Category: Tagalong22

Mudjimba QLD

About Mudjimba

Mudjimba is a coastal suburb in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia, and forms part of the Maroochydore urban centre. In the 2016 census Mudjimba had a population of 2,540 people (sourced from the Wikipedia website – click for more).

About the Sunshine Coast

Getting there

It was a 263km trip from Dalby to Mudjimba (route map) with nothing much to see on the way. The drive through the Glasshouse Mountains was pretty amazing – will have to go back to check them out in more detail later on.

Accommodation

Arriving at Mudjimba Beach Holiday Park we discovered that this “older” caravan park still has sites built for 15ft vans and don’t easily accommodate vans that are 21’6″ (29ft total)! Not only did we just squeeze in but the slab was only half the length of the van (I can handle that) and the remaining grass section went uphill so sharply you just could not sit there comfortably. To top it all off, the grey water pit was actually uphill and higher than the vans grey water outlet.

I know it’s a bit of a winge but it was hopelessly useless! When the Bailey Tagalong group booked the caravan sites a list of every caravan was provided, with the caravan’s total length (inc drawbar) and you’d think that would be all that’s needed. When we asked about this, the response was “the person who took those details has left and we don’t have a record” – WTF!!! And we paid $52/night for this, which should have been more like a $25/night type experience.

1st Happy Hour – meeting old & new friends

Well we’ve all arrived for the start of the next Bailey Caravan Tagalong. This year sees 18 Bailey’s joining up for a 4 week trip through Queensland, beginning in Mudjimba.

As in past years it was a matter of getting things rolling with a happy hour, getting through the formalities and meeting this years tagalong mascot by the name of Bailey Bear.

 

Noosa River Sunset Cruise

The Tagalong committee had booked our the Noosa River Queen for a leisurely cruise up the Noosa River to take in a glorious Noosa sunset – pity about the heavy clouds.

Meeting a Brahminy Kite

Before departing on our cruise we got a visit from the local Brahminy Kite who’s best friend, the boat skipper, had some treats cast out from the back of the boat. We all got to see this beautiful majestic creature swooping down out of the heavens to score some fresh chicken. Spectacular photo opportunity!

The cruise

What better way to begin a holiday with 33 other people, some you know and other just met, than a couple of “quiet ones” on a cruise bot up a river. The tagalong committee had done a brilliant job organising nibbles for all. You just had to be wary of the cheeky butcher birds who kept trying to pinch food out of your fingers.

Hinterland Tourist Drive #23

We attempted to complete the Hinterland tourist drive known as the Blackall Tourist Range Drive #23 which is a total return trip of 114kms (click for Google’s route map) but after our 1st stop (see below) the weather put an end to it all.

Kondalilla Falls National Park

This was our 1st stop on the drive and from the signage we saw it appeared to be a fairly “short walk” to check out the falls in this park. It turned out to be a 4.6km round trip. It was a pretty arduous track to take but the sets of falls we got to see were pretty awesome.

Montville for lunch

The rain started coming down as we left Kondalilla Falls so we stopped of at Montville to try out the Montville Cafe Bar & Grill for lunch. Some lovely Moroccan spiced pumpkin soup and toast went down really well – yummo! Then all we could do was to give up on the rest of the drive and return back to the caravan.

Tagalong games night

One of our intrepid organising committee put on a games nigh for all. It was a shame that we were actually going our for dinner and missed all the fun. All reports were that it was a scream and apparently created some new tagalong legends.

Summing up…

Hervey Bay QLD

About Hervey Bay

Getting there

It’s another non-eventful trip from Mudjimba to Hervey Bay (or so we thought). One of our travelling group had pulled over in Gympie and caught one of their caravan tyres on a piece of broken kerb ripping a 6″ hole in the tyre. So we pulled up to help out before continuing on, stopping off in Maryborough for lunch.

Accommodation

The Pier Caravan Park in Hervey Bay is only a few years old and it was such a relief to finally get into a park with modern facilities, flat sites and easy access to power, water & grey water (compared to our last park in Mudjimba.)

The caravan park is the newest in Hervey Bay, being opened in June 2018. It’s been built on what used to be the old railway maintenance yards, which explains why it’s a rather longish shape. There’s a beautiful bench seat near the swimming pool with a plaque which reads “Who’s vision to create this park was inspired by the romance of Hervey Bay where they met, and to provide a landscape to build positive lasting memories for families and community alike

 

Half day Whale Watching Cruise

The Tagalong22 organising team had arranged for the whole group to do a half-day whale watching tour from Hervey Bay, with Whalesong Cruises. It was great day out on the water and the crew on the boat were fantastic. We managed to see several whales, with a few mother and calf sightings.

There was heaps of flipper splashing and tail flapping. We came across one calf who wanted to show us their latest skill of breaching. Fantastic!

Flipper Action

Tail Splashes

Breaches

From the boat

While returning to Hervey Bay I unfortunately lost my Akubra hat, which has travelled all over the place with him, when a gust of wind sent it flying over the top of the boat and into it’s wake (and they would not go back for it) but, apparently my brother in-law saw this on Channel 7 news in Melbourne that night…

 

Hervey Bay Pier

We took a stroll out along the (used to be 1.1km – now 868m long) Hervey Bay Pier, which is a “must do” whilst you’re in Hervey Bay. Stopping at the entrance to the pier we joined in with the “Young boy and fish singing the Happy Fisherman’s song” statue for a song.

History of the Pier

Urangan Pier is a former deep-water, cargo-handling facility originally built to facilitate the export of sugar, timber and coal.  Construction began in 1913 and to reach the deep water channel, it was required to extend 1.1 kilometres out to sea.  The Urangan railway line also began construction in 1913 and branched off the main railway line at Pialba.  Once it was completed, the Pier served as one of the main ports of Queensland facilitating the transfer of cargo between rail and ships.

The Pier was closed after the last ship docked in 1985.  It was in serious need of repairs and a decision was made by the Queensland Government to dismantle the entire pier. 239 metres of it was demolished, however, due to large public outcry, rallying and petitions, the demolition was stopped. In late 1985, the Queensland Government handed the pier to the council, and the council pledged to restore the pier.  Restoration commenced in the late 1990s and included removing the rail tracks from the pier, encasing the wooden pylons with steel, repairing sleepers, repairing hand rails, and repairing lights.  In 1999, the pier was restored to a length of 868 meters and re-opened.

Summing up…

Bargara QLD

About Bargara

Bargara is a seaside holiday resort town with a road which runs along the coast – The Esplanade, Miller Street and Woongarra Scenic Drive – and a long strip of holiday homes, flats, apartments and motels all built between the beach and the hinterland. As recently as the 1980s Bargara (pronounced b’gara) was a sleepy coastal village full of interesting historic artifacts. There was a swimming pool which had been built out of the local volcanic rocks by the Kanakas – the slave labour brought from the South Pacific – and equally the kanakas had built impressive stone walls. Today the gods of development have taken over. The main street is full of chic cafes, a huge modern pub and lots of gift shoppes. The sea front – which in the 1980s was just a collection of fibro holiday homes – is now a solid row of five storey apartment blocks with land for development selling, in 2017, for $3.5 million and apartments trading for upwards of $700,000. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Getting there

It’s only 138kms from Hervey Bay to Bargara (route map via Childers) so it was a fairly easy drive.

Childers for a coffee break

Childers is such a great spot to break your journey for a coffee break. There are so many cafés and bakeries in town to choose from, plus there’s heaps of RV parking behind the main street.

We chose the Insane café located at 79 Churchill Street for our stop-over and what a great choice it turned out to be.

Accommodation

 

This will be our 4th stay at Bagara Breeze Big4 Caravan Park and we’re so happy to be returning. It’s a great park with really helpful and friendly staff, plus it’s right opposite the beach and a “stones throw” walk to cafés and restaurants in town. Bundaberg is also only 20kms away.

 

Fancy Dress Happy Hour

As the Tagalong22 group are all party animals it was probably an appropriate idea to have a fancy dress inspired happy hour. Boy, did the team get right into the concept, as the photos below will show…

Barefoot Bowling

So, it was off to the Bargara Bowls Club for dinner and a bit of “bare foot bowling” afterward. Another great night with fantastic food and plenty of laughs on the bowling green.

The bowling green is synthetic and recently the total area was covered by a $2.5m roof, which looks incredible.

Summing up…

Cania Gorge National Park QLD

About Cania Gorge

Cania Gorge preserves a valuable remnant of the Brigalow Belt natural region. More than 150 different types of plant community are found in this region, including brigalow forest, eucalypt woodland, cypress pine woodland, dry rainforest and grassland.
The park is home to more than 90 species of bird. Brush-tailed rock-wallabies and common bent-wing bats are also seen.
Aboriginal people have lived in Cania Gorge for at least 19,000 years. Freehand art on the sandstone walls is a reminder of their special way of life. (sourced from QLD Govt’s Parks & Forests website – click for more).

Getting there

It was a pretty hairy trip from Bargara to Cania Gorge as we had heard several good/bad stories about the various routes you could take with the safest one being over 100kms longer than the one the Tagalong group had selected. So, with several phone calls and a new map created for our Tagalongers to follow the (now) 16 caravans headed off in groups of 2 along the route shown below…

Everyone arrived safely and the chosen route was actually pretty good but a bumpy one.

Accommodation

Arriving at Cania Gorge Tourist Park we discovered a beautiful bush setting (maplink) with lots of grass and trees run by the wonderful and cheerful Marie. There’s plenty of birdlife, including chooks and heaps of VERY friendly king parrots who may cheekily even venture right into your caravan.

As mentioned above; this is how friendly the king parrots are, looking for food of course (which was not given)…

Bird feeding

Every afternoon at 4:00pm Marie comes over to feed the birds. They all flock in to get their share of the seeds on offer providing plenty of special photo opportunities to those present.

Here’s a quick video of the bird feeding…

 

Cania Gorge Walks

There are multiple walks which are easily accessed from the caravan park or just up the road at the main picnic ground. Click here for a map of Cania Gorge Walks (PDF). All of the tracks are rated at moderate (Class 3).

These are the walks that we took…

Dragon Cave

A moderately steep track leads to the cliff face, where a sidetrack branches north to Dragon Cave. Here, the natural black mural of a ‘dragon’ can be seen highlighted against the white sandstone wall.

Bloodwood Cave

The Dragon Cave track continues to Bloodwood Cave, so called because the roots of a bloodwood tree can be seen at the left hand side of the cave. There were large moths in the roof of the cave that had large eyes on their wings which look so human like.

Dripping Rock

This track winds through eucalypt woodland and dry rainforest. At Dripping Rock, cool water that seeps from the sandstone creates a haven for ferns and mosses.

The Overhang

From Dripping Rock, the track continues on past the most beautifully weathered caves of vivid yellow and red ochres, ending at The Overhang, where water has eroded the base of the sandstone cliff.

Cania Dam

Following our walks we ventured out to view Cania Dam. It’s a beautiful spot, but you really need a kayak or boat to appreciate the place. We then ventured off to check out the Shamrock Mine Site, which was fairly underwhelming to say the least.

Some music around the camp fire

We all gathered around a couple of fire bits after dinner to have a singalong with our mate Paul. It was another great night shared by all under a cloudy full moon sky. Jan also made some damper in the camp oven to share around & it was soooo yummy too.

Summing up…

Kingaroy QLD

About Kingaroy

Kingaroy is known as the ‘Peanut Capital of Australia’. During the 1980s it was one of Australia’s best known country towns because it was the home of the late Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, long time Premier of Queensland, would-be aspirant Prime Minister in the ‘Joh for PM’ campaign, and one of the most controversial, frustrating and entertaining politicians of recent times. Today the town is dominated by peanuts. There are big peanut signs in the street; a peanut selling point known as ‘The Peanut Van’ sells the local product around South East Queensland and as far south as Casino; the huge peanut silos dominate the town; and even the Visitors Centre has peanuts for sale. The district is now one of Australia’s major peanut producers with part of the crop being exported to New Zealand, Britain and Japan. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Getting there

According to our friend Google there’s several ways to get from Cania Gorge to Kingaroy but our “well travelled” Queensland travel buddies said “don’t take the shortest route as it will mean driving through narrow, rough & steep mountain roads. So we went with the longer 341kms route along the A3.

 

As we passed through Monto, at the beginning of the trip, we stopped to check out the Three Moon Silo Art which is pretty cool. Three Moon Creek was named according to legend where a swag-man, Aboriginal stockman or a Chinese station cook, was boiling his billy on the banks of the creek and noticed three moons – one in the sky, one reflecting on the creek and one reflecting in his billy.

Accommodation

Kingaroy Holiday Park ownership was only taken over in January 2022 by two young couples and you can already see the new life they are breathing into what looks to have been a pretty tired old park. The amenities have been upgraded and while we were a new swimming pool was being installed.

If you’re ever looking for a good caravan park then select this one as it was a great spot to stay and pretty close to town; you can even walk to Bunnings! We stayed here for 3 nights.

 

Tagalonger’s Dinner

A tradition (started last year) is to have a group dinner where each caravan provides a casserole or salad. It was a total success with heaps of great food and plenty of laughter and enjoyment. That’s exactly what our Tagalong’s are all about!

 

Return Trip to Bunya Mountains National Park

Back in August I took a solo day-trip up to the Bunya Mountains National Park from Dalby (click here to view the earlier post).

This time it was a trip back to the same spot with a large number of our Tagalong group for lunch in the Bunya Mountains Tavern and then a walk to check out the Festoon Falls (which I missed last time).

The Kingaroy “Peanut Van”

The Peanut Van is a bit of an institution in Kingaroy which draws in the tourists like bears to a honey pot. We took the “mandatory stop” to check it out and buy some peanuts and peanut butter (which we did not like at all). There’s also a new “Big Peanut” in the park over the road – every town needs a “big” something.

Summing up…

Spring Creek (Toowoomba) QLD

About Toowoomba

Not too much info on Spring Creek (where we stayed). But about Toowoomba – it is the largest inland settlement in Queensland and one of the largest inland cities in Australia. It has been described as ‘Regional Capital of the Darling Downs’ and ‘The Garden City’. Both descriptions are accurate. It is a city to be enjoyed for its history, its elegant buildings, its superb parks (particularly in spring) and the very impressive – and huge – Cobb & Co Museum. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Getting there

Another standard sized trip of 209km from Kingaroy to Spring Creek (route map) with no dramas except battling the traffic through Toowoomba.

Accommodation

Spring Creek Caravan Park (Facebook link) was selected by the Tagalong organisers as all of the caravan parks in Toowoomba were booked out due to the Toowoomba’s Annual Carnival of Flowers.

The caravan park is right beside the New England Highway (maplink) and was quite noisy from the passing road traffic. There’s plenty of room for large caravan’s like ours. The amenities were not the best but the owners were super friendly.

 

Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers

This is a massive occasion and we didn’t realise how massive until we turned up on the Saturday. Our Tagalong group travelled in by bus and had pre-booked seats for the big parade.

The Carnival of Flowers Parade

We are from Melbourne and the 1st thing I thought of when the parade began was our “Moomba Parade“, but this is probably bigger with so many community and multi-cultural groups participating. It was a fantastic start to our big day in Toowoomba, with more to come.

Lunch at Urban Grounds Café

After the parade it was back onto the bus and off to another part of town for lunch at Urban Grounds Café with a table booked for 31 people. It was a fantastic meal with the usual banter and laughter, which is always the way this Tagalong group roll.

Laurel Bank Park Flowers

After lunch is was just a matter of crossing the road from Urban Grounds Café to Laurel Bank Park (maplink) to view the magnificent flower beds, craftily built by the gardeners who maintain this large park. There were literally thousands of people taking in the flower displays of multiple colourful plants.

Open House Gardens

It was back onto the bus again and off to view some of this years award winning gardens. They were pretty cool but we were left a bit flat after being in the flower paradise in Laurel Bank Park.

The views from Picnic Point

Our last stop of the day was to the breathtaking views over Toowoomba and it’s surrounds from the Picnic Point Lookout (maplink). These images have been taken from the internet (didn’t have my camera!)

Visit to Allora Village

There’s a town called Allora not far south of the Spring Creek Caravan Park which was nice to visit (maplink). We found another “Mary Poppins” connection here where the stories author, Helen Lyndon, spent her early years

Summing up…

Stanthorpe QLD

About Stanthorpe

Stanthorpe is an attractive rural service centre set in the middle of a rich, mixed farming area where rural activities range from vineyards, wineries and orchards to sheep and cattle grazing. Stanthorpe is unusually cool for Queensland. In winter the night time temperatures in the town often fall below zero – the average minimum temperature for July is 0.3°C. Today the district is known for its cold climate apples, grapes and stone fruit as well as sheep and cattle grazing. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Getting there

It was another pretty straight drive from one place to another, just had a lot of hills and mountains chewing up our precious fuel. It’s about 107kms from our last location at Spring Creek (route map).

Accommodation

Sommerville Valley Tourist Park is located on the banks of Storm King Dam, approximately 12kms from the town of Stanthorpe (maplink). This is a beautiful location with plenty of room for each (drive through) site.

The views over the lake at sunset were exceptional – pity I didn’t take any decent shots (will have to come back to do that LOL)

Winery Tour

Our Tagalong organisers had arranged a winery tour within the region and our bus picked us up at 9:00am and off we went to start tasting, while the toothpaste was still present on our teeth 🤣.

Symphony Hill Wines

Symphony Hill Wines is a small winery with a lot of awards for their wines (maplink). They also have the credit for supplying 3 of their wines to QANTAS airlines, which are used in their 1st class cabins. The lady who hosted the tasting was wonderful, full of knowledge and very bubbly.

Ballandean Estate Wines

Ballandean Estate Wines is a family owned winery and has been in the district for over 90 years (maplink).

Lunch at St Jude’s Cellar Door and Bistro

What a wonderful lunch was put on for our group by the enthusiastic and eager team at St Jude’s Cellar Door and Bistro on the New England Highway in Ballandean (maplink).

Everyone totally enjoyed their meals and the wine provided with the meals was so good we purchased 3 bottles of their Sparkling Shiraz to take home.

 

The Ballandean Pyramid

Our bus driver stopped at a local legendary landmark known as the Ballandean Pyramid. It’s a man made pyramid, approximately 15 metres in height and built from blocks of the local granite. It is on private property belonging to a local vineyard and is approximately 25 metres from the nearest road. Quite an amazing feat for a local farmer to create (maplink). Read more about why & how it was built in Wikipedia

Granite Belt Brewery

Having voted that the group had seen enough wineries it was a unanimous vote to drop into the Granite Belt Brewery for a bit of sampling of their wares. Their core brewed range are Pale Ale, Lager, IPA, Session Ale, Applethorpe Cider & Irish Red Ale.

We had a couple of “paddles” of their beer on the back deck and while we were there our mate Chris got swooped multiple times by the same magpie – no one else but Chris (LOL).

 

Girraween National Park

A planned day trip out to a couple of the National Parks in the area was cut short by rain but we did manage to take a walk to the “Pyramid Rock” in Girraween NP. The granite here is truly spectacular.

We walked for about 5kms before I began an attempt to tackle the summit of the pyramid, but due to the fact I was actually concerned for my heart and the fact I could easily have slipped or fell on the extremely steep climb, I called it quits. (those who know me would understand the bit about falling over!)

Then the rain really set in so that was that!

 

The Tagalong Farewell Lunch at Varias Restaurant

To wind up our fantastic Bailey Tagalong22 trip our organising committee booked us into the Varias Restaurant & Queensland College of Wine Tourism. What a brilliant thing to do!

The visit started with a discussion on how the centre operates in partnership with University of Southern Queensland, Stanthorpe State High School and 47 other Gateway Schools, the College provides training from secondary to tertiary levels in viticulture, oenology, tourism, hospitality and business. The presentation concluded with a wine tasting of local wines.

Then it was off to lunch, created by the students of the college and the food was Michelin star quality. It consisted of 3 courses, but presented on the one plate (like a tasting) along with 3 different local wines which matched the food types. WOW – it was magnifico!

The luncheon then concluded with presentations to the people who had contributed to the success of yet another great Bailey Tagalong. The winner of the Bailey Bear photo competition was announced and it was yours truly – BB was spotted bungy jumping at Cania Gorge…

You can view all of the Bailey Bear photos taken by the Tagalongers via this link.

Summing up…

…and this brings us to the end of Tagalong22, It’s now time for all to turn homeward with great memories of another successful Bailey Caravan Tagalong together with new friends made!