Since we got back from our road trip, we haven’t gone anywhere (with good reason!). That being said, we’ve been getting a bit antsy here in our apartment for the last 6 months. Given the low number of COVID-19 cases in Queensland and specifically in non-Brisbane Queensland, we decided to get out of the house for a week (well 8 days).
To catch everyone up, Sara got a 6 month contract job at the end of June and is going into the office 2 days every other week (otherwise working from home). I’ve been doing a little side work remotely for my old employer in Melbourne for a few years now – and thankfully that has increased to a bit more than 1/2 time currently.
So, since we both can work remotely, why not get a bit of a sea-change and work remotely from somewhere other than our apartment? Somehow we settled on the town of Sarina Beach – about an 11 hour drive north of us. I figured it was about the furthest we could get away from Brisbane in a day’s drive. We found a nice little ocean front hotel there with an onsite restaurant.
We left Brisbane early on a Saturday morning for the long slog north. Luckily we had some recent experience with long drives – this one would be right up there with our longest days from our Aussie road trip. We arrived in Sarina Beach early in the evening and checked into our room (and checked out the view!)- then quickly made our way to the onsite restaurant for a delicious dinner.
On Sunday we found the “Big Cane Toad” in Sarina after having some delicious pies for breakfast from the Sarina Pie Shop. It was nice to mark off another “big” item 6 months after seeing the “Big Winch” in Coober Pedy.
Then we ventured a bit further north to the big city of the area – Mackay. We had lunch and explored the river walk that runs along the Pioneer River.
Most of the week was for working, but I snuck out for some golf on Tuesday and Friday afternoons at the local course.
We also had time to go for long walks on the beach while looking out for crocs, since we were in “croc country“.
On Thursday we took a long lunch at a hotel recommended by Sara’s friend – the Eimeo Pacific Hotel. We both got the Wagyu burger and a beer.
On Saturday, we explored the Eungella National Park, which was about an hour and a half from our hotel. We did the hike up the Finch Hatton Gorge, which led us to two waterfalls and some swimming holes.
Next we refueled with some more tasty pies from the local hotel – this time topped with peas and gravy. Yum. Then we did some brief exploring in the other main area of the national park, up a steep windy road to the town of Eungella.
There were promises of a platypus sighting in the creek – and we actually managed to see one! We are typically unlucky when it comes to shy Australian wildlife. They are much smaller than I had imagined.
On Sunday it was time to pack up and head back to Brissy. Thankfully the drive was uneventful minus a few idiot drivers (clearly not us!). Now we are trying to figure out when and where we should do this work-cation next.