North Stradbroke Island

After getting rained out earlier in the year, we rebooked our camping trip to Straddie. We had storms forecast this time as well, but we were able to get our tent up just before it rained.

The Cyliner Beach Campsite we stayed at was really good, was right on the beach and some local Kangaroos and Curlews.

We were camping just near Point Lookout and so we went toSouth Gorge Beach for a quick look before it rained. It is closed to swimmers despite the Surf Life Saving Club being on the hill above it. It was a really nice beach but there were definitely some strong currents and swimming would be a bad idea.

The next morning we went back to South Gorge. There is a walking track around to the Whale Rock Blowhole Lookout, it definitely did sound like a whale and a bit more impressive then what we called the Blowhole at Emu Park.

From here we also saw a bunch of dolphins chasing a school of fish as well as a turle.

The walking circuit was closed to North Gorge, but you could still go back to the carpark and start at the other end for the first part of the walk.

Most of the beaches looked really nice but were closed to swimmers due to the currents.

In the afternoon we went to Brown Lake. The brown colour reminded me of Water Park Creek near Rocky. There was a very cold breeze so we didn’t stay in the water long.

At night we went looking for crabs.

And then after good weather all day - finally got hit by a big storm once we’d gone to bed.

Cylinder Beach itself was also really nice. There was a little protected pool Lyra could wade in.

The tent was pretty soaked but at least it wasn’t raining while we pulled it down. It started raining about 5 minutes after we finished. It then cleared up again by the time we drove back around to the Dunwhich Marina.

Rachael was not impressed that we were sharing the ferry back with a bunch of trucks.