Jimi and Mazzy Adventures

Well… I don’t really know what to say, first of all, ket me explain a few things
Why haven’t I postes for so long you may wonder? Well, You could definitely say I’m lazy…
What happened to putting pictures in my posts? Well, I FORGET! 🤐
And lastly, when am I coming home? thwee days!!!!
Now to start the post 🙂

My last sleep in the van was downstairs. I woke up, just the regular morning today! Then I had breakfast and we packed up the van and every single thing we owed in the van that was ours, we then drove to the BRITZ returns and high place, handed the van in and caught an Uber to our NOVOTEL RESORT! If you want to see where we are staying just search up on the web – Novotel Oasis resort cairns! And it”ll come up saying – Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort, then scroll through take a read and thats pretty much it!

we had lunch at the bar and grill, THEN we went in the pool! (I had cheesy pasta for lunch!) I got in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out! We got a bit cold so we hopped out and went back in to the hotel room, we all had showers, then chilaxed for an hour or two then we went to the NIGHT MARKETS! I had sushi and Ice Cream!!!!!!!!!!!

We soon headed back and got our Pj’s on and chillaxed for the rest of the night until bed and slept soooo well!

Unless there were lots of things hiding behind the sugar cane, then Mackay didn’t have much else to offer so it was time once again to move on. The next stop was Cape Hillsborough, which was a national park featuring coastal good-stuff including Kangaroo feeding on the beach. Well that was according to the brochure.

Fortunately, its very close by, so we should be there in an hour. Compared to the previous trip, Yeppoon to Mackay it a welcome break from long trips in the rattler, as seen here:-

Todays

Day thirty-eight meant it was time to leave Yeppoon. Another great place. Part relaxation, part adventure and our first introduction to snorkelling on the reef. Everything had been fantastic, from the caravan park, to the local beach and in particular the trip to the Keppel Islands.

But, as the theme of this trip goes, eight weeks is not a lot of time to do what we are doing, so we need to move on and we are now setting off to Mackay. This leg was showing as around four hours, but with stops, food and a bit of faffing around it could well be a lot longer. We didn’t have anywhere flagged for a lunch stop, so we will have a look round on the way and see how we go.

The trip down was the usual great scenery, parts of which may have resembled the Savannah, with huge flat plains as far as the eye could see, with a few trees thinly scattered around the place. It was extra-scenic, and we had more great weather to help the travel experience on its way.

After making reasonable progress and snacking on a few morsels that we had in the van, we needed a better quality feed and a well earned rest, so it was good luck that we chanced upon the Flaggy Rock cafe, literally a few metres off the Bruce Highway. There was a actually a bit of a sad story behind the cafe, as the people that set it up moved on when one of them was diagnosed with blood cancer, and the running of the cafe was now down to a group of local Flaggy Rock ladies (Flaggy Rock itself is one of many sugar cane districts in the region).

It was a great place to stop, and was set in large grounds with plenty of bushland and a couple of billabongs around the place. After a quick home-cooked feed and a couple of pics we were on our way. Destination Blacks Beach, Mackay.

The caravan park we had chose was the Big 4 Mackay Blacks Beach caravan park. This was a few k’s north of Mackay but was absolute beachfront. It looked good on the tin, and from our experiences so far being out of town was often a bonus.

We arrived in reasonable time and explored the site. It was absolute beachfront, no doubt it but it was another freezing cold pool. So much so even Mazzy didn’t want to go it.

Dad went for a beach walk (billy no mates for a few minutes, yay!) and everyone else just relaxed. It had been quite a long drive in the rattletrap-van and a big part of this trip is trying to find a few quiet moments when you can.

Blacks beach was pretty spectacular with a headland at one end, and view of the bay to the other. To be honest though, I think we are starting to get spoilt with some of the beaches, especially having been on the Keppel Islands just a few hours earlier, so Blacks beach, as much as it was great, was kind of just another beach.

A few pics were taken, then it was back to the van, where I met another new best mate and new best mates wife. New best mate and wifey were from Brisbane originally, but were in town awaiting their daughter’s birth. She was a week or so late and so they had been in this very caravan park for two and a half weeks. We had a good chat about travel, and all the great places. Lucky old buggers, travelling Australia with time to kill and not much else to worry about.

Well that was it for the night. We rustled up some reheats for tea and chatted about what happens next. Although we know where we are going, the plans are loose so we have wriggle room for whatever we want to do. From what we had seen of Mackay on the way through, it wasn’t much to look at and there actually wasn’t too much to do. End result, we will move on in the morning. Next stop Cape Hillsborough.

Day thirty-seven was much anticipated. It was a thirty minute boat trip out to Keppel Island, where we get some free time to do what we want, as well as time to snorkel and a trip on the glass bottomed boat. It was our first foray into snorkeling on the reef. We also had to be up reasonably early and we were well aware that the winds were pretty choppy so we were wondering how the day would go (or have we been ripped off with the tourist-trap!).

The trip started off very smoothly, and you can see from the above pics, that it was pretty spectacular sailing, looking back over Yeppoon and out to the Islands. Once we left the protection of the bay the winds really picked up. Hats were blown off comedy-style (mine was rescued by a bunch of backpackers squatting on the top deck behind us), and even at the top of the boat on the third tier, people were getting a spraying, so at this point we were looking forward to a windstrewn day for everyone.

Fortunately for everyone, there are something like sixteen islands associated with this region, and that allows the tour operator to find plenty of protected bays, and that’s exactly what was about to happen.

We were dropped on a small beach in a more secluded location and we hopped onto the glass bottomed boat. This was not bad, and it might have been a first glass bottomed boat for all of us. Although vision was average, the insight and education aspect was good, especially as none of had had much time to try and read up on any of the ecology of the area.

After a bit of a beach walk, we returned to the cat for lunch, which to the tours credit was pretty good. The benefit of being on a larger boat, was that it had larger-boat comforts, so a sit-down feed out of the wind was most welcome. And mum could also try and deal with her motion sickness. We took a couple of photo’s and then it time to be dropped onto Keppel Island itself. We were given an hour or so to mooch around, so we had a cuppa. Mazzy obviously went for a swim, and we also had time for a another beach walk. It was pretty spectacular viewing.

After hopping back on the cat, it was time for the main event – a bit of snorkeling. Once again, the tour operator was able to find a secluded spot out of the wind.

We didn’t take any photo’s of the snorkeling experience unfortunately, maybe because we all got carried away with the excitement of it all. But it was a truly amazing experience and everyone loved it. Mazzy was as fearless as ever, discarding with the flotation stuff and literally swimming off on her own at every opportunity. Occasionally she would resurface to tell us how amazing it was and then she’d be off again – miss independent swimming to all parts of the snorkeling zone. Mum and Jimi took more of a studious approach, observing the action as it came into sight and me, well I was trying to keep up with Mazzy which was no easy task.

All in all, everyone was fully immersed in the magic of the reef. We were also out of the wind and the allocated hour absolutely flew past. It was a memorable experience for all of us, and from the experience that the reef gave us, the trip was worth it for that alone. Keppel Island snorkeling was a big hit with everyone.

There were only two things left to do now. Get dragged behind the boat in the boom netting and head back to the bay. Jimi to his credit, was the only person willing to do the boom netting. So despite being a bit cold from the hours snorkeling (we did have dodgy fitting wetties provided but they leaked a lot) Jimi hung on for quite a while, being dragged by the boat. What a top kid, and what a great day out.

As if by magic, the winds dropped off for the short trip home, and we approached sunset having had yet another fantastic day out. Yeppon and Keppel had also been great for us and our run of maximum enjoyment on our roadtrip was continuing.

After a chippy tea (campsite had a food-truck), we finished off the night with a bit of stargazing. The back section of the campsite was for tents and so had even less light pollution. The sky was amazing and the milky way was very well defined, even to the naked eye. So another good thing about the “wrong” campsite was the stargazing.

Yeppoon and the Keppels you had been amazing, but tomorrow are back on the road.

After day thirty-five gave us such a great intro to the fringes of Yeppoon, we were keen to see what Yepppon actually had to offer, since Kemp Beach was actually seven or eight k’s from Yeppoon itself.

We weren’t disappointed. Yeppoon was chilled-out, the sun was shining once again and it looked immaculate. This is part of the Capricorn Coast and provides access to the Great Keppel Islands which are located on the Southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. This does sound promising for some potential reef introductions which we would look into later.

We grabbed a breakfast at some funky cafe place (Lure Living) and once again we got lucky with the required four-bays of parking and great weather.

Across the road from the cafe was the beach, so what else but go for a wander and take it all in. It was turquoise waters and in the distance you can see some of the Keppel Islands.

The next stop was Yeppoon lagoon, which was basically a fancy public swimming pool. But it was pretty impressive, and once again we are noting that we are pretty lucky with the lack of crowds. The kids burn’t off a bit of excess energy, which was a good idea especially after a large breakfast and mum and dad relaxed and reflected on what a great trip so far. We also started looking into the Keppel Islands and whether a trip might be worth it.

After a brew and a few more minutes on the research we booked in to a Keppel tour. This was one that would take us round three of the main islands, giving us access to snorkelling and pristine white-sand beaches. It was also a smaller boat, with a capacity of only twelve people so it sounded perfect. We will find out tomorrow if it lives up to the hype, noting that so far everything had, but also noting that the winds were getting up a bit.

Once the kids got cold it was time to move on, but we squeezed in one more bit of sightseeing, which was a quick visit to the imaginatively titled Wreck Point, named after a boat that got stuck. It looks out over Cooey bay and the Keppel Islands. Despite the lack of flair when naming it, it was pretty good and it also allowed Mazzy to practice some Mazzy poses. Like you do.

On the way back from Wreck Point, we swung past Roselyn Bay, which was the very handy pickup point for tomorrow’s trip, as we wanted to find out exactly where we were going.

Coincidentally, we received a phone call from our tour operator saying he will have to cancel the trip due to high winds, as his smaller sized boat cannot make it. He did recommend a different operator (larger boat). By chance, they were based in Roselyn Bay and we had literally been in the shop two minutes earlier. So we popped back in and booked on their tour. We were still a bit concerned on the winds impacted the trip but we will only be here once so we will plough on regardless.

The day was finished off back at the Caravan Park, with the kids watching another movie on the terrace after a bbq tea cooked by Dad. The Keppel Island trip was all booked in and we were really looking forward to it. Yeppoon seemed unusually low-key, but it was obviously a really good place so it didn’t quite make sense that it wasn’t mentioned more in traveling circles. Anyhow, we would find out for sure tomorrow as to whether the Keppel’s are any good or not, but we were all optimistic of another great day out.

OK first thing you’re probably thinking is what on Earth does that title mean, well I’ll tell you in a bit but anyway I’ll tell you how the day went, so to start the day unfortunately we had to leave Agnes Water & 1770 as it was time to fulfill more of our trip’s schedule and move on to Yeppoon which Dad raves about but for me it was just another nice, chilled-out, coastal town.

Leaving Agnes Water & 1770 was unlike the usual last minute check out but more so the quickest yet. Once we were on the road it was smooth sailing from there.

Once checked in at Yeppoon we got to our powered grass site and realised that when they advertise “powered grass site” they mean powered tent site. So we had actually booked a tent site. After realising this, Dad went to the reception desk and requested that we change to a powered slab site which is a site more suitable for our van.

After that we quickly got set up and then had a spot of lunch then hopped in the pool which was cold but warm enough for a swim. I went on the water slide but mazzy didn’t.

OK I’ve put off explained that title for too long, so here’s my explanation. After finishing in the pool and getting into clean clothes we went on a short 850 to 900 metre walk to the beach. Whilst at the beach Dad and maz start doing running races so I joined in and somehow Dads pants fell a little of the way down.

Day 35 meant we had to say goodbye to Agnes Water and the town of 1770. After being so impressed with Noosa, and all of us wondering if anything could possibly match up to the great time we had there, then any doubts we had were smashed into orbit. Agnes and 1770 was an amazing place for all of us.

If you like surf, warmer and safe waters then it had it. Beautiful beaches, headland walks then you can also check that off the list. We had a trip on the unique ‘Larc’, avoided crowds, celebrated Jimi’s birthday, ate buckets of the finest gelato and grabbed a sunset from the marina after fish and chips. We even walked with the butterflies, met a few salty old characters, patted rescued greyhounds, and Jimi passed his Unley interview with flying colours whilst parked up in the van, literally a hundred metres from the beach.

But as is the theme of this trip, eight weeks is not a long time to do what we are doing, and so we once again need to move on. This time we are heading for a place called Yeppoon. I have to admit, from this point onwards our planning gets a bit sketchy as before the trip took place both myself and the better-half were horrendously busy. At the same time, it’s often the lack of full scale planning which adds to the adventure (if it goes pear-shaped, I may have to revise that statement!).

So Yeppoon here we come. Google Maps tells us its 265 K’s, and around three hours.

Experience, and the rattle-trap factor of the van, along with food and toilet breaks tells us it will be more like four or five, so lets see how this one shapes up.

Well, five hours later, we arrived in Yeppoon. It was yet more driving through stunning scenery. Mountaneous backdrops and roads carved through greenery. Dodgy phone-pics don’t do it any justice, but as much as we would like to have stopped (again) and took pics we just don’t have the time, so dodgy phone-pics it is.

We arrived at Yeppon around 2pm, which was bloody amazing on our previous efforts. Destination NRMA Capricorn Yeppoon Holiday Park. This place looked great on the tin, and after all it was in Yeppoon coz it has Yeppoon in the name. Right kids?

Well maybe not. Although the park looked pretty good, we were somehow seven or eight k’s outside Yeppoon. Nice one Dad (he booked it a day or two earlier).

Anyway, we were here, and to be honest the park looked great. And they even sold beer, so full marks to Yeppoon, my new favourite caravan park. After a quick pool session (another cold one) we checked out the area and went for a walk along a path which led us to the nearby beach which was to be fair also amazing. It turns out we had chanced upon a caravan park a short walk from Kemp beach. And in further good news, this place was also stinger-free which meant we could once again go for a dip. We’d literally been here for only an hour or two and we were already starting to really love this place.

The light was slowly dropping, we relaxed with a beach walk and even a couple of comedy sprints and took a shedload of photo’s to remember these times forever.

And to finish off the evening, the kids watched a film on the camp terrace in the open air. All rugged-up after another great day. Although we were yet to see Yeppoon itself, we’d already had a great introduction to one of its great beaches and had a very relaxing time in the process. Tomorrow we will take a proper look round Yeppoon and see what else it might have to offer. Is it even possible to think that we can maintain the lofty standards set by Noosa and Agnes on our last two stops? Fingers crossed everyone ……

at the start of the day it was my twelfth birthday,  as a treat we had gelato for breakfast. As always I had chocolate my favourite flavour. It was REALLY delicious.

A little later ( like fifteen minutes later) we went to the beach at Agnes Water for a quick swim and boogie board in the ocean. We only got 4 pictures so I couldn’t really choose very well.

in the afternoon we went on a LARC tour of the the ocean  around the town of 1770. A LARC is a vehicle that can float on water and drive on land. Here is a video and some photos.

You can find out more about the LARC tour here https://1770larctours.com.au/

After the Larc Tour, we had a quick look around the marina and then had fish ‘n chips for dinner and then went back to the caravan park for bed time.

Day thirty-four meant another day in our new favorite paradise, Agnes Waters and the town of 1770. It was a special day in a lot of ways. We were in the middle of our eight weeks and really enjoying the lifestyle, we were in a really special place in Agnes and 1770, but most of all Jimi was twelve today. We were hoping that the trip would land us somewhere great for his birthday and by the looks of it the road-trip gods had delivered for us once again.

We started off the day with a late-morning dip at Agnes Water, but decided to have a look round first of all, and so we drove a bit further down the coast, through a backstreet or two and then dropped into a different section of the the beach. Funnily enough, we parked in what we thought was the car park for the Agnes Water surf lifesaving club, but we later found it went bust due to a lack of numbers.

I met another new best mate on my way down to the beach, who was some local bloke. Man and boy of Agnes Waters etc etc. But he had an interesting tale to tell, which one of the big money moving into the area, locals being priced out of houses and rents and lots of huge custom-built houses being left empty apart from a few weeks per year. I heard a similar story when I was to chatting the surf shop owner in Cabarita so it looks like that is the course of action whenever these backwater gems are discovered by the cashed-up. Anyway, it was new best mate who also informed me about the local Agnes Waters surf lifesaving club. Apparently they lobbied hard for years for decent facilities and when they finally arrived they built the club one or two k’s down the road from the main beach and the headland. The end result, was that the club folded due to a lack of numbers. It’s now a school, so the building has not gone to waste, but somehow there is no surf lifesaving club in existence.

Back to our little beach visit for the morning, and it was obvious why people stuck to the main beach, near to the headland – the remainder of the beach was rippy as hell, and there was no shortage of rocks. So we continued to wander down the beach towards the safety of the headland, when eventually we found another family who were happily boogie-boarding. After a chat to the Dad we understood this section of beach to be safe. He’d seen the beach in low tide, and knew this section was rock-free, and there was a small section, maybe less than 100metres wide that was rip-free. He looked like he knew his stuff, and after a few minutes watching the waves roll in, we waded in and had an absolute blast. The surf was up as they say, and both Jimi and Mazzy caught a shedload of waves, both on the board or just using their bodies. Jimi’s face-sting was also manageable and it was a great session. Warm water, great waves and a few thousand k’s from home and work.

Mum kind of forgot to take more pictures, but as it turned out she’d also made a new best mate. Wifey of the surf-dad, and she was very knowledgeable on the trip up the East coast. So much so, we abandoned Gladstone (a future leg) based on her info which would later give us an extra day of our choosing.

This beach session, as much as it was amazing had to come to an end as we had booked into a LARC tour as part of Jimi’s birthday celebrations. Apart from having seen these odd-looking boat-car things parked up at the marina at 1770 we knew very little about this tour, other than its some kind of boat-car thing. So their was an air of mystery around exactly how it would shape up. As it turned out, it was a fantastic hour or so, possibly one of the most enjoyable excursion type things any of us had done in a long time.

The basis of the trip, was that these amphibious craft ride out of the marina and across numerous tidal creeks. There was a huge emphasis on the ecology of the environment, and a background on how these craft came to be here. But it wasn’t all theory as driver-bloke routinely drove off the steeper tidal creeks with enough speed to generate plenty of excitement and a fair old splash.

Other features which were impossible to ignore were the views of the environment that the Larc was providing us with, as well as the tranquility, especially since the Larc gave us access to areas you could not normally get to. There were small islands in the background, as well as the surrounding mountains. It was pretty spectacular. And thankfully, nobody needed the loo. First time for everything!

There are a few pics attached which were taken from the tablet, so there is a chance the quality is not the best but hopefully they are ok.

It was a fantastic trip, so much so, that when it ended there was only one thing for it – have a quick beer and soak up more of the scenery. Kind of like we were still out there messing around on the Larc.

And with a happy-juice or two flowing around, we had time for one more gelato visit.

This time back to original-favourite beach alongside the headland.

So with the sun setting, and feeding being required, we headed back to the 1770 marina, in search of Australia’s best fish and chip shop – the Rusty Pelican.

As if by magic, or through more intervention from the road-trip gods, we had ring side seats, fish and chips and a great little sunset all viewed from the grounds of the chippy. Another great day, and we had definitely packed in a lot once again. Oh yeah, and our gorgeous boy was now twelve!

Day thirty-three was our first full day checking out Agnes Water and town of 1770.

Our Caravan Park was just outside 1770, and it was ok. There was a 900m beach path running directly from the caravan park to the local beach which I am hoping we can make use of at some point, but for today we headed back to the main beach at Agnes Water.

There was also one very significant event which we had to make time for which was Jimi’s school interview with Unley High School. A couple of months earler Jimi had taken the ACER test for Unley High in the hope that we could earn a scholarship through the Summit program.

As luck would have it, Jimi had passed the test with flying colours and the school had rang us up for a follow-up interview. So although they could not meet Jimi in person, the next best thing was a Zoom session, and the time was set for 12:30 pm.

So today’s ation would see us have a morning beach session at Agnes Water, with Mum and Jimi returning to the van to hook up the inteview person from Unley. Me and Mazzy remained at the beach whilst Jimi went solo with the intervier.

Although the beach wasn’t patrolled, there were quite a few people at the headland, including plenty of surfers off the point and casual beachgoers in front of them. The beach was fantastic. The water was warm, the waves were just the right size to get the boogie board out and it was another almost great session at the beach. Unfortunately for Jimi, his face was still a bit sore from his Noosa Kiss, so he had to settle for a bit of wading.

The great run of weather also continued, with temperatures in the mid twenties and minimal winds. It was a bonus finding such a great spot, as we weren’t expecting safe waters this far North, but apparently the movements of the swell and the angle of the coastline means no stingers.

Me and Mazzy had a while longer in the sea, whilst Mum had taken Jimi off for his interview, but lunch was required, and we had all decided that the van was out of bounds whilst Jimi was either prepearing for, or being interviewed. That left me and Mazzy to browse round the cafe strip at Agnes and see what they had to offer. The first cafe offerring appeared to be from the Agnes Waters Gelato shop, chosen by Mazzy as a little pre-lunch snack. After all, we are on our holidays and secondly, Mazzy does have Daddy wrapped round her little finger.

Next up was the Lazy Lizzard cafe. Time for a proper feed, and it was literally fifty metres from where the van was parked and Jimi was being interviewed. It was a great little spot. We were literally metres from the beach, and sat at a really good cafe. Once again, schools being ïn”and us travelling round in Autumn was lettting us avoid the usual crowds. Perfect.

After a few minutes a beaming Jimi popped out of the van. The interview had gone really well, and although Mum was not allowed to be part of it, she heard lots of chatter and even bit of laughter. How cool is that – Jimi having his senior school entrance interview, from a motorhome, parked a hundred metres from the beach at Agnes Water. Go Jimi!

And the even better news, was that meant a second trip to the Gellati shop!

Once lunch ws all finished, and a cheeky beer for Mum and Dad, it was back to the beach for the arvo session. What a life.

As low-tide increased there was a noticeable sideways pull across the beach, so we needed to be on alert. We had a couple more hours, before packing it in for the day and checking out the headland walk, which was rumoured to be really good.

We got to the headland walk about an hour before sunset.

The more we’d seen of Agnes Water, the more we liked it.

And apart from the beach views, there also planty of nature on show and Jimi’s interest in the camera was starting to show a lot more.

And that was pretty much the end of the day.

We had one more bbq back at base, where I met another new best mate.

This time it was some old fella, who was a bit three-sheets to the wind, telling me about why he was at 1770. Basically, he was there thirty years ago and him and his brother has talked about returning since that time. Now his brother was terminally sick, he had almost ran out of time and so this might well be his last chance, so there they were at the campsite, trying to hold back time enough to allow for one last brotherly adventure. Although it’s not the happiest story, its interesting to meet these people at these camp sites. All kinds of people with interesting stories.

Well, tomorrow is an even bigger day for all us, and in particular Jimi, as he turns twelve years old.

Lets see what we can rustle up for that. If the past few days are anything to go by, it will be another cracker of a day so see you then.