DAY 29 – Sat 15th July / Yappoon to Airlie Beach
- 6.01 Hugo alarm. I’m up and ready to pack down then boom it starts raining!
- Everyone helps out, even Jett and we hit the road by 8.30am. Just before our lunch destination Serina we see a crash. Looks like a car towing a caravan has strayed onto the wrong side of the road and side swiped an RV. It’s come off the car and gone into trees. It looks terrible but happily no injuries we believe.
- Lunch in the van with the aircon on. I have a good break for 1.2hours as I’ve been towing in heavy rain like when we left Melbourne.
- We get to Airlie Beach at 4.30pm and are all set up by 5.30pm.
- Tan cooks for the kids and I get us Thai takeaway from a food van and the CP.
DAY 30 – Sun 16th July / Visitors
- It rains during the night but holds out for most of the day.
- I fix the Anderson plug on the caravan that had unplugged and dragged on the road.
- We go for a look at the Shute Harbour development ive been interested in. Surpise, it hasnt even started.
- Today we have visitors arriving. Tammie Dennis and Oscar are coming to join us. I pick them up from the office where they pick up keys from a lock box. The Airbnb unit isn’t ready so we head to the caravan. HUGO has just woken so I put on a BBQ. Tan is excited there is a washing machine in tammies apartment and decides to do 5 garbage bags full of washing.
- We all head to the lagoon for a swim then out for dinner at the tavern across the road from the caravan park.
- There is live music just next to our van so we enjoy that before we go for dinner. Rain holds out until we’re all in bed.
DAY 31 – Mon 17th July / Beach Umbrella
- 5.25am Hugo alarm goes off. It’s been raining heavy all night and there is mud just out the front of the caravan.
- I decided to cook something new for breakfast. Pan fried and baked wraps with cheese crust, tomato ham cheese and egg. It’s delicious.
- I chat with my neighbour about his roof top boat. Its light weight similar to my polycraft but has heaps more room. hmmm interested. Eazy topper.
- More washing for Dennis and Tammie to do and some shopping.
- I’m trying to find some way of attaching a Tarp to the awning to cover the pull-out kitchen. No luck, so I buy a beach umbrella just in case. I offer to buy Jazzy Jeff a seat warmer for his out door dunny!
- We decided to go out for lunch and try the Airlie Beach Pub. Not bad.
- I have a 4PM zoom meeting with Lumascape then start preparing for pizza night.
- Rain has held out all afternoon until I pull the kitchen. It rains heavy again, so I set up my beach umbrella. It works!
- I bit of late-night boxing training with Jett then off to bed.
DAY 32 – Tue 18th July / Jazzy Jeff
- Heavy wind all night. I should have bought anti flap clamps when I saw them yesterday. Hugo was up twice and his alarm goes off at 5.30am.
- Jett’s Big day has arrived. Hair cut day!
- 9am out and about. We try to do the Airlie Creek walk and struggle to find the start but eventually get there. I can only do half the track with Hugo in a stroller, so I take jett for his hair cut. Then I drop everyone back at Tammies apartment and he’d off to meet Jazz. We didn’t have the BBQ idea as everything is so wet and head to Northerlies. It’s a pub about 10 km out of town looking back at Airlie. We have lunch and catch up on caravanning stories and buying blocks of land. We then head out to his block. Its beautiful. We walk the rainforest and the dry riverbed then do some sketching for his new house.
- Then back to the CP to check out our new van.
- Jazz heads off and I head back to meet Tammie and the gang. We hit the local pub for dinner and call it a day.
DAY 33 – Wed 19th July / Outer Reef
- Hugo alarm 5.37am
- Snorkelling all day with Jett. We don’t make it to the otter reef due to the windy weather, so we do some islands closer to Airley. Its beautiful. I hand feed a Māori Wrase. Jett does the 1st snorkel with me then gets scared and pulls out.
- I’m convinced we should come back and hire a catamaran.
- I make friends with the captain. He’s a free diver from North Stradbroke Island.
- quick trip to the lagoon and Hugo has an ice cream.
- Dinner by the caravan.
- Sleep – exhausted!
DAY 34 – Thu 20th July / Mud Crab
- Hugo alarm 5.47am
- i start planning an off grid trip home
- Supplies run. We have enough food to last 2 weeks off grid!
- Must buy more of the barramundi spring rolls. So Good!!!
- Pack up
- Tan does a segway tour with Jett
- We all do glass bottom boat tour
- Dinner out – mud crab!
below picture is on the wall above the urinal in the mens toilet.
DAY 35 – Fri 21st July / Deadman’s Creek
- Today we hit the road back to Melbourne. Aiming for 5 – 6-hour drives per day to hit the 31 hours by Friday the 29th. I’m trying to push the family for full off grid HIP-camping all the way home. Today we’re headed for dead man’s Creek just out of Rockhampton.
- were seeing lots of military vehicles heading north for a joint traing excercise with America called Talisman saber.
- we stop for lunch in Carmila.
- Google takes us of road and we follow a track that’s full of mud ruts.
- We get to Deadman’s creek and we have it all to ourselves. Its amazing! I love it.
- There is wood provided so we light a fire which jumps out of our fire pit. Lucky, I have a jerry of water!
- we sit outside and watch a movie. Great start to the HIP camp adventure.
