Moreton Island Glamping Weekend

[Rumpig]

This is a trip we did just last weekend with our 4wd club, you likely won't know the people i'm referring to but that's ok just ignore those parts...lol...I've copied it from our clubs website, so i don't have to rewrite it again.

DAY 1

Friday morning dawned and we were up early to be sure and beat any traffic we might encounter on the Gateway Arterial Rd or Port of Brisbane Motorway, we need not have bothered leaving as early as we did though (6.30 a.m), as we encountered little traffic at all and were pulling up at the ferry load point bang on 7.00 a.m for our 8.30 departure time....i gaurantee if we were running late the traffic would have been woeful though...lol. Everyone who was going this morning made it on time to the ferry, and before long we were loaded aboard and heading off into the Brisbane River and then across Moreton Bay to Moreton Island. Along for the weekend where ourselves the Rumpigs, Jeff W and family, Craig d and family, B2 and family, Chucky and family, Kris and family, Chuckanoo and family, Donkey and family, Truckie and Karla, Joyboy (Rick and Sue), and joining us later on Friday on the second ferry would be Mick and Sally.

LOADED AND READY TO CAST OFF



SETTING SAIL



It was a cracka of a day on the water, and as we motored out to the mouth of the river towards the bay we all got to check out the wharfs and some of the big ships getting loaded and unloaded there. One of the other ferry's we saw on the water as we were heading out into the bay looked very familiar, as we pulled up along side it we noticed the name and realised it was one of the old Fraser Island ferry's, the Rainbow Venture. This ferry is now owned by Tangalooma Resort and is now used as their supply ferry.

CRUISING UP THE BRISBANE RIVER (you can see the Rainbow Venture in left corner in front of us in this pic)



PAST THE WHARFS





Heading out into the bay itself and you couldn't ask for a better day to be on the water, no white caps to be seen and it was smooth sailing across to the island, about an hour and a half after leaving Brisbane we were landing on the island. Pulling off the ferry onto the sand the tide was just right for a cruise North up the Western beach to Bulwer, our destination for the weekend where we'd be doing some glamping.

HITTING THE ISLAND



After a quick regroup of everyone just up from the ferry landing point, we headed off up the beach for what was a nice easy run to Bulwer. It's only about a 15 minute drive to Bulwer, you have to take a bypass track off the beach around the back of Cowan Cowan, but you then rejoin the beach again after you pass by that village and continue driving North along the Western beach to reach Bulwer (note this is tide dependant, and Western beach not always driveable at hightide). Before long we were at Bulwer and checking in at Reception and unloading our gear into our accomadation.....the glamping tents come in family or double set ups, and have their own shower and toilets aswell. As the pic below shows, family tents have a queen size bed aswell as a set of bunks also.

GLAMPING AT BULWER



INSIDE OUR FAMILY TENT



COMPLETE WITH OWN SHOWER, TOILET AND VANITY BASIN



Not to long after unpacking our gear in the tents, the group were setting about making their lunches in the camp kitchen, but seeing we were on an island i decided to grab my family and head down to the ship wreck out front on the beach, and have lunch there instead of being couped up in a camp kitchen (Truckie and Karla did similar also).

LUNCH ON THE BEACH

 

[Rumpig]

At 1.00 P.M we headed back to join the rest of the crew back at base, we all were going on a drive further North along the Western beach to North Point and then onto the lighthouse from there. We had a fairly good run to North Point, one section of tidal flat we had to cross required us finding a not so deep section of salt water to cross, we eventually managed this and pushed on where we parked up for a while whilst those that wanted to, did the short walk around the headland to have a look at Honeymoon Bay. (Please note....the tidal flat we crossed up near Yellow Patch is definately not an option to drive as the tide comes in, it's lowtide only).

FEW OF THE KIDS AT NORTH POINT



HONEYMOON BAY (can anyone see the RETURNS desk at all?...Jeff couldn't find it...lol)



As the tide was well and truely coming in now and peoples walks all done, we didn't hang around at North Point for to long and we continued on our drive up to the Lighthouse. The tracks off of the beach in some areas aren't really well sign posted IMHO on Moreton, so keep your eyes peeled and hopefully you'll see where you need to go to. It's only a short drive from North point to the lighthouse, and we were soon back out of the vehicles and starting our climb up the walking track from the car park area. It's not an overly hard walk to do, but it wouldn't hurt to take a drink along for when you reach the top for you to enjoy whilst checking out the views. Cape Moreton Light was the first lighthouse established in Queensland, and at one time there was a total of seven lighthouses in operation on the island.

WHERE WE'RE HEADED



THE CAPE MORETON LIGHTHOUSE ITSELF





VIEW SOUTH DOWN THE EASTERN BEACH FROM CAPE MORETON



Being it's whale season at the moment and the whales are starting to head South for home right now, we hoped to see a few from here and some of us were lucky enough to get a short glimpse of a couple. The whales weren't being real playful today and those that were lucky enough mostly just saw them spraying some water out their blowholes on the odd occasion.

WHALE SPOTTING AT THE CAPE MORETON LIGHTHOUSE



With little luck on the whale spotting, we completed the circuit walk around the lighthouse and back to the carpark area. Around the Northen point of the circuit walk you'll see a grave site on the side of the track, this is in memory of the lighthouse keepers wife who died during child birth. I've just been doing some more research on the island and noticed there's a few more grave sites for people to visit when on the island, something was i was unaware off till i started doing this report http://www.visitmoretonisland.com/sights/grave

GRAVE SITE





With our lighthouse visit completed we headed back towards our base at Bulwer, as we headed off along the track we heard Mick and Sally calling us on the uhf radio, they'd arrived on the later ferry today and were trying to find where we were staying. Mick and Sally had never been to Moreton Island before and had taken the "scenic route" to get to Bulwer, they eventually got there but saw a bit extra of the island they didn't really need to do along the way...lol. With the afternoon getting away from us we all headed down to the Western beach out front of Bulwer and let the kids run loose on the beach / in the water for a while, there was very little beach to park up on with the tide coming in, so we settled on parking in the beach exit track as we knew nobody would be coming along anytime soon. With still a few hours to go before hightide, it didn't look good for Jeff and myself to head South to Tangalooma later on to pick up Sarah who had to work today, and was coming over on the passenger ferry. Abit after 5.00 p.m we all headed back to camp to throw the kids in a warm shower and get ready for dinner..... included in our package deal for the weekend was a cook it yourself dinner on the bbq...to be honest it was not the nicest meal i've eaten, but by the time i got to eat it later that night i was pretty peckish, so ate a fair whack of it.
So why did i eat so late you may be wondering?.....well that 30 minute run down the beach and back again with Jeff to collect Sarah, turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour return trip to Tangalooma. We set off from Bulwer around 5.30 p.m and tried to go South on the Western beach, but were cut off by the rising tide With still another hour of the tide coming in, we had zero chance of making it down this beach, so had to take the Bulwer bypass track and cut across the island to the Eastern beach. We then headed South to Middle Road where we'd cut back across the island towards the Western beach and then come into Tangalooma from the bypass track that runs behind there. Luckily for us the Eastern beach is 2 hours earlier with it's tide times over the Western beach, there was plenty of beach to drive on here and the water had already started to receed a touch, not that is was a real issue anyhow on this Eastern beach. We eventually found Sarah and headed on our run back to base, retracing our route back across the island and up the Eastern beach and then back across the top of the island to Bulwer.... (note...you can't actually drive into Tangalooma, they don't cater for people with vehicles. We had to park a couple of hundred metres North of Tangalooma on the beach, and Jeff walked down in the dark to get Sarah). After that effort it was now dinner time for the 3 of us, the rest of the group had already eaten, some were watching Friday night footy sitting out the front of the Bulwer shop, some were having drinks in the camp kitchen area, and i eventually joined a few others for a few drinks that were sitting around a communal fire pit , before then calling it a night and heading off to bed.

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 2

Well i'll start here with last night firstly....sitting at the dinner table last night i saw a Curlew walking about the gardens, it was pretty used to people and came close to us on several occassions. Those that know this bird know the sound it makes, and around midnight we got to hear it's call loud and clear. I'm not sure if it was calling out as a mating call or a territoriol despute with another bird, but a couple of Curlew's were going off big time and were pretty loud in the silence of being camped on the island. The birds didn't carry on for to long, and in the end we got to go back to sleep...i'll note here i thought the bed we were sleeping in was pretty comfortable, which was nice.
Morning dawned and a continental breakfast of ceral and various types of crossiants aswell as O.J was on the menu this morning, this was included in our package deal and was another thing we didn't have to worry about planning for our stay on the island for the weekend.....both mornings breakfast and dinners were included in our deal, all we needed to look after was lunches and snacks. I'll mention here if you're not a fan of the continental brekky, maybe mention you have a nut allergy when you book your stay, you'll likely get bacon and eggs to cook for brekky like a few of our crew did
With breakfast taken care off our plan for today was to tour the majority of the island, our weekend had been planned for this particular date as it took into account the lunch time lowtide, which would allow for our run down and up both sides of the island....you can't travel much of the Western side of the island at high tide, especially when the heights were around the 2.3mtr mark as they were with us this weekend. In hindsight we probably should have planned to head down the Eastern beach first with it's tide time being 2 hours earlier then the Western side, but around 9.30 a.m we planned to set off down the Western beach where we'd stop at The Gutter Bar at the township of Kooringal on the Southern end of the island for lunch. With vehicles starting to gather in our meet up point we soon ran into a hurdle with our departure time....Chucky noticed his Navara was down on charge with the battery for his fridge (there may have been a noise happening when he started the vehicle also, but i wasn't there to hear it and can't remember exactly what they said happened) and a quick inspection under the bonnet by a few of the crew deduced the bearing in the alternator had collapsed, and the back of the alternator was getting very very hot with the engine running. It was quickly decided his vehicle was going nowhere today, and a quick reshuffle of peoples vehicles made room for his 2 kids in another vehicle, aswell as himself and Kate in another vehicle also....around 10.00 a.m we managed to get away from camp. It was an easy run down the Western beach to Cowan Cowan, we took the bypass track and as we were about to pop back out onto the beach at the Southern end of the village, we had to stop as a vehicle with a camper trailer was bogged in the soft sand trying to exit the beach onto the bypass track. In defence of the bogged vehicle, it's pretty chopped up where you exit the beach here, it's a touch up hill and the sharp hair pin turn right off the beach zaps all momentum you'd try and carry off of the firm sand. After about 10 minutes the bogged vehicle aswell as a few others in their crew had managed to clear the track and we were able to push on South down the beach. Just before we reach the ferry landing point we arrived at yesterday, we take a left turn off the beach onto Middle Rd, then travel this a short distance before turning right onto the Tangalooma bypass track. Like at Cowan Cowan, you can't travel along the beach infront of Tangalooma, you need to take the bypass track to continue South. The Tangalooma bypass is pretty bumpy and a touch rough, expect oncoming traffic and possibly the odd tour bus running out of the resort. It's a one lane track, so you'll (or the oncoming vehicle) need to pull off the track where you can if you encounter someone coming towards you.....there's plenty of places to accomodate this action along the way, though occassionally someone may have to back up to find such a pull over bay. We only encountered a couple of vehicles on the bypass, they were travelling solo and thankfully moved off the track for our large group to continue on it's way. Hitting the beach a few hundred metres south of Tangalooma we have a quick stop to allow everyone to regroup, as we'd gotten a touch spread out along the bypass track. The kids were quickly running around on the beach checking out the starfish that had washed up everywhere, and the adults were checking out how close the container ships travel to the island as they head in and out of Brisbane. A few pics taken here and a short while later we continued on our run South towards our lunch destination.

THE SHIPS COME PRETTY CLOSE TO MORETON ISLAND





It's not to far down this beach and we are pulling up to check out a ship wreck...well of sorts anyway. It's not an old ship wreck like what you're probably picturing in your head, but rather one from what we think was the 2012 Brisbane floods. Someones pride and joy is now laying half buried in the sand and slowing rotting away. We are surprised it was never made to be removed from the island by the owners or their insurance company, either way it's something else to stop and look at when you visit the island.

MODERN DAY SHIP WRECK



Back in the vehicles again and we continue South on the beach, we spot a dead turtle along the way (or sleeping turtle as some parents told their kids...lol), and before long i'm pulling up again to take a few more pics at another of the ship wrecks Moreton Island is know for. The rest of the crew continue to drive South to the large sand dune a touch further on, i radio i'll meet them there when i've finished looking at the wrecks and photographing them. I spend a short amount of time looking around the wrecks and wish i could take pics good enough to do them justice, you'll have to settle for these few though...lol

2 SHIP WRECKS LOCATED SOUTH OF SHARK SPIT





With pics taken i'm back in the fourby cruising down to rejoin the group at The Big Sand Hill. The sand hill is most famous for being where people go sand tobogganing whilst on the island, there's a few boards laying about the sand and we watch the kids all have goes at trying to surf down the sand hill. The boards needed waxing and the kids don't have a lot of luck with the tobogganing, it's good seeing them burn off energy climbing up and down the dune though, but i reckon a few would have had thier undies full of sand by the time we left there with the way they were rolling down the dune...lol. I climb a fair way up the dune and peel off to the right away from the group to take a few pics, there's a lone dead tree sitting on the dune i take a pic of, and i also take a few pics looking across Moreton Bay back to Brisbane.

PLAYING ON THE SAND DUNE



LONE TREE



VIEW OUT INTO THE BAY



LOOKING BACK TOWARDS BRISBANE ACROSS THE BAY (second pic is zoomed in on Brisbane)

 

[Rumpig]

Back in the vehicles again and we are heading down towards the islands oyster farm, our original plan was to stop in here for a look, but with the time getting away from us we decide to drive past it and straight to our lunch stop at The Gutter Bar. The section of Western beach we've just been driving past the ship wrecks and sand dune is a no go area once the tide comes in, you won't be able to drive it at hightide so plan this trip around the lowtide time. South of the sand dune but North of the oyster farm we exit the beach itself and start driving along a 2 wheeled track that skirts the shoreline, we spot another "sleeping turtle" around here aswell as a few big camp sites which would have you away from most people on the island...the one downside we could think of if you camped here might be mozzies and sand flies though, with the mangroves about the area? Before long we are going past the houses of the oyster farm on our righthand side and soon reach an intersection where we turn right and head into Kooringal. As we pass through Kooringal i make the comment of how surprised i am at the size of the township here, i am then told it's actually the largest township on the island which i wasn't expecting before visiting here. I've never been to Kooringal before and was expecting to see a few houses of the run down type for some reason, what i wasn't expecting to see was how many houses were here and the fact some of them are pretty flash at that....would be worth a pretty penny one would think. Following the main track that runs beside the water line we are soon pulling up at The Gutter Bar for lunch, i'm hoping to grab some seafood for lunch today, and luck is on our side as the trawler stopped by this morning and they have fresh prawns in stock. The bar had been pre warned we were coming in a large group, they still were a touch overwhelmed and managed to lose a few lunch orders that were placed, but eventually we all got fed and IMHO the food was pretty good and not that badly priced. A lot of people opted for burgers for lunch (both hamburgers and chicken burgers), but i grabbed a half kilo of prawns to try out aswell as a bowl of chips. My half kilo of prawns consisted of 8 prawns in total, so that'll give you an idea of their size, they were super delicious, so much so i grabbed another kilo to go for tomorrow's lunch. The kilo of prawns cost $38, certainly more then you'll pay back on the mainland, but not over the top IMHO considering the location we were in.

THE GUTTER BAR





LUNCH IS SERVED



After lunch it's time to head around to the Mirror Pool on the South Eastern point of the island, Truckie, Karla, Chucky and Kate take a quick detour back the oyster farm to get some supplies (which apparently were tasty and fairly cheap), and the rest of us continue on to the Mirror Pool. Mirror Pool is a migaratory bird roosting site, normally you can see a heap of birds here apparently, but it's blowing a gale as we walk out to the viewing area, and we only see about a dozen birds sitting on the sand across the water from us. Walking back to the vehicles (it's only about a 30mtr walk), i suggest that Jeff and myself wait here for Truckie to catch up with us, whilst the rest of the crew push on up the Eastern beach, as i have concerns about the incoming tide and didn't really want the whole crew trapped down this bottom end of the island. The others head off, and a short while later i hear Kris mentioning over the uhf radio how it'll be a bit of hard going in the soft sand as they start pushing North up the beach. Hearing this i decide to drop my tyre pressures down to 16psi whilst waiting for Truckie to arrive, it was a good decision to do so and made the run North up the soft sand much easier to do. There was plenty of sand on the Eastern beach to drive on even though we were probably not to far off of high tide time, it was a slog in the soft sand, but nothing over the top hard to do.
On the way North you soon find yourself passing by the Rous Battery, the signage for this turn off is very easily missed and it wasn't shown on my HEMA in the 4wd section, so be sure to have half an idea where it is if you go looking for it. When you exit the beach for the carpark here you'll encounter some pretty soft sand, the track takes a right hand turn once you exit the beach and climbs up a steepish hill, all of which is soft sand which will stop you in your tracks if not running a low enough tyre pressure or if you back off the go fast peddle to much. Parking up we notice a sign saying it's a 10klm track to the Battery....****** we think, i wasn't execting that....before we are quickly informed by those who have been here before that's it's not that far and only about a 5 minute walk to see some of the stuff that is scattered in amongst the trees here.
I'm not going to go into all the WW11 stuff that is on Moreton Island and why it's where it is, for anyone interested in any of this info, i suggest you have a read of this link http://indicatorloops.com/comboyuro.htm , there's some fantastic info about Moreton Island in it. The anti submarine loop is something i only recently learned about a month before we went on this trip, it's pretty interesting once you see what each building was for and the role it played in defending this part of Australia against possible attacks.

HOW FAR!!!! (ignore the distance, it's a short walk to see some of the Battery)



SOME OF THE STRUCTURES DOTTED AMONGST THE TREES.... (these structures are located in different areas along the walking track, just follow the tracks and you'll find these buildings...and take a torch if you want to go inside them)













HEADING NORTH UP THE EASTERN BEACH



Somewhere between Rous Battery and Middle Rd Mick comes on the uhf saying he needs to pull up as his auto temp light has come on, will pull up for a short while and allow his vehicle to cool down a touch before pushing on North once again. Before reaching Middle Rd i stop to take a pic of a whale bone that is located at the water line, apparently there used to be more bones here a short while ago, but this single bone was all we saw.

WHALE BONE





Pushing on again, and somewhere between Middle Rd and the Bulwer track we spot yet another "sleeping turtle", i stop to grab a pic of this one before racing off to catch up to the others. The beach North of Middle Rd is a lot easier to drive on then South of Middle Rd, the sand is much firmer up the Northern end for some reason and we make good time to the Bulwer track. Our original plan was for a few people to go visit the lighthouse again so Mick and Sally could see it, but the afternoon is getting away so that plan is abandoned and we all head straight back to Bulwer.

"SLEEPING TURTLE" ON EASTERN BEACH



The majority of us head back to the Western beach like we did yesterday arvo for the kids to have a play in the water, once again there's no beach to park up on due to the tide, so we park in the exit track knowing we won't be in anyone's way. Around 5.00 p.m everyone heads back to have showers and get ready for dinner, i take the opportunity to head out front on the western beach at the wrecks and try and get a few sunset pics. aAs i head out to the beach i notice another WW11 building right infront of our camp, i take a quick pic of it and continue on down to the beach. There's a couple of guys at the wreck with the same idea i have as far as taking photos goes, they seem to have a better idea of what they are doing over me so i stay out of their way and just take a few pics around them. The clouds come in right when i don't want them too and sunset right on the horizon line isn't able to be seeen, i manage a few pics but not exactly what i was hoping for.

WW11 BUILDING OUT FRONT OF CAMP AT BULWER



SUNSET ON THE WESTERN BEACH



With my pics taken i race back to camp just in time to have dinner. Dinner tonight is being prepared by the staff at Bulwer, we had a choice of Red Emperor or Steak and had to give our prefernce when we checked in. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals, and we even were given a few garlic pizzas as a starter. With dinner finished we flicked the tellys on in time to watch the Wallabies take on South Africa in the rugby union, it was a great result with the Aussies stealing a last minute win, and with the game over we all called it a night and went to bed

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 3

Remeber those Curlews i mentioned from the previous night...well last night they did the same thing around the same time again, geez they are loud when it happens in the middle of the night. For those who aren't familiar with the sound a Curlew makes, click on this link to find out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZWHUU41gsk .
Sunday morning dawns and it's Fathers Day 8) the kids bring me some great presents to be opened whilst i'm laying in bed, and after that's done it's a quick shower before a breakfast of bacon and eggs. We (well the misses seeing it's Fathers Day) need to cook the bacon and eggs ourselves on the bbq's in the camp kitchen, but it's been supplied by MIA (Moreton Island Adventures) as part of our package deal for the weekend. A nice relaxing brekky had and it's time to start packing the fourby up for our 10.00 a.m check out time. As i was packing the fourby a couple of guys were asking about the place if anyone wanted a tuna they had caught lastnight, they'd caught it sometime lastnight and it'd not been on ice for many hours, so it was good for nothing sadly and would just get chopped up for bait i reckon, i'm not sure why they just didn't release it after it was caught...a waste of a good fish really.

TUNA CAUGHT OUT FRONT OF CAMP LASTNIGHT




The original plan for today was we were going to do nothing but kick back down at the beach until our 4.30 p.m departure time, the weather for today put a stop to those plans for a few of us though, as it was overcast and the odd shower about the place, aswell as pretty windy on the beach also....not the best conditions for being on the beach. Some of the crew still planned to do very little today. Chucky had no alternator so he was driving straight down to the ferry landing point where they'd have lunch at Tangalooma resort and basically bum around for the day, a few of the others joined him in his journey South on the beach for lunch at the resort also. Mick and Sally, aswell as Truckie and Karla and Joyboy had booked themselves on the earlier 1.00 p.m ferry home, but myself, Jeff, B2, Craig, Chuckanoo and our families decided we were going to checkout Blue Lagoon which we had missed out on doing yesterday due to time constraints. Leaving Bulwer we headed over towards North Point where we then headed up past the lighthouse once again. Cruising straight past the lighthouse turn off we then hooked up onto the Eastern beach for a run South, the weather wasn't great but it wasn't really raining either, just more overcast. We seemed to be getting missed by the rain that was hitting parts of the island, it was an easy going run South along the beach and we were soon going past the Blue Lagoon Campground track on our righthand side. About a hundred or 200 metres past the campground track exit is the track to Blue Lagoon itself, we take the turn and follow the main track to the end and are soon pulling up in the car area which is pretty soft churned up sand like at Rous Battery, so be sure and have tyres deflated properly for here or you could get stuck. Jumping out of the vehicles we grab the swim gear for the kids and do the short walk to the lagoon, it's uphill at the start of the walk but only takes 5 minutes and your there. Despite the overcast conditions the kids don't take long to get in the water, i put a foot into the water to test the temperature,and quickly remove it from there noting it's like ice water...i can't believe the kids are loving playing in it.

BLUE LAGOON





The lagoon itself is pretty big and would be great for cooling down in at Summer time, i'm not sure if there's anywhere else to sit when you get here but the main spot we were at isn't huge, and any more then a dozen families here would have you filling the area easily....the carpark area wouldn't accomodate that many vehicles though, but people from the campground can walk straight to the lagoon being it's situated right near it. We spend a while here and as the sky starts to look ominous for rain we call it a day and decide it's time to head back to the vehicles, as we nearly reach the vehicles a small shower of rain hits us, but it's nothing to bad. Back in the vehicles and as we head out to the beach Jeff says he wants to have a look at the campground area, i want to do the same thing as does Chuckanoo, so B2 and Craig leave us here and they head to Tangalooma to go have some lunch. Looking around the campground we note the shower and toilet facilities are pretty new and great for anyone staying here, personally i'm not overly fussed about the campground itself, maybe i just prefer camping right on the beach with the water views i guess. Leaving the campground we exit out onto the beach and small bit of what looks like drift wood washed high onto the beach catches my attention, whilst looking at i see if actually moves. Steering closer over towards it i quickly realise it's actually a seal laying on the beach, i call the others up on the uhf to come have a look at it, and we spend some time checking out something you wouldn't normally see on the island here. The seal looked to be injured and not very well, you could see large cuts under it's front RHS fin and it was laying motionless for the most part. Concerned for it's health we managed to find a phone number to ring on one of the National Park pamphlets to report injured animals on the island, phone reception wasn't great but i was eventually diverted to the RSPCA where i was informed they were already aware of the injured animal and local Rangers were monitoring the situation.

INJURED SEAL



With pics taken it's time to hit the road and head over the other side of the island via Middle Rd to the ferry landing point, cruising down the beach Sarah is driving infront of me and misses the turn off we need to take, i inform her of this and she turns around and i wait and let her lead the way along Middle Rd, which turned out to not be a very good move on my behalf. Not far along Middle Rd Jeff comes over the uhf saying they need to pull up as a engine warning light has come up on his dash, i make comment that i can smell something that smells very hot coming from his vehicle at that very moment, and they quickly pull up and shut the vehicle down. As i approach the vehicle Sarah mentions the temp gauge on the vehicle had dropped to zilch and wasn't reading anything, not a good sign as that usually means there's no fluid in the sytem for it to register. Carefully we remove the radiator cap and note a lack of fluid, it's not looking good and we are stopped on a one way track halfway up a hill, with embankments either side of us higher then our vehicles, meaning nobody can get past Jeffs fourby. Luckily Jeff has about a dozen water bottles in the back of his fourby, we spend some time slowly trying to put water into the radiator so we can move the vehicle, luckily about 10 minutes go by before someone comes up behind us and it turned out to be a Ranger, he mentions this is the one spot people regularly seem to break down at with nobody being able to get past them. The Ranger mentions going back down the track a touch and blocking it off to uncoming traffic, he does this and holds a couple of vehicles back there whilst we try and get enough water into the radiator to be able to move the vehicle. As we pour the water in we notice a small amount leaking out under the vehicle, ultimately we'd have let the vehicle cool down more before trying to put water back in, but we are blocking the track that is the main route across the island and need to move it pretty quickly. Eventually we get enough water into the radiator to move the vehicle, Jeff takes off and just up the top of the hill is an area he pulls off of the track into so i can get infront of him, we tell Chuckanoo to continue on and catch up with the others and let them know what's happened with us, which he does. Pulling infront of Jeff off of the track we let the Ranger know over the uhf the track is now clear, so he lets the vehicles he's holding back there through, i think there were atleast 4 or 5 vehicles being held up from memory. Now that i was infront of Jeff it was time to tow his vehicle the rest of the way to the ferry landing point, knowing we didn't have enough water in the radiator to make it all the way across the island and had none extra to put in now also. We hooked up a strap and i selected lowrange and started off along Middle Rd, i had no idea how well we'd go along this inland track but in the end it was faily easy going and i towed him through the track with no dramas at all. Just as we reached the end of Middle Rd Darren and Kris came the other way on the other track looking for us, we didn't require their help luckily enough, so they chucked a u turn at the first avaialble track crossing and caught up with us as i pulled up on the beach at the ferry landing point. With more time up our sleeves now not having to worry about holding up traffic we start inspecting what's gone wrong with Jeffs vehicle, Darren notices a small section of the tip of one of the fan blades is missing, so we guess that is what's holed the radiator and caused the sitauation to happen. I unhook the tow strap and Jeff knows he can quickly drive onto the ferry when it arrives with what fluid is still in the radiator, we have a late lunch which includes the kilo of prawns we purchased yesterday from The Gutter Bar. I thought the prawns we ate yesterday were a decent size, but one of the ones we had today was a monster, as a mate Taf said when he saw the pic of it...that's not food that's a pet, you could put a saddle on that...lol

LATE LUNCH ON THE BEACH



With a bit of time to kill off waiting for the ferry, the ladies broke out the alcohol and started making and arvo of it, the kids were playing cricket and making sand castles and playing by the water. About 4.15 P.M the ferry arrived and we were quickly loaded for a journey back to Brisbane, not a moment to soon either, as the weather closed in as we were backing away from the island and the rain started to fall. Arriving back on the mainland and Jeff had already organised a tilt tray to come collect his vehicle, i gave Sarah a lift in our vehicle back over to the other side of the river where her car was located where the Tangalooma passenger ferry runs from. Sarah followed me back to where Jeff was waiting and as we were arriving the tilt tray had just gotten there also, we quickly set about putting their kids car seats in Sarahs vehicle aswell as their fridge and camping gear as the rain fell steadily. With the kids now in Sarahs car she bid us fairwell and we said goodbye to Jeff who was helping the tilt tray operator load his fourby onboard. It was a bit of a miserable night heading home in the rain, but that didn't take away from the fact for the most part the weather had been fantastic / pretty good over the majority of the weekend. Arriving home around 8.00 P.M we quickly unpacked the fourby and thus ended our Glamping weekend away.

LADIES ENJOYING SOME DRINKS ON THE BEACH



KIDS PLAYING CRICKET AND BUILDING SAND CASTLES





LEAVING THE ISLAND JUST AS THE RAIN HITS

 

[Sgt.Kilroy]

Great write-up Rumpig. I loved my time there a few years ago, although location was up near Salamander Bay in NSW. We were flying with the "Raffies" from Williamtown. We had a blast the entire time we were there. I'd move there in a heartbeat if the USAF would transfer me... Thanks for sharing your trip.

 

[Rumpig]

Hey Sgt.Kilroy,
Cheers for the reply and glad it brought back some fond memories of your visit Downunder. My cousins husband was in the RAAF for many years (though i can't recall which squadron he was in off the top of my head), he was based in Richmond when in they lived in NSW and in Amberley when they lived in Qld.....i think he mainly worked on the Caribou's from memory,