This almost feels like our first real use of the van. What I mean by that is the motivation for the previous couple of trips was "we have this van, we better use it". However this trip has been motivated by the desire to get away coupled with the ability to do so.
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| View to beach from northern end of park |
So I did a quick recon mission down to the park:
- Available spot looked fine - approval 1, tick.
- Ran the idea via Stace - approval 2, tick.
- Submitted the Leave Application to the other boss - approval 3, tick!
and suddenly we were set for a unique New Years eve at Bargara Beach Caravan Park.
Bargara sits up on the central coast. Head east of Bundy for approx 10 minutes, through some sugar cane growing area and when you hit the beach, you've found Bargara. I generally don't mind Bundy, but if you had to live there then Bargara is where I'd plant myself.
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| Rest break north of Gympie |
Day 1: Saw us arrive at the CP at approx 2pm. Took a couple of hours to fully set up camp, which seems to be about our going rate. I hear some talk about people setting up in 10mins, but with 4 kids and all the associated gear I'll settle for a couple of hours.
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| Base Camp |
We'd also spoilt ourselves with a late Xmas present of a Satellite system from Sat Gear. We weren't planning to set it up on the first night, but there was still a little light left so we gave it a crack. The how-to instructions were spot on which had us set up to watch the 6pm news in no time. It was then beer o'clock and time to hook in for the New Years count down.
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| New Years Celebrations |
Day 2: New Years day and it was a late start, but a great way to start the new year with a sleep in and a big breaky. The kids wouldn't stop nagging to go for a swim, so we then hit the beach. Had a great time in the surf, but spending a few hours there in the middle of the day would prove to have some red painful consequences for all of us. After our surf it was back to camp for some bike riding, kicking the footy and a few games of Rummy-o.
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| Neilson's Beach Fun |
Tragedy almost struck when it was realised I put a much bigger dent into the bottle of Jack last night than I'd anticipated. It's new years day in a sleepy coastal town and panic started to set in as I contemplated a dry afternoon. Thankfully disaster was averted when Google and the local Liquorland came to my rescue.
Day 3: We took a drive down to Elliot Heads to check out the coastline. A really nice part of the QLD coast that will no doubt be developed over the coming years.
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| Elliot Heads |
Back to Bargara for fish and chips whilst sitting in the shade of the palm trees right on the beach.
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| Paradise |
The kids played in the park before we all cooled down with some product from the ice-creamery.
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| Nice playground for the kids |
Once it was time to head back to camp we did a quick detour to Woolies on the edge of town for more drinking supplies. We always seem to underestimate how much bottled water we will drink in the heat. The afternoon was spent trying to keep cool in the shade with a game of cards and a bit of quiet DS time for the boys. When the sun finally lost a bit of its sting we reapplied the suncream and hit the beach for another surf. It's nice to simply lock the van, grab the esky and walk across the road to the beach - quite the life!
Day 4: Started with a morning surf before returning to camp for a relaxing day.
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| Perfect conditions for a morning swim |
The weather has been great during our stay and today was even better because there was a fairly strong breeze to keep things a little cooler during the middle of the day. In the afternoon we jumped in the car and drove down to Kelly's beach which has a still water inlet so the kids could do some fishing. After a short attempt at wetting a line, we moved across to the surf beach for some more action. That breeze I mentioned earlier had really picked up which made walking along the beach like walking through a sandstorm. The light weight rods and tackle were no match for the blowing gale, so we settled in for some fun in the choppy, patrolled surf.
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| Kelly's Beach |
Day 5: Friday and unfortunately it's time to join the throng of people leaving the place. Pack up takes about the same time as setup and we're out of the CP at 9am, an hour before official checkout.
In summary: Bargara was a great location for a getaway. It had everything we needed and more. The place is isolated enough to feel away from it all but close enough to facilities in Bundy if needed.
For the CP itself I'd give thema pass mark and we would have no problem returning one day. Although that's more to do with the location rather than facilities.
We're only new to this game but I'd imagine this has got to be considered a bloody big park by most standards. Given the size of the place I was surprised at the lack of facilities. They really need another ablution block. The current blocks are cleaned regularly (twice per day) but there's simply not enough services for the vast number of people. The kids playground is ultra basic and there's no pool if those things are important to you.
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| Some more of these please owners |
On the positive side, despite the sheer volume of people it didn't feel overcrowded where we were (probably because our section is often used by 5th Wheelers). Our site needed some shade, however you can't really argue with the location when the booking was last "minute". We've made some notes on preferred locations should we return one day.
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| Cabins at the southern end of CP have a view of the ocean |
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| Skate park located between CP and beach |
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| View from south to north |
Klms: 1005
Time: 140hrs
Fuel: 17.2L/100k
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