Yeppoon and Carmila Beach

Yeppoon (40km east of Rockhampton)

We arrived in Yeppoon late afternoon and although the caravan park (Ponciana) didn’t rise up to our expectations (some dodgy looking dudes in there but very clean amenities, always a plus), the town itself turned out to be a pretty beachfront lined with cafes and restaurants. It was also a good place to get some practical stuff sorted (got a mobile wi-fi now, yeah! So 21st century travellers aren’t we!).

The next day we headed off to the Byfield National Park (NP), 30 km north of town and that was absolutely gorgeous: Rainforest, rutted out sand tracks and driving on the Nine Miles beach and no one around. Our truck got a few nice scratches but it was well worth it. There is several camping sites in the NP and for anyone coming this way we recommend to stay at Fern’s hideway: large space, quiet, swimming pool and wallabies hoping around everywhere. Wish we’d found that out before setting up in Yeppoon.

                                                                           
                        

                  

Swimming hole at
Upper Stoney Creek

Wallabies at Fern's hideaway

On the way back we found a beautiful swimming hole named Upper Stoney Creek. Wish we had got there earlier as the temperature was getting a bit too cool to take a plunge in this chilly water (we learned later that a colony of crocs lives 30km up the creek, but oddly it is still an official swimming hole…). That night we decided to treat ourselves to a sumptuous dinner at the Keppel Marina Yacht Club, Rosslyn Bay (tuna, sashimi, Moreton bug, duck, rib eye with prawns, sooooo yummy).

Rosslyn Bay

The next day we checked out Emu Park, just south of Yeppoon, the most well known feature of Emu Park is the singing ship, in honour of Captain Cook. Pretty but wasn’t singing that day, no wind, too bad. The next morning we packed up early and set off for Carmila Beach.

Carmila Beach ( 100km south of Mackay)

Turning off the Freeway to Carmila beach we past the petrol station, which we later found out was the only place for food shopping (mik, bread and potatoes) for 45km. The free camp at Carmila Beach is a small sandy track winding through thick vegetation with small sidetracks leading to private campsites. Our spot was a small opening through the bushes, overviewing the beach with the water 10m away at high tide. And the tides are large in Carmila (reaching over 7 metres). The sound of the tide coming up is like a loud flowing river and is an eerie sound during the night, especially when added to some very strange sounding night birds. At least the squeaky camper wasn’t an issue here.

high tide

isn't that awesome? 

the beach at low tide

                           

That afternoon after setting up, we heard 2 familiar voices from the beach: Kevin and Di, that we had met at Agnes Water, part of our 4pm drinkies crew. What a good surprise! These two are a really lovely retired couple that have decided to travel around the country in their caravan for the next 5 years. We spent the next couple of nights with them, drinking and having dinner around a campfire, looking at shooting stars, listening to the rising tide and laughing a lot. The next day Pete was really itching to go for a fish so he went with Kev down the beach, at a spot recommended by a local guy who said he had caught: big Barramundi, Queen Fish, Jew fish, big Flathead and Mangrove Jack. We were all quite so confident we would get a good feed. A big feed he did NOT get but he did manage to catch his first Barramundi (a small one) on a soft plastic.Look how proud he is on the picture. But it had to be put it back as it was not legal size. So no fish for dinner. 

isn't it cosy?

Nothing like the smell of campfire

Looks like a good spot...

...only a small Barra!

For our next stop we have planned to meet up with Kev and Di again, as well as Kim and Graeme, the other couple from the Agnes Water "gang", at Bowen. The driving force for this meeting was Di, who was very keen on another Poker night, I got her hooked when we had a game at Agnes Water. It’s going to be great to be all reunited for a couple of days.

The big Cane Toad at Sarina, ugly thing. 

PS: click on the pictures to make them bigger