Gympie to Atherton 2010

After three weeks of rain, clouds and cold weather it was decided to travel north until we came into warm and sunny days. So with a few one night stops it was in the Mackay area that we found nice sunny days and  looking at the map it was Seaforth that caught our attention. there are two camp spots and the one by the sea won us over. One amazing act of nature on the beach at low tide is what we called crab art it was incredible the pattens they made. It is a lovely place with plenty of hilly coastal walks and quite peaceful.  

A really good drive back down to Sarine for a day and did the mini sugar mill  tour how interesting its funny how you can use something every day but not know how it is produced it is a credit to the volunteers that run and love the place.
It was back on the road with the next stop at Paluma Range N.P. and camping at Jourama falls another magic spot plenty of walks and evenings trying to find a glimpse of a platypus with out any luck. With a day trip up the mountain to the highest town in Queensland Paluma half the time we where in the clouds quite freaky.

After a big hike up to Jourama falls it was time to move on to Ravenshoe for the night where you can camp in the old railway yards and on weekends there is a steam train you can ride on .The next day we were at Atherton where we planned to stay a few days to catch up on washing and shopping.

Frist Trip In The New Van (2010)

After the 1 year wait for the delivery of the van the big day came on 30th of June . The main plan was to do  Cape York and then casually head home to Geraldton.
The first few nights were spent at Ceder Grove campground near Gympie to get to know the van and how it all worked. Then it was decided to stay around the Brisbane area and do a 1000ks and go back for the first service so it was of to Emerald where we stayed at a beautiful place call Higher Ground on a private property own by the most friendliest people . While in the area we fossicked for sapphires and Vickie found one worth getting set into a necklace. Heading down to Springsure and then on to Carnarvon National park, what a really breath taking place although it takes a lot of hiking up to 20ks to some spots but well worth the effort.

After a few days to recovery it was to Roma, Miles Chinchilla and Kingaroy so our first two weeks where done, it was back for the service. We had a few small problems to fix but after picking the van up from the factory I made the the decision that I will do all the servicing myself in the future.
We had a planed stop back at Cedar Grove were we met some other bushtracker owners for a beer or two all was good till the morning when do my checks i noticed the tow bar on a funny angle on a close inspection it had a bad crack on the welds so much so we where not going any where with the van.

It was of to Gympie to the Toyota dealer where I found it was service with a smile and had not only a replacement but a lot better built than the first .One can only imagine what could have happen if it was not checked.

Up Up & Away

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Geoff & Vickie