Queensland part 3 - Croc Country

Queensland is a big state and we’ve found lots to do while travelling through. Sifting through snorkel trip footage took a bit of time, but the videos should be uploaded now so make sure to check out the critters we saw!

Tuesday 18th March: Miriam Vale to Cooee Bay

After a pleasant night’s sleep we woke naturally to sunrise and the sound of bird calls all around us. Just kidding it was bats! A cacophony of hundreds of flying foxes in the trees just next to our overnight rest stop area. We giggled at the nearby path named “tranquillity walk” and sought out Miriam Vales very own “big” thing - the big Crab. On with the rest of the day which promised many more big things.

Today’s agenda was to continue heading north along Queensland’s coast. Our first fleeting stop was in Borowen to see ‘the big Giraffe’ now we had high hopes because recently the big things had been pretty big so we did expect a big giraffe. Alas, in giraffe sizes we thought it was pretty average so we didn’t even get out the van to take the picture!

Our first big stop of the day was a reminder of our 5 years in NZ and a walk up Avondale Hill in Gladstone, as it promised a nice walk with a few steps and great views from the lookout. Luck really isn’t on our side at the moment though, while we managed to do the steps and walk, the whole top area was under construction so we couldn’t make it to the view point, and even worse a little snake rushed across the path in front of us! We made the most of the morning though and walk around the east shores area for a lovely stroll and some nice facts/views along the way.

The main big stop of the day was Koorana Crocodile farm. The farm is a family run business which has gone from 4 crocs to 3000 crocs. We started with a tasty lunch from their cafe, crocodile steak and a croc burger. We really weren’t sure what to expect but if we are honest, it was like eating chicken in taste and colour but with the texture of beef. Really quite delicious and if it’s on the menu elsewhere I’m sure we will choose again!

The tour we had with Adam was super interesting and he had so many facts for us. The most spectacular part was watching a baby crocodile hatch from its shell. It was so special and the tiny thing was just as feisty as the big ones as soon as it was out. A once in a lifetime opportunity. Next was a walk around the pens outside to see a mix of Gators, freshies and salty crocs. We saw them from 3.5m all the way up to approximately 7m in length. They were huge and so scary. The final part for the tour was to hold a young croc. Adam brought out a 3-year-old croc who was probably around 80cm. Mike loved the opportunity to hold it and grinned from ear to ear. I however hated it and cried the first time I approached so had to bail. I pulled my brave pants on at the end and did manage to hold its tail with Adams help! If you could see the live video, you can see my hands shaking like leaf, even with its mouth taped up. Not sure croc country is my vibe! XD

Tour complete we continued around the Capricorn coast to the Singing Ship in Emu bay and Fan Rock in Rosslyn. The singing ship was an eerie monument, it plays music from the wind blowing through the sail so a cool idea but they could have chosen less creepy notes! Fan rock was a nice, chilled walk to end the day. The rock face looked like a fan and there was a little hole in the base of the rock where you could see a blow hole style wave coming through.

We had some comfort tonight with a paid campsite with a pool and a shower! We went for a lovely cooling (read cold!) swim in the pool and then we both had the best shower I reckon of the trip after 3 days without one!! A night of Aircon awaits us.

Wednesday 19th: Cooee Bay

A change of plans for the day - originally we planned to go snorkelling around the Great Keppel Islands, but unfortunately this was pushed back a day last night due to deteriorating weather conditions. Chloe and I agreed to stay 1 more day lest we get too far behind our travels, and so we had a somewhat sedate day.

We began with a walk to Wreck point, about 10mins from our campsite. Chloe expected to see a wrecked ship or two but, of course, the point was named after a historical shipwreck from the 1800s. Not quite worth the soggy walk to it. What was worth the soggy walk was The Sisters Cafe where we had some hot drinks and a delicious piece of baked chocolate cheesecake!

To fill the rest of the day we headed out to Rockhampton to see the botanical gardens which were recommended to us while in Coffs Harbour. The gardens themselves were nice, but the highlight was the free zoo in the middle! We saw kangaroos, Emus, a koala, wombat, otters, birds, dingos, crocs, and a family of chimpanzees too! A cracking little hidden gem. The rest of the botanical gardens were nice too, with a Japanese garden and a tropical fruit orchard.

To round off the day we called into the Yeppoon lagoon - an outdoor swimming pool. The weather may have been questionable, and the water not the warmest, but we had fun having a few laps and looking out to sea. Finally, we settled back at the campsite and rustled up some chicken burgers on the BBQ hot plate for a tasty dinner.

Thursday 20th: Cooee Bay to Waverley Creek

An EARLY start for a cracking day. We headed out on the fantastic cruise to the Great Keppel Islands for a day of snorkelling. We sat on the front deck of the boat for the 1.5ish hour ride out. We had a really good chat with another fellow explorer who worked as a station hand but also told us exactly how to deal with a snake if we come across it. Our chat however was somewhat interrupted every now and again by some massive waves so by the time we got to our first site and the deck hand served us some watermelon, we looked like we had been men over board!

The first dive was at secret bay a secluded beach where we saw heaps of fishes and also a Wobbegong shark which was super cool. We also saw a little puffer fish but he wasn’t puffing so just looked mighty cute. When we got out of the water a beautiful snack board was presented to us with heaps of fresh fruit and also a banana bread in the middle. Yummy!

We can’t remember what our next site was, but it was next to some beautiful sand dunes. We climbed to the top for some stunning views. We had a quick snorkel but the visibility wasn’t too great due to being high tide so we hopped back on the boat for our lunch - they know how to feed you on the trip that’s for sure!

We had one final snorkel site which was the middle island observatory. It used to be and old under water observation room. There was a sunken ship and an old ladder which made for a perfect reef to form. It’s also a ‘green area’ which means people aren’t allowed to fish. We took in a couple of pieces of watermelon and had the most incredible time feeding some humongous Grouper fish and also heaps of much smaller fish. We went diving down towards the ladder as well which was cool as you could see the coral so clearly and some was really colourful as well. All in all an awesome day despite the slight sunburn…

Back onto solid ground and a lovely shower later we headed to Mt Etna Caves National Park to Bat Cleft Walk. A 40-minute walk up to see the Bat Cleft Cave. The walk was ‘spiderriffic’ that most definitely isn’t spider and terrific but spider and horrific!! What should have been a chilled out was more of an adrenaline rush with some of the biggest spiders we have seen! The views at the top were awesome and the edge leading into the cleft was sweet too but a bit too hard to take a picture of. The cave gets its name due to the 100,000 female bats which dwell there and swarm out at dusk, sadly we were a bit early to see that but the view and the rock formations were still awesome to see.

Having worked up an appetite we headed to The Caves Country Pub for some grub. We both ordered fish if the day - read fish and chips but it went down a treat and topped off Mike’s favourite saying - See da Fishes, Eat da Fishes, Sleep like da piggies. That’s exactly what we will be doing at Waverley Creek!

Friday 21st: Waverley Creek to Airlie Beach

A long drive day today of 450km as we head to Airlie Beach for a couple of nights. We headed on our way to see the Big Cane Toad in Sarina. Along the route we saw a brown tourist sign to a Dugong sanctuary and got super excited about seeing the sea cows! It wasn’t until about 3km into our detour we realised the sanctuary was a kilometer out to sea… It turns out it’s just a reserve area off the coast that has plenty of sea grass for them, and you’ll struggle to see them even on a good day when the tide isn’t out! C’est la vie we continued on our way to Sarina.

Once in Sarina we perused a few local craft shops and got our snap of the Big Cane Toad - an homage to the massive blunder of introducing cane toads as a form of pest management for the Sugar cane crops. Turns out they’ll eat just about anything else instead of the pests, and it’s taken decades before the local wildlife has figured out how to eat the poisonous amphibians. Back on the A1 we go.

The A1 is a pretty boring road so we scouted Google maps and found a cool looking place called Finch Hatton Gorge that promised a cool walk, gorge, and croc-free rock pools for a swim. After a lengthy drive away from the main road we sadly found out that the road into the gorge has 3 river crossings, and after watching a few 4x4s go through we decided not to turn our campervan into a boat. Another unsuccessful visit for the day.

All was not lost, for we still had a stop at Cape Hillsborough pencilled in before we finished at Airline Beach. We walked along the beach to Beachcombers Cove (on edge due to the croc signs!) and we’re treated to a lovely, deserted beach with a crazy phenomenon - the beach was covered in tiny little sand balls and scrape marks from thousands of tiny scuttling crabs!

We finished our long day of driving and finally arrived at Airline Beach in the evening, cooked up a yummy salmon dinner on the BBQ hotplate, and treated ourselves to an ice cream down at the waterfront. The place isn’t our cup of tea, but it’s the gateway to the Whitsundays which is our goal for tomorrow.

Saturday 22nd: The Whitsundays

An early morning start to make our Whitsundays trip with Thundercat tours. We soon realised that the tour group size would be far larger than our usual half a dozen - a whopping 30 people on our boat, and 3 other boats also going out from the same company! Fortunately it was a pretty good day trip!

We rode the catamaran out for over a good hour to our first stop: Manta Ray Bay. Despite the name we were actually there to see an abundance of fishes. We jumped off the boat and sure enough we were within touching distance of a shoal of medium sized fishes.

Our second stop of the day was Luncheon Bay: again not for lunch but actually to see the pretty reef. We ended up seeing just as many fish, lots of coral, and even a few vivid blue and pink corals to boot. My highlight had to be the variety of fish we saw, which included some pretty large beasties including a really long thin fish over a metre in size!

We had a tasty onboard lunch before heading over to Whitehaven beach to see the 3rd most photographed place in Australia. Although not as incredible as the online photos (taken at the right tide and right time) the sand formations of the beach were super cool to see. We spent an hour down on the beach itself which was also a nursery for baby rays and sharks: we even saw a few!

We spent our final half hour in Tongue Bay and trying to spot a turtle and sure enough once we’d given up hope, Mike cut his toe on an underwater rock, and the tour boat began boarding we caught a glimpse. A green sea turtle surfaced for a breath three times before swimming away, and we’re pretty sure we’re the only ones who noticed it! Magic!

We wrapped up our day back on land by heading to “That Pizza Guy” for a yummy dinner treat and enjoyed an airconned night’s sleep after a cracking day.

Hopefully you’re enjoying these travel updates or at least the aussie animal photos and videos! Our next update covers the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests, and what to do when an entire state seems to flood…!