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.

Standown Park - Our Second Visit

After our free night in Gympie it was great to get back to Standown Park on Tuesday 22nd July; we arrived at around 10.00am as the free camp was only an hour away. It was good to get back onto familiar territory and set up for 3 nights.

Neil & June arrived mid afternoon and set up and it was good fun talking about some of the places they had been up north and catching up on other news on friends & family.

The first night was a beauty with 3 large and 1 small camp oven with stews/casseroles in the and one huge camp oven with 3 large dampers. The stews were all finished off with dumplings and washed down with beer and whatever else you could get your hands on. All the cooking was done by the owners of the park Rod & Pam.

Following dinner a singer/guitarist played on singing some great country music; it started to get a little late for me (gone 8.30pm) and it was also getting quite cool so we headed back to the van.

The photos of this visit are below; and I must say if you are ever this way it is definitely worth a stay. Most book for a couple of days and end up staying a couple of weeks; price is $18 per night for 2 or $15 if you are a veteran.

As I am writing this it is 5.00pm on Wednesday; it has been very cold today and has been raining since around midnight. The weather is supposed to be clearing tomorrow; lets hope so as we move to Hervey Bay Friday to see the granddaughters for a few days and then on to Gladstone to meet up with friends for a week.

Post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Blackbutt - Alan & Janets Homestead

Finished off 4 weeks work and we were staying at Aspley during this period; given it was a suburb of Brisbane city I decided not to blog during this period. Following this we stayed 4 nights at Bribie whilst some work was carried out on the car and a couple of mods done to the van.

As Dad is still not well we will still only be able to travel to locations where we can get back if needed within a few days so we are trying to get a little further North to some warmer weather.

Alan & Janet invited to stay for a few nights before we moved off; they have a property at Blackbutt and given there was heaps of room available we decided to stay for a few days. It was good to catch up and have a couple of beers with Alan and Linda was in her element making cards and decorating tins with Janet. Below are photos of where we parked for the stay; this was when we were just about to take off, Alan and Janet are shown on the front veranda of their beautiful country home. Alan & Janet are now both aware that the air conditioner is reverse cycle (private joke). Thanks a heap to both of you for your hospitality and friendship.

After leaving Blackbutt we decided to meet up with Neil & June who were on the way back from up north; what better place than Standown Park where we had such a good time the previous occasion.

We did decide to try a free park for one night on the way just to see what this was like and how many travelers use these types of free stops. We stayed at “Six Mile Creek Rest Area” which is 6km south of Gympie on the western side of the Bruce Highway. When we arrived (around 2.30pm) the place was already filling up and any latter we would have struggled to find a good site. The area is maintained by main roads and has toilets, fresh water and pergola style seating and tables, it is set back approximately 200m from the highway and surprisingly fairly quiet given the expected highway traffic. We ran into several couples traveling around; one couple in particular had been on the road for 8 years and had never stayed at a caravan park, only free sites.

It is okay as far as we are concerned for one or 2 nights a week but having to be very conscious of water usage from our water tanks is not our cup of tea on a permanent basis. Linda called her shower a sparrow bath, with turn on, wet down, turn off, soap up, turn on and rinse off; this all done to try and only use say 10lt of water. Below is a photo of all the vans and motor homes at six mile creek towards the end of the day, we are the car facing you on the left of the photo.

Post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLinRig

 

Tweed Heads - May 08

With Dad being ill we spent up until the 1st of June (almost 3 weeks) at Tweed Heads; the first couple of weeks the weather was beautiful winter days and cool nights but the last week turned into pouring rain and very high winds which made life a little uncomfortable. We have now moved to Chinderah / Kingscliff; this would have had to be one of the most tiring drives as it was a grueling 6km distance (yep 6, I repeat 6km’s); needless to say the weather was just as bad. It has abated to showers off and on currently so maybe some cleaner weather coming up. At least we faired better than most traveling the east coast of Queensland with floods and road closures.

Boyds Bay Tourist Park is council owned and is part of the Tweed Tourist Park group, it is quite large and has 4 amenities blocks with different cleaning times allocated to each block; this is fine provided the times are correct but is was not always the case. The facilities were good with plenty of hot water and were clean & tidy; there were no paper hand towels or a hand dryer although hand soap was supplied. Some of the sites close to the river easily accommodate large vans but you need to book well in advance for these as the southerners turn up for the “Winter Sun” rock and roll festival and the bowling. Price was reasonable at $164 a week but it does go up to $189 from the 1st June (shoulder/winter period). Our site is shown below along with the parks own boat ramp into the Tweed river.

We are quickly learning that the free and easy life style is never free and on occasions not so easy; having to park on some sites under trees does take its toll and you soon learn that tree sap, leaves and seeds, bird shit and bat crap has to be cleaned off the van. Whilst the roof takes the brunt of it the whole van needs a good wash at least every 3 months and even more regular if you have the time.

The cleaning by me (Feral Dave) is shown below; the picture is taken by (Lovely Locks Lin) who is hoping to get a better shot of me falling off the roof rack (not to be).

We met up with another couple in the park (Malcolm & Maureen) shown below; they are there until the end of July and maybe then tripping up to Gladstone following the Tweed stay. Maureen was into craft (kept Lin busy) and also liked the Bingo; Linda won a bottle of wine in the raffle which was worth the $2 it cost her to play.

Will post up Kingscliff and Chinderah over the next couple of weeks; we will be in Brisbane from the 14th June to 6th July (3 weeks) so we hope to catch up with a few of you then. Not sure yet where we will go from Brisbane we will most likely play it by ear depending on how Dad (Ralph) is.

Love and Regards – David & Linda; The DavLin Rig

Pialba 08 - Beachfront Sites (No Roads to Cross)

Pialba Beach front Tourist Park would have to be the place to be if you truly want “Beachfront”; this is a council park (one of 3 in Hervey Bay) and is quite large, good amenities and in the main is very quiet. One word of warning is to lock up your gear as it does attract some undesirable’s that come in off the beach. Our site is as below and shows the great location.

During our stay we remained unaffected but on 2 Saturday nights some lost fishing rods and the like that were left outside vans so lock up and it will save you some dollars and stress.

Also be aware that at times the winds can be quite annoying and can last for a period of weeks if the easterly or westerly winds blow in.

We met up with some happy travelers; Malcolm & Nyrell (right) were on holidays with Malcolms sister Lynn and hubby Peter who are permanently on the road. We were offered a few games of “Bochie”, not sure if the spelling is correct but it is tossing big balls at a little ball (seems familiar as I remember something about tossing and balls as a kid). We did win one game but Linda & I seem to have forgot how many we lost.

With Dad’s health not being good we are now down at Tweed Heads which is quite along way from how far north we intended to be; stops on the way down were Maroochydore and Miami.

Look forward to posting again soon

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

  

Standown Park - Hospitality at it's Best

Standown Park lies between Gympie and Tin Can Bay on the Tin Can Bay Road approximately 28km north east of Gympie. The park is well maintained and pretty much is for the senior travelers and does not cater for children. Standown Park is an original farm in the are which now has 28 sites all equipped with power and beautiful pressurised spring water. The sites are large and the grounds are kept in first class condition; the amenities are very good but could struggle at peak times, there is handicapped facilities and a laundry, apart from the magazines some DVD’s are available for loan on a please return when finished basis. Price for the stay was a very acceptable $15 per couple per night and the park would suit from one night to many weeks as it is a place you could certainly call home.

Apart from the peaceful surroundings what makes the park a place to come back to is the genuine hospitality and community atmosphere. Just about everyone meets in the camp kitchen / BBQ area at around 10.00 (or thereabouts) for a chat and morning tea; around 4.30 (or thereabouts) for happy hour at a large open fireplace which goes on for as long as you want to stay, you will note there are a lot of "therabouts" as it can start whenever and finish whenever (relax & enjoy). Everyone gets together on Sunday morning (BYO bacon etc) for a BBQ breaky; our hosts were Rex & Liz who did a fantastic job of making everyone feel like part of the family. Our stay coincided with Anzac day and it was good to see a small service taking place and the Anzac’s remembered; all that were in the park attended the service.

As we all know the Hobbit population is dwindling so Linda ventured into the long grass (where they are known to hide) and low and behold she found another Hobbit friend (Neil). Linda continued to search but without any further success; seems like there was only one to be found.

Both Linda & I would recommend Standown Park for a visit based on the great time we had; surrounding Gympie, Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach can all be reached within 30 minutes.

Look forward to posting again soon.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Woodgate Beach - Shhhhhhhhh; Quiet Please

The township of Woodgate is approximately 40km due east of Childers and is untouched by the likes of Woolies, McDonalds, Bunnings and the likes. The town has a general store, mini market, bakery (of sorts), post office, bowling club and a pub; if you are here for over a week put your lotto on before coming or you will need to drive to Childers to do so. The caravan park is called Barkala and is quite large and very pleasant. Most sites have slabs and in the main quite level; the van sites are boxed in with blue metal to ensure the van is automatically level on parking, some of the sites are quite big so letting them know van size ensures you get something that suits. The amenities are very clean and well maintained and they are all in the center of the park. The park has a small store and cafe dishing out breakfasts and light meals throughout the day. Below shows the front of the park and the site we were on.

 

The local wildlife consists of kookaburra's, kangaroos and flies, flies and more f*%!ing flies especially around meal times, the flies are that used to humans they even bring their own knife and fork.

 

The stretch of beach which is directly across from the park runs for 16km and is most spectacular; this along with the fishing makes the trip and stay worth while. it is very peaceful and if you are looking for nothing to do you have come to the right place. Below shows half the beach looking south to Burrum Heads; the other gives you an idea of the town showing the main street looking south also, as said earlier the park is just across this road.

 

Fish for breakfast; not likely as we arrived just after the school holidays so my excuse is that the little buggers had fished it out. Never caught a thing but did suffer with a little sunburn and chapped lips; not to worry nivea cream, lip balm, coffee and toast will fix most of the problems.

Heading from here to Standown Park soon to meet up with Neil & June and Greg & Wendy (other caravaning mates).

Will post again soon; until then hope you all keep well

Warm regards

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig