Town of 1770

On the way to Mulambin we made a quick stop in the town 1770.  I’ve always been curious about the town but it has always been soooo far away on the map.  But suddenly we were nearby!  We decided to stop in for a quick look.  The town is called 1770 after the year that Captain Cook landed there.  It was the first place he landed in Queensland.

 

It turned out to be a holiday spot.  A beautiful one.  If you ever visit and choose to stay in a caravan park, choose the one furthest up the peninsula. (If you zoom in on the map, you’ll see 1770 is at the end of a small peninsula.)  It’s right on the beach.  Right on the beach.  As we made our way along the beach to the cairn we were walking right past campers.  It looked lovely.

It wasn’t far to the cairn marking where Captain Cook landed on the 24th of May 1770.

Such a simple monument for such a momentous occasion.  So momentous they named the town after the date it happened!

 

I’m not even sure Cook came ashore here, it just says he landed here.  One of the signs above says Joseph Banks came ashore, though, and collected various plant species.  Can you imagine how fun that must have been for him?  As a botanist, to see all these new plants would have been so exciting.

Such a peaceful spot, it looked like a great place for a holiday.  We were here in winter and all the caravan parks were full.  Mostly Victorians trying to escape the cold, probably!

See the name on the ‘ship’ in the playground?  :)

After a good play we were back in the car.  Since we had a long car ride that day (we’d started near Bundaberg) we let the kids watch a movie in the car.  That’s a rare treat for them, though we have a dvd player in the car we don’t use it much.  We want them to look out he window occasionally.   TurboBug does exceptionally well in the car so we are able to do four hours a day or so without too much trouble.  Four hours doesn’t sound like much, but include packing up the van at the beginning of the day and setting up at the end and it makes for a long day.  Nothing like when I was at uni and my roommate and I drove more than twenty hours across America all at once!

Bluff Point Walk in Mulambin, QLD

Is this not the prettiest kookaburra ever?  He looks so soft and fluffy.  :)

While in Mulambin we did the Bluff Point walk.   We’d read you could get a 360 degree view of the area and see turtles swimming in the ocean.  Sounds good!

The trail does a circuit and we soon found out it’s one of those popular fitness tracks.  You can choose your direction and do the steep part first or last.  We opted to do the steep part first.  See all the steps?  During our walk we were lapped more than once by various people doing their workouts.

Doing the steep part first meant that turtle lookout was our first stop. 

The lookout has a really beautiful view.  Breathtaking.

The sign said the turtles are there year-round so we had our eyes peeled.

It didn’t take long!  Look, there’s a turtle!  Really, that speck that looks like a floating rock is a turtle.

See?  All zoomed in and you can see him.  We saw a few turtles and watched for awhile as they rode the waves.

Well, most of us were watching the turtles.  Some of us were more interested in sticks.

One last look at that beautiful view…

Then on to the next lookout.  Or outlook as the case may be.  (Why was the first one a lookout and this one an outlook???)

(You just scrolled back up to check the picture of the turtle lookout sign, right?  I had to.)  :D

Here’s a view of the beach, looking back the way we’d come.  It was interesting to see how different the landscape was on the other side of the road.  So dry, and there were even people riding dirt bikes over there.

The view from the summit.  That’s the beach where we rode our bikes!

From the summit you could see the caravan park we were staying in, tucked in behind the housing subdivision.  Our caravan is almost smack in the middle of this picture.  We enjoyed this park, it was really packed but we had an unpowered site out the back where it wasn’t as crowded.  They had an outdoor cinema where they played family movies each night, great fun to get our jackets and winter hats on and brave the cold.  Those Queensland winters, you know.

It was all downhill from there.  (I’m terrible, aren’t I?)

We saw this lovely green ant nest in a tree.  So cool how they stick the leaves together.

And, um, a log.  I thought it looked pretty and I have the camera.  ;)

We saw a few termite mounds in trees.  We read that birds will use old ones as nests.

This guy just turned two.  He looks closer to three in this picture, doesn’t he? 

When we got back this little guy had a fall into a bicycle wheel.  He tripped and slammed his forehead against part of the tyre, not sure whether it was a spoke or the centre.  Never fear, after a cuddle he was ready to accompany the others to the front desk for some ice cream.  He did have to be locked out of the van until he was finished.  He didn’t mind.

A Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD

Jumping ahead again!

Emu crossing!  Yay!  We soon found out why…

The caravan park had its own resident emu!  He was not shy and often came over when he saw us outside.  He wasn’t afraid of the kids at all, he probably knew they were likely to have food.

This is officially my favourite kind of palm.  It’s like the branches are in 3D.  I think it’s a foxtail palm.

We went across the road to have a bike ride on the beach.  I know.  We’re horrible, horrible people.  Bike riding on the beach while everyone else endured the whole Antarctic vortex thing.  We did have our jackets on, see?

To get from one end of the beach to the other is a much longer ride than you’d think.  I know, poor us.  The kids took a break and did some exploring.

At least they had their helmets on!

Look at that cute bike!  I wonder who that belongs to?  ;)

Those little specks down the beach are my children.  It was a big beach.

When we got to the other end there was more exploring to be done.

And when we returned we were greeted by our new friend!