Day 2. Tannum Sands

Woke to a cool, overcast day, which is great for riding. After breakfast we all pedalled off along the Millennium esplanade track, around Canoe Point, across the Boyne River and along Boyne River. 24 undulating kms, stopping for pics and an ice cream along the way. Mark and I have done this ride before and really enjoyed it.

                                                 One of the gas ships leaving Gladstone. 

                                                                 Memorial in Boyne Island 

                                                                         Boyne River 

                                 Big fishing comp on this weekend.  Both caravan parks are full.

                                                 Boyne Island smelter at the end of the track.

                                                                 Fighting kangaroos. 

                                                 View from the bridge over the Boyne River. 

Back to our home on wheels for lunch and a nap before heading off for an off road ride.

The track abruptly ends at a cliff.

BBQ dinner in the camp kitchen to complete a busy day.

As it was a bit cooler tonight out came my favourite 'flanny' and we had a hot chocolate sitting around under the awning. The midges have been nasty but apart from that this is a beautiful spot.

We rode 30kms today.

Day 1. Tannum Sands. 29.4.21

 Finally departure day is here. We've had lots of ups and downs this year and we weren't sure we were going to be able to go.

 We caught up with most of our family in the past week,  so now I am happy to go with a fuller heart.

We set off at 8.30am to meet Yvonne and Gunther at Gin Gin for morning tea. First pic of the trip at Booyal.

                                       Stopped at the free camp in Gin Gin for morning tea. 

                                  We arrived at Tannum Sands caravan Park just in time for lunch.

Afternoon walk along wild cattle creek to the beach and back along the esplanade. 

                                  The horizon was full of ships waiting to pull in to Gladstone. 

                                                                        Sand cliff

                                                                            Surf club

                                         One of the beach huts/amenities along the beach front.

Thursday is our usual pub night so we kept with tradition, but walked there and back. The meals were really yummy.

This map was slightly wrong as I forgot to pause it while we ate. It was more like 3.4kms.

We travelled 248kms. Walked 6.5kms.

Setting up

 The plan is to travel up to the tip of Queensland, come back down to Lawn Hill and then head across to Darwin.  Yvonne and Gunther are planning on joining us. We're hoping to take the vans as far north as we're comfortable with and then tenting if we need too.

We will be away just over 3 months, providing there are no further covid breakouts.

Mark is currently not conversing with me as I refused to call the blog "hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the tip we go"🤪Hopefully he'll get over it as we leave in 10 days 🤷

We leave tomorrow morning and still have a bit to do. We have booked 2 nights in Tannum Sands and 2 nights in Yeppoon.  We will catch up with friends in Strathdickie in a weeks time and with Yvonne's friends in Port Douglas in a couple of weeks but apart from that anything we see after Cooktown is a bonus.