Mackay

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Selfie on Blacks Beach

Low tide on the Pioneer Riveer

Having "that feeling"

Monument to Lord Baden-Powell

Scary looking orchid

From the enormous

to the minute

Rats of Tobruk Memorial

With Milton and Margaret

The shortest day of the year and the weather continues to be sunny and warm.  We left Rockhampton on Monday morning and travelled to Mackay for three nights.  The highway was pretty good and traffic wasn’t too bad.  We had a couple of short breaks, as well as a lunch stop, before arriving at the Big4 Blacks Beach Holiday Park.  South of Sarina, we encountered many very, very long trains carting coal from Clermont and Moranbah to Hay Point for shipping – there must be some very big holes out there somewhere!

This is a lovely caravan park, not big and full of cabins, with some magnificent paperbark trees and right on the beach – the grassed tent area is literally on the edge of the beach.  We have a large site with a large slab and very friendly neighbours.

Tuesday morning was time catch up on housework and for the third time this trip, I actually managed to dry the washing on a clothes line!  After lunch, we decided to do some of Mackay’s tourist sites, with a stop at Bluewater Lagoon the first port of call.  This was a nice pool area on the bank of the Pioneer River and there was a long bike/walking track as well.  We then drove through the centre of the town, with its old facades still visible – a reminder of the days when this was a thriving sugar port.  Our next (and final) stop was at Queen’s Garden and the orchid house.  These lovely old gardens had an avenue of tall palms, a monument to Lord Baden-Powell and the siege of Mafeking and a monument to the Rats of Tobruk, as well as the orchid house (lots of orchid photos, naturally, today).

Today, we had lunch with my cousin Milton, and his wife Margaret, who are also holidaying in this area.  We enjoyed lunch with a spectacular view at the old Eimeo Hotel.

We are definitely in crocodile country now – and snakes!