CARMILA BEACH, CAMP KANGA & AYR

Sandflies and midges are one and the same according to Wikipedia. They don't wee on you they bite, and it's only the females that do. They like people with O Type blood. Some, not all people are allergic to them.....and one of those people is ME! Bugger! First evening at Carmila Beach they struck and by early next morning both Brian and I were dabbing boiling water on to the bites - an old bushies trick - the only thing I've ever found that actually stops the itch. After that I covered up from head to toe later in the days.

Despite the midges we spent three nights at Carmila Beach. It is a stunning spot and when the tide goes out, which it does for miles, the walk along the sand bar is beautiful. James and I could spend hours paddling on the water's edge and soaking up the sun. By evening it was lovely to sit by the fire and look out over the water which was a gorgeous aqua blue. The place is alive with bush turkeys, so much so that even James didn't bother reacting to them after a while.

At the northern end of the beach there is a inlet and a boat ramp. We tried our luck at fishing off it and had lots of bites (midges and fish). Brian caught a little brim and I  caught a cute baby rock cod. We had a go from the beach in front of the van at high tide one afternoon in the hope of snagging some flathead for dinner, but with no luck.

A few kilometers down the road from Carmila on the Bruce Highway is the very popular Flaggy Rock Cafe. It's a quaint, shabby little place set on acreage with a pretty lily pond behind it and a huge parking area. It's kinda in the middle of nowhere but they make great pies and it's always busy. When we were staying at Carmila Beach in 2013 we went there every morning for coffee and it was often full of passing travelers in vans and motorhomes. Tuesday we popped in for lunch and heaps of people lobbed in.


CARMILA BEACH scores a 4.5. I love the hugeness of the sand bar when the tide goes out, the fact that you can park almost on the beach and you can have a fire. It costs about $10 per night, there are toilets and a dump point and there's phone reception. It has a boat ramp, you can fish and there's a pub just up the road. It is very sandy in spots so it's easy to get bogged and there are sandflies.

Wednesday we hit the Bruce Highway once again and headed further north to Proserpine where we took a left turn and drove twenty odd kilometers to a place called Camp Kanga. Just a minute up the road from Lake Proserpine, it had really good reviews on WikiCamps. A couple of other campers there, Peter and Karen, were filling in as caretakers while the real ones were called away unexpectedly. They were unbelievably warm and welcoming and let us pick our site from those available. We set up backing onto the bush with a beautiful creek running through it, and adjacent to the communal fire pit area. That evening at 5pm everyone convened at the pit, it was introductions and drinks all round and conversation which centred on who caught what on the dam that day. They were all old fart fisher men and women of our age who'd come north for the winter in their vans. We felt totally at home.

Lake Proserpine is considered a good fishing spot and enthusiasts bring their boats from all over the place to catch the freshwater barramundi. With no boat the only spot we could fish from was the boat ramp. We bought a couple of lures from the Proserpine bait shop that came recommended by the proprietor who is also the local fishing tour guide. He said to give the ramp a go at dusk, which we did. While we didn't get a hit we did enjoy the beer, bubbles and stunning sunset.

Friday we did a day trip into Airlie Beach, less than an hour away. Being the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands it's very touristy. After a drive around we had lunch at the marina. OMG...the boats and yachts there were amazing.

Our plan was to go to Lazy Acre Plantation, a farm stay fifty kilometers south of Townsville, on Saturday. While heading there we had a call from friends Ross and Marie and found they were just an hour or so on the road behind us with their van.....also northbound. After a bit of to and froing we met at a caravan park in Ayr, and, as luck would have it, the Burdekin Water Festival was on that night. A short stroll into town and we were smack in the middle of thousands of people, a big float parade and massive festivities. How cool was that!

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ROCKHAMPTON AND YEPPOON

We arrived in Rockhampton Monday. It felt like the burbs after spending the last few weeks in small country towns. Ugh! The caravan park was a sardine tin located between a major road bridge and a railway bridge over the Fitzroy River, so as you can imagine, very noisy. The fact that our sites backed onto a large tidal river was a slightly redeeming feature. We had booked three nights as Brian was flying in from Yarrawonga late Wednesday afternoon and I was picking him up. When I got up Tuesday morning after a sleepless night listening to the clatter of trucks and trains I decided that didn't work for me. Yeppoon, where Brian's daughter lives is on the coast less than an hour away, so I suggested to Karen we go for a drive and check out the camping availability.

Mount Archer was on the way so we drove to the lookout to take in the views over the city. Very pretty! It was lunchtime when we arrived at Emu Park 17 km south of Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast. It's a gorgeous spot. After a walk on the beach we checked out the caravan park which, aside from being another sardine can, was apparently fully booked.

It was Karen's birthday which clearly meant 'bubbles required'. We sat in the park eating the largest pieces of fish I've ever been served accompanied by chips and potato cakes and sipping on Prosecco. Yum! While in the area we took a wander up the hill to the Singing Ship monument which commemorates the exploration of the bay in 1770. It's meant to look like the sail of a ship and is designed to sing in the wind. We didn't hear it.

On the few occasions Brian and I have visited Nat and the family while carravanning we have stayed at The Causeway. It's halfway between Emu Park and Yeppoon backing on to an estuary lake with the beach across the road. I took Karen for a look and she was sold. Yay! The large unpowered grassy area right beside the water was almost empty, so we booked to arrive the next morning. We would forfeit $33 each on our pre-paid third night at Rocky but at least I would have to endure only one more sleepless night. Well before midday Wednesday we were all set up at Cool Waters Caravan Park and I was much more chilled.

Next morning after enjoying a big brekky at the Keppel Marina, James, Ellie, Karen, Brian and I explored the fairly recently developed Yeppoon foreshore area. OMG....the endless pool complex is awesome. The views out over the Keppel Island group are stunning from every vantage point on the surrounding coastline.

Over the next few days we enjoyed walks with the dogs on the beaches, scenic drives, delicious dinners, big communal open fires at night and even had our precious Rubyvale sapphires evaluated (Karen and I were a bit excited). Karen had discovered that the local lapidary club met in Yeppoon Saturday mornings, so with our stash ready to flash we eagerly presented ourselves at the clubrooms. First, I proudly passed my 53ct beauty to the head honcho. He rolled it around in his hands, gave it a full 10 second examination through his special glasses before throwing it down on the table and exclaiming "rubbish"! As for the rest of my collection..."gravel". Karen got pretty much the same brutally dismissive response. Bugger! And, to rub salt into our wounds, one of the club members watching our humiliation, was only too happy to share that he sold sapphires like ours to the fossicking places for $10 per kilo. It then went into buckets of dirt for fools like us to pay $20 for to find. Dreams shattered!

Saint Bernards Boys College held their annual rodeo event on Saturday night and given Karen and I enjoyed the Capella Rodeo so much the previous weekend we decided to go. Brian had never been to one and I thought he'd love it. While it did have the odd highlight it was, unfortunately, not a patch on Capella. Bugger!

Sunday was the last day Karen and Ellie would spend with James and myself for some time. I had always planned to go further north knowing that Karen would have to eventually head back towards home and that time had come. The four of us had shared some amazing experiences and heaps of fun. James and I will miss them until we catch up down the track.

After a Father's Day breakfast with Nat, Scott, Isla and Halle, Brian and I hit the road north to a favorite haunt, Carmila Beach.

RUBYVALE, THERESA CREEK DAM, CAPELLA RODEO & DUARINGA PUB

The Gemfields are fascinating and as we drove into the tiny town of Sapphire late Sunday morning our heads were on swivels in an attempt to take it all in. Four kilometers up the road is Rubyvale which is larger, and despite it's haphazard nature, not an unattractive little spot. There's a well maintained pub in log cabin style on a high corner hill surrounded by pretty gardens, a gem store and coffee shop made the same way across the road, a very plain old post office on another corner and a general store behind the pub that is just plain ugly. Our caravan park was opposite the hotel - rather convenient really.

Most of the surrounding dwellings are erected on mining leases and can't be permanent structures which makes for some curious housing design features. Sapphire and Rubyvale are fundamentally shanty towns mostly made up of old caravans, tin sheds, odd bits of timber spanned by shade cloth and hessian and an occasional building that resembles a house. Boundaries are delineated by white posts with mining lease numbers on them and many plots are littered with rusty old cars and mountains of junk and old machinery. Everywhere you look there are piles of diggings from mine excavation. It's dry and dusty and in places looks like a bomb site.

We had a couple of lovely shady sites backing onto a town common grassed area where several horses wandered freely, often roaming into the main street. Mick, the caravan park owner, filled us in on all the things to do - and we did them. First a wander across the road to the pub.

The Miner's Heritage underground mine tour was first on our 'to do' list next day. Until it became a tourist attraction in 1984 it was a working sapphire mine that started in 1906. It took about 40 minutes to do the guided tour which went through lots of tunnels some 15 meters under the ground. There were even some cute little bats hanging around in there. The history of local mining and some of its identities was really interesting. It would have been a shit life!

Next we had to pay a visit to Gunter, the strudel man. He's famous for his fabulous cake which, as we were to discover, was served not only with coffee but a tiny pot of port. Great at 10 o'clock in the morning! It was all yummy!

Fossicking for sapphires is the main draw-card for tourists, many of whom come back year after year to try their luck. You can purchase a license and go dig a hole or, as we did, buy a bag of dirt and sift through it. After a drive around the area to check out some of the stunning locally produced jewelry we bought a bag for $15, took it back to camp where there is the equipment required to do the job, and tried our hand. And we did find a few little gems! Next day we lobbed into a fossicking park just up the road. That was a bargain....$20 bought a cuppa accompanied by scones, jam and cream as well as a big bucket of wash (dirt that's from a seam of earth likely to contain gems). We were taught how to sift, soak and wash the dirt away from the stones then look for color and shine. We found heaps of gems....mostly small....but it was addictive.

We were back for another go the following day around 9am after we had hooked up our vans to head off. It was an even better haul than first. I found a 53 ct green sapphire which a local gem smith inspected. He explained that it had too many internal fractures to be faceted but when polished would most likely be a star sapphire and possibly worth a bit of money. Yay! Karen found a 10 ct stone that could be cut, so again, probably worth a few bucks. It was nearly 2pm by the time we hit the road for Theresa Creek Dam. Rubyvale had been a hoot with lots of very interesting locals and fellow fossickers who happily shared a yarn or two about their experiences and travels.

It was another nomad who had pointed us in the direction of Theresa Creek Dam. About an hour north, we heard it was a beautiful spot with plenty of water despite the drought. And it was. On arrival we dropped into the office, paid for two nights, found a good spot right on the water's edge and just relaxed. The dusk sky was very pretty.

THERESA CREEK DAM scores a 4.5. It's pretty, has showers, toilets and a dump point and there's heaps of space so you can camp anywhere...if you're lucky on the water's edge. A boat would be good as it has fish and redclaw. Phone reception is only available within a short distance of the office/coffee shop. There's no power or water. Cost is $15 per site.

The Capella Rodeo was on Saturday, August 24th. Karen and I heard about it a week or two earlier and as neither of us had ever been to a rodeo thought we should go. I called the local shire offices to see if we could camp at the showground where it was being held. The women I spoke to said camping was only available to participants, so I played the 'damsels in distress card', she spoke to her boss and voila - we got a guernsey. All we had to do was lob in there Friday morning.

When we arrived, which was well before midday, there were only a couple of other campers in. We parked nearby, pretty much in the centre of an area with stock holding pens on a couple of sides a huge undercover arena on the other side. There were lots of caravan park type power boxes so we plugged in, pulled out awnings and settled ourselves in. As the day wore on bulls, calves and horses were delivered by trucks and unloaded into the pens, then cowboys and their rigs ranging from small floats to huge multi-horse carriers with living quarters poured in. That happened all night and into Saturday morning. Our set-up looked a bit out of place I must say!

 The rodeo was fantastic. Starting at 10am with juniors, it went all through the day until at 6pm the main event began. The bull and bronco riding was incredible to watch with quite a few riders being injured by really angry big bulls hurling them off then trying to kill them or broncos going berserk. There were two cowboys on horses whose job it was to rescue the bronco riders then catch the crazy broncos. Their skills were something else! That was one of the best parts - just watching the recovery team and their horsemanship skills.

We left Capella with everyone else Sunday morning to head south, then east to Rockhampton about 350 km away. We were pulled over to the side of the road by cops for a while as a huge piece of mining machinery was moved along the highway. We decided to have an overnight on the way and called into Duaringa where we could stay the night at the back of the pub for free if we bought a drink. So we did!

DUARINGA PUB is great for an overnighter. It's one km north of the Capricorn Way about 120 km west of Rockhampton. It has showers, toilets and phone reception. It's a big open area so you can stay hooked. Power and water costs $15. I give it a 3.