Aussirose Travel and Photography: Crescent Head, Gladstone, Kinchela & Hat Head

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CRESCENT HEAD

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Pretty place. But we were not impressed.

Crescent Head is yuppyville. Of course it didn't help that I got my dates mixed up and they could only fit us in for 1 night. But then again, we ended up being glad of that. One night here was enough.

The caravan park is situated right on the beach and inlet and straddles both sides of the road and car park which is not ideal as it becomes very crowded The park was packed out and they shove everyone on top of eachother like sardines. The young lady at the counter was rude and I am not sure that the site she gave us was the last one as she said. I think more so that she gave us the worst spot in the park, difficult to get in and out of, including a gutter that could easily bottom out both car and van. Hubby however, did a wonderful job of getting the van in and out and not holding up the traffic too much. I directed the traffic lol.

On top of all that, hubby got stung by a blue bottle and the sting and itchiness lasted for 2 days. Poor thing.

The pub was a short walk from the caravan park. We shared fish and chips and it was very good.

I also prepared our oysters kilpatrick that we bought the day before at Armstong Oysters, Laurieton. They were yummy, washed down with a red from Langhorne Estate in South Australia that we visited a couple of years ago. Very nice indeed.

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GLADSTONE

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As we left Crescent Head early to avoid the crowds, we had to find a place to stop for a while before arriving at our next destination.

Gladstone seemed to be easy to navigate towing a van. What a pretty little place. The mighty Macleay River runs through this town, with very expensive houses on one side and average on the other.

There was only one place open. The Old Bank is a restaurant situated right on the bank of the Macleay. Aparently it was the old Bank with many bedrooms for the staff. How interesting. This building still holds it's charm complete with Victorian charm and a cute old car to match. We had a wonderful breakfast here.

We came back to Gladstone to buy a couple of cushion covers that you can see in the photo below. I love them. And I also bought an opal star fish necklace and now have no pocket money for the next 3 weeks. I could have bought the whole shop out. I loved everything.

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The Heritage Hotel across the road was good for a refreshing ale.

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HAT HEAD

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Hat Head Connors Beach is everything the locals rave about. It also has a nice inlet for safe swimming. The only problem is that there is not much parking space. Again, you need to drive through the caravan park that straddles both sides of the road to get to the beach and small car park.

We spotted a sting ray and a school of tarwhine here not far from the swimmers. I didn't go in thank goodness as it was rainy and a bit cold.

Hubby however came back later and fished the beach, catching a couple of whiting that I will cook up when we get to South West Rocks.

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KINCHELA

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As I had mucked up the dates at Crescent Head, I needed to quickly work out where we were going to stay for the next couple of nights.

I found Windemere Hipcamp by chance and I am so glad that I did. For only $25 per night, we had a campsite right on the riverbank, shared with a few cows.

Some of our best camp memories have been on the banks of rivers, creeks or lakes. It was a shame to leave.

As you can see from a couple of photos below, the countryside here is low, flat and dairy country on the banks of the river. Quite pretty.