Double island Point Day Trip
Our day trip started on a sunny Saturday morning with seven 4WDs meeting up at the BP Northbound servo at Burpengary for an 8.30am start. We all made sure we had the required beach permit before heading off. Lee lead the trip brief and the convoy.
On the highway south of Gympie Jarrad had a fishing rod incident which was quickly resolved. In the same spot Chris and Barb heard a loud bang which brought a sudden and abrupt end to their trip. RACQ came to the rescue.
We paused just before entering the four-wheel drive only Kings Bore Circuit track to air down. The Kings Bore Circuit is a 40km inland drive within the Cooloola Recreation Area. We hadn’t gone far before we had to navigate a step up, we all got through without incident except Brad who heard a very loud hissing sound. His tire rim was dinted, and the tire was flat, requiring his first track side tire change in the Hilux. There was plenty of help on hand from the club so we were rolling again before long.
The next sounds were more of the banging, pushing and dragging type which required frequent stops by everyone to pull sticks and branches out from under the cars.
The track were good fun though quite slow going, around two to three hours, due to the amount of debris over the track and trees down probably the result of ex-TC Seth. Lee did a great job of navigating us over the unmarked tracks. The scenery presented beautiful shades of green, open forest, rainforest and interesting plants to enjoy on the way.
We travelled a short distance on the sealed road before we entered the Freshwater Road track. What a beautiful sandy track it was. The scenery was different to the other tracks we’d been on with tall open forests, woodlands and surprising cool rainforest track leading to Teewah Beach. Very beautiful and worth visiting.
We made a quick stop at the Freshwater camp grounds to use the facilities before driving into the beach and through the Leisha track to Double Island for lunch.
The water was a lovely temperature and the children, and Lee took the opportunity to splash around in the sea for a while.
Unlike the sunny weather at the start of the day the weather turned windy and we left just as the rain started coming down quite hard. We did consider going to see Eight Mile Rocks (better known as Mudlo rocks) as they’ve been exposed at the moment but changed our mind due to the sea still being quite high up the beach.
The 50km drive down Teewah Beach was fabulous, whetting our appetite for K’Gari in May. Seeing the waves crashing to shore was lovely, driving though the heavy rain was interesting. For some of us it was our first trip to the area. We can certainly imagine how beautiful the area would be on a clear day.
We left the beach without further incident, aired up and washed our cars under the high pressure car wash. We drove onto the Tewantin Ferry, crossed the river, then onto the highway for the drive home.
What a great day we had in the Great Sandy National Park! On a side note it was our little granddaughter, Luella’s first time in a National Park. She loved it.
Big thanks to Lee for organising and hosting it and for Becca for stepping in as Tail End Charlie.
Louise Watson