NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 9 – ROLLINGSTONE TO INGHAM – (TAYLOR’S BEACH)

 Today we are heading north to meet up with Ian and Kathy in Ingham.  We have booked into a caravan park at Taylor’s Beach for two nights.  They are then heading south and we will continue to travel north.

We are both keen to check out Wallaman Falls, so plan to do this tomorrow together.

We had a leisurely start to the day today as we only needed to travel 70 odd kilometres today so we didn’t have to be up too early. 

We didn’t have a good night’s sleep as the wind came up during the night and it seemed to be blowing a gale.  The awning, although secured by deflappers, seems to be rocking the van and canvas of the pop top and this alone was keep us away.

At around 4am we couldn’t stand it anymore so both Steve and I were up pulling in the awning.  No sooner had we crawled back into bed than we could hear our towels (which were hanging outside on the towel rail on the van) flapping against the caravan.  Up I got this time and pulled them inside.   Even with the towels in we could still hear flapping and it turned out to be the awning strap, it was flapping around, so this time Steve got up and went out and tucked it back into the rolled-up awning. 

By this time, it was after 5am and there was no way we were going to manage getting back to sleep.   Even though we both tried, sleep evaded us so by 6am we were up and pottering around in the van packing stuff away.  I also edited a bunch of photos from the previous day, and then helped Steve to get the van ready to hitch to the car….

Whilst he was hitching it up to the car, I took a final walk around the caravan park and  took some photos of the place as it was by far our favourite spot so far these holidays…

We were away a little after 10.15am heading north.

It was a pretty uneventful trip to Ingham.  On our way in we saw the Tyco Wetlands… It was on our list of places to explore in Ingham, although I am not sure that we will get a chance.

Taylor’s Beach is 24kms east of Ingham, so we drove through town and headed out towards the beach…

We arrive just after 12 noon, booked in and then proceeded to set up our van.  We are situated at the back of the park boarding on the bush and mangroves…  I am a little worried about whether there will be sandflies or not….

As Steve booked into reception, I noticed some beautiful orchids out the front, so just had to take some photos of them as they are one of my favourite flowers along with the Mr. Lincoln red rose.

We arrived before Ian and Kathy and had almost finished setting up when we saw them arrive.   We were only about 45 minutes ahead of them. 

I needed to put on a load of washing, so headed to the laundry to do this…. Washing is expensive here at $5 a load.  Good thing I only have one load to do…

Once we had both set up camp, we set up our chairs and picnic tables in the shade at the back of our vans and had lunch out there together. 

It was good to catch up with them and hear tales of their travels… We exchanged lots of notes on places to see and visit when we headed further north… In fact, we sat out under the trees chatting for a few hours and by 3.30pm, we decided it was time to take a dip in the pool at the park here…

Whilst Ian, Kathy and I went for a swim, Steve set up his new foldable BBQ platform in readiness to cook our roast leg of pork that was on the menu for dinner tonight…

Whilst Ian, Kathy and I went for a swim, Steve set up his new foldable BBQ platform in readiness to cook our roast leg of pork that was on the menu for dinner tonight…

Whilst Ian and Kathy socialised with other guests in the pool, I swam 60 laps before joining them.  I would normally do a good 100 laps or more but as this is my first time in the pool doing laps since February, I thought I had better ease into it…

While we swam, Steve chatted to other campers who were having Happy Hour in the camp kitchen, before heading down to the beach to check out the boat ramp and the each.

Once we had finished our swim, we all had showers and then it was time to get the washing off the line…

Kathy and I came back to the van and started to prepare some vegetables so that Steve could add them to the roast when he came back from his walk.  

 

We all enjoyed a roast pork dinner together under the awning of our van, and once all the dishes were done, we then played a game of “Five Crowns” whilst enjoying a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers…

We finished playing at 10.00pm.  We were all pretty exhausted and after cleaning up pretty much headed to bed…

We have a big day planned for tomorrow… We are off to check out the Wallaman Falls…