I’ve probably spent more time in Australia than any other country. Poor Richard has also had many a trip with the expense of another country. However, this short month long return visit was initially his idea, he’d needed some time to complete some editing and I wanted to see if I could spend time with my friends in Hervey Bay and be at the celebration of a special birthday.
This worked out perfectly as my friends arranged for Richard to stay in their friends apartment for 2 weeks to get his work done, which had pretty special views of the beach.
And I could stay with my friends (John and Sally), to leave him to it and spend the next 2 weeks having lots of nice food, drinks and catching up.
And in between got to celebrate Sallys special birthday.
We decided to have a road trip up the coast after Richard had finished his 2 weeks working, and hired a car that we could sleep in to save a bit of money. A single mattress in the back, 2 chairs and stuff to make fresh coffee, all you need.
We’ve ’free camped’ before in Australia and it’s amazing how good some of the spots are, where you can just stay for the night, most having toilets but some also have bbq areas and showers.
Free camping is a big thing in Australia, there are people living on the road both for financial reasons but also retirees, grey nomads, think we might fit that category!, travelling around this wonderful country by buses, caravans and converted camper-vans.
When we come back for our extended trip around Australia this is absolutely how we will travel, maybe with a camper or caravan though, 10 nights in the back of the car on a single mattress for the both of us was enough.
Sapphire
We headed inland on the way up the coast as I’d not seen a lot of this and Richard hadn’t been at all. We even got to do a bit of gem prospecting. More Richard’s thing, he’d have spent all day there, but we were visited by some kangaroos.
Springsure
I think the best free camp stop we had was at a place called Springsure. We came across it by accident, as with most things, we were just rolling through and saw that you could camp under this amazing rock face.
So we grabbed some essentials, wine and crisps! And set up for the night. It was a really busy spot and I was a little jealous of people’s roof tents and fancy camping set up, but the sun setting, being lit up at night, and the sunrise were pretty spectacular considering we’d just sat on the side of the side of the road.
Wildlife
We were also treated to some great wildlife this trip with encounters with some of Australias most famous residents!
Rainbow Lorikeet
Hundreds of these little critters nesting at dusk by the beach in Hervey Bay.
Cockatiels
We saw lots of flocks of these but these were flying around our campsite, again at dusk.
Of course some kangaroos !
But it think the stars this trip were the platypus. We’d headed to see them at Eumundi national park. We stopped at a sign on the way which said ‘platypus beach’ what looked like a scene out of Huckleberry Finn movie and they were feeding just off the bank.
Next day we headed into the park to ‘Broken River’ a place known for seeing them. When we arrived we were told it was too late in the morning to see any, as early morning and dusk is the usual time. But we headed down the track anyhow which was pretty in itself.
Almost immediately we saw one and it was slightly bigger than the ones we’d seen the night before. There were 2 swimming about and although the video doesn’t do it justice they came really close and was really amazing.
I’m completely biased when it comes to Australia, we had a great time visiting friends, it truly is our second home and I can’t wait to be back (another special birthday 2025)
