NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 5 – VISIT TO CAPE HILLSBOROUGH & SEAFORTH.

A bit of a slower start this morning as I have a chiropractors appointment booked for 10.15am.  This means it will be at least 11am before we are able to take off and go anywhere. 

At usual, I was up at dawn, something I can’t quite seem to break out of these holidays, and it was washing day today.  The washing was in the machines and turned on by 7.30am and I wasn’t the first in the laundry this morning either…

The washing was done and pegged out by 9.15am which gave me 40 minutes to organise  some photos. 

We left the van around 10.05am as we really only had a couple of minutes drive to get to the clinic….  I had picked this particular practice because it was close to where we live…

Steve set the GPS  to the address without us realizing that there were two streets by that name in close proximity to each other and our GPS took us out to the airport…

One of the interesting things we saw though when going there were sets of street lights that were only about six foot off the ground, and also the street lights were very low also.  We have never seen this before and in the end could only assume that they were like that here as this street must be on the approach to the airstrip and they needed to keep everything low.  I am regretting not having my camera with me to take a photo. 

The chiropractor I saw was an older gentlemen who knew my uncle.  His methods were old school but they definitely worked for me and I felt like a new person with a good spring in my step when I stepped back out…

From here we hurried back to the van to bring in the washing… we didn’t really have any idea what time we would be home so didn’t really want to leave it out all day…

Lovely scenery around Mackay

 

 

It was just after 11.30am when we left the caravan park on route to “The Old Station Tea House” on Cape Hillsborough Road… this was to be our lunch stop….  We had heard several good reports about it from different people including our own daughter who had previously visited here with her mother in law…

It didn’t disappoint….  The setting was lovey out amongst the trees, the gardens delightful and the old rail station added a real charm to the experience..

There is a real story behind these tea rooms, which we read whilst we were there…. The story goes something like.

The story of The Teahouse began around 1904 when QLD Rail built a permanent station in the township of Marian. The station featured prominently in the lives of many Pioneer Valley residents as the rail network was often the only means of transport to and from Mackay. For nearly 90 years The Station served its community well until modern vehicles made the use of rail transport in these areas obsolete.

One Saturday morning in the middle of 1994 the owners were reading the local paper when they spotted the tender notice for the building. Out of curiosity, they decided to go and have a look and on the spot, they fell in love with the old girl. They had to have her, luckily for them,  their tender was accepted and with four weeks to find a removalist and clear the site, they had the biggest project they had ever undertaken on their hands.

Many years on and The Old Station Teahouse has grown into something that is bigger than they ever envisaged and it has become a favourite stop for visitors from all over.

My lunch

Steve's lunch

They have always maintained their pride in presenting simple food that is homemade and delicious.

Their love for this beautiful old building is as strong today as it was when they first laid eyes on her.  They invite you to take your time to relax, enjoy a stroll around the garden and soak up a piece of local history.

And we did all of that whilst we were their.

We had a light lunch of toasted sandwiches, Steve had ham, cheese and tomato, and I had the ham, cheese and pineapple ones… I enjoyed a lovely apple juice whilst Steve chose a hot chocolate...

We were there for over an hour which then meant we had to rush our visits to the beaches in this area…

Our goal for today was to go back over old ground and visit Cape Hillsborough, a place we had taken our children camping when they were young.  It would be a good 20 years since we have been there and lots of it we had forgotten. 

 

 

 

 

 The place has changed significantly since we were last there, although the views from the beach remain the same and they are still idealic….

We initially did the Andrew’s Point High Tide Track walk which took us past the lower camping ground level of the Cape Hillsborough Tourist Park which was where we used to camp when the kids were young.  Other then a couple of new amenities, nothing in this area has changed, although I think when we were coming, we had a bit more view of the beach.  The trees have grown considerably and blocked out the view.

 

We walked the whole length of the beach chatted to a few fishermen and then sat on the rocks for a while just enjoying the views….  Steve did contemplate on whether to get his drone out or not, but in the end I think the walk back to the car to get it put him off.

We would have spent over an hour here, but then it was time to go especially if we wanted to check out the rest of the bays and beaches out in the area.

Once we left here, and heading back towards Seaforth, Steve detoured along a dirt track which then left us to Smalley’s Beach camp ground. 

 

This was a little gem, well secluded sites, but to camp here you had to be pretty self-sufficient.  They did have drop toilets, and there was a charge per night although we are not sure what that was… we would need to investigate on their website.  We did take a photo of the sign so that we can do some research.  There were 11 camp sites in total and quite a few sites that would accommodate vans, and quite a few vans staying there at this time.   Numbers 4,5 and 10 were Steve’s favourite.

From here we continued back to Cape Hillsborough Road and then took the next turn to the right to go and explore both Ball Bay and Halliday Bay.  

Again, both of these little beaches were pretty.   Out of the two, I think Halliday Bay was our favourite and there is a nice rather small resort park right on the beach where you can stay.  Cost is minimal but the outlook is lovey.  Another spot worth investigating… Again I snapped quite a few photos of the area..

Our final beach we wanted to check out was Seaforth.  This beach had a huge camping area pretty much on the beach here also… Ball Bay, Halliday Bay and Seaforth all had swimming enclosures on the beach and all of these beaches along this part of the coast have views of islands.  Pretty stunning really.  They are small communities with lots of houses being built pretty much on the beach.  Their views were priceless…

At Seaforth, we again drove down a few dirt roads to see what we could discover, and found a rather impressive boat ramp in one direction and the other were lovey picnic spots and access to the beach at different spots along the coast, but each of these spots there were gorgeous views out to sea.

It was 5pm when we left here.  We needed to hurry back to Mackay if I wanted to get back to Harbour Beach to photograph a few of the big things I had seen the previous night when we were in this area, but it had been too dark to photograph them.

Another Big Aussie Icon at "The Leap" near Mackay.

Then it was straight off the Port Area back in Mackay to photograph the big things there… a rather large Snoopy Dog, Fred Flinstone, the old Woman’s Shoe, and a rather large dinosaur.   

More of the Big Aussie Icons found in Mackay at the Harbour..

Once this mission was accomplished, it was off to Lambert’s Beach Lookout for a view overlooking the beaches and city whilst we enjoyed the final stages of another beautiful sunset.  The drive here was definitely worth it, as the views up here was stunning…

We noticed in the not too far distance a large painted water tower so that then became Steve’s mission to go check it out, I was thrilled as I did get quite a few good photos.

It was going on for 7pm by the time we left here and we still had to go to Woolworths and pick up some groceries on our way home…

Interesting enough, as we were queuing in the checkout to pay for our groceries, we noticed a lady who we knew from Rocky… it turned out to be Sarah’s preschool teacher Gillian Busch.  She is temporarily living and working in Mackay whilst she cares for her elderly Mum who is living in a no e up here.  She was as surprised to see us as we were to see her.

Once we left here it was straight home to unpack groceries and cook some dinner.  It has been a long day and we were both pretty tired…