After working right up till Christmas, Boxing day, and the 27th we were behind on our timeframe for our family travels. Finally, with the Golf Tourer 577 at home we loaded it up and the boys slept in the front yard it was go time.

Planning was to leave at 7am, we ended up pulling out of home at 9am. (this will become a issue later on 🙈) as we are leaving the great debate started, do we head back to Eyre Peninsula or North QLD?????

We turned onto the Logan Motorway and the decision was made to head to Eyre Peninsula, or so I thought, just as we got to the toll cameras, a re think was had an we turn off at Meadowbrook and North QLD here we come.

We are off and running towards North QLD with still no destination in mind, till ………. we hit the Gateway motorway carpark. It took us over 2 hours to get from the Boondall entertainment centre to Steve Irwin Drive. Of course the conversation was, I told you we needed to leave at 7am….

We discuss on the way through the traffic a bit of a game plan and decide to push through to Townsville and then slowly make our way back down the coast.

Our trip checklist failed some ticks as we forgot our water bottle for the car, to fill the car up (usually easier without the van), to set up the toilet with chemicals as we store ours dry and the big one to fill our water tanks as we like to freedom camp if we can.

Our first stop was Black Mountain for fuel and of course Hungry Jacks for the kids and we pushed on to Bp Torbenlea for a leg stretch and toilet break onto Liberty Colosseum for fuel and Miriam Vale Star Roadhouse for a pizza dinner, they are always a good size meal and Yummy and a family favorite, as we were pushing for KM under our belt we pushed onto Calliope North Rest Stop.

This is a beautiful, quite place to stay, we arrived early enough for a quick walk down to the river and a few photos.

The camping area is elevated, grassy with toilets. Considering how close you are to the Highway it was very quite and a great nights rest was had by all.

If you are in the area check out the Calliope River Historical Village there is a cafe in their as well.. Historical Village (callioperiverhistoricalvillage.com)

Once again our Golf Tourer 577 Caravan towed well and is by far the easiest van we have travelled in. We love our little home away.