Arrived here at about 1pm for our three day stay. It really is a special touch of paradise. We have an absolute beach frontage spot, so we can sit under our awning and look at the ocean rolling in. The sights and sounds of the sea are something else. I find the ocean mesmerising, just like gazing into a fire I can gaze at the ocean rolling into the shore for hours. We are looking forward to falling asleep tonight to the sounds of the sea. Quite wonderful to say the least.
Got up this morning to overcast skies, but the ocean keeps rolling in, in perpetual motion and the overcast sky gives it all a rather eerie appearance. We are thinking it might rain or we may even have a thunderstorm later. Now that would be super, looking at lightning over the horizon. I don't like our chances though. It's not the wet season yet so a bit early for storms.
Tuesday
We went for a drive today to Toolakea to see where we lived for three months about ten years ago. The house is still there, but a lot more homes have been built in that area. Then we had a look at the three free camping spots we saw on the way up here.
One is at Bluewater. It has toilets and a dump point. Council workers were there doing the gardens.
Then there was another one just down the road at Rollingstone, called Bushland Rest Area. There were at least 30 vans there, once again toilets and a dump point. Next there was a lovely spot about 4km down the road at Balgal Beach, about 20 vans here with toilets and a dump point also. It is next to a park which flows on to the beach on one side and an inlet at which there were a few people fishing. There was also a little cafe there serving meals and fish and chips, etc as well as litle bar serving beer, etc. This is all free camping supplied by councils with a forty-eight hour camping limit, however it appeared at all these locations that quite a few people had stayed well over the forty-eight hours, judging by the washing hanging on lines and the set up of the camps. We wondered why a lovely caravan park such as the one we were in had so few people and these free camps in such close proximity explain it.
Apparently the people in the van next door to us saw some whales breaching a good way out to sea We got out the binoculars and had a good look, but we missed out on seeing them. We will keep an eye open for them though from now on.
We will be leaving here tomorrow and going NW over the tablelands to Atherton.