Baffle Creek is near the coast between Bundaberg and Gladstone, being the only place we could find with a vacancy over Easter we took it.
Having been warned about the mozzies and billions of other bugs that bit, we felt a little down hearted about coming. And yes, everything we were told was true, but only at sunset. During the day there were no bitting insects around, and even at dark not many. This may be because so many campers had outdoor fires at night (fire drums can be hired and fire wood bought from the office), and we lit the Sandalwood Mosquito Sticks we were given. Thank you Agneszka, I love the smell and will be stocking up next time we are near Bunnings, and they dont make me hyperactive like the other mozzie coils.
The camp ground is flat, grassy with some trees on each site. There is a private boat ramp and little jetty on the property, about 1km away. We could easily ride our bikes down. The creek is more the size of river than a creek, its salt water, tidle, has mangroves along the sides and sandbars at low tide.
The atmosphere in the camp ground was wonderful. So friendly and relaxing. 99% of the campers bring their boats and tents, so the camp sites are big enough for a tent, boat and car, a real luxury. Everyone would sit outside at night and chat about their day fishing or the crabs and prawns they had netted, or not. It was a common ground for everyone, so even if you didn’t know anyone, you could always talk about fishing and spark a conversation. We got on particularly well with one of our neighbours and had an evening chatting and sharing a bottle of wine. They had kayaks and would set out each day to check their crab nets, but didn’t get any.
There is nothing to do here except fish, and we did that every day from the jetty, but didn’t catch anything. I loved sitting under the trees beside the boat ramp, some days for hours, with my line out and reading my book. Each boat/tinnie that came in we would have a chat about what they had or hadn’t caught, it was so lovely.
Tim had a few jobs to do back at the van, like resuscitating our dust buster/vacuum cleaner after I accidentally gave it a bath. I wont go into details, but dont worry Kay, it now works like new. I have a very clever husband.
With so many people out in their tinnies we really missed our boat back in Melbourne, and came up with all sorts of bizarre, illegal, solutions to tow our caravan and boat. We will definitely come back here, perhaps stay for a few weeks, but need to bring a tinnie, yabby pump, crab nets and prawn net.
The weather forcaste was quite gloomy for Easter, but turned out to be fantastic weather. There was one spectacular thunder storm that rolled over with very loud thunder and a wonderful lightening show and lots of rain. But it only lasted about 20 minutes then it was over and the sun came out again.
I forgot to mention the fire flies at the jetty at night, so fantastic to see. Some flew right up to us, not that we stayed long as it had just gone dusk and there was little room on our skin for any more bugs, even through 4 layers of Aerogard.
So if you have a boat or tinnie or kayak and love to fish, this is the place to come.
Today we head north once more. I am a little sad to be leaving Baffle Creek, but there are so many more places waiting for us to explore.
Hope you all had a safe and happy Easter. Until next time. Helen and Tim