Back to Tropical Coast

It was time to head back to the coast and continue our journey northward.

We drove via Moranbah, around the mines along Red Hill Rd, came to 5km of corrugated dirt, then back on the bitumen through a gap in the Range at Burton Gorge Dam and onto Lake Elphinstone. We had a great 5 nights along the lake freedom camping. Great toilet and cold shower facilities.

Our daily visit from the locals.......I’m watching you.......


Explored the hill at the back of us, 3/4 of the way up there was a cache (of course) just had to negotiate the barb wired fence and 2 steep rock faces to scramble up, thank goodness Derek found a more gentler way back down

The view

Sunrise, yet another, there is never going to be many captured by me

A night in the cane fields on a private farm near Mackay. We needed to get our 12volt system checked over as it kept intermittently tripping. Turns out the 40Amp battery protector under the van hood was tripping at less than a 10Amp load, we got it replaced and now all set to go again.

We have never spent any length of time around Mackay, so have allowed ourselves 3 weeks. 

First stop Halliday Bay Golf Resort/RV park, just 35 minutes North, felt like being on a tropical island. We headed here to meet up with our dear friends Judy and Lex from near Brisbane, who are also out caravanning. 

Cape Hillsborough NP in the background

Air golf

Tropical Island feel........Climbed up to the lookout on the hill at the end of the beach

View south over Ball Bay and Cape Hillsborough from the lookout 

View north over Seaforth


Little Welcome Swallows

But our bird of the week, the Rainbow Bee Eaters were in abundance and we had never seen them before

Gem Hunting

Winter is the perfect time to head a little inland to check out the Gemfield region of Rubyvale, Sapphire and Annakie in search of SAPPHIRES.

We stayed a total of 9 nights as there are plenty of camping opportunities...caravan parks, a free reserve and on the fossicking fields, some very close to the towns. Tomahawk Ck. Glenalva and The Willows were a little further away.

Plenty to do and explore 

Sit in a hole or dry river bed and dig out the gravel wash caught around the billy boulder layer, then sieve it. We got our fossicking licence online for $12 and equipped with own sieves, geologists pick and shovel headed out. All the gear can be hired though.  I still have a large bucket of wash gravel in the car to wash and sieve through. But so far no luck for a lot of hard work.....it was good fun though!   Best time to go is after a heavy rainfall as the sapphires are easier to spot when the gravel is washed away a bit.

If you don’t want to dig and sieve your own dirt on the fossicking reserves you can buy a bucket or bag of “wash” gravel direct from the commercial mines (some are underground some opencut) and have a play at one of the many fossicking tourist parks. Price between $15 and $25 a bucket or bag. We tried Armfest Mine and Gemfields Fossicking Park.

Sapphires come in all colours..see above... Rubys are actually red sapphires, star sapphires are rare as are pink

Amongst our finds, a star sapphire which we had cut and set.  4.34 carots....value before set is about $425. The star has 6 legs and moves around the top of the stone depending on the angle of the light. I was so excited to have a great piece of jewellery to take away and remember our visit.

Also found a “bomb”, too many cracks, but was told it will skin polish beautifully...its huge 2.5cm big and very thick


Sapphire and Zircons, natural and then held up to the light....tons of greens, yellows and pale blues

My rare pink one...it really isn’t purple,  also a garnet not ruby

Top left are the cuttable zircons and sapphires...no cracks.. I also have another 4 small star sapphires, probably too small to cut


Our total haul....tons of fun


Climb Policeman’s Knob, the oldest volcanic plug in the world, 56million years old.  These plugs dot the region and are responsible for spitting out the sapphires to the surface. Plenty of rock wallabies call it home..they were huge and chubby.

View over the gemfields from the top


Sightsee all the local mining claims (mostly looked like shanty shacks..not allowed permanent structures on a lease), and visit Thong tree.  I lost my other black thong in South Aust and always hoped it would turn up in the car.  So added my remaining thong to the tree

 Take an underground mine tour. Cross the Tropic of Capricorn between Sapphire and Rubyvale.

The Piano Tuners grave in the middle of nowhere....they buried him where they found him after drowning in the flooded river, only his coffin kept floating to the surface...long story but worth reading.

There are weekend markets, and plenty of lorikeets that that hang out all over our caravan and know when it is breakfast and dinner time, even try to take food off our plates. Just as well we have a bag of sunflower seeds to keep them occupied. They have to be our bird of the week, so beautiful but they drove us nuts.

Have good food in the great outdoors, and meet new interesting people along the way

Enjoy the company of local cows, horses, guinea foul and camels who roam the region freely.  This area is the only “town common” left in Australia.

And catch up with our dear friends who were also out roaming the Qld/SA/NT outback. Our paths finally crossed.

Capricorn National Parks

Yeppoon (Kinka Bch Causeway) was a great place to stay to visit a few National Parks in the area. We had walked the beautiful coastal national parks in the area in the past so aimed for a few further afield

Bluff Point Capricorn NP Yeppoon

Causeway Coolwaters Caravan Park, unpowered....the best site .. that’s us.....water front

The fig bird had a very chiming voice, it is really quite big and easy to spot high in the trees

We have reached the Tropic of Capricorn marker in Rockhampton, we are definitely getting much warmer evenings

Mt Archer is the backdrop for Rockhampton, the views were extensive over the city

Mt Etna NP bat cleft caves, a bit of a hike to the top of the mountain, then down a 100 stairs to the cleft cave in the side of the mountain

Each year 300,000 little bent-wing bats come to breed in the 30 metre deep crevice between these rocks, the bats are only about 2 inches in size


Gotta luv stairs


Byfield NP, Stoney Creek.  The most unique clear turquoise water, even spotted 2 turtles

Our first Cuckoo as we walked a circuit track that took us further up stream

This weird pine tree in the state forest. ...think it has lost the plot

To start our special adventure west for a couple of weeks we stayed in Dingo and visited the Blackdown Tablelands NP..no caravan camping here as the road in was steep and windy.

Lots of strange rock formations spread around the NP

We did the 4.2km + 250 stairs hike down to the Rainbow Falls,  such an oasis on the top of the mountain, well worth it even though no rainbow today. Explored the top of the falls too, lots of rock pools up there.

Beautiful silver eucalyptus trees along the road into the National Park

We are heading a little further west to avoid doing the coastal road section between Rockhampton and Sarina, the boring Malborough/Sarina strip.