Two long weekends in a row – a 4 day Easter weekend followed by a 3 day Anzac weekend! What to do…? Nicole was lining up another weekend away in the motorhome, but after the Easter Weekend Camp I was hesitant and felt like doing something different. Don’t want to get sick of the thing before we even begin our Around Australia trip in it!!!

Then my mate George texted me on Wed a whole heap of images of their family holiday on Stradbroke Island. Here are just a couple….

I resisted the urge to hand in my resignation and go live there on the beach (like some do!), but started thinking about a lightweight minimalist trip in just the Forester (sans camper trailer) for the coming long weekend. Campsites were busy, but still possible to get in if we wanted to. Vehicle ferries OK on the way over, but fully booked to get back on Sunday……

Rather than giving up, I decided to go more extreme – lets just go on our bikes! Its only around 16km from the ferry terminal to the camping grounds we were looking at (around Cylinder Beach, where George and family were). Not having any compact lightweight tents I figured we could just sleep under a tarp! So on Thurs, the day before Anzac day, I phoned Stradbroke Ferries to confirm bikes could walk on anytime, and Foodworks at Point Lookout to confirm they were going to be open so we wouldn’t starve (one of many many objections raised by my not-so-adventurous family…). I also borrowed 2 lightweight sleeping bags from Mum and Dad and a lightweight stove and backpack from Tim and Amy.

Fri morning, 10 mins before leaving, I booked two nights at different campsites and soon enough there we were; ready to board!

I did lose out on one thing – the sleeping under the tarp bit…. We have several tents, but none small and light. To the relief of other family members, BCF at Capalaba (on the way to the ferries) was open. So we purchased a cheapo 4 man tent, and left the large tarp in the car. Still took the mid sized one though, as a 4 man tent wouldn’t fit us all in on our sleeping mats! The load of gear on the ferry:

Yep, that is my bike loaded up like a packhorse! It was so heavy loaded that it was literally a major struggle to lift the rear wheel at all!!! That is in part due to it being an electric bike with the motor and battery over the rear wheel 🙂 However with all that bulk I needed that motor, and the 15km training run the evening before certainly didn’t help the legs either!

On arrival to Straddie it was a hard hot slog on the bikes to our first camp ground, Adder Rock. It is quite a hilly route to the northern end of the island and none of us particularly enjoyed it – the boys especially! It was about 1 hour 45mins of work in the middle of the day, and the fully loaded backpacks tired the body more quickly than normal.

Adder Rock Camping Area is quite a nice large campground with good facilities. Nice hot showers with good water flow! There are multiple camping areas, including one right along the beachfront. We ended up one row back from the beach on an open area of grass. For such a busy weekend, there was still plenty of room (but I wouldn’t call it secluded and private either!).

We spent a little while looking around, and down at the beach – which was beautiful. To the west (water on right of photo) is Flinders Beach, where camping and 4wd’ing is permitted. Would be a nice place to stay. George, Justeen and the kids came and said hello.

We had a little rain overnight, but it didn’t go for long. Yes, I stayed completely dry under the tarp! The only issue I had in sleeping, and it applied the others in the tent too, was the overnight lamp we set up right next to. It was bright, and stayed on all night…. Otherwise it was fine. Here I am being rudely woken in the morning…

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day! We swum at Adder Rock before packing up to head to Cylinder Beach. The water was crystal clear and the waves perfectly formed. Though most waves were small, the occasional medium sized set rolled in. Don’t know if it was the beautiful conditions, or just that I haven’t done much of it and are improving (I’m usually on a board!), but I did some of the best body surfing I’ve ever done!

We then packed up and make the 2km (or so) ride to Cylinder Beach. Cylinder beach is a little different to Adder Rock. The campground is much smaller, so everyone is jammed in much closer. The 6x6m campsites are marked out in paint (as compared to Adder Rock where you just pick a spot). It has a nice feeling to it though, similar excellent facilities, and the beach is also very beautiful!

It was perfect swimming conditions Sat arvo (aside from the waves coming and going), so we spent several hours in the water! We took the easy route and bought fish and chips for dinner…..

Another lovely but often cloudy day dawned Sunday. Our going home day! We’d had perfect temperature and conditions for camping….

The return cycle to the ferry seemed easier, although we took slightly longer at around 2 hours! Perhaps it was just that everyone was happier and more relaxed now!

We all had a lovely enjoyable trip. It was nice to catch up with friends, and to try camping in a different way! Driving home in the car with air conditioning seemed like absolute luxury! We certainly won’t go that style camping every time, but it was nice and I’m sure we’ll do it again some time. I’m also sure we’ll be back to check out the rest of Straddie!

ps. New camera arrived during the previous week – hence lots of pics in this loooong post! It’s nice to have a decent camera again!