Tuesday 18 September 2012

Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Water Day 3

We had a full day today. We’d decided last night to go fishing on the out-going tide at Wreck Rock in Deepwater National Park. The road through the park is very, very rough and only for 4 Wheel Drive vehicles, so we allowed an hour to get there (it’s about 12km away from our accommodation) and left here about 8am.

The track from Agnes Water to Wreck Rock is just like the 4WD tracks on Stradbroke Island, down to the similar vegetation.

Deepwater National Park

Wreck Rock has a campsite, which seems to be quite popular. There’s no shower facilities, only a composting toilet. The location is very nice though, and there’s a few fishermen staying there.

Deepwater National Park - Wreck Rock

We went to the beach and Donald got himself set up to fish.

Deepwater National Park - Wreck RockDeepwater National Park - Wreck RockDeepwater National Park - Wreck RockDeepwater National Park - Wreck RockDeepwater National Park - Wreck RockDeepwater National Park - Wreck Rock

I went back to the car to get some water and on my way back was chatting with a fisherman who’d just come off the beach, having not caught anything. When I got back to Donald (about an hour later!) he hadn’t caught anything either, so we headed off.

We decided to go to Baffle Creek and take the long way back to Agnes Water, for something to do. We saw some ‘roos/wallabies and this time I managed to snap one (albeit not very close up!) through a very dirty windscreen:

Deepwater National Park - wallabies! (taken through a dirty windscreen)

This beautiful swampy area was not far from the edge of the park. The water was so still you could see the sky perfectly reflected:

Deepwater National ParkDeepwater National ParkDeepwater National Park

Donald waited for me patiently. More or less:

Deepwater National Park

Outside the park, we stopped at Rules Beach. There’s not much there, though there’s a beautiful old Queenslander house for sale right next to the beach. You can take a 4WD onto the beach, but it was high tide, so we didn’t drive down:

 

Rules Beach - house envy!Rules BeachRules Beach

Along the road to Baffle Creek, there was this swampy area with lotus flowers that I had to photograph. Unfortunately, it’s private property, so I couldn’t get any closer. I think it would make for a good Monet painting:

Baffle Creek

We had a pie each for lunch at the Baffle Creek Convenience Store. It’s just this tiny little store that sells all sorts of stuff, including fishing gear.

After our brunch, we headed back to Agnes Water by bitumen roads. We had some lunch at our apartment and then headed to 1770 to do some of the sight-seeing we’d been meaning to do since we got there! We first stopped at Cook’s Landing and had a look around:

1770 - Cook's landing monumentViews from Cook's Landing monument, 1770Views from Cook's Landing monument, 1770Views from Cook's Landing monument, 1770Views from Cook's Landing monument, 1770Views from Cook's Landing monument, 1770Views from Cook's Landing monument, 1770

We continued on up the hill. There’s some lucky residents up here with fantastic views!

near Round Hill Lookout

We stopped at Countess Russell Anchor for a look around, too:

The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monument

It’s pretty steep and sheer cliff-faces up here, and Donald was too scared to go near the edge to look:

near The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monumentnear The Countess Russell monument

We drove up the hill to the top car park and then did the scenic walk up there. It’s supposed to have fantastic views for sunset, but it was a bit early for that:

Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770

The fire we’d seen raging last time we were here was still going:

Round Hill Lookout, 1770Round Hill Lookout, 1770

All this walking around sight-seeing was thirsty work, so we stopped at The Tree pub for a cold one, while admiring the view:

The Tree pub, 17701770, near The Tree pub1770, near The Tree pub1770, near The Tree pub1770, near The Tree pub

We drove back to Agnes Water to have our afternoon coffee and a bit of a rest, before heading out to the Agnes Beach lookout, which is reached from near the Information Centre. There’s some spectacular views from up here too:

Agnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookout

There were some pretty flowers up here that were very difficult to capture with our cameras. We finally realised it was getting too dark for such close-ups. I did manage to get the picture in the end though:

Agnes Beach lookout

There were people fishing on the rocks below. We didn’t see them catch anything, but they looked to be having a good time, as were the surfers in the water around the corner from the fishermen:

Agnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookoutAgnes Beach lookout

That was enough photography for the day! We headed back to the apartment and cooked our steak dinner, since we’d caught no fish!

Donald went out fishing  to the creek we’d been to when 4 Wheel Driving the second day, at about 9pm. He was back around 10:30pm, though, not having caught anything. Again. We’re not having much luck with fishing at all!