Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019

March - May 2019

This trip will take us from home to near Jameison, Vic to Canberra, Sydney and back home. We intend to travel the western roads after a week stopover in Brisbane. Read more

66footprints
1countries
73days
248photos
0videos
4.6kkilometers

Follow Calendar Share Bucket list

Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 12, 2019, 3:00pm
- ⛅ 35 °C
- Altitude: 11 m
- Australia Queensland Rockhampton Emu Park -23.26496, 150.8173423°15’54” S 150°49’2” E
Day 1
Heading off.
March 12, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C
After a busy few weeks getting the camper trailer ready for this trip we are ready to depart. Final departure time was just before 3pm. Our rough plan is to head to Boynedale bush camp for the night, rather than the previously planned Wongi waterholes camp.

Originally this trip was going to be a quick run via Brisbane to visit relatives in Canberra. Simple and easy? Well Canberra is not actually far from Melbourne, and we also have relatives. So an additional bit was extended in the end. Not too much extra, drive down, drive back after a visit.

Might as well head back via the high country as that is not much longer.

Soon we had an interesting trip planned for Brisbane, Melbourne, high country, Canberra and back home. This info passed on to camp Melbourne. Seems that the Melbourne crew felt they would like to have a week or so camping somewhere a couple of hours out. A place has been chosen and all the previous plans adjusted.

We won't go to Melbourne now, and the high country is out for now. There's just the matter of fitting in a music festival at St Albans and a few days in Sydney to catch up with relatives there.

Turns out the dates for Sydney coincide with a special deal in a van park near Narabeen. That happens to be close to where we want to be so that is now booked in. $144 for 4 nights is a great deal for us. One advantage of being able to travel in the off season now we are retired.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 12, 2019, 8:46pm
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitude: 45 m
- Australia Queensland Bundaberg Gin Gin -24.97356, 151.9457524°58’25” S 151°56’45” E
Day 1
Gin Gin overnight camp.
March 12, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
We ran into rain before the turn off to Boynedale. The camper is definitely no joy to put up in the rain so we decided to drive past the storms. This turned out to be a bit before Gin Gin. By around 8pm the 20 hour camp sounded very good.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 13, 2019, 12:15pm
- ☀️ 37 °C
- Altitude: 31 m
- Australia Queensland Doongul Creek -25.4378, 152.5439725°26’16” S 152°32’38” E
Day 2
Wongi Waterholes Camp.
March 13, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C
This place was spectacular. Stunning waterholes with quite a lot of birds.

We arrived early for the 2pm set up so went for a walk and had lunch. Then we set up our camp.

Lunch was interesting. I was serving out and was suddenly swooped by a kookaburra who took all my ham from the plate. He and a few of his mates ate the spoils before retreating to the tree in case I was careless. Several attempted swoops were fruitless.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 14, 2019, 3:00am
- 🌙 22 °C
- Altitude: 57 m
- Australia Queensland Logbridge Creek -25.4465, 152.5379325°26’47” S 152°32’17” E
Day 3
Logbridge Creek
March 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
The road we had driven in from Howard was the shortest way from Gympie. It was not the easiest way. Typical non maintained forestry roads with no sign age. We went the wrong way a couple of times but with help from Google we managed to get to the camp.

The way out was much better and we made good time back to the highway. Just on from the camp was another of so many scenic spots. The shallow water here was home to many wadi g birds.

Next trip to one of the two camps here we will avoid the poor forestry tracks and go on the better road in.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 14, 2019, 12:48pm
- ⛅ 32 °C
- Altitude: 72 m
- Australia Queensland Gympie Regional Council Monkland Fairview Hill -26.2146, 152.6862326°12’53” S 152°41’10” E
Day 3
Lake Alford, Gympie
March 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
We often seem to be at Gympie around lunchtime. The park here is beautifully maintained and home to many enthusiastic birds hanging around in case you drop some food.
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 15, 2019, 8:16pm
- 🌧 22 °C
- Altitude: 26 m
- Australia Queensland Brisbane Greenslopes Stephens Mountain -27.50718, 153.0500227°30’26” S 153°3’0” E
Day 4
Camping in a van park.
March 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
My old mate Luigi had a novel description of rain like this. I won't repeat that here but it is certainly bucketing down and Luigi's descriptive saying come to mind.

We arrived at about 2:30 and commenced a full Monty set up. As we were halfway through I observed what looked like an approaching storm.
It bucketed down. The kind of shower we had in the bush when there was lots of water. Then it blew and huffed until the pegs began to yield. Luckily only one let go.

Fortunately we had everything set with the waterproof tarp over the sleeping area. Not having any side walls in was probably a good thing, as later the wind tried hard to blow it all apart.

Water was soon pooling everywhere and the nice square neat rigout had to be lowered at each corner til the pools of water drained. It was like a fire hose held by a demented fireman letting us have the full force.

The FX department threw in some lightning and thunder. Great bolts of million volt flashes constantly firing at mother earth. Then sheets of fiery light racing across above us with the sound right on top of us. This happened several times and pretty much scared the bajeesus out of us each time. After nearly an hour it eased of to a bit of spitting.

Then the rain started again. Steady soaking rain. The kind you just can't get dry in. We will be heading to bed with the patter of rain on our tarp. Hope it does not leak too much. Everything is getting wet.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 18, 2019, 9:00am
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitude: 11 m
- Australia Queensland Brisbane Carindale -27.51887, 153.1130527°31’8” S 153°6’47” E
Day 7
A very wet couple of days.
March 18, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
It has now fined up. The sun is out and the batteries are being charged at last.

We endured several more quite heavy storms. The only thankful aspect was there was very little wind. As the ground got more and more soaked the pegs all started to yield. Larger pegs replaced standard ones and finally some had to be replaced with huge soft ground pegs. Remains to be seen if they will be easily removed or not. They did take a bit of effort to drive in.

Family has visited and we managed to have lunch before another shower of rain. That was also quite heavy for a while. Later in the afternoon the annexe and fly tarp were adjusted for the night ahead. This time only a little very light rain. By this afternoon everything should be fully dry again.

Trouble is though, more storms are predicted for most of the time we are here.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 20, 2019, 6:59pm
- ☁️ 25 °C
- Altitude: 9 m
- Australia Queensland Brisbane West End Toowong Reach -27.4857, 153.001927°29’9” S 153°0’7” E
Day 9
Eating out in Brisbane
March 20, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
During our time in Brisbane, we only dined out a couple of times. The most memorable will be a "Gastro Pub" in West End. For anyone wondering a Gastro pub is a place that serves high end beers and food. These guys had 18 different beers on tap. This place is a revamp of a very old factory building. Apparently the part that is now the bar and restaurant is was the main storage for a shoe company many years past.

The shoes were actually made next door. Since the building does not look like a typical storage building I suspect it was something else before that. The place is called London Fields. Big thanks to family who arranged the evening as a gift to us.

Yesterday, dining of a quite different kind. We were visiting good friends and conversation drifted as we reminisced about the dining we recalled in our younger days. Chip sandwiches were mentioned and my friend said he had not had that experience for a long time. For me it had been many years. We remembered the white slices of bread, way too much butter to be healthy and a huge stack of chips from the shop. This delight has to be firmly squished down before tucking in.

The new tiger bread worked well and we enjoyed a trip down memory lane. Our wifes were not so enthusiastic, preferring to chip dip in Mayo and naked chip chomp.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 24, 2019, 12:00pm
- ☀️ 31 °C
- Altitude: 47 m
- Australia Queensland Brisbane Warner -27.2954, 152.9407927°17’43” S 152°56’27” E
Day 13
Packing up after a week in one place.
March 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
One of the downsides to camping in one place for 10 days is the inevitable packing up. One tends to spread out a little and that all has to go back into containers and suitcases. Today is wash day and a bit of packing up of the items we won't require before we head off.

This after we will shop for a few items but since we are not off the main areas this trip we can buy food and any other needs along the way. Most small towns are fairly well stocked with many IGA supermarkets to shop at. Prices are usually a little more than major cities but don't ever seem excessive. Fresh fruit and veggies is sometimes more scarce though. We can easily carry enough water for a week or two.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Mar 25, 2019, 12:00pm
- ☁️ 30 °C
- Altitude: 477 m
- Australia Queensland Southern Downs Warwick Rosenthal Creek -28.22025, 152.0291828°13’13” S 152°1’45” E
Day 14
Warwick, Qld
March 25, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
On our way today and lunch time. We decided to try The Malt House. Turned out to be an excellent choice with great food and service.
0 likes