Any travel through this CoVid time is a challenge, but we had decided that we did need a break but we would need to stay within Queensland.
We chose Rockhampton as it had been a long time since either of us had been in the area. A quick “Google” showed lots to do and see, but on further investigation we could not find accommodation. I knew Yeppoon is the beachside locale of Rockhampton so decided to look there… Still not a lot available but I knew Easter would be a very busy time. I finally found “Salt Yeppoon Apartments“, a newish resort right on the oceanfront. It promised that every room has an ocean view. A few clicks and we were booked in a 1 bedroom apartment for 5 nights.
This holiday is going to be a little bit of a different “foodie adventure” I found lots of interesting cafes in Yeppoon, so we have chosen not to take too much in the way of food with us. Normally we tend to self cater (especially breakfast) and take food from home to cook in the apartment. This trip we are only taking milk, bread, butter, tea and condiments. We have packed a full day’s food for Good Friday as we know that most places will be closed.
The week prior to this trip saw 2 CoVid clusters form in Brisbane and a subsequent 3 day lockdown of the greater Brisbane area. While we do not live in the lockdown area, there was a chance that the area may be adjusted to include the Sunshine Coast if more cases emerged. This would have meant that we would be unable to leave 🙁
Through the week there were no Sunshine Coast cases, although a couple of concerning reports of a man who had tested positive had visited premises on the route we were due to take. As we were due to leave on Thursday morning and the Chief Medical Officer was to due to give her recommendations as to the lifting of lockdown at 9:00am Thursday we decided to risk it and go, knowing that we would only be a couple of hours away from home when the news was announced. and if we needed to return, it was not too far to go.
Thursday morning we left early as planned and were on the road just after 7:00am. It is an approximately 7 hour – 650km drive to Rockhampton/Yeppoon but as we are very familiar with the road for the first 300kms between the Sunshine Coast and Childers, the plan was to stop at the roadhouse at Gunalda, get a cuppa and wait for the news at 9:00 then head straight to Childers for morning tea, then we would “amble” the next 350kms, stopping if we saw anything interesting.
We arrived at Gunalda at 8:50, just enough time for a stretch of the legs, a bathroom break and a hot drink while we waited for the 9:00 news. The news was GOOD!!! The Premier announced that Brisbane was allowed out of lockdown early at midday and Easter is “good to go!”
This news was indeed good, and I felt much better knowing that we were not likely to have any issues, and the mandated mask wearing for the next 2 weeks is not a big problem.
Our next stop was the Childers Bakery Sandwich Bar for an early lunch. M stops here most weeks on his delivery run to Bundaberg, so I thought it was about time I experienced their food 🙂 I had a bacon and cheese sausage roll that was indeed VERY good 🙂 We also bought a loaf of fresh bread and a couple of HUGE sandwiches that would be dinner.
Travelling north, we passed through the town of Gin Gin. We did not stop as we had been here not to long ago. We thought we might stop at Miriamvale but decided we did not need to so kept going. A little way further north we came to Bororen and a “Big Giraffe” The cafe must be good as the carpark was packed as was the road in front 🙁 We pulled over at the park across the road to use the amenities and kept heading north. I am hoping we can check out the “Big Giraffe on the way south.
We stopped for a “driver reviver” free hot drink at Calliope. This stop was in the Calliope Historic Village. I dropped a few coins into the donation box and we sat and enjoyed our cups of tea. The men in the kiosk asked where we were travelling to, and when we said said Rockhampton, they asked if we were coming for the “Rocky Nats” We said no ( as we had no idea what that was) They explained that there was a huge car show and race meet thing happening. When I looked it up I understood why I was not able to find accomodation.
As were were having our drinksI could see there was a number of caravans down by the river to the west, so when we were back in the car, we went to have a look. We duly found the Calliope River Campground. This is a such a lovely spot and I would imagine it would be a relaxing spot for a few days.
A bit further north we passed an intersting looking sign that alerted us to beware of trucks carrying explosives?? In the distance to the west we could see a number of buildings and a very secure looking fence on the highway. Google told us that the area is the site of a Queensland government explosives reserve. (Who knew)
We rolled into Rockhampton around 3:00pm (right in time for school pick up time) Traffic was quite heavy but we made it through Rockhampton and on to Yeppoon. We made a quick stop off at Woolworths to pick up some provisions and we checked into our apartment just after 4:30. We had a quiet night after our big drive.
We slept in until around 7:30. After we had showers and a cup of tea, we went downstairs for our included full breakfast. The breakfast here is a buffet of cold meats, cheese, fruit, pastries, cereals, bread choices for toast, juices and hot drinks. As well as that, we get a choice of a hot breakfast from the menu as well.
After breakfast we, went back to the room, tidied up and went down to the bus stop and across to the Myer Centre to have a browse through some shops to fill in time before lunch. We are not really shoppers, so we headed toward the Treasury Casino to have a look and then get a City Cat Ferry up to Eagle Street where we wanted to have lunch.
We were standing at the traffic lights waiting to cross the road when we noticed a “City Loop” Bus. It said it was a free loop bus, so we thought we would take a ride. It was a pleasant loop around the city in air-conditioned comfort. Off the bus back at where we started, we had a look around the casino.
We headed to the ferry stop where there was a free “City Hopper” ferry waiting. We laughed that it seemed we were having trouble spending money today ” 🙂
We got off the ferry at Eagle Street and made our way to Massimo for lunch
The last time we were in Brisbane we had seen this restaurant and wanted to go on this trip. This is the view from our table.
After lunch we hopped on a city cat going downstream, so we thought we would go for a ride. We always enjoy travelling on the City Cat. There was a cruise ship docked at the Hamilton Terminal. It is always a sight to see these floating cities.
Back to Southbank and up to the room to cool down a bit. We planned on going out for dessert later on.
Next to the Mantra is San Churro and we had decided that was dessert.
Churros with Milk and Dark Chocolate and Chocolate Cake later and we went back to the room to “collapse”
!! Updated to include costs !! Scroll to the bottom of this post
This year we are road tripping through QLD/NSW country. We are travelling down to see family outside of family Wollongong for Christmas Day,
And to avoid the coastal crowds, where accommodation costs
would be prohibitive,
we have elected to travel down the New England Hwy and come back up the Newell
Hwy.
Our itinerary is as follows
20th December – Dicky Beach to Warwick (via Toowoomba for Lunch)
21st December – Warwick to Tamworth
22nd December – Tamworth to
Pokolbin(Hunter Valley) for 2 nights
24th December – Pokolbin to Wollongong for 2 nights
26th December – Wollongong to Canberra for 2 nights
28th December – Canberra to Cowra
29th December – Cowra to Leura (Blue Mountains) for 2 nights
31st December – Leura to Mudgee
1st January – Mudgee to Dubbo for 2 nights
3rd January – Dubbo to Moree
4th January – Moree to Toowoomba
5th January – Toowoomba to Brisbane (Southbank) for 7 nights
12th January – Brisbane – Dicky Beach
We have organised the car with our Engel fridge and packed pantry and food from our fridge at home. We have booked AirBnB and self-contained accommodation everywhere, so we will be self catering for most meals.
We do have the “Entertainment Book” which we will use vouchers for meals for Lunches at nice restaurants we want to try. This means we will have light evening meals at our accommodation.
The first couple of days are covering ground we have seen a few times before, so one night stops are in order to be able to be in Wollongong by Christmas Day to see family. Our first 2 night stay is Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley. I have chosen a hotel/resort in the centre of the action and hope to do a bit of wine tasting and eat some good food.
Update… We have been away a while now so my costs sheet has some meaningful data. I am very happy with our budget thus far. We did not bring a lot of food from home as we don’t have a lot of room in the car. We have a 40L Engel Fridge, another little 10L fridge and we have pantry items in two standard zip-up supermarket “cooler” bags. Staying at AirBnB accommodation should mean we will be provided with some breakfast provisions as well which keeps the food costs down. When we do eat out, I want to try and choose restaurants that we have Entertainment book vouchers. We are EXTREMELY happy with how economical the car is. We had been told the mileage was good, but we have not really looked into it in detail. The following spreadsheet will update automatically as I add to it, so please check back often 🙂
We decided to see Tasmania in winter 2005 We enjoy the cold and we certainly got cold. We had a great trip and it proved to be the first of many Tassie trips.
