And We're Off...

(Well, actually we're home, but the internet access while we were away was expensive and a bit slow, so now that we're back I can finally upload my holiday blog)

We were on the road at 3am, as planned, with only a small amount of resistance from Cheyenne. “It’s still night time!” She was a little happier when she realized that even though the sun wasn’t up yet, it was her birthday already. The song playing on the radio as we drove off down our street was “Road To Nowhere”, which we thought was quite appropriate.

Happy 6th birthday, Cheyenne!

Our first stop was the BP Travel Centre Caboolture, to meet up with our travelling companions. Going on the holiday with us were friends Helena and Jason, their two kids Chante and Robert, Robert's mate Brookes, Jason's brother Daniel and his girlfriend Bec. Steve had offered our spare seat to Chante, so that she didn’t have to squeeze into the back seat of the Mazda BT50 with the two boys. It also meant that Cheyenne had someone to talk to on the way up. The girls kept each other amused for 14 hours, luckily for us!

The trip was reasonably uneventful, other than Steve losing a bearing cap off the boat trailer and having to stop at Supercheap in Rockhampton to buy a pair of bearing buddies, and re-grease the wheel bearing. A late afternoon stop at KFC in Mackay, and we were on the road again, arriving in Cannonvale around 6.30pm. This gave us just enough time to check into the cabins at the Seabreeze caravan park, have a shower, walk up the road to Hungry Jacks to have dinner, and get back in time to watch the Broncos game.

Sunday morning, after feeding some lorikeets that landed on the railing of our cabin, we drove out to the lookout at Shute Harbour, took a few photos in Airlie Beach, and hit the road again, arriving in Cardwell by mid-afternoon.

Hand feeding lorikeets at the caravan park at Cannonvale.

Home sweet home for the week

The cabins are very basic, but are located together, close to the amenities block. The three cabins have their own covered bbq area with outdoor setting, which is just as well, seeing as the only cooking facilities the cabins have is a microwave (with only a small microwave jug to cook in!) and an electric frypan. Steve did bring up his single burner gas cooker, but there is, of course, no saucepan, so cooking the cheerios and hotdogs could present a challenge!

View from Cardwell Beach near the jetty, showing part of Hinchinbrook Island in the background

An evening visitor on the railing of the cabin.

On Monday morning the boys took their boats out and went fishing, while the girls drove back into Ingham to do a bit of grocery shopping and have lunch.

We have a few ideas of things we’d like to see and do while we are in the area, including a day trip to Cairns, but I guess we’ll have to see how things pan out.