Bus Trip Friday 19 May - North Stradbroke Island

41 of our members came along on this trip in spite of the rain. We had 50 booked but some could not attend because of personal reasons and some decided not to go because of the wet. Those that went had a great time and the rain was very kind to us. After a late start from Redcliffe (coach was late getting there) we had a good run along the motorway and arrived at Cleveland Point Recreation Reserve (Old Cleveland Lighthouse) around 9:15 for morning tea and it was not raining. We were able to enjoy our tea and coffee and there was a very nice spread of buns, little cupcakes, cake and biscuits to be had.

Following morning tea we drove the short distant to the ferry terminal to catch the 10 AM ferry to the island.

Once onboard people where able to get out of the coach and head up stairs to the lounge area. Some of the ladies decided to check out the map. Thankfully they were not our driver or guide for the day otherwise we may have gotten lost.

After a 50 minute trip across the bay we arrived at Dunwich where we departed the ferry for our tour of the island. After a short drive around Dunwich we headed over to the ocean side of the island to have a look at Point Lookout. I think a lot of people did not realise just how big the island is. Here we got out and stretched our legs and had a 30 minute walk along part of the North Gorge walk with lovely views down over Main Beach and North Gorge. Once again the rain held off for us. Even saw a little wallaby having a feed beside the Gorge (look at the bottom of the picture of the gorge).

We then got back on our coach (very nice 54 seater, so there was plenty of room for us all) for a tour of Cylinder Beach and Amity. There are a real mixture of old beach shacks and modern homes and resorts on the island. Chris our coach driver provided a bit of history of the island for us. We then headed back to Dunwich for our lunch date at the Little Ship Inn where we all enjoyed a lovely lunch overlooking the bay. Some of the members even undertook some sports after lunch such as mini golf and quoits even in the drizzle.

We all enjoyed sitting around having a chat before getting back on the coach to head to the ferry terminal for our return trip. The ferry was 30 minutes late, so we did not depart the island till 3:30 PM, arrived back at Cleveland 4:15 for our bus trip home. Chris did his best to avoid the traffic bottleneck on the motorway by coming along Sandgate Road which was not too bad. We arrived back at Captain Cook Park around 5:30, so it was a long day but everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said what a good trip it was. A very big thank you to Chris our driver and Margaret who came along to help with the morning tea and lunch.

Photos below, some of our members enjoying the trip on the ferry to the island and they even get large trucks onto the ferry.

Cleveland Point and map of the island. This was the map the ladies were checking out.