Firstly if you would rather not receive an email advising of the web site updates please let me know and I will remove you from the list (I don't want to be a nuisance).
These bloody storms seem to follow us but fortunately we had no lumps (hail) in this one; the damage done just 1km from the park was unreal but I will get on to that later in this post.
Firstly the park itself and the good and bad. Scarborough Holiday Village is situated at the harbour and is a prime location; it used to be similar to a lot of the older parks on the Redcliffe peninsular, very run down and full of permanent residents. This is not the case now as it was completely refurbished with new amenities, roadways and great drive-through sites. The drive through's are all but on the perimeter and have great easy access; the sites are long rather than wide so parking is either behind or in front of your van depending on how far you take the van through.
Good & Bad – nothing really bad at all, maybe it should be “would have liked” and in this area a pool would have been a plus, also the area for your annex or awning is grass only, the drive in tracks are concrete so the van levels okay but grass may put some off. I must say that the drainage on the sites is very good, even give all the rain we had once it stopped raining the sites were dry in no time flat.
The good is – great staff that run and look after the park and it makes for a very comfortable atmosphere, the amenities are first class and are always clean and they must be the biggest showers we have come across to date, the location is brilliant being at the harbour it is close to all the shopping facilities. The park is walking distance to Scarborough and local shopping, major shops are about a 5km run in the car; there is great walking and bike tracks (15km of them) and the scenery is very enjoyable. With the park having limited facilities it tends to keep families with kids at bay (Brian; you would love this as no constant itching).
Price – $30 per night or take advantage of the $150 per week (pay for 5; stay for 7). Our opinion is this is well worth a week or so stay and is one of the better parks we have been in. Pauline, Peter, Sarah and Digger are the managers; Phone: (07) 3203 8864 : Web: www.scarboroughholidayvillage.com.au.
Now the storm at Scarborough which cut a path of around 500m and certainly caused a lot of local damage; the photos we took were the morning after and shows the devastation done by the wind and rain. Fortunately it was not as bad at the caravan park although at one stage I thought our awning was going to be blown off; along with all the tie-downs we also found a new use for a snatch strap which I put over the full length of the awning following the predictions of severe winds (keep this in mind: 4 wheel drive recovery gear has multiple uses).
The other things that went through my mind during the height of the storm was how am I going to put in a third claim to APIA telling them that the new awning they replaced under insurance from Byron Bay is now floating in the ocean somewhere between Scarborough and Morton Island (not good thoughts).
Above is a sheet of roofing iron off the Scarborough hotel roof which travelled mid air for approximately 50m and bent around a tree 4m above ground level.
The Scarborough hotel in the above photo is in the background; the foreground is a council BBQ seating area; all that is left are the brick support pillars for the roof. The photo below shows the roof that was thrown about 20m on to the beach area.
The photo below is one of the section of the Scarborough hotel which at last call was still being refurbished.
Lin & I are not sure why we are an attraction for these storms; we certainly have been through our fair share of these things. We did ask a couple of travellers if they would like to join us on a few caravan tag along ventures to various place but they all seem to want to travel to locations in the opposite direction to us (not sure why???)
Apologies for the delay – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig
