Road Trip : Credition Hall to 1770

I woke up fairly early in the mornin and decided to go and get a last look at platypuses. I managed to spot one but couldn't get any photos.. I said goodbyes to danes and off I went again. I stopped briefly at both lookout points and only Sky Window was worth of takin photos but that view.. If I enjoyed drivin up to the range, comin down was even a bigger thrill. I kept about 1,5hr break while I was re-fuellin and had a wee lunch. Initially I was supposed to park at Marlborough but I just didn't like the place so I drove a bit further, to Yaamba. This was my longest distance in a day so far, drove just past 400km, realized that I had been advancing a bit too fast and from now on I should slow down my progressing. Reckon I was just feelin so good after those days at Eungella NP that even the most monotonous part of Bruce Hwy didn't bother me.

On the next morning my first stop was Rockhampton. According to my travel guide there wasn't supposed to be much of anything but by accident I found out in the morning that there's a wee zoo and as I am a big, big fan of them.. I saw typical roos, koalas, dingoes, crocs, wombats & cassowaries, and even a peacock outside since this was a part of Botanical Gardens. Gotta be honest, it wasn't much of anything but guess that's what you gotta expect from free admission zoo but yet again, it was nice to kill some time there. I drove thru Gladstone and did a brief stop to Woolies, for overnight I parked in rest area at Benaraby, about 20km south of Gladstone, back at Bruce Hwy.

Next mornin I was headin towards Agnes Water & Town of 1770, I had planned of drivin to Bundaberg for camping. I took a half an hour break in Miriam Vale since I wasn't in any rush and was just tryin to make my days go a bit faster and not drivin that much per day. I had to re-fuel at Agnes Water and then I headed for 1770. I drove straight to the spot where Captain Cook first set foot in Queensland on May 24th, 1770. After that I drove at the end of cape to take some nice photos. Few more photos from town and then headin back south again. I stopped on the other side of town to take a photo of sign and since there was a caravan park right next to it I started to think - 'where's my rush' - and decided to stay there for overnight. Once I had settled down at my bay I took a brief drive to Agnes for grocery store and decided to give myself a permission to spend a bit more money today so I drove back to 1770 for lunch on a restaurant next to shore. Maybe tomorrow I'll camp somewhere close to Bundaberg.

Road Trip : Alligator Creek to Credition Hall

If the previous day was bit of boring driving-wise the next day was gettin even worse.. Leaving Townsville I was leaving tropics as well and at times Bruce Hwy was gettin so bloody monotous. I stopped in Ayr to fill up my gas bottle and doin some small maintenance for the car. After a late brekkie I was headin down south again. I came up against this small mountain right besides highway and since there was a sign for scenic drive & lookout.. Bloody hell, if it was a steep climb up to Wallaman Falls, this one topped it easily, I even had to go to 1st gear right at the end.. ..and what a views there was from Mt Inkerman, awesome..

My next planned stop was in Bowen. One of my work colleaques had praised the town but got to be honest, I felt it being fairly boring and even a bit depressing. I'd say the main thing Bowen is known for, is the production of Baz Luhrmann's Australia back in 2007. I'd say that was the first time I've been on previous movie settings, at least as far as I know. I was supposed to take few photos of the Big Mango as well but there was a road work right besides it so couldn't drive into yard. On my way down I was goin thru in my head whether or not drive to Airlie Beach. I never planned to visit Whitsundays anyway but might as well take a drive a glance at the town.. I stopped in Proserpine for few hrs just to have a wee rest and weigh my options also checkin camping prices in Airlie. Finally, I decided to move on and headed to Flametree Caravan Park just 5km past town, it was cheapest and I also had a tag in my car keys that would give me 10% discount, sweet. Nice thing about this place was the amount of birds all over. One of them scared me a bit since didn't see it straight away when jumpin off from car and it started makin this odd whining noise. Apparently it was a couple hanging around campers, possibly havin a nest somewhere close-by. There was heaps of other birds as well but they we're just too fast for to take photos.

On the next mornin I checked Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach, took some photos and re-fuelled, then it was time head down south again. Road towards Mackay was gettin fairly boring, I was just thinkin what it's gonna be between Mackay & Rockhampton, apparently that's one of the most boring parts of this highway. I drove around few blocks in Mackay trying to find something worth of photographing but didn't come up against anything, maybe I was just too geared up heading towards Eungella National Park for camping. I stopped briefly at Coles to do some re-stocking and headed inland towards Eungella. Gradually I was closing up the range and yet again, I found myself climbing up steep, steep mountain. What a views! I was waitin till I come back down how awesome it's gonna be. I drove thru Eungella township and din't even stop on lookout points since it was gettin a bit late and I wanted to get to my camping spot soon. For my disappointment overnight camping in carpark wasn't allowed and I should camp in my tent few hundred metres away, yeah right.. I took a stroll to nearby platform to have a chance to see platypuses and I was there at the right time with bunch of other people. I reckon there was two or three platypuses in the river and what an interesting creature it is, quite a bit smaller that I actually had thought of. I managed to get few decent photos and headed back to my car to find some other camping spot anywhere close-by.

I found a nice camping spot about 8km away from Broken River next to Credition Loop Road. This was gonna be my base for next two nites, I had been wanting to find some secluded spot where to spend few days without doing anything, just relaxing in the nature. When I drove to my spot there was two other cars with nobody around. I started cookin my roo burgers and after awhile these two older couples, kiwi & dutch, showed up. We had a nice time next to a wee fire just chattin about everythin and havin few drinks. When I woke up next mornin the dutch couple had already left but I had wee chat with the kiwi's before they left. Now this place would be all mine, for how long, remained to be seen. I had to wait only until noon when this danish couple arrived for camping. We had a nice afternoon chattin and around 5ish we went to close-by stream tryin to find platypuses. And what an excitement that was - we had to wait for awhile but then we saw two of them, another one comin closer to us and it actually stopped right in front of us and gazed for a second until it got scared by the camera click.. We we're followin them for about 45mins, unfortunately I couldn't get decent photos since it was gettin a bit dark put nevertheless, it was all about the experience. I was supposed to do a camp-fire but it started raining heavily within 30mins when we got back to camping area so had to settle down sittin in my camper for the rest of the night.

All in all, seeing those platypuses was clearly a highlight of my trip so far and the decision of stayin put for 2nites was such a good move. I felt so relaxed the next mornin when I left Credition Hall.

Road Trip : Cairns to Alligator Creek

I picked up my camper from Cairns on Sat mornin and drove first to Cairns Tropical Zoo. What can I say, I'm just a big sucker for zoo's.. After spendin few hours in the zoo it was time to head to my farm for one last nite. I had invited few guys to my house for a dinner and a wee party. After my party I found myself sittin at the back of ute and headin for another party close-by. Few hours there and back to sleep, I had planned to do rest of my packin in the mornin. I got myself on the move 10ish and had planned to drive to Wallamin Falls for camping.

I stopped briefly in Atherton to do some last shopping. Driving over the Great Dividing Range was really a big enjoyment, above all, really felt good being on the road again. Rest of the day was more or less just drivin,  briefly stoppin in Tully, Mission Beach & Cardwell to take some photos. Last 50km from Ingham to Wallamin Falls was nice, especially the road up to the range, such a steep and winding climb. I took a quick glance at the falls but since sun was shining from the wrong way I decided to leave photographing for next day and head for my camping ground. Since being still in the tropics, evening was warm as, but for my surprise I was almost freezin at night.. Reckon it wasn't really that cold but since my body has gotten used to certain temperatures..

The next mornin I headed back to the falls for photos. I was supposed to take a walk at the bottom but as my luck pretty much always, the walk was closed.. ..dammit.. Time to start headin back to Ingham and down south towards Townsville. I was in city fairly quickly, visited tourist information, glanced the waterfront and Castle Hill but still managed to spend rest of my day in there.. ..drivin back and forth between electronic stores.. At my last nite in Walkamin someone had poured liquid over my laptop resulting my mother board to get fried so I had to buy a new computer for myself.. ..puttin that money to new netbook resulted me skipping Magnetic Island.. I found a truck stop just south of Townsville and parked there for overnight.

Departure time - soon

As usual, bloggin again on 30th.. Like the title says, my departure from Walkamin is closing, soon. I've just booked myself a camper fromt 8th to 22nd October, travelin from Cairns to Brisbane and this time by myself.

This was somethin that I promised myself when I was on my previous road trip - the next one I'd be travelin alone. It's not that I had anythin against company but it's just me, I wanna experience somethin like that, alone. Guess that comes from being a truckie..

Last month has been just work, work, work, like previously.. Have made some new friends whom which I hope to stay in contact in the future, just gotta see what comes up ahead. I'm not gonna say that it has been smooth cruisin all the way, both in farm and at work but hey, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right..?


I really can't wait to hit the road again, I really got burnin desire to be on the tarmac again. One thing that I'm thinkin a bit is the lack of distance between places in east coast when comparing to outback. On my last trip it was awesome to do kilometre after kilometre on open road but this is gonna be a completely another story.. Althou, I have planned to do a wee detour via QLD outback so that I wouldn't forget that feelin too easily..

So, the next time I'm bloggin - hopefully within a week or so - I'll be somewhere on the road, again. Until then, take care.

reckon I'm gonna miss this place

Crossroads

Seems that I'm bloggin only once a month while here in Walkamin.. ..just can't find that much to tell.. Lately I've been trying to save up some money and actually, since it's been few fairly busy weeks - been workin 45-60hrs - it's been helping my bank balance. Guess it's finally come to the point that I gotta make decisions where to head next. And when. And how.

Initially, my plan was to start headin west thru north-west coast but might be that I'm after all heading south, even thou I've never been that interested on east coast, don't ask me why. I still gotta decide few things, mainly concerning about my heavy vehicle licence, I might have chances to do it here in Mareeba or I might just do it in Brisbane. Why Brisbane, you might ask.. ..it's still Queensland where I need to do my licence test and it's a big metropolitan area which should have lot's of work opportunities. If I'll do my test here in Mareeba it might change things a bit but don't think it'll make a big difference. More or less likely I'll be heading to Brisbane at least for few weeks.

Next question would obviously be when. Basically, I'd still have to stay here for next 3,5wks until my 3months is full cause that's what I promised to my boss when I started. And we Finns tend to keep our promises.. It should be gettin busier and busier work-wise which would be extremely good opportunity to stay a bit longer but yet again, I have heard that next few weeks might be quieter and also, can't deny that I'd want to keep moving on, been here awhile already, 12th week in farm and 11th for my company.

How to travel, where-ever I'm headin..? Like said, I'd really like to do some travelin again, more or less likely this time by myself but I've also been thinkin of option workin as much as I can on my current visa and then apply for a tourist visa to do some 'proper' touring here in Australia. So, I might just take a bus/train to Brisbane or hire a camper for 2-3wks and enjoy being on the road again.

Decisions, decisions, how come it always has to be so hard.. I reckon my decisions are gettin clearer in the next few weeks, or at least they should become. So much depends also what I wanna do after Australia.. ..been thinkin of North America but won't even try to lie that I wouldn't wanna stay here for longer but that'll mean I'd have to get a sponsorship visa. Bloody hell, how come I have to be too old for 2nd year to my visa.. Sometimes life ain't fair..