The third in a series of however many, romancing the freedom camping lifestyle. If you are curious about freedom camping read on.

We had fallen in love with Yamba on a previous trip to Queensland but nearby Woody Head National Park turned out to be heaven, heaven with brush turkeys that is. On a roll we spent a night at Mullumbimby Leagues Club (ticking footy clubs now) and decided that perhaps we wouldn’t buy dinner in the clubhouse. On the positive side, a few weeks later we decided to try our first Pub Stay and were hooked. Tracey welcomed us with open arms at the Bouldercombe pub just south of Rockhampton. We chatted in the sun with our neighbours, had a great meal and a lot of laughs. In the end it cost us twice as much as a caravan park but we had a night we’ll never forget.

We spent frustrating hours trying to find somewhere north of Townsville and finally slipped into a few spare feet of space by the roadway at Rollingstone’s Bushy Parker Park far too late in the day. A lesson learned about what months to travel and when to be set up, we should have left home a month earlier as now we’d caught up with the crowds.

The next camp at Murray Falls National Park north of Cardwell eased our tension. Being a National Park, it was not technically a freedom camp but the only facility available was a toilet. Needless to say, it was spacious and stunning and tropical and dominated by a roaring waterfall.

Friends had mentioned Endeavour River Escape at Cooktown and we met them there on the largest and most private sites we’ve ever had to this day, huge sites slashed out of the rainforest. We were made to feel at home by the owners of the property and toured their passionfruit and Clydesdale horse farm. Hey, we’d just had our first Farm Stay and we were hooked.