be on a lead surely.  I was actually pretty shaken up by it and I’m not scared of dogs.  Rant over.

Eggs and bacon for breakfast, courtesy of the owners – thanks 😊.  Then the kids tried to fit a swim in the pool in, but it was freezing at 8.30 in the morning so that was a no!

After taking the kids over to see all the roosting fruit bats it was time to hit the road for a long drive.  It’s three hours from Petrie to Hervey Bay where we were booked in for a Whalewatching tour at 2.30.  Before we hit the road properly we checked out a couple of local sites, including the dam and Petrie Old Town.  The dam was a pleasant place to have a picnic, or cook on one of the public grills and there’s a playground, but not worth making a detour for. 

Old Petrie Town was a little confusing, it’s meant to represent a town from the 1930’s, with old style shops and a church.  We were there after 9, but it didn’t seem to really be open, the shops were all closed (apart from one selling bacon butties).  We got back on the road pretty quickly.

Driving is getting a bit old now for all of us, but especially Chris.  The scenery is pretty consistent and the roads straight.  It’s a little better this side of the mountains, but we’re a bit jaded with it all now.  Not much we can do about it though.  

We had wraps to eat for lunch so stopped off in Bauple, 2 hours into the trip.  This is a small, peaceful town with a large open area in the middle where we had our picnic.  It would have been good to have a couple of hours here as there’s an old heritage trail here and a museum with history of the area.  We had a boat to catch though.

We pulled into the Hervey Bay car park feeling slightly dubious about the trip – a few drops of rain had fallen, dark clouds were around and it was so windy that the seas were definitely not going to be flat.  Evie used to have a fear of boats, but she is mostly over that now.  After our bumpy ferry ride back from Straddie the kids thought the wind would make it more fun.  We were hoping that the waves meant fun bumps rather than a horrible ride.  

Again, we’d managed to get on a small tour, with only about another 10 people on the boat, which could fit 30.  There are definitely perks to going out of season.  Although less people meant less spotters, it did make it easier to move about the boat and we got seats right up at the front (the bumpy end). 

Hervey Bay is a major whale watching destination as the humpback whales come into the bay for a rest on their migration.  As they’re resting they tend to stay in one place for a while and not dive for long (the bay is only 20m deep at the most anyway) so spottings are easy.  The downside is that these whales are generally breeding and don’t feed for months on the journey up and back and so are a little less likely to waste their energy breaching (leaping out of the water).  This means there are lots of different tour groups operating here which could be a potential problem for the whales.  We’d chosen to go on a ride with the Pacific Whale Foundation as you ride out with a marine biologist who is actively studying and monitoring the whales whilst you are out there, and all their profits go towards whale research.  Our naturalist, Mikela, was lovely and very knowledgeable.  Aiden and I had a great chat to her on the way back in about the tubercules on their noses, how baleen works and being a marine biologist.  She first saw whales on a Pacific Whale Foundation boat when she was a child and fell in love and made it her life’s work. 

Our trip set off across the bay at speed, bumping and bouncing on the waves to squeals of joy from the kids (and some adults!).  The route took us past the vast Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.  Unfortunately, tours of the island are very expensive, so we’d decided against it.  And we’d just been on the second largest sand island in Aus – Stradbroke!  It was good to take the boat ride up the shore though to get an idea of the scale.  There were loads of 4wd trucks with people fishing off the beach and although we kept our eyes peeled for dingo’s we didn’t see any.

We soon arrived at the point where we could start to look out for whales and the boat slowed.  We were only looking for about 5 minutes when we saw blows in the distance and headed over.  A mother and calf with her escort were hanging about in the bay.  The boat cannot go within 100m of the whales, and our responsible captain kept to that, but the whales constantly came closer to our drifting boat.  At one point they passed 20m from the front 😊. 

The calf looked pretty tiny in the water, especially compared to the humps of the adults, but it’s born the size of a truck at 3-5m long weighing 1-2 tonnes!  The adults themselves are longer than the boat we were on at 13-15 metres and 35-40 tonnes – they’re big even for whales. 

We got an early breach from one of the adults and after that were treated to lots of play from the 2 month old calf.  It was performing peduncle throws (throwing the lower part of its body out the water sideways) and pec slaps, probably to strengthen itself.  The adult did a couple too which is likely to be to show the little one how and to encourage it.  There were another two pods of whales relatively close to ours so we could watch out for them in the distance and we went to see a couple of them before heading back. 

Aiden said this was his best day ever – they loved being out on the water, even though it was rough and didn’t get bored of 3 hours out there.  The noises Evie made when the whale breached were delightful.  Well worth the money 😊.  Although Evie’s enjoyment was dampened when we got absolutely soaked by a wave coming over the boat near the end.  She and Chris were at the front and took the brunt of it 🙁 .  When the boat was drifting it was at the mercy of the waves and was pitching all over the place.  You didn’t notice when you were looking out to sea, hanging on to the side, but looking back into the boat the deck was at a 45 degree angle at times!

Back on shore for a final push up to Bundaberg where we’re staying in an old ‘Queenslander’.  This Airbnb is a spacious and very quirky house built 100 years ago and still decorated in a similar way to how it would have been.  The bedrooms are all in the middle of the raised house, so one side has the lounge and the other has another reception room.  Then there’s a kitchen at the end attached to a balcony.  The result is a house with at least two doors into every room!  A great place to hang out for two nights though. 

Worldschooling:

Learnt all about humpback whales from the lovely Mikaela 😊

Bird species seen: 91

Day 18 – Baldwin Swamp, Alexander Park Zoo and Innes Park Beach

Today was a day for local exploration only in the midst of lots of driving.  We started with an 8 minute trip down the road to Baldwin Swamp.  This is just a local recreation area/reserve with a number of lakes and streams.  We weren’t expecting much but it was really lovely, peaceful and pleasant to walk around and there were LOADS of birds.  This picture doesn’t do it justice.  Seemingly I was too distracted by the birds to remember to take pictures…

We formed a pretty great team today, with Chris looking for movement, Aiden and I spying and noting colours etc and Evie in charge of the bird book.  We got 11 new species spotted and spent a couple of hours here in the end as no-one got bored. 

Back home for lunch and then out again (3 minute drive this time) to the free zoo by the river.  This only houses about 25 animals, but it’s free and you get good sightings of the animals.  We also got to stroke the dingo’s as they were on their way out for a walk!

There’s a lovely boardwalk which takes you down to the river, and then we looked at the old guns once used in the defence of Queensland and sat in the park next door to the zoo whilst the kids played. 

As we’d missed both the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast out and it was a little less breezy today we thought we’d better head to the beach.  We’d found a nice little place called Innes Park which has a stream through the beach and a playground.  The beach is a mix of sand and larger rocks for a bit of variety. 

Walking onto the beach I noticed that it was covered in small balls of sand… what made these??

After some research later, it’s little sand crabs.  Possibly the same soldier crabs we saw in Stradbroke.

A stream is always fun and we set about performing the standard task – damming the stream.  Which of course failed epically as it always does!  We also tried to make an island behind a barrier of stones, but the tide was coming in and pushing water up the stream so as quickly as we could pile sand, the water rose above it again.  Maybe we should have built a smaller island…  Soon the whole thing was underwater so we had to give up.

After playing some more the little stream which had been barely ankle deep when we started damming it had grown massively – heading back it was over Aiden’s middle!  Had we left it much later he’d have had to swim back over. 

On the way home we had to stop for a massive male kangaroo on the side of the road.  He turned to bound away as we approached rather than cross.  He was in a field of cattle showing that the wildlife can survive amongst the farms. 

Worldschooling:

We were teaching the kids about the way that water flows, it’s forces and how to build a dam using different sized stones. 

Bird species seen: 102

Day 19 – Gladstone Botanic Gardens

Another four hours of driving today with a stop halfway for a rest.  Initially the road was flat and straight and passed through farmland, with sugar cane plantations and avocado orchards. The land around Bundaberg is criss-crossed with the tracks of the sugar cane locomotives which move the cane around.

After an hour we entered a hillier area with open eucalypt forest and cattle farms.  The land is drier here, more like on the other side of the mountains further south as we reach hotter climes.  This gave way to thicker dry forest with limited farms or towns. 

At a rest stop we discovered our first major loss – the kids binoculars were missing.  After thinking back we realised Aiden had left them at the playground yesterday.  He’d put them on the ground when he climbed on the monkey bars.  Nooooo!  We tried calling the park but no luck. 🙁 

To break up the drive we’d picked Tondoon Botanic Gardens near Gladstone for our stop.  This place is an area where plant species from a number of Australian ecosystems have been planted, so you can walk through a number of biomes in one day.  There are also lakes, a longer trail up to a viewpoint, a café, an observation tower, picnic area and covered playground.  Best of all – it’s free!  The perfect place for a stopover. 

The car thermometer was reading 30 degrees and some of us were in trousers!  After a quick raid of the backpacks and a change we headed into the picnic area.  Lunch was eaten in the shade of the Eucalyptus trees. 

After a play in the playground we wandered into the gardens, stopping for a cold drink in the café on the way and a look in the little art gallery displaying local artist work for sale.  Came away with a couple of bookmarks as we are cheap and have limited space! 

Whilst we spent over an hour in the gardens, we only just about got around the main area, not the trail to the lookout, as there were always birds to spot.  Nearly 10 new species and great views of waterbirds in particular (and this Kookaburra).

At the picnic area alone we could see Straw necked Ibis, Royal Spoonbills, Purple swamp hens, moorhens, geese, ducks and a Jacana.  There was also a snapping turtle, although he was very easily spooked so we had to spy him from afar. 

We spent three hours here easily before getting back on the road.  Then quickly realised that my sunglasses now appeared to be missing ☹.  How many things can we lose!?

The road passed through flat grassland after Gladstone.  In contrast to our green, densely packed cow fields in England, these massive fields only hold handfuls of cows. More kangaroos on the roadside on the rugby pitch in town (!).  Haven’t seen any roadkill for days though.  Perhaps there’s enough water on this side of the mountains that they do not need to drink from the roads at night?

We’ve been told that kangaroos cannot judge speed in the dark, so if you are travelling over 60km/hr they may misjudge your approach.  Also, the headlights blind them which can cause them to stop in the road and not move on until you turn them down.  Noted for next time we’re driving at night…

 We stopped for fuel at a place which sold sunglasses at a reasonable price.  My old ones were super scratched but I didn’t upgrade them before travelling as they’re plastic, and the compostable ones are nearly £100.  Not going to be able to get some of those posted to me out here though as we’re moving too much, so another plastic pair would have to do.  It’s nice to be able to see clearly when wearing sunnies now 😊.

Driving along we saw massive coal trains with 100 carriages (Aiden counted!).  There is a lot more evidence of industry in Australia than in England.

We grabbed a Subway on the way into Rockhampton for eating at our cabin in the Rockhampton Discovery Parks.  There was just time for a play in the water park, playground and bouncy pillow on the complex before bed. 

Bird species seen: 113

Catch up on our time between Byron Bay and Brisbane, or follow on the adventure from Rockhampton to Mackay.