1770, the only town in the world with a number as its name. And the second place in Australia – after Sydney – that Captain Cook landed. Guess when?

Getting there

Cania Gorge > Monto > Mount Perry > Miriam Vale > 1770 (192km)

Kerry’s comments in fuchsia

Although it is only about 100km from Cania Gorge east to the town of 1770 on the coast, there are no direct routes on bitumen, and so we have to head a long way south to get across. The park manager advised against us taking Mobi on the dirt roads.

After about 55km from Monto, some 10km before we got to Eidsvold, we turned left onto the road to Mount Perry – which was gravel!  Bugger, we had been promised bitumen. It was also narrow and quite busy, I did stop a car and van coming the other way and asking about the state of the road – not bad at all was the response. The guy looked at us as if we were lunatics!!!

After about 10km the gravel gave way to bitumen, in fact very good bitumen. From there, about every 10km it switched between the two until we got close to Mount Perry. The drive was through some very pretty country – good looking farm lands nestled within rolling hills, with higher hills and mountains in the distance.

Mount Perry is a really picturesque little town. We stopped at the very large community park on the north side of town, where we saw 5 or 6 caravans also parked though heading south. We joined them for morning tea.  They were from the Bundaberg Caravanning Club, heading to Monto for the weekend. They expected about 20 vans to be there. They knew the whole region well and gave us lots of good advice about what lay ahead.

From there is was nearly 150km to Miriam Vale, the turn off to 1770. This was along the Bruce Highway – the main road north in Queensland. Not a great road surface but there are lots of overtaking lanes for people to get past us. Again the countryside was quite pretty although getting flatter the further north we drove. 

We went into Miriam Vale as our fuel map app showed diesel at $1.339 a litre, about 5c cheaper than elsewhere. The service station cafe had the most amazing variety of pies – normal, mushy peas, roo, alligator, crab and others. I had the mushy peas and Kerry the crab. Then she went to get another one! 

The Crab pies were amazingly good.  I had to get another one because somebody ate half mine before realising it wasn’t mushy pea pie (pretty lame excuse I thought)  

The campsite

We had been unsure which of the 3 caravan parks to go to – in the Wikicamps app they all had somewhat mixed reviews. We picked Captain Cook Holiday Village as it seemed to have larger sites and was more of a bush setting. The downside being that it was 2 or 3 km from 1770 and Agnes Waters. 

On arrival the receptionist suggested we first walk through the camp and select the site we wanted, which we thought was a really good idea. There are lots of trees in this park, and lots of sites with concrete pads.

The place was half full and we selected site 19 as we thought we could swing the van in a big arc over an empty area next to the site, and set up next to the slab. In practice this was a bad move as there was not enough forward room to straighten the rig. Fortunately, there is a cross track in front of the shower/toilet block and we went across that.  From there I, yes even I, could back Mobi into site 18, with the skilful guidance from Kerry. It was a tense time but we got there. It really is getting easier to reverse the van.

After setup, we went back into Agnes Waters to shop. The prices of wine at the Bottleo were scary, but needs must. Then we topped up with bread, fruit, veggies etc, including a BBQ chook for dinner. 

It was great to have the internet again as we were very late with our posts.  Peaceful evening was had by all. 

Day 1

Today we went exploring – to see why everyone raved about this place. We were halfway between the 2 towns so we went north to see 1770.

Where we first hit the water on the western side of the peninsular, is the drop-off point for the cruises to Lady Musgrave Island and other spots. This was quite crowded as the cruises were getting ready to go. There is a cafe there, a small marina and not much else. 

A bit further north is a lovely bay and park area – great picnic and playground facilities.

 

 

This is low level development with a pub, cafe, a restaurant and some accomodation  on the landward side of the road, and the park and a timbered walkway on the water side. Really well done.

As there were many people swimming we asked one woman about stingers. “We have lived here for 20 years and never worry about them”, was the answer. There were also signs warning about stone fish.

A few kms further north is another bay where we find the council caravan park and another cafe. We are instantly glad we did not go to this park – it is packed with caravan after caravan with only about a meter between them. All families and kids everywhere. They have great access to the beach but we could not live like that and hope we don’t have to – although everyone warns us about WA. We do see a couple of sites at the back which seemed a bit more open. But also this is the park with the worst reviews regarding clean facilities. 

Further on we came to the Monument (Cairn) for the Captain Cook landing in May 1770. This was only his second landing in Australia and was claimed as the “discovery of Queensland” on many boards. Apparently he anchored in the bay below and then landed. It is said the aboriginal people were hiding and watching and thought that the tall man was the obvious leader – guiding their canoe and looking immediately for water. Whereas the short man (Banks) was clearly not clever as he seemed only interested in plants that were of no use to anyone.

We then went to the top of the peninsular and walked the short distance out to the Round Hill Lookout, with great views on either side. It was hot and Kerry stopped to lift her arms to capture even a smidgen of breeze.

 

Next was a return to Agnes Waters to have a closer look at this town. We went through the shopping area and out the coast road. Came to a side road with a small sign indicating Chinaman’s Beach. This was the start of the next beach south of the main Agnes Waters Beach. Beautiful and totally deserted.  And hot. Might bring the drone back here.  

 This is a turtle nesting beach so we were careful not to disturb the sand. We met a man there later who told us the biggest threat to the tiny baby turtles are the foxes..

After that we got to the end of the road south which ended in what is clearly a new private resort or private residential development. I hate it when public beaches are locked up for private commercial profit. 

On return we go inland and find the light industrial area, which included an Op Shop. Of course we have to stop. You never know what bargains were just waiting for us in there. But nothing really took our fancy.  

After that we went back into the main beach area of town.  We tried to park but there was nothing in any of the nearby streets so we had a bit of a walk. 

The main beach is pretty good, and we watch a line of “learn to surf” tourist making their way into an ocean as flat as a plate of stale beer.  Good luck to them. The beach is also very busy. But I can’t help thinking that what we have here is very similar to places like Noosa. A very small beach access area, which is already packed, and rapid development in its catchment area. In 5-10 years this area will be manic unless some very brave planning is done to create some space. 

The Agnes Waters caravan park is also near this beach access and we wander through to have a look. It is a smallish park and extremely full. The sign at the boom gate says totally full.

And we are so glad we are not in there – wall to wall caravans. What we don’t know is if this is a weekend thing – families flocking to the beach for the weekend, or in fact an early start to the invasion from the southern states?

On our first night we had nobody parked next to us and loads of space, On the 2nd night, despite the fact that the park was 3/4 empty, an RV with 4 German tourists pulled up right next to us – facing the wrong way, so their outdoor living area faced directly into ours.  Bloody hell!!!   They left the next day.  But that afternoon a Dutch couple pulled in – again right next to us despite the 7 lovely vacant bush sites they passed to get to us.  Maybe Europe is just so crowded it doesn’t occur to them to think about leaving greater space between sites.

Later in the afternoon we went to “our” beach. Our Park has an 800m track to the beach. Fortunately it is 4WD for 700m which is what we do, passing our new neighbours on the way.  The beach is great, the water temperature perfect, but no swell to speak of. Still it is great to be flopping around in the ocean again.

Day 2

We left camp a bit after 8 as Kerry was keen to get to the local markets at the nearby showground. I was going to walk from there to Round Hill Lookout and she would come to get me there.

The “market” only consisted of 3 little gazebos – 2 selling fruit and veggies and the other selling goats milk soap and some candles.  Bought potatoes, onions, peaches, avocados.  All good quality and fresh.  The lady told me that every other weekend there is a much bigger market.

It is a good walk to the Lookout, along some of the beaches and through some nice cool forests in the latter half. You get some good views of the western side of the peninsular across to Bustard Bay, and occasional tracks take you down to the water. The one near the Lookout carpark is particularly good. On the way back I did notice a lot of coastal erosion especially near the caravan park.

It was about 4.5km when I got to the carpark, so I decided that I would walk back and meet Kerry for a drink at the cafe next to the pub – the Tree Cafe I think. So we did that, me having a smoothie and some banana bread while Kerry had a delicious iced chocolate.

After that we went to Agnes Waters for some top-up shopping then back to camp . I spent the afternoon washing Mobi and The Cruiser – both putrid. Later we went back to “our” beach for a swim. 

We went down to the hotel later to see the sunset – and have a little drink. But we were really shocked to see the bay at low tide with massive sand bars exposed – look at the 2 photos. The vast expanse of water we saw in the morning had turned into a series of channels with some moored boats leaning right over on their sides. Amazing difference. 

 

 

 

The sunset was pretty spectacular but, with the reduced water area, not as good as it would be at high tide. 

 

 

Day 3

A lazy day reading. We did go back out to Chinaman’s Beach to fly the drone. There we met a man walking his dog who talked to us about coastal erosion claiming that the beach on the Bay side had lost 15m of sand over the last 20 years. We had noticed a lot of beach erosion and storm damage near the council caravan park. One walking track is completely closed.

I’ve found that my hot pink thongs absorb the heat from the sand so much I might as well be bare foot.  Can’t remember sand ever being this hot before. I got a thicker pair at the Surf School shop where they have so much gear, often at a discount.

The drone flying did not work out as there was absolutely no shade and I could not see a thing on the iPad screen with the sun so bright. Something was wrong but I could not see it. A bit more practice on that.

From there we went back to the Tree for an early shared lunch – king prawns and a Thai salad. Then I sorted The Cruiser out a bit more. 

We really liked 1770 – the low impact way it is set up and its character, and could spend more time there. We would go back to the Captain Cook Van park –  we very much like the bush setting and space. We were not so impressed with Agnes Waters where all the development is taking place. 

To see our 1770 photos, click here