Trip Summary and Financial Breakdown

Trip Summary

Trip 1  - Total 1,531 kms Home to Cardwell/Tully in 3-4 days

Trip 2 -  Total 6,247 kms (Tully to Home) in 2 months. 

All a up  7,778 kms

Here is the link to all the videos

Trip 2 was made up as follows

Trip 2 - Costs

Trip 2 - Stays / Activities

11 October 1 night (free) Cardwell Beachcomber, site 29

12th Oct 1 (paid) Paronella Park

13-15 Oct 3 (free) Babinda Boulders Free Camp, General

16th 1 night (free) Gordonvale Rest Stop, General

     2 nights (paid) Speewah camp ground. Site 1

     3 Nights (paid) at Kauri Creek, General

21st Yungaburra Campground (paid) - arrived then big rain storm - set up Annex

22nd folk festival. Walk. Saw platypus. Fig tree

23rd Trip to Milla Milla and Ravenshoe and Millstream (Waterfall day)

24th Atherton Township. Herberton. (met Rob and Mark first time)

25th 1 night (free) at Jumna Dam

26th 1 night (free) Irvinebank

27th 2 Nights Chillagoe Eco Village (paid) Petford to Chillagoe

28th Chillagoe Caves Visit. 

29th 1 Night (free) Mitchell River. Hughes / Bogged. Hot after 7 hr drive

30th Hughes to Normanton 7r drive ! Rough

31st 3 nights (paid) in Normanton. Kurumba. Fishing Normanton.

1st November Normanton Krys etc. Purple pub. Pizza night

2nd drove to Leichardt falls. 

3rd 2 Nights (free) woke up very windy . Great sunrise. Leichardt falls. 

4th Burketown to stay at Meatworks camp 16 (paid)

5th Day 2 at Meatworks Camp

6th Head south to Gregory River 2 nights (free) and Swim

7th Day 2 at Gregory River

8th Day 3 Gregory River, Pub Night out. Lightning storm

9th We depart to Mellish Park. Not found so onto Alels Grove then Lawn Hill Nat park. Big storm. Now at farthest point from home

10th 3 Nights (paid) lawn hill

11th Lawn Hill day2

12th Attempt Lawn Hill via Riversleigh, turn back and go via Gregory to Matts Rest 1 Night (Free)

13th From Matts Rest to Mt Isa, storm #1

14th Mt Isa 3 Nights (Paid) Storm #2

15th Sleepin Day, Mt Isa lookout, info ctr, groceries,

16th Clem Walton. 3 Nights (free)

17th Clem Walton

18th Clem Walton

19th Swim cloncurry...arrive Julia creek

20th Storm in Julia Creek 1 Night (free)

21 Julia Creek 1 Night (free) At Caravan park

22 Arrive Winton 1 Night (free) . Long waterhole

23 leave and arrive at Jerico

24th Jerico 2 Nights (Free)

25th Carnarvon Gorge 4 Nights (paid)

26th Carnarvon Gorge rest day

27th Carnarvon Gorge hike day

28th Carnarvon Gorge rest day sore lol

29th Isla Gorge 2 Nights (paid). Stay Isla

30th Isla gorge. Rainy. Uploaded Ep. 20

1 Dec Callipoie Sth Camp. 2 Nights (free)

2nd Calliopie camp 2nd night

3rd Carl 50th. Beecher. Gladstone

4th day with Carl and Claire. Stay 2 nights (free)

5th arrive and stay 1770

6th day at 1770.

7th 1770 3 nights (paid)

8th leave 1770, stayed at Shauns one night in Hervey bay

9th Arrived back on Bribie Island

Car and Van Maintainence

Oil Change (done in last week of trip). Next one maybe before we depart.

Headlight one wire loose, Fixed.

Fog Light blown Bulb. New Headlights $160 for pair. Installed.

Winch Faulty, Replacement obtained from Kings. Installed. All fine now.

Door Hinge

Tyres (maybe). Looking to add 1" to width

Carnarvon Gorge, Isla Gorge, Theodore, Biloela, Hervey Bay, 1770 , Bargara to Bribie

Well we are finally home. See our next blog entry for our trip summary and plans for the next trip !

The map below shows our final leg which we did over the period of nearly two weeks. 

This last leg started with a few days staying at Carnarvon Gorge. We did a lot of hiking. About 21 KMs (35000 steps) before lunch time. Leaving at 5Am to head to the Cathedral Cave. On the way back I went to see "The Art Gallery" and Allie opted to visit "The Moss Garden".

The camp was a bit of a let down as it was absolutely full of bats (flying foxes). Here is a video I took of them.  On our last day there they started using firework rockets to fire them into the colonies to try and disperse them. This sstarted at 4am and went for a couple of hours.

Below are a few photos from the hikes.

From Carnarvon gorge we chnaged our route a little. We were going to head south to Roma, Miles and Home, but a good mate near Gladstone was having a surprise 50th BDay so we went via Isla Gorge, Gladstone, 1770, Hervey Bay (catching up with Family) then toward home.

Isla Gorge was amazing. We did get quite a bit of rain, but once we get the Video Episodes out, you will see it was a quite spectacular spot.

We went via the town of Banana - named after the yellow bull that used to assist local farmers round up the other cattle.

We travelled back via the small town of Theodore, we thought we may be trapped due to flooded roads so we dumped our washing in the local Laundromat and headed out for a breakfast in one of the very few shops. There was a bit of water over the  road when we left but it was nowhere as bad as many locals had dramatised it.

We popped into the town of Biloela later that day only to find that all camps were closed due to excess water flooding, so we ventrured out of town to find our own safe stay for the night.

We ended up at the Power Station lookout, not really a legal camp, but we left it totally untouched and slept a good night. The views were quite awesome up there.

We stayed the one night, then headed on toward Beecher (the 50th Party). Being a surprise we arrived a bit early and stayed the night at Calliopie Sth camp.

We stayed one night here and then one night in Beecher for the party.

From Carls place we headed south with no pre-determined camp in mine.

We went to 1770, and found the 1770 campground near the end of the peninsula. Allie wandered in and secured us the last remaining waterside camp - what a score - apparently its near impossible to secure as they are always booked out well in advance - luckily the people had just cancelled and we grabbed it. Wahoo ! 

This could not have been a better last camp to this trip !

The Sunsets here at 1770 were awesome

Easily the best Barra and scollops we have had was had at the Fish and Chip shop in Agnes waters. We took home fresh Scollops and Allie crumbed them for lunch the next day. Yum !

Views from the walkway to the lookout were great.

From there we drove to Hervey Bay to stay with Allies Cousin for the night. A greta night with lots of laughs and a massive thunder storm.

The next day we stopped into Bundaburg to pick up supplies (of the Rum kind), before heading to Bargara for a peek.

Bargara is a really nice place. We had a short stroll on the beach while there.

Bribie - finally home. The first stop was to see the grandkids, then parents.

Work to be done on the faulty winch (see our YouTube for what happened)  and the dead headlight. Also washing and cleaning the van - hope to bring her back like new

Looks like the relay is all ok as is the controller, looking like a  fault with the new Kings winch - great !

I also have to get the Caravan Solar issue sorted. The Jawa panels just dont push much into the charger/batteries. Jawa acknowledge a fault with the current panels and will replace them - but the reviews Ive read on the replaces are crap also. Getting a little tired of always going to Jawa for a fix so I may just get some better panels at my cost fitted by somebody I trust.

We have our next trip planned - and the remainder of the YouTube Videos will come out slowly shortly - stay tuned. See the videos here - make sure you subscribe (free) to be advised when new Episodes arrive.