Welcome back to my travelogue of our East Coast Australia Family Friendly Road Trip, read part one here.
PART TWO – Brisbane, South Queensland to Ingham, North Queensland: Around 7 Days
Following the serenity of Byron Bay, Sea World on the Gold Coast was next, after all the holiday must have something for everyone. Happily the kids rides were appropriate for children 4 to 10 years old and young adults were obviously having a great time too. We chose the special experience of a seal encounter.
Business and pleasure were on the cards in Brisbane so we stayed at the Stamford Plaza in the Plaza Suite which boasts a generous balcony with views over the river. This was a great setting for conversation with friends and a sunset view across the river.
One morning we had tickets to Bluey’s World for 9:30am. While we arrived 15 minutes late there is a half hour grace period so into the queue we went with the other buzzing Bluey fans. The guided pantomime tour was engaging and immersive, wackadoo! To book-end a day of culture we head to QAGOMA . A short walk from here we find Southside on Fish Lane, contemporary Asian dining in a tropical garden setting outdoors underneath a train line, a high-end concrete jungle vibe. Joy rides on the ferries also counted as an activity, and we happened to score both the Bluey and Bingo river dogs. Get on at North Quay wharf to skip the queues at Southbank wharf.
In the City Botanic Gardens on a Sunday we stumbled upon the Riverside Market with delectable Vietnamese food, fresh juice, various commercial stalls and a fro-gurt van. The Baldwin Lawn Playground in the gardens complemented this happy discovery.
In Noosa our home for the night is the Peppers Hotel, a slightly more up-scale version of the family cabins we’ve been booking between our fancier stays along the road, albeit falling well short of top class. It comes with a kitchenette and laundry area, cooking for ourselves and cleaning are not lowlights but essential down-time on a long journey. There is much to explore at the beautiful Noosa National Park, with 2 to 3 hours to relax we head for the ‘Fairy Pools’, ocean-side rock pools just off the coastline walking track. It’s about a 20 minute flat track from the carpark at a good pace, decorated with abundant melaleuca, pandanus and amazing views. Once you reach the turn-off take a very careful scramble down some rocks to the pools. Be careful if you attempt this. It was magnificent, and a beacon to plenty of bikini-babes and boyfriends of instagram. Even so, we found a peaceful spot to ourselves.
Behind the wheel again, the landscape is now largely sugarcane. From time to time we pull over for farm to table fruits, best finds are succulent bags of finger limes and bananas.
Travelling in the direction of Bundaberg we reach Turtle Sands in Mon Repos. The comfortable beach-front accommodation sits on a protected stretch of reserve marine park. It’s not the season for turtles, so to the estuary and mangroves we go for an outdoorsy morning, cognisant of diminishing opportunities for crocodile-free-frolicking. Onward to Yeppoon with a lunch and play stop in Miriam Vale; at Alf Larson Park is a good playground. We reach Mackay with a stop at the highway adjacent, Flaggy Rock Café for a yummy feed. We’re learning it is wise to call ahead at our road-stops, as many kitchens close early by the standards of us ‘Southerners’.
Our next special booking, the Mirage Whitsundays is at the breathtaking Airlie Beach. We feasted outdoors on the waterfront at Sorrento Restaurant & Bar watching helicopters and yachts dot the vista. A side note, not only is all our open-air dining good for avoiding viruses, it is also proving to make eating at nicer places more manageable with (sometimes messy or noisy) kids.
Speaking of children, it was their turn for 5-star treatment next, and we headed to the BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort for a night. To their delight there is not much else to do except swim, thunder down a web of waterslides, play mini golf, pet farm animals, catch an outdoor movie, get amongst the playground, basketball and tennis court. It was a busy (and fun) 18 hours.
As we inch closer to the Daintree we have already clocked more than 30 hours of driving. On the way to sleep at Lucinda Cove Resort we are treated to an incredible sunset over the water from the attached Slipway Bar & Restaurant. The seagulls of yesterday have been replaced by bush stone-curlews. While we didn’t have long here it’s a destination for some as Hinchinbrook Island is accessible to a handful of hikers, kayakers and boaters.
Far North Queensland here we come!
Part 1: Berry To Byron Bay