An Unexpected Stopover

Wednesday, 9th March -- Our departure from 'Dylisglen' this morning was a little emotional as it will be some time before we see the little lad and his parents again. We seem to be missing so many special moments as our grandchildren grow up. So glad we had this opportunity to share in the celebrations of Master Landon's first birthday.

Now it is time to continue our adventures. From Mackay we are heading north. We have ten days before we must be in Palm Cove for another special celebration, so there is really no rush as it is less than 800kms in a straight line ( for those readers following our travels on the map link we gave in an earlier post, Palm Cove is north of Cairns along the east coast).

Grey Bay Bowen

We finally departed Mackay around 11.45am. With such a late departure we decided to break our journey with an overnight stay at Bowen. It had been easy travelling along the Bruce Highway despite the heavy rain. There was a lot of water alongside the roadway but no flooded sections today thank goodness. At least the Magpie geese were loving this weather!


As it was my birthday the OWO decided it would be appropriate for us to stay in a van park tonight and go somewhere for dinner - I must say here that we are not van park travellers usually and prefer free camping so it was a surprise to hear the OWO making that decision. Oh, but what a great decision it turned out to be.

Looking down on our van park

We chose to stay at the Queens Beach Tourist Park. A really lovely park with spacious, private sites, superb amenities, friendly owners and walking distance to the beach and the pub. After being given a choice of sites we decided to book in for two nights and spend tomorrow exploring Bowen - a place we had bypassed many times when we were posted in Townsville back in the eighties.

Bowen is renowned for its wonderful sweet mangoes. So, of course, we drove past many mango orchards as well as many sugar canefields. The other thing associated with Bowen is the filming of the movie "Australia", directed by Baz Luhrman and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The town of Bowen was transformed into a movie set and the main street was where the cattle droving scene was filmed. There will certainly be a lot to explore in this area in two days. 
But tonight we enjoyed a wonderful birthday celebration at a restaurant recommended by the van park manager - The Cove.  Great recommendation - wonderful meal at a wonderful location.

The Cove Restaurant

Near Bowen - Turtles nest here

Croc country near Bowen

View from Lion's Lookout to van park

A Celebration in the Wet Tropics

Wednesday, 2nd March - 'Dylisglen'
Rained overnight and overcast this morning. We had a lazy start, leaving Eungella Dam around 11am. The plan was to stop at Broken River to do some walking, and maybe spot a platypus in the creek, and arrive at 'Dylisglen' around 4pm. Good thing these RRs are flexible with their plans.

Pioneer Valley in fog

After a lunch stop at Broken River Cafe and a short walk along the creek (no platypus sighted by the way!), we were once again rained upon - not just a light shower but a tropical downpour- so our plans for walking changed to driving. However, the rain got heavier and the fog got thicker - pea soup fog at Eungella.

Broken River - Platypus?? Nope

Broken River -- Turtles? Heaps

Down into the Valley we passed by 'Dylisglen' around 1.30pm. Taking a chance that Mrs K might be home, a quick phone call confirmed she was and she would meet us at the gate as we would have to go through the paddock to cross the creek as the grid was broken. That was an interesting little exercise towing 'Ada' through the cow paddock!

The creek was a little high!

And the track a little muddy!

After setting 'Ada' up near the barn out of the wind we spent the rest of the afternoon with Mrs K and the little lad - lots of cuddles and games just as Nanna's should do. By now the rain had really set in but no matter - we happily settled into an evening of fun and laughter as we put the little lad's birthday gifts together - brought back so many memories of when we spent hours putting our kids Xmas toys together so long ago.



So lovely to be able to share these special moments with Mrs K and the little lad. We missed so many of those magic moments with our other children and grandchildren being so far away.

Nanna making party hats

Thursday, 3rd March -- Master Landon's FIRST birthday.

A special morning full of surprises

An early start to share the joy of the little lad unwrapping his birthday gifts - so many things for him to take in but there were two things that held his attention - a wooden music table, and the 'trike' pusher that we had spent hours of laughter putting together the night before. Our main task today was to collect groceries from Mackay for Mrs K. This proved to be quite a challenge in the wet weather. A pretty scarey drive with extremely heavy tropical rain and flooded roads along the way. The scariest part was crossing the causeway and creek into 'Dylisglen' which were flowing quite rapidly. All part of living here I guess.

Party preparations - Nanna made the banner!

Saturday, 5th March -- Party day

A party -- What-oh!

It has rained continuously since our arrival and there was some concern that celebrations would have to be cancelled. Some guests did cancel due to flooded roads but party preparations continued and a lovely group of people joined us in celebrating the little lad's first birthday bash.



Tuesday, 8th March -- and the rains continue!!
Still raining at 'Dylisglen'. So wet that Mrs K bought me a pair of red wellies to wear between our 'Ada' and the shous. Our Driza-bone coats have been well worn this past week!  We had a little reprieve from the rain today though when we drove into Mackay for some items in preparation for our departure tomorrow. The sun actually broke through the cloud for about an hour!

My birthday tomorrow but the OWO bought my presents today whilst in Mackay - fishing tackle and tackle box ( because he packed the rods but forgot to pack our tackle in the van) and new camping chairs. How things change --- it used to be perfume and lingerie!!

Tomorrow we will say farewell to all at 'Dylisglen' and continue our adventure.  We have stayed two days longer than planned due to the wet weather and we don't want to overstay our welcome, so it is time to restart our adventure north. Sad, yet excited by the prospect of exploring 'new' areas of our home State - even in the wet tropics.  Our first planned stopover from Mackay is just north of Townsville at Toomulla Beach for a couple of nights with the lovely Pat. But we'll see how we are travelling as the day progresses.