2010 Cania Gorgeous TEST TREK JULY 2010 0
DAY 1 SATURDAY, 10th JULY, 2010
Alstonville to Kilkivan (near Gympie, QLD)
The family that camps together... Kilkivan.
And so, the journey begins... Alstonville
Say cheese... get it? It's cheeseworld (?)! (mmmmnn, 'Dad's joke'!)
Traveling with a young family is a great experience. It sure has it’s joys, challenges and fair share of surprises. There is nothing quite like driving 9 hours to a far-flung beautiful National Park and having your kids find the most joy in playing in a pile of dirt at the Caravan Park! But that’s life, and the longer I am a father the more I learn about children and their simple needs. Give a child a pile of dirt and they can be happy, give them a shallow creek to throw rocks in and they are really happy, give them your undivided attention and they are over the moon. Camping provides a great way to spend time with your children and we love to get away from it all with a 4WD and camper trailer.
Owning a 4WD with camper trailer is a great way to get out and explore this country – but for us, we are enjoying the hiring option. We hire a mid-size 4WD from Avis Ballina and a Kimberley Kamper camper trailer from South East Queensland Campers and Gear. This time we were lucky enough to score a brand-new 2010 Toyota LandCruiser Prado for towing duties and James at SEQ Campers hooked us up with a 2010 Kimberley Kamper Limited Edition with optional 73L Autofridge & second bedroom. A great combination for the kind of ‘touring biased’ travel we’d be undertaking.
So, after much planning and anticipation, the day arrived to head off on our longest journey yet. After a late Friday night packing and re-packing the Prado with enough gear to sink a ship, we were finally off. Leaving about 1.5 hours later than scheduled, it was at this point that I basically threw out the idea of running to any particular time constraints! Why, oh why did I think a family of 5 could leave home at 7am! (Note: we have 3 children 5 and under). I like the idea of ‘running on schedule’ but we are more relaxed when we just ‘go with the flow’. We have learned to keep our travel distances shorter and enjoy stopping along the way rather than trying to push on too hard to cover lots of ground. You’ve gotta be realistic and enjoy the journey….
Well, we made it 1hr:20mins into the journey before we discovered a new joy for us parents – the in-car DVD player! We’d never used one before and have a had ‘resistance’ to using them up until now. But what a simple pleasure we found in the silence and lack of whining. Used in moderation, these things make traveling long distances so much more bearable!
First point of call for the day was at SEQ Campers to pick up our camper trailer. It sure is nice to just pull in, hook up and go again. Freshly serviced, full water tanks and the fridge was nice and cold! These guys are located just off the Bruce highway near Caboolture, QLD, and finding them is pretty easy.
Now that we had our rig sorted, it was time to start the more interesting part of our journey. We have traveled the Bruce highway plenty of times so we decided to jump on the Daguilar Highway and head west then north up to Kilkivan for our first camping stop. This was a pleasant drive with little traffic and no big trucks! We pulled into Yarraman for a quick hot chocolate and bite to eat before pushing onto Nanango to top our food supplies. By this stage we had started to notice an amusing phenomenon – most towns had a sign on the way into town proclaiming that they were a proud winner of ‘Sausage of the Year’ either currently or in recent years…
With dusk approaching, we stopped in Goomeri to visit Cheeseworld. This was an interested store but left us a little underwhelmed – we were just expecting more local produce (which they don’t have). We aren’t wine lovers so I guess that was what was missing from the equation for us… they do have local wines so If that’s your caper I think Cheeseworld would suit you better…
From Goomeri, a short 30min drive and we were in Kilkivan. We pulled into Kilkivan Bush Camping park just before dark. This is were you really appreciate a hard-floor camper trailer – set up time was super quick. After a long day driving, with the light fading fast, the last thing I want to be doing is messing around setting up a tent, unrolling/inflating mattresses, unpacking sleeping bags then setting up a camp kitchen. With the Kimberley it’s just about as good as it gets in this regard – just pop the catches, swing the floor over, add two poles and your ready to go. Slide out your kitchen, fridge and cookers and you’re ready for a day or a week! Aside from the sheer convenience of this all, it is really great for us with young children – one parent can keep the kids occupied whilst the other can single-handed set up the camp.
Kilkivan Bush Camping Site was a great place to stay with nice amenities, grassy powered sites, a creek and really friendly hosts. We could have stayed at least another night here as it was so peaceful and we really wanted to try our luck panning for gold at the mine up the road.
DAY 2 SUNDAY, 11th JULY, 2010
Kilkivan to Cania Gorge NP
Camping at Kilkivan on Day 2, Kilkivan.
Panning for gold, Kilkivan.
Sunday saw a leisurely breakfast and pack up ready for another day on the road in our quest to reach Cania Gorge. Whilst I packed up, the kids had a great time playing in the creek and Jade (my wife) enjoyed panning for gold with a frisbee for a ‘pan’!
A cruisey drive through rolling brown countryside had us arriving in Gayndah in time for a visit to ‘The Big Orange’ and some lunch. We grabbed some fresh bread and headed to the local park. This highlights another reason camper trailers are so great on the road – you can pull up anywhere, slide out the kitchen and make yourselves a tasty lunch. It certainly helps save some money and makes you less reliant on finding somewhere to buy takeaway.
By days end we reached Monto and then on to Cania Gorge National Park. The NP is about 20 mins. out of Monto. It is a nice drive into the park and arriving late in the day is quite scenic with the last rays of the sun painting the sandstone of the Gorge beautiful colours.
DAY 3 MONDAY, 12th JULY, 2010
Cania Gorge NP
Campsite by day, Cania Gorge Caravan Park
- We spent the day relaxing in around the caravan park. Cania Gorge has two caravan parks – Cania Gorge Caravan & Tourist Park and Cania Gorge Tourist Retreat. We stayed at the former and it was great. Being a ‘Big 4′ park it had a really strong focus on family friendly fun. The sites were generous and amenities were comfortable but it was all the extras that made our stay a great one. The biggest attraction for us was the ‘jumping pillow’ !
We all had fun jumping around on this and we could leave the kids on it whilst we relaxed around the campsite. The park also featured a ‘frisbee golf’ course which was fun, a nine-hole bush golf course and pools. The communal camp kitchen was also quite handy. The other thing that made this a great park were the events/activities that they organised. Monday night we enjoyed a camp oven cooked meal ($20/head) were we got to meet a number of other travelers and enjoy not cooking for the night. Tuesday and Thursday we enjoyed a complimentary morning tea with billy tea and damper. Wednesday night they put on a movie on a big outdoor screen and lit up some great big log fires to keep us toasty warm as we watched.
DAY 4 TUESDAY, 13th JULY, 2010
Cania Gorge NP
Shamrock Gold Mine, Cania Gorge NP
Yep, Bigfoot is real, Cania Gorge NP
After the relaxation of Monday we jumped in the Prado and headed up to ‘Shamrock Mine Site’ for a little bush walk and history lesson. This walk is really good, only about 1.2km return and it’s smooth/not very steep – we pushed our stroller up with 2 children in it. The mine site is really interesting with some really informative signage explaining it all – the shed with an original ‘stamping’ machine and shafts are really interesting. I was really struck by how hard life must have been for the miners in the goldfields – I guess ‘gold rush fever’ kept them going. After the gold mine walk we traveled down to the ‘bigfoot’ walk. This is a very easy and smooth 1km return walk from the car park. The ‘bigfoot’ is a rock cliff featuring a bizarre ‘four-toed foot’ discolouration – you’ve got to see it to believe it.
DAY 5 WEDNESDAY, 14th JULY, 2010
Cania Gorge NP
Wednesday was the day for some more bush walking and a little 4WD touring. The National Park has a main carpark where the majority of bushwalks commence. Misled by a sign with a wheelchair symbol we thought we’d hit the track to ‘Dragon Cave’ & ‘Dripping Rock’ with our stroller again
The gang in Dragon's Cave, Cania Gorge NP
. As mentioned, the sign was misleading – the wheelchair bit was only about the first 100 metres(!) Never ones to give up easily, we pushed on further down the track until we hit our first outcrop of rock ‘stairs’ (only two or three at a time, not like a staircase). Once we got the hang of wrestling the stroller up and through we managed to make it a fa
On the way to Dragon's Cave, Cania Gorge NP
ir way along the track. It is pretty amusing in hindsight as we had a baby bushwalking backpack in the car that we could have used instead (!) Dragon cave was pretty cool and Dripping rock was certainly worth the walk in.
On our way back to camp we took a dirt road detour for a
little exploring (don’t worry Mr Avis, it was all formed gazetted roads!). We headed up Kariboe Road then onto Nobbies Road and returned the same way. It was smooth gravel and passed through brown grazing properties most of the way. I had hoped to do the big day trip to ‘Beautiful Betsy’ and Kroombit Tops NP but we figured another 8 hour day in the car may not be the best thing for the kids!
A backroad west of Cania Gorge
DAY 6 THURSDAY, 15th JULY, 2010
Cania Gorge NP – Kilkivan
A cold morning, Cania Gorge Caravan Park.
A cold breakfast, Cania Gorge Caravan Park.
After a chilly morning and bird feeding attack it was time to pack up and start the long journey home. Packing up the kamper was easy, but getting the kids to leave and back in the car for another long trip took a little more work. We eventually lured them back in with the promise of watching more DVD’s! They had such a good time in the caravan park – we could have easily stayed another couple of nights if time allowed. Our timing saw us ready to roll out just when our Caravan Park staff hosts were serving up another of their complimentary morning teas. With a big pot of Billy Tea and the best camp oven damper I have tasted it was too good to pass up! We enjoyed these morning teas and gatherings as we got to meet so many friendly people and have a good chat. That is something I like about this kind of traveling - people have a real passion for it and love to share their tips and have a chat.
We stopped for some more video and photo opportunities (not the best time of day, I know!) on the way out of the Gorge then hightailed it south. Lunchtime saw us in Mundubbera were we grabbed a few more supplies in the main street then headed to the local park for fresh sandwiches made oh so easy with the Kamper slide-out kitchen and fridge! After lunch we quickly stopped for photos at the ‘Big Mandarin’ then hit the road. Not sure if there is a rivalry between this and Gayndah’s ‘Big Orange’… If you like ‘big things’ then you should see them both, but they are nothing on the ‘Big Prawn’ in Ballina, NSW.
Dusk again saw us again arriving back at Kilkivan Bush Camping Park. We liked this place so much we thought we should come back. We also were keen to visit the working gold mine up the road but it was closed (and then closed on Friday!).
DAY 7 FRIDAY, 16th JULY, 2010
Kilkivan – Caboolture
Another chilly night had us shivering through breakfast, but once the sun came out we enjoyed the beauty of a clear winter’s day. I am not the biggest winter fan but I do like a great, clear winter’s day spent outside in the sun. Pack up took a little longer this morning as wanted to give the kamper a good clean up before returning it to SEQ Campers. Not totally necessary, but I like to return things as clean as I found them. A pleasant and relatively short drive saw us arrive at Gympie in time to sit in traffic for 20 mins whilst we waited for roadworks. Not sure if it just me, but most times I am held up and finally get through there always seems to be a lot of blokes sitting around not doing much…. as I said, it could be just me.
Back on the Bruce Highway heading south we realised our wisdom in avoiding this road on the way up. There was so much more traffic and trucks – the inland route was much more pleasant and worth the small amount of extra time taken. We finally made our we back into Caboolture to return the Kimberley Kamper about lunchtime. After we treated ourselves to some take away lunch we headed back north to see our friends in Noosa. Yes, as if we hadn’t already seen enough of the Bruce Highway…
And this is were I’ll sign off on this adventure… I could tell you about eating gourmet pizza on Noosa’s main beach as we watched the beautiful sunset, but who wants to hear about that, eh?! 
Overall we had a great trip, the destination was good and camping in a Kimberley Kamper just can’t be beaten for us!
For a short video of our trip click here.
Adios,
Cameron Johnston