Travelling South

Monday, 3 September 2018

Not cold - right!

Blacks Beach

Blacks Beach Caravan Park

Pacific Sunrise

Take 2

All good things must come to an end and Saturday morning was the end of our visit to Cairns in 2018.  Despite saying many farewells, we were actually on the road by 8.30am!  The weather was glorious as we headed south towards Townsville.

It is with deep regret that we must announce the passing of Doris Tomtom.  Doris has served us (and family members) faithfully since 2013, guiding us through  England, Scotland, Wales (and speaking Welsh without any problems!!!), California, Canada and Australia.  She had her ups and downs at times, copping a bit of abuse at times, but she was always patient and willing to recalculate routes without complaint.  Unfortunately, Doris decided she didn’t want to leave the Cairns’ climate and refused to stay on for longer than ten seconds.  Hopefully, “Daughter of Doris” will join our family when we reach Rockhampton.

The journey from Cairns to Townsville was uneventful, the few roadworks only slowed us down slightly when we were forced to reduced speed and there was no wind.  We had a couple of quick stops at Innisfail and Cardwell for driver changes before stopping for lunch at Ingham.  We overnighted at the Townsville Tourist and Lifestyle Village, which was very conveniently located just off the Bruce Highway.  We were quite impressed with this newish park; very large with many sites currently being developed along with a lifestyle village.  We had a slabbed site at the front of the park, next to the pool – and with a very noisy, yapping dog next door to us.  A phone call to management at 8.30pm did put a stop to the noise.  The temperature at Townsville was hovering around the 30/31 degrees and Himself decided to forage around in his cupboards and find his bathers!

Having travelled further south, the sun rises a little earlier, which meant we were both awake earlier than normal.  This meant we were able to be on the road by 8.00am, luckily, as we had a 400km drive from Townsville to Mackay on Sunday.  The road was good with little traffic for most of the way, but we did find that as the temperature rose, so did the head winds!  We had breaks at Ayr and Bowen, as well as a lunch stop next to a roadhouse somewhere.  The thermometer reached 36 degrees as we arrived at Mackay – very hot and very dry today.  We once again stayed at the Big4 Blacks Beach Caravan Park, right on the beach.  With a drive-thru site allocated to us, it didn’t take long to set up and find some shade for a rest before a beach walk later in the afternoon.  It is so nice to be camped beside the beach.  Late this afternoon, a large van with a sign saying it was the “Reptile Education Service” arrived at the park; it’s not hard to work out what is in the van!!!

Today we were on the road even earlier than usual – staying hitched up certainly makes a difference! – and found the road south to Rockhampton to be a bit on the ordinary side.  It was quite bumpy for most of the way and a fair amount of roadside vegetation has been burnt.  After leaving the sugar cane plantations behind at Sarina, it was mostly dry scrub all the way, with one slightly dead snake to relieve the monotony.  We only had two stops – Carmilla and Marlborough – before arriving in Rockhampton shortly after noon.

Following a quick set-up, it was off to the local shopping centre to find a replacement Tomtom; we soon found Maggie just waiting for us to bring her home.  Then there was the trauma of setting her up (and connecting her to my phone), figuring out how to use her and the different settings.  A Cherry Ripe was soon needed!

Tomorrow is our last day in the tropics.