DAY 3 – Lennox Head to Hervey Bay

Long day today, a little over 8 hours door to door…not accounting for morning peak and endless roadworks around Gympie played havoc with the schedule…

We bid farewell to Aunty Sue and headed north, our stay in Lennox never long enough, it’s without doubt one of my favourite spots to visit…

Unfortunately forgetting it was ‘Monday as usual’ for all the Gold Coast > Brisbane commuters extended our morning trip by more than a little… A quick leg stretch and a Harper play in Aspley Lions Park recharged the travel batteries and we pushed on with Clare at the wheel to the gorgeous foreshore of Noosaville for lunch…

A good play for Harper set us up for a good afternoon in the car, albeit longer than expected, arriving at the Big4 Fraser Lodge (Hervey Bay) just on 4:30pm…

It was a race between the newbie camper setup and sunset…main canopy and annex up, stopping the clock at a respectable 25 minutes…not bad for our first time, and fingers crossed will improve over the coming weeks…and not a harsh word exchanged !!! – compared to our ‘old’ 3 hour tent city set up time, we’re cheering..

The driving time has exceeded what we both expected and with Harper averaging a maximum 6 hour ‘bum in seat’ time, we sit here tonight whiteboarding alternative stops to ensure both Harper’s and her fellow travelling companions sanity…

Ethan’s Interesting Fact of the Day – Hervey Bay was discovered in 1770 by Captain Cook, who named the area after his boss Admiral Augustus Hervey. And Hervey Bay is considered the ‘Whale Watching Capital’ of Australia (mum wanted me to add that…)

and a new segment…..

Ant’s Rookie Mistake of the Day – Toss up between (1) Make the beer accessable, not stashed in the internal fridge that can’t be opened after the port-a-cot has been set up…Celebrated the first set up with a glass of Orange Juice, or (2) Put the tent pegs and ropes on top of the tool box, not bottom – saves a complete unpack with a demanding baby…

Cheers

Ant

Ps: and if anyone finds a baby powder on the main street of Woolgoolga…please forward it on to Bramwell Station…

DAY 2 – Firefly to Lennox Head

So day two started a little closer to our planned departure time – this morning we only left  20 minutes later than we wanted to. Anthony did a bit of a reshuffle between the car and trailer and while a little more organised I don’t think we gained any extra room.

Harper was asleep before we got to the bottom of Dad’s driveway and Ethan had his headphones in soon after so things were off to a great start.

We stopped at a little garden for her first feed and stretched our legs, I must say it was great to open things up and have something to eat and drink without stopping at a service station or shop.

The plan was to catch up with a girlfriend at Coffs Harbour but sadly that didn’t pan out as our paths would not cross at the same time. We have decided to just keep on going if Harper is asleep or not restless – I know this deviates from the schedule, which is hard for planners like Anthony to do. It will be harder to deviate once super planner Paul is on the case.

We ended up stopping at Woolgoolga for lunch (which is actually very close to Coffs – Harper became restless about 2 minutes past the Big Banana) – there’s not much open on a Sunday in Woolgoolga but hot chips and gravy did the trick. 45 minutes saw us back in the car again.

So far so good with the travelling but alas we needed petrol while Harper and Ethan were having their afternoon naps (I do have a photo of my two babies asleep but one of them would die of embarrassment and never talk to me again if I posted it). This stop woke the beast and lets just say the next 70 minutes were not great. Lennox Head could not come quick enough.

We pulled into Aunty Sue’s driveway and couldn’t get Harper out quick enough – we just wanted the noise to stop! A few minutes out of the car and it was happy days again. It’s great to see Aunty Sue and we’re all looking forward to our last night in proper beds. Talk again soon. Cx

Ethan’s interesting fact of the day – My interesting fact of the day is we stopped at Clybucca and we went into the memorial garden and saw the plaque of the Kempsey coach crash. This happened on December 22nd 1989. 35 people were killed in this tragic accident. They have seat belts in coaches now because of this.

Day 1 – Glenmore Park to Firefly

In a galaxy far far away….wait, no actually just sitting around the camp table in Soldiers Point back in April 2013 flicking through a back issue of Overlander magazine, I made the throw away comment to Clare “we should do Cape York one day…we’ll trade the Falcon in and buy a 4WD…” – Fast forward 18 months and we’re pulling out of the driveway with a mix of nervousness, intrepidation , and just a touch excitement. The trusty Prado and the Johnno’s camper trailer packed to the hilt, Ethan squared away with his iPad, and Harper tucked securely in her second home for the next four weeks….an hour and a half behind schedule!!

A trap for new players (or old ones like us…) – Babies take up a lot of space in the car and camper!!! – At last count, Harper (just 10mths) had two dedicated tubs of food, nappies, toys as well as her suitcase, port-a-cot, anti-croc playpen and portable dining chair…Every spare space in the camper now stuffed with nappies…

Just a short trip today, Glenmore Park to Firefly (20mins in from Nabiac) to visit Clare’s dad, and step-mum on their beautiful property. Harper travelled well, no doubt thanks to her newly aquired headrest DVD player (thanks Aunty Nicole) and accompanying Wiggles DVD…Seriously, those songs are catchy…”Do the propeller, do the propeller, around and around“….

Both Prado and the Johnno’s camper travelled well, and the new Bilstein’s and Polyair’s made a noticeable difference on the pothole riddled roads out to Firefly…no doubt time and thousands of K’s will tell the story better…

Hopefully along the way, the lure of the iPad will giveway to some learning and life experiences for the boys, and as part of our daily update, they’ll bring you some interesting facts and tips picked up along the way…

Ant..

Ethans Interesting Fact of the Day – The thing I learnt  today was that the Manning River has two mouths and that’s unusual for a river…

 

Follow our journey

Throughout our adventure, we’ll keep you updated on our progress and highlights (technology permitting of course)…