Final - Fraser Island - Rainbow Beach - Kingscliff - Forster

Well here we are for my final installment to the 'Nicholls OZ Adventure'.

From Agnes Waters/1770 we went onto to Bagara where we got the car serviced for it's second time since our departure. Yep, for all you stataticians out there we have done 18,000km since we left on the 16 April.

Our last leg of the adventure takes us onto Fraser Island which I have to admit I was more than a little apprehensive about due to our weight on the sand with the Taj Mahal coming in at a slender weight of 1.4 ton loaded up.

Long story short we did it!!!!!!!

Here we are on the ferry from Rainbow beach (Inskip Point) to Fraser Island. Just getting on the ferry is a task with lots of soft sand!!!!!!!!!!!! Notice the tyres looking flat!!! 20bls

Here is a boat wreck that half way along the beach (name escapes me at the moment!!)

Here's Leah doing her 'Stork' impersonation at one of the fresh water Lakes on Fraser.

Here are the kids at Eli creek which is about 3/4 along the beach. It reminded us of Mataranka but water was definitely alot colder!!!!!!!!!!

Here's Jarrod doing his best to look like 'Borat' in the cold water, watch out for ya family jewels mate!!!!

Leah at Indian Head, which is a majic spot up toward the Northern tip of Fraser.
Apparently there are heaps of sharks sighted here during the Tailor spaw run in September, and No One surfs here!!!!!!!!!!, very tempting as it was perfection.
About ten years ago three locals used to surf here and one of them would sit on the head land each time taking pot shots at the sharks and alerting their mates that there was a shark coming around the point!!!!!!!!!!, apparently Jarrod and a slug gun wouldn't have the same effect!!!!!!!!

For all you surfers this was a solid 6 foot wave and around the corner was better!!!!!

Did you know Fraser Island was all sand!!!!!!!!! I mean everywhere!!!!!!!!!

Yep I got bogged too!!!!!!!!!!!, with the camper on the back!!!!!!!!!!!. Luckily I chose !!!!! a spot that limited access to the camp ground so people could not get in!!!!!! Here a fellow camper, Leah calls Sir Lancealot, apparently he was our night in shining armour with his snatch and strap. I would have dug us out though before dinner with our poop digging shovel if everyone would have just been a little more patient!!!!!.
Seriously though, Sam (our hero) took all of 5 minutes to access the situation and help us out with no fuss or bother. We all caught up with him later in the camp ground and rewarded him and his family (brother, Father and Mother) with a few beers. Probably the nicest family we met on the trip with time chatting around their fire.

This is the after shot, Sam wanted me to acknowledge his car that pulled us and the camper out was a Nissan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well after Fraser Island we returned to Rainbow Beach for a few nights and wash the  sand out of every nook and cranny. Rainbow beach was very beautiful with beach driving to a surf point, lagoon and the most amazing sand dunes (kids loved them).

This is a lookout on the southern side of Double Island Point at Rainbow beach. The beach in the background actually runs all the way to Noosa.
You may have noticed that the clothing is starting to get thicker due to the weather getting colder. Below is a photo of the kids on our last night in the Taj Mahal at Kingscliff. Here we had the electric blankets on and the fan heater in the morning and we all made a group decision to make a dash to Forster for our last week a little earlier than expected, however, with the last three months having every night in the Taj Mahal we were going to reward ourselves with a week in a cabin at Forster. 

Below is a picture of the Forster district from Cape Hawk. Absolutely beautiful place.

Finally, I'm not going to repeat everything Leah has said in thanking everyone as she is absolutely correct.
My clients are the only other people I would like to thank for their understanding, patience and loyalty. On that note,  my colleges or as they know it "The Boys". Thankyou very, very much and I hope not having me stressing and telling you what to do was also like a holiday!!!!!!!, you will all be rewarded in time.
Adios Amigos

Homeward Bound - Leah

This is my last blog for Our Oz Trip - Mike though has a few more pictures to post and stories to tell so please stay tuned.

Wow! It has been quite an adventure a very special chapter for us as a family.
We have been so blessed with weather, good health, accommodation availability etc..
We hope you have enjoyed sharing the journey with us; we have really enjoyed sharing it with you all.
Love and blessings!

We would like to acknowledge the love and support of our families, our friends and our work colleagues.

Some people though have played a VERY BIG role in helping this Dream of ours to become a reality.
Thankyou DES & TOP for taking such good care of Molly; we are wondering if she will want to come home after being so pampered.

Thankyou JUDY for organising the practical and technical support for Mike with his business;
and for saving the day on Tuesday with the Caravan Registration.

Thankyou TRACEY [I hope I have spelled it correctly] for being so incredibly efficient with Mike's paperwork; you truly helped him to stay on top of things.

Thankyou to The Trim Lawns Crew who took on the responsibility of running Trim Lawns while we travelled the country; you guys took such a weight of Mike's mind. Mike was truly able to relax and let go of the business enough to have a "real holiday".

Thankyou to my colleagues at Job Solve; I really appreciate your support in releasing me to have this time with my family. And I am incredibly grateful that I have a job to come back to in August.

Thankyou to my family in the Lord; your prayer support was invaluable.

Thankyou Father God for taking such good care of our family.

1770 and Agnes Waters

 Well after two months, 12 days, 8 hours, 45 minutes and 32 secs, but who's counting!!!!!!!!!! a beach with rideable waves has appeared and it hasn't taken long to erect the camper and get into it. Ahhhhh,
I'm in my happy place mmmmmm. In fact I think we were all in a very happy place at 1770 and Agnes Waters. This is the beach straight out from our van park and as Leah and Claire can attest it is a very long beach. They set out one morning at 8'ish to walk it and return. Well by 11'ish Jarrod and I thought we had better drive around at the different entries and try and find them. We did using Claire's binoculars!!!!!, long story short, Leah completed the entire length and return and Claire made it 3/4 all the way back before Dad rescu.......whoops picked her up. Great effort girls. Next time I think low tide would be easier!!!!!. I've got to say though, Leah's blisters are quite a talking point and have distracted everyone from my ailments and whinging!!!!!!!

Below is a lookout at 1770, named after Cook discovered it and docked in Bustard Bay. Both Jarrod and I thought it was 'Bastard Bay' because we can't spell !!!!. Still if you were here when it was windy and tried to dock I think our name would be more appropriate!!!!!!

Either way 1770 is a very very beautiful place with a river extending along its shores. At low tide you can walk along the sand spit just casting away with a fishing rod for ages as both the kids would agree. Jarrod won the fishing contest this time with the largest Flatty, mmmm. Tasted great mate.

Now that the kids can catch'em, I've just got to train Leah to gut'em and scale'em!!!!

Below is the look out above our van park at Agnes Waters. Its a very similar set up to Noosa or The Pass at Byron for all you surfers. It is really a great little wave winding down a sand bank for about 150-200m.

Below is Jarrod styling on a little wave. This wave was a brilliant wave to learn on and Jarrod mastered catching unbroken waves and cruising for up to 50m!!!!!

Claire got into the action as well!!!!!!, although their seems to be a Dugong following her!!!!

There's that darn Dugong again!!!!!!!!!!!

All of the above were of our last day when we finally took the camera with us!!!!!

The first couple of days were much bigger and fun, fun, fun!!!!

Below is what ya do after a big day of Sun, Surf and Fun. Happy hour at 1770.

Did I also say just how majic the sunsets are at 1770!!!. Don't know why Leah seems to have lost her right arm though!!!!!!!! Also if you look close enough you can see one of her 4 blisters.

Below is what the bar and restraunt look over, (notice sand bar at low tide, thats the one we fished)

I bet you all squinted and tried to find Leah's 4 blisters!!!!!!!!!!, ahhh their tiny, don't worry about em!!!!!

Anyway 1770 and Agnes Waters is a must for anyone travelling this way. Its very similar to small south coast villages with 'NO' Woolies or Coles and a really layed back way of life. From here we leave for Bundy to get the car serviced and then onto to ???????, maybe Fraser Island.
For anyone who wants to head away for the school holidays we are going to spend our last week (15th July- 22nd July) in Forster Beach Caravan Park, (the one next to the bridge on the Marina) and anyone is welcome to join us.
As we haven't left the confines of the 'Taj Mahal' for the entire trip, and the 'pull my finger joke has worn off a little!!!!!!!!!' we thought we might have a little bit of luxury and stay in a cabin right on the river for the last week.

Airlie Beach to Yeppoon

After spending quite a few nights at Rollingstone (very hard to leave) we charged further down the coast stopping at the big Mango at Bowen and taking in the views.

Our next stop over however was Airlie Beach. It is a very beautiful area yet very developed and backpackers everywhere.

Here's Jarrod just hanging around the beach boardwalk. They have built a free public pool along the front parkland and it was very much like the one at Cairns. Again its on video!!!

As we arrived here before the school holidays (QLD) there were some really good deals to some of the other islands in the Whitsunday island group. We got on one that cost $205 for the four of us. We hopped on a bus at 6.55am from the caravan park, took a ride to shute habour where we got on a boat, had some toast onboard, went to Hamilton Island for half the day, hire a golf buggy and terrorised the island for a few hours, hopped back on the boat for a trip to whitehaven beach and BBQ lunch on board, watched quite a few people turn a shade lighter from sea sickness (it was a little rough) and then returned via shute habour and bus at 6pm. Big day but very good value.

Here's Jarrod at Shute Harbour where we got on our boat for the islands.

Here's Leah (formly Darl in the caravan park), being cuddled by a dugong!!!

Guess who was the first in the water at whitehaven beach!!!!!!!!!! Claire being dunked by the same Dugong that was cuddling Darl, whoops Leah.

Didn't take long for the others to follow!!!

Well Leah's toes anyway!!!

I would be lying if I said it was warm, nice in the sun but the breeze was chilly when wet!!

Here's our lift!!! This is the boat we toured around on and had an unreal BBQ lunch on.

It was a great day and the kids loved the buggy on Hamilton Island (great place and very well designed/layout and would be a great short destination although I dare say expensive)

Whitehaven beach is very beautiful and the sand is very, very fine. You can polish jewellery

its so fine, so we did our rings !!!!

I bet Oprah didn't have a swim !!!!

Or get cuddled by a Dugong for that matter!!!!!!!!

Well on we go from Airlie beach (not really our cup of tea), towards Gladston where we thought we'd take a look at except the place looked like a massive mining town, rainy and very windy so we headed out to a place could Tannum Sands. It was a very beautiful place yet still a little windy so we pressed on to Yeppoon!!!

Yeppoon is very beautiful as well and the weather here hadn't improved. It was very, very windy. It was also the first place we had seen with waves for more than 2 months so we were all very excited. Well I was very excited!!!................... and decided that everyone should come with me looking for waves to surf!!!!!!!!!!!. Well after 20 minutes of driving down a horribly bumpy, rough, muddy track to nowhere (an exposed beach actually), the surf was very ordinary. We asked a bloke driving on the beach how he got there so we could avoid the same rough track back to town. Great move and it was a highlight of our stay at Yeppoon. The beach drive was great as it was smooth as a babies ....forehead and I could check all the sand banks along the way back to town.

Notice the grey skies and jacket!!!!! It's getting colder. In the background is where we beach drove.

Well from here we head to 1770 and Agnes Waters so stay tuned!!!!!!!

Rollingstone

From Cooktown we moved on inland through the Atherton Tablelands which to my surprise is a very pretty area and it would have been nice to have had more time to explore the area and fish a few of the lakes/dams, but onwards we proceeded back to the coast to a place called Rollingstone, about 60km north of Townsville. This place is very quiet, you are camped right on the beach, the views are amazing, the fishing not bad either!!!!!!!!!

This is a picture of Leah reading just across from the Taj Mahal, this was our view!!!!

Notice kids in background fishing.

Here is Jarrod and Claire fishing again!!!!! both the kids were fishing all the time here as it was perfect to have a cast. We all caught a few Flatties here and Claire caught a ripper, so guess what was on the menu that night, mmmm fresh flatties. Jarrod also caught a small Mackeral a little further up the sand bank when we all went for an evening fish in the river at Balgal. The only problem we had here, if you could call it a problem!!!!, was that the mud craps were pinching our baits. They would even take soft plastic if you left them on the bottom long enough. There were some keepers (legal size and males) among those pulled to the bank

Here's a picture of the pool at Rollingstone caravan park. It was very cold though so we stuck to the fishing and wading in the ocean. At this caravan park they have large man made lakes throughout the site (no photo's sorry but plenty of video footage) and in these lakes are large Barra, Sooty Grunter, Mangrove Jack and Threadfin Salmon. The kids would get a bag of food each day and feed them and they would go off!!!!!!!!!!, shame they wouldn't let me fish for them, still great to watch.

As Rollingstone is only 60km from Townsville, we took a Sunday morning trip to town to the city markets and also the sights to see. Here is a photo looking over Townsville's esplanade with Magnetic Island in the background. People had warned us about Townsville being not so nice, however, like many other places we visited and other people disliked on this journey we thought Townsville was very nice.

Leah and the kids down the esplanade at Townsville.

We are starting to notice that the video is getting used more than the camera thus limited photo's of some places. We also took a little drive up the coast to a place could Lucinda. Here there is a massive wharf that you can fish from and its just opposite Hinchinbrook Island. Very pretty spot and yep, you guessed it great fishing!!!!!!!!, just so happened I had a few rods in the car so the kids and I decided to wet a line. We didn't land anything!!!!, however Jarrod lost a massive GT (Giant Trevally) that did it's best to pull him in!, we also saw a few other large fish caught.

Cooktown

This is a view from Grassy Hill Lookout at Cooktown; it overlooks

the Endeavour River named after Captain Cooks Ship.

Captain Cook climbed this hill several times; to try and navigate

a safe pathway for his ship to travel back out to sea and home

to England.

A nice place to have a happy hour or a picnic!!!!

We loved Cooktown it had the perfect balance of development

and untouched beauty. Mike and the kids really enjoyed fishing the

many different rivers and bays. Claire particularly enjoyed fishing

the Cooktown wharf; where she developed her passion for the sport.

I loved the history, the beauty, the culture and the people.

Jarrod and Claire outside James Cook Museum. We all

enjoyed wandering around the museum soaking in the era

that belonged to Captain Cook and his landing at Cooktown.

As well as the history of the town since that time; including

the search for gold in nearby towns, the boom of Cooktown, it's

role in the war and it's redevelopment in recent years.

Jarrod and Claire in a musical version of a boat; the kids spent

quite a bit of time belting out tunes. The musical boat was located in the centre of cooktown

along with other significant icons that draw people's attention to the heart

and soul of Cooktown.

Of course it would not be Cooktown without a statue of the

man himself; Captain James Cook.

Every year at Cooktown they have the Discovery Festival; to mark

the occassion when Captain Cook first set foot on Cooktown soil. They have

markets, street parades, fireworks and of course the re-enactment of Cook's landing.

Here the kids take an opportunity to support a charity that takes care of

orphaned Kangaroos; cute aren't they !!!!!

We don't have very good photo's of the night festival and fireworks; but it was

fantastic. The bellydancers/firedancers were incredible. The fireworks

display was the best that I have ever seen and it went on for ages.

Well done Cooktown !!!

The re-enactment; when the Aboriginal people first observed

Captain Cook and his landing party heading into shore.

The landing party.

Captain Cook made the decision to unload most of his ship's cargo in order to

make repairs to the endeavour. He also had to work out a safe navigation path

in order to take his ship back out to sea.

Captain Cook's armed guard checking their guns in preparation to fire them.

They were loud !!!!!

Cooks first meeting with the Aboriginal leaders; both trying

to understand each other a little better.

Jarrod and Claire really enjoyed climbing all over this army tank;

as did all the other children in Cooktown for the Discovery Festival.

The tank was a memorial to all the people from Cooktown who served in the Second

World War.

Jarrod enjoying a spot of fishing; most mornings Father and Son

would head out around 6am to enjoying the rising of the sun and

wet a line together. Whilst Mother and Daughter would enjoy

a spot of peace and a morning lay in.

Mike saying goodbye to Cooktown at Sunset on our last evening.