Bundaberg & Bargara

We had a great time at Bundaberg and Bargara; we went into Bundaberg to go on the rum distillery tour. It took about 1hr and ended up with a couple of tastes of the good stuff at the distillery tours bar. 

The Bundy rum bottle at the old store at the sugar mill & distillery; Linda has a lot of growing to do. 

Within the tour center there is a fantastic interactive walk around and several great displays; by pressing the various buttons below it gives you smells of the rum at various stages of the process. Some terrific aromas come out of here when the button is pressed; so good it is hard to go home. 

Having a hooter this size does come in handy; cost almost nothing to get half pissed. 

Bargara beach is not much sand but it is a very nice and quiet spot; Bargara has grown in size since I was last here and now has along with the IGA a new woolies store. It also has a few good fish and chip shops along with a pub and golf club; the normal cafe’s and eateries are all available locally. 

The van park is quite big and has 2 amenities blocks; both are cleaned at different times and the facilities are very good. One of the blocks is more modern but a little smaller but whichever you went in they were clean and had plenty of hot water. Price at the time was $152 for the week so pretty good pricing for the facilities and location. 

 

We ended up on a grass site owing to the majority of interstate visitors but we were pleased we did as it was a very social environment with plenty of “lets have a chat” people. 

We met up with Jack & Yvonne who were heading back from further north to home in Hervey Bay; we had a few daily get togethers and afternoon teas. If you do get to see this Jack make sure you turn the telly off and make the tea when we finally catch up,

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig 

Agnes Water & The Town Of 1770

Agnes Water and 1770 are only about 6km’s apart and would have to be one of the best places to visit; we stayed at the Discovery Coast Caravan & Camping Park which is approximately 5km before getting to Agnes Water.

The park is set on a 40 acre property and is very much like a bush retreat or farm stay; most of the sites are slabs and have power & water. Next time through here we would stay at this park or the 1770 camping grounds and would stay for a week or longer.

TV is non existent unless you have a satellite dish; the park is very roomy and behind all the back row sites were you had your own open fireplace/BBQ. Getting on with the neighbors was easy as fires were going every night. Showers were timed at 4 minutes but they were full bore and very good; no problems getting showered in time. Price was $22 per night and not sure if they had a discounted weekly rate as we did not stay a full week to find out (I probably should have asked). Either way we would stay here again.

Above is a photo at 1770 and below is the memorial built telling of how the town got it’s name (the date it was discovered).

Below are the words on a book-stand at the side of the monument.

One of the many lookouts along a walking trail at the heads of 1770. 

Above is a nice quiet inlet that with care could be accessed down some non official walking tracks; we did spot some people walking on the cliff edge shown.

On another part of the walking track we came across some people rock fishing (below); again getting down to this area could be a little dangerous given the way to it is by another scrambled track made by the fishing fraternity.

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig 

 

Boyne Island

 The caravan park here is situated approximately 20km out of Gladstone and is before you get to Tannum Sands; the park is in a great location being situated on the Boyne river. It is very quiet and within 1km is a bowls club and golf course (no club facilities, meals bar etc) and I was told the golf course is public and very cheap. The park was very busy being the winter season for lots of interstate groups who have been coming to the same location for many years.

Roadways and sites were well kept with rubbish bins at each slab; during our stay the weather was good (warm days, cool nights) and we were not bothered by midges if there were any. 

 

Sites were very roomy and car parking could be either at the side or at the front of the van.

The amenities do need a little TLC as you will see by the photo below; the divider wall between showers was almost knee height and you could hold a face to face conversation with the next door neighbor. The shower roses were the water saving type but these ones seem to save quite a lot of water as only about 3 of the 20 jets worked; maybe an over exaggeration but it was a battle to find a good one. 

There is another park at Tannum Sands and we did have a look during our stay at the Boyne park; if we were to visit the same area again we would stay at the Tannum park. Prices for the week were about the same ($160) but the Tannum Park as far as facilities goes seemed to be much better. 

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

 

Gladstone Show - August 6th 2008

We were in Gladstone for the show which took place on Wednesday the 6th of August; it was really something to behold and certainly rivaled the Brisbane Exhibition (not). The show consisted of sideshow ally (bust the balloons, knock over the cans, shoot the ducks etc) and food stalls. The show did have a few rides that had obviously dodged the scrutiny of workplace health and safety.

The food stalls were a gourmet dinners delight with 4 times cooked dagwood dogs, 5 day old re-heated doughnuts and a pasta van with what looked like a meat sauce topped with cheese.

Linda had a ride on the camels; the one at the back kept trying to overtake the one Lin was on and tended to dribble a lot, the one in front of Lin (not in the shot) was aptly named coke (based on it’s drinking not sniffing habit).

I was not quite sure what smelt worse, the owner or the camels. 

Linda took a photo of me next to the rig below; I am not sure if it was going to do any stunts on the day but I never saw it move while we were there. 

The entry cost for this one day event was $10 each; someone told us that on previous years it ran for 3 days, the organisers opted to change this to one day as the patronage over 3 days was not worth it (3 days!!!). Linda and I spent 2 hours at the show and walked round twice just to make sure we did not miss anything.

All in all it was not too bad and worth going if you are in town but don’t make a special trip.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Gladstone - Barney Beach

Barney Beach caravan park is very good and is centrally located to all the main areas of Gladstone; just after we arrived it was just becoming a big 4 member. The park is very secure being fully fenced with keyed gates and amenities. You would have to give this park 10 out of 10 for the camp kitchen and amenities which are kept absolutely spotless, this so far would have to be the cleanest to date. The park has had the same owners (by generation) for the entire parks existence. The staff are first class and escort you to the site and get you on as a matter of course.

If you do stay make sure you take the mystery tour (short walk involved) which give some good information on Gladstone and Barney Beach. The cost is $5 per person and finishes with a free coffee, port and chocolate (yep, only 5 bucks), well worth it and it is good fun.

Now the bad bits.

The park has quite a number of trees which are an attraction to bats and parrot type birds; the photo below shows one van that is totally covered with a blue tarp and the top of this shows the amount of mess created by the trees wildlife. The van in the background is where we located for 2 days; the first day we asked to be moved but had to wait another day before another site became available. The park again is in a residential are so dogs let loose now and again; one other downside is if you are at the top end of the park the rail line is close by and can be a little noisy with train shunting throughout the night. If you do intend staying make sure you specify not to be under the fig or mango trees.

Below is a shot of QAL; the view is only a 100m walk from the park and the outlook to sea is very nice.

Will post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Hervey Bay - Point Vernon

Hervey Bay does seem to have a certain attraction, the Granddaughters seem to be the main one but on heading north it seems a natural place to stay. We only stayed for 3 nights at at the big 4 park at Point Vernon. The park is quite small with permanents at one end; the roads are narrow and the sites are a little cramped. The park is is surrounded by residential estates so the odd barking dog is to be expected. There are a few local small shops but in the main the park is nowhere near anything walkable; you pretty much need to drive to pubs, clubs, supermarkets & eating areas.

The park owners/management are very friendly and committed to helping wherever possible; assistance with backing in is done on all arrivals without asking. The amenities are clean and bins are provided at each site. Given the parks location the price in our opinion was a little high but this time of year is whale watching season and there are plenty of southerners to fill the sites available.

Nanny and Poppy with the girls; still trying to get the footprints; cordial stains and ice cream spills off the bedspreads and seats in the van (only kidding).

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Free Camp - Granite Creek

Granite Creek is 63km north of Gin Gin and although is advertised in camps 4 as a 20 hour stopover it is actually signed at the location as being for a maximum stay of 48 hours. It does have toilets and drinking water. It is only about 100m off the highway but surprisingly quiet after several beers and a set of ear plugs (not that bad).

On the day we stayed (28th July 08) it had about 10 campers in through the afternoon with seven of these staying overnight. All that seem to stay at these overnight free stops are very sociable and this even crosses between the motorhome and caravan syndrome (all get on well).

I would suggest we picked a bad day for free camping with the south westerly winds making it very cold come late afternoon; we could have fired the generator up but opted for a heat bead fire which was warm but the sparks landing on your feet was a little annoying. Linda did have a smile on her face as below but it was soon removed as the winds got worse and numbness set in.

The next morning the winds were no better nor was the temperature; on my way to the toilet the wind and cold was so bad I had no need to shave, the hairs on my face were all frozen so a quick rub removed the lot (Gillette & Schick have nothing on this type of shave).

Sanity may prevent free camps such as this in the worst period of winter.

Post again soon -David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.