2026-03-13
Having acquired what we thought was sufficient items for the caravan we decided to try it out for real (not just in the front yard). The original plan was to go to Mons Repose in Bundeburg and do a turtle hatching tour while there, but I couldn't get a weekend booking for the turtles so I looked elsewhere. It was a good thing too, since Bundeburg was flooded last week and is likely not in a fit state for visitors right now. The backup plan was to go to Stanthorpe. This was a good plan, but I'd arranged for Mum & Dad to come camping with us (in their van) and that would have been a good 5.5 - 6 hr drive for them, so Plan C was to look for something between us. I found the Kilkivan Bush Camping caravan park and camping site online and it looked ok, so we went with that.
Having settled on a location, we decided on the weekend of the 13th-15th, taking the Friday off in Leave. We spent the week leading up to today packing the van, and generally getting ready (a couple of minor fixes to the car, etc). And then it was time to leave.
And off we went. The trip up the Bruce Hwy to Gympie was fairly uneventful. We then turned off on the Wide Bay Hwy and headed inland. Maps took us down Spencer Rd, which turned out to be dirt, but it was dry and not rough and only went for a couple of kms before joining Rossmore Rd (the one we should have taken) which was sealed and led directly to the park. Upon arrival, we discovered the office was not manned and there were no paper maps to find out site, and no mobile reception to look up the map on the website (which frankly is a terrible map anyway). I took a stab in the dark and headed, found a creek and we setup camp next to it. It wasn't the site we'd booked, but the groundsman said there was very few bookings this weekend so we could just setup anywhere. The creek wasn't Fat Hen Creek, but Sawpit Creek.
So definitely not the site we'd booked, but it's a nice little creek and the site is level and accessible, so that became our camp. We setup the starlink so we could check the map and see where Mum & Dad were, and that also gave us phone signal (over wifi). Handy, as I rec'd a call from Dad not long after stating they were having car problems with the Jeep (that vehicle really is cursed), going in to Limp Mode. They eventually made it to site after we'd set up.
Dad and I took a look at the Jeep to see if we could work out what was up with it, but couldn't make the warning lights on the dash go away, so we drove in to town to the local mechanic to see if they could diagnose it. It was about 2pm, so they were still open, although the only food in town was a couple of cake-adjacent things at the Roadhouse Café as being that late in the day, nothing else was open and cooking. Lunch therefore was a slice of apple pie and an iced latté. The mechanic determined it wasn't something they could fix that afternoon so the plan is they'll tow the Jeep and Dad's van back to Maryborough on Sunday morning (care of RACQ) where he can take it to his regular mechanic.
After that little side-quest, it was back to camp. We spent some time trying to work out where we were on the camp map, and also where the amenities were. On that latter point, I went for a wander and found the amenties not too far away. They are clean and have a frog motif (at least in the Men's).
Dinner was had in Mum & Dad's van and consisted of a delicious ragu that Mum had made previously. At around 9ish we returned to our van and decided to shower in the van to test it out (and because wandering around in the dark to find the shower block seemed like too much effort)
It rained overnight and in the morning we were greeted by the sounds of brush turkeys outside, and pinkish clouds in the sky,
The Saturday plan isn't finalised yet, but I'll put some beef cheeks on in the slow cooker in the morning, and depending on the weather, we might drive out (all in our car most likely) to the national park nearby.