Day 33: Sat 28 May - Gladstone

Day 33: Sat 28 May - Gladstone 

15 – 26°,  Another beautiful sunny day with a very light breeze in the morning - the type of weather we expect on a trip to QLD at this time of year. Not much to report today, except after a few visitors in the morning, I went for another very enjoyable bike ride around town - a bit longer in distance and a bit more tempo. Meanwhile Noeleene took Mum for drive to Bunnings to see if she could buy some gumboots - she's a bit worried about the weather ahead I think (she returned without gumboots!). A bit of a recovery nap in the afternoon was followed by sitting around and chatting. The end of another day came too quickly as we sat down to another one of Mum's yummy baked dinners (pork loin with vegetables). Looking forward to more sunny days.

A nearby Reg Tanna Park and Pond

Barney Point memorial marking the spot of the first official residence in North Australia.  

About 800m from where i lived in Wood St, a much nicer looking Barney Point Beach than what i remember growing up

A nice bike path along Auckland Creek 

Auckland Creek 

A lot of Gladstone has been developed on reclaimed land, and its nice that some wetlands close to town have been maintained

Auckland Creek 

Gladstone Marina with more than 300 mooring berths has excellent facilities and surrounding parklands 

An array of boats moored at the Marina

An pleasant 31km ride out to the botanic gardens and around town - it was a little hillier than i remember though






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown

Image
Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown Towed 265km (5,124 towed this trip) 20 – 26°. Partly cloudy all day with light winds in Port Douglas, winds becoming stronger and gusty in Cooktown. The forecast is for winds gusting to 60km/h for the rest of the week in Cooktown, apparently not unusual at this time of year. We drove away from the Big 4 in Port Douglas just before 8:00am, and had a good run back up Mt Molloy onto the Mulligan Highway north to Cooktown. There was very little traffic and road conditions were fantastic  all the way - some of the best this trip. There were a couple of steep but short climbs along the way, but no problem - I'm very happy with the towing, handling and fuel economy of the Wildtrak. Even with about 10km of steep climbing today, pulling almost 3 tonne, we averaged less than 16lt/100km for the trip. We also had a very strong side wind which pushed us around a bit for the last 50km. After 155km, our first stop was for coffee at the Palmer Riv...
Read more

Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon

Image
Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon 151km Towed [Total driven this trip 3,626km - 3,300km towed]   15 – 27°. We woke to an overcast and mild morning, and a lovely pink sky. We packed up, said our goodbyes, and got away from Gladstone a little after 8:30am, and it was a good feeling to be back on the road again. It was only a short 151km drive to Yeppoon which we did without stopping. The wind which picked up slightly around mid morning had eased by the time we arrived in Yeppoon shortly after 11am. Our stay for the next 5 nights is at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park - it's quite small, a bit dated, but very clean, and the caretakers are lovely. It suits us due it its central location and easy access to everything we need while in Yeppoon. The large concrete slab is a bonus too. After setting up, we locked the van and headed down to the beach for lunch - burgers overlooking the beach and stunning blue water. Next on the agenda was a visit to Capricorn Gardens Aged Care Facility ...
Read more

Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown

Image
Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown 21 – 27°. An overcast morning, clearing to a mostly sunny day. Winds still annoying at 26km/h, gusting to 41km/h (but it felt much stronger at times). Another huge day starting with a challenging  2 hr  morning walk to the top of Mount Cook with Greg, then we all went for a 32km drive out of town to the iconic Lions Den Hotel, stopping at the Black Mountains on the way. On our return we stopped for a walk at Keatings Lagoon, a wetland  5 km out of Cooktown  just off the Mulligan Highway. We got back to the van at about midday, had some lunch and a snooze, then I set off on a bike ride to a few more local sites around Cooktown and along the foreshore. When i returned, I carried out a few checks on the van in preparation for our departure to   Mareeba tomorrow morning ( We'll be pleased to see the back of these strong gusting winds) . We topped of another great day with lovely dinner at the RSL.  Views over Cooktown and Ende...
Read more