Xmas 2012–Poona Palms, Queensland

We picked Poona Palms out of the Badgers website. When we were looking for a place to stay, near Bundaberg, Tin Can bay was first on our list due to the Dolphins. Caitlyn has a passion for Dolphins at the moment, wanting to be a Marine Biologist when she grows up so as to work with them Nothing at Tin Can bay took our fancy, and Rainbow Beach appeared to expensive.
When we saw Poona Beach, its cost and its location, it seemed a safe bet and fortunately, unlike many of the other things we have had happen to us so far this trip, luck was with us. Poona Palms caravan park is a quiet oasis, away from civilisation, even the internet/phone reception is sketchy.
We have a vast tidal inlet to play in, but no real sandy beaches. so far we have spent many an hour in the pool, taken the kayak out for a paddle, gone fishing, catching nothing as per normal. The kids even love using the yabby pump to catch bait.
On boxing day we got up early and drove around to Tin Can bay to watch the dolphins. The first hour there was a meet and greet and it seems we were lucky. Over the past few days only a single dolphin had come in, where as on the day we went we had 5 plus a 9 month old calf with its mother. we also didn't have the crowds that normally accompany feeding, up to 300 in a session. We probably only had 50-100 people there. Caitlyn was front and center for the meet and greet but the dolphins, pink estuarine dolphins, don't really like contact and did not come close enough for a pat. After meet and greet, Caitlyn was able to purchase a single fish for feeding.
After feeding time we ad breakfast at Barnacles, the cafe attached to the Dolphin center before we continued around to Rainbow Beach. We are glad we did not stay there, heaps of people were around, i suspect on their way over to Fraser Island. We could see heaps of people on the beach with their vehicles too. I would of loved to join them but with no experience beach driving, i did not want to be that person, the one who needed help getting back out

Heading home we did much of the same, sleeping and pool.
Update to Follow
The 27th will see us travel north to Marybourgh and Bundaberg. Our main destination being the Rum Distillery

Housekeeping and Blog updates

We are now underway with the planning of the next trip. To help support the planning, i have set up an Itinerary page, as per some of the other trips we have made. It can be found here.

I also plan to update the other Itinerary pages linking to each blog post relevant to that particular trip. I should have this done over the next few days.

We are having quite a bit of fun planing this trip, especially since we now have our own 4WD. We are planing to go on a "tag along tour" whilst in Queensland, hopefully on Stradbroke Island, to learn how to drive on sand. Caitlyn is looking forward to hand feeding the Dolphins at Tin Can Bay, and of course, Sara and I cant wait to visit the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.

In Oberon we are planing to visit the Glow worms at Lithgow, the Jenolan caves and Katoomba. I cant wait to get the girls on the Scenic Railway.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave a comment here :)

Eucla to Ceduna

After Fraser Range station we stoped in at Eucla for the night. The main reason for stopping here was so we could use up any fruit and vegetables we might have before crossing the border. This was a flawed plan as, although we did use up all our contraband, we did not get inspected at the border, you only get inspected from SA to WA. We did get inspected at Ceduna but we were ok

The camp at Eucla is not to bad and there is a great view across to the water. It was, however, VERY cold over night.

Once we left Eucla we stopped quite a few times to look out across the bight to look for Wales. At our second stop we saw quite a few wales but they were far off shore. We also saw a large pod of dolphins in close to the shore. Ill post the photos but there is not much to see, even with a 300mm zoom lens.

 

We have arrived at Ceduna and are now staying at the Shelly Beach caravan park.

Geraldton and Denham

We only spent an overnight stay in Geraldton, at the Sunset Beach caravan park. This park was quite nice and i spoilt the girls by lashing out for an ensuite site .

The caravan park is right on the beach as can be seen in our previous post so we all had a great night sleep, away from any major roads (and road trains), to the sound of the waves on the beach.

When we got up in the morning, Caitlyn, Dad and i went for a walk on the beach but as it was high tide, there was not much beach. I was suppose to get up at 4:30am to look at the eclipse but as i was having such a good sleep, that did not happen.

We had a few things to do before we could head on up to Denham. Steve and Rhonda had called through a shopping list so with our caravans off of the ensuite sites and parked in caravan storage we headed off in to town to visit the HMAS Sydney memorial and the local Woolworths.

The Shrine was quite good and once reading the stories on the wall or remembrance it was clear why they had used seagulls in the dome.

Caitlyn was quite fond of the Lady here looking out over the sea and spent quite a bit of time holding her hand

Once we returned to the caravan park to pick up the vans we were on our way. It was an easy trip up to the Overlander roadhouse, where we had to ring ahead to Denham to order our escort into town.

Steve and Rhonda came out to meet us on the road and take us through town to their place. Denham seems to be a nice seaside village and it takes all of 2 mins to cruise the main street from roundabout to roundabout

We had a nice catch up on the first night, and we are sleeping inside so this was a very quiet night. We also spent most of the first day here in Denham relaxing and cleaning. Once we had had enough of this we went down to the main street for a walk.

We then took the drive out to the Ocean Park where we were able to see fish and shark feeding.

We had a nice barbeque with  everyone, including Belinda and Guy before heading off to bead for our second night here. We had an early wake up to look forward to as we were heading off to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphin Feeding.

When we got out to Monkey Mia it was to find a good crowd already gathering. There is a range of accommodation available out there from back packers and caravan sites through to hotel rooms and chalets. It did not take long before the dolphins arrived and we got some great photos before the guides allowed everyone down to the water. They then talked about the dolphins, monkey mia’s history and the feeding process before asking everyone to exit the water again for the feeding to begin.

We happened to be in luck today as Caitlyn got picked to feed with the very last fish in the guides bucket.

With the feeding over we went up to the cafe for a light brunch before we booked on to the Shotover catamaran for a sail in the bay looking for Dolphins, Turtles and Dugong. We did not see any Dugong but we did find everything else and had a great 2.5hrs out on a nice sunny, calm day.

With the sail over we had lunch before heading home. just as we were leaving monkey mia a small turtle decided to visit and swim around the jetty.

Our last destination for today was the Peron Homestead where they have a small museum and a great artesian fed hot tub.

There was a lot in this update, feel free to ask questions via the comments if i have glossed over anything to fast