We were not sure what we would find at Boreen Point or what was on offer. We had visited here one weekend in the mid 1980's with a colleague from Tarong Power Station, but had very little recollection of the place. Driving in Saturday morning (February 11) it was evident Boreen Point was still only a small sleepy village on the shores of Lake Cootharaba. Driving past the Apollonian Hotel some vague memories of enjoying a beer while the kids ran around the shady grass hotel grounds emerged. Joan confirmed the same. We found the campgrounds straight away but had to drive around the lake some distance to find an area to turn around to navigate the tight entry to the park. On driving in, it became obvious why this waypoint is labelled a campground and not a caravan park. It is a beautiful parkland with numerous tracks meandering between shady trees alongside a sandy beach and the shallow waters of the lake. Although the grounds provide 8 powered sites it was immediately obvious that the area is more suited to camping trailers and tents not 30' caravans. We did however with some perseverance safely locate and set the van up amongst the paperbark trees.
Boreen Point is located on the SW shores of Lake Cootharaba . The lake proved to be a very interesting and enjoyable stopover. The lake is approximately 10 km long by 5 km wide but only averages 1.5m in depth, making it ideal for kayaking, paddle boarding, sailing and wind surfing. It is located in the southern end of the Great Sandy National Park; we visited the northern parts of this park last week as part of our Rainbow Beach experience. The lake also forms part of the Noosa River system.
The lake provides great swimming for kids but a little shallow for adults. We did enjoy kayaking the first few days but it proved to be a little windy and choppy towards the end of the week, so not as enjoyable resulting in less time on the water. We did however do a number of walks and enjoyed watching the paddle boarders and wind surfers trying to master their disciplines.
Sunday afternoon we walked the 150m up the hill to the iconic Apollonian Hotel, a colonial homestead building with a great verandah, for the Sunday afternoon session. We missed the music but enjoyed the cold beer and the ambience in the shaded beer garden. All in all, ended up a great week and a good camp. Good clean amenities and a dump point. As it turns out we discovered, the park is currently managed by Debbie & Matt Crimmins from Rockhampton and acquaintances of our Bouldercombe friends. There were a few dramas in extracting the van from the grounds, with some fancy manoeuvres, reversing and close scrapes but succeeded in the end and only one small dent on the rear corner of the van.
On Friday we packed up and travelled the 20 km to the Noosa Caravan Park disconcertedly located in Tewantin, the southern boundary of the Great Sandy National Park.