We arrived back home yesterday (23/9). It is clear that we have to do a lot of gardening to get the  place tip-top again.

All in all we have had a great 10 weeks.

They even have a Dragon Boat club

Coast Guard

Tin Can Bay is a tranquil village with plenty to do. Located at the southern end of the southern tip of the World Heritage listed Fraser Island. The town adjoins the great Sandy Strait and offers a sheltered paradise for birdwatching, sailing, cruising on a houseboat or fishing.

20/7 We have slowly set up camp bit by bit. We are planning to stay here for a good few weeks and need to be organised. Part of that organisation is exercise. On This trip I have taken along one of my bikes and have taken my first ride in a long time. I did only 20km, but that is better than nothing. I explored the inlets and the point of Tin Can Bay where all the boats are moored. There is even a Marina here with Chandlers and boat repair facilities.

There are some great restaurants serving good fresh seafood….

Looks and feels tropical

Our home for a while/

Camp with caravan, on-suit, and annex (yet to be deployed)

Finally some cycling

Mangroves everywhere

boats stranded on the mudbanks

During the low tide boats are resting on the mudflats. During high tide everything floats.

Irish Boat

They even have a Dragon Boat club

Coast Guard

The caravan park for boats

We left Woodgate early-ish in the morning to go up north some 150km to a remote little place by the name of Baffle creek. There is a lovely caravan park amongst tropical trees and palms along the banks of the Baffle creek. The camp sites are green with grass and some of the power sites have cement slabs. The park is about 6 km from the river mouth.

Along the way from Woodgate were many areas that farmed sugar cane and Macadamia nuts. In places there was sugar cane as far as the eye can see.

Baffle creek is about fishing. There are a number of launching sites and they do catch fish from the boats. Fish are caught from the shores of the river or the jetties less frequently.

When you get to the beaches you can see the signs of the recent cyclone. The beaches are eroded and dead trees are littered above the high water mark. You can see where the waters had eaten away at the dunes. Driving on the beach is a bit difficult and suggestion is that tyre pressure is reduced to around 1.3 Bar.

The caravan park is one of the few parks that allow fires in designated areas. Wood is available for $12 a load or heaps more if you are prepared to cut it yourself; ask park management about details.

As I do not have a boat the fishing is going to be tough. So, instead we decided to do a bit of exploring.

Agnes Water and the town of Seventeen Seventy (1770)

The next day we went to explore the coastline just north of Baffle Creek

We drove north to a town called Agnes Waters that had a pleasant beach, newish shops and some recently developed residential estates. As one could not see the sea/beach from most of the town it lost the wow factor for me and we continued on to the town of 1770. Seventeen Seventy, also written as 1770, is a village in Queensland, Australia, built on the site of the second landing by Captain James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770.

The place is stunning, interesting and of historical significance. It has a lot of old world charm and spectacular sites and sights. Links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Seventy,_Queensland

As we got there the CFA were burning off which caused some interesting smoky outlooks. Burn-offs happen all around Australia to reduce the fuel load for the dry season and so reduce the likelihood of bush fires.

As you get to the town there are launching facilities and stunning views up and down the inlet / natural harbor. It is easy to see why Captain Cook chose this place to stop.

The topography is hilly so there are great lookouts and vantage points like Bustard point  . People have built homes on the hills that offer spectacular views of the surrounding sea.

Queenslanders love Letter Boxes

We all have letter boxes. Yep, we go to Bunnings and buy one of these metal monster in mission brown, black or caramel colors. Letter boxes are an iconic feature in our communities. The posty deposits the mail regularly and everybody is happy!  Right??…Wrong.

Queenslanders love letter boxes and here in rural Queensland they get very inventive and arty about their mail receptables. I sense that there is a sense of humor attached to the selection of the letter box. Have a look of some of these that I have come across so far.  I will keep posting these as I find more unique ones. Please post to me in return any that you have come across.

We moved to the Port Vincent Foreshore Caravan park. We had heard from a number of sources about this great caravan park. It is situated right on the beach. The park has good facilities and is kept clean and neat all the time. The trip yesterday had established Port Vincent as top pick after Point Turton.  As I am writing this content I am very glad that we are here at Port Vincent. We have booked in for 6 days.

Port Vincent Bay from our Caravan

Port Vincent Marina

Port Vincent is just short of half way up Gulf St. Vincent. You can see the Adelaide Hills from here and the lights of Adelaide at night. It is around 230 km from Adelaide by road. It has a small town centre, a very modern marina and some great beaches. The caravan park is right on the beach with the ‘front row seats’ overlooking the gulf. If you are in need of a great coffee in a very friendly environment, the ‘Chill Out’ café in main street will do you just fine. They make good food as well with their bacon & egg roll serving as a good breakfast a number of times. Every day we go for a swim with the Spoodles and walk along the kilometers of beach.

Front row seats

21/10 Yesterday we decided to do a bit of a tour of the middle Yorke peninsula. We headed north from Port Vincent to Port Julia. This is a little village that has a jetty and was once used to ship grain. The main reason I even mention this place is that they have a most amazing road sign; ‘CHILDREN DON’T BOUNCE SLOW DOWN’. How weird! Did they test this?? If so how?? Did they drop a child from 6 foot and measure the bounce? Surely a ‘beware of children’ sign would have sufficed??

How did they get to know this?  Did they do some Testing?

We continued to Ardrossan that is part of the Copper mining area. Just south of the town there is a impressive  lookout place that has been established on top of a very large mining dump. The views are grand from here. Ardrossan is a nice sized town with good infrastructure, a good jetty for squidding and mining/shipping piers and infrastructure.

Ore shipping facility

Open Cast mining at Ardrossan

Ardrossan

We continued to Maitland that was the biggest centre on this trip. It is mainly agricultural. From there we went on to Port Victoria and back to Port Vincent. Port Victoria, on the west coast of the Yorke, has a great jetty and swimming beach. It looks out over the Point Pierce islands and peninsula which are Aboriginal  land. Back here at Vincent the local sailing club had a regatta going.  At the end of the day the dogs passed out, they had a huge day.

Pier at Port Victoria

Sailing Regatta at Port Vincent

The only good Spoodle is a sleeping Spoodle

Today we decided to extend our stay by another 6 days.