HEADING SOUTH

Thursday, 5 September 2019

Found this fellow in our shower before we departed Cairns

Looking for turtles at Tyto Wetlands, Ingham

Waterlilies

Found the turtles!

Magnificent sculpture in the Information Centre

Shady part of Blacks Beach, Mackay

Enjoying the late afternoon sun, Blacks Beach

Nice view

Marlborough locals

Found him hiding under a tree at Southside Caravan Park, Rockhampton

Cooling down after sunset

Iron Ridge Park

Standown Park

Memorial Lake, Standown Park

Pink blossom - spring is here!

Our time at Cairns has come to an end and early on Sunday morning we joined the large exodus of caravans from Crystal Cascades.  We headed south, in beautiful sunny and calm weather, and joined the majority of southbound caravans enjoying a stop at Cardwell before continuing to Ingham and a lunch stop at the Tyto Wetlands.  A walk around this area is always enjoyable and after a visit to the Information Centre, we were on our way to Townsville and our overnight stop at Townsville Tourist and Lifestyle Village, which is only a few hundred metres from the Bruce Highway.

We were able to stay hitched up and were on the road by 8.00am on Monday, as we continued to Mackay.  Although we couldn’t remember it from our trip north, the journey from Townsville to Ayr was virtually non-stop roadworks – very slow travelling with frequent stops.  We had a short stop at Home Hill to change drivers before continuing to a lunch stop beside a roadhouse in the middle of no where!  Traffic was a little heavier today, with trucks and caravans annoying each other.  Our overnight stop was at Big4 Blacks Beach, Mackay, another favourite.  We even waited until later in the afternoon (the temperature needed to drop a bit) before enjoying a lovely walk along the beach.

With the car still attached to the caravan, it was another early start for the drive to Rockhampton.  It wasn’t long before the temperature rose quickly, as well as a rather unpleasant headwind.  Apart from grass, scrubby trees and cattle, along with a few little settlements, there isn’t much between the two cities – apart from caravans and trucks, of course!  By the time we arrived at Rockhampton, the outside temperature was hovering around the 33 degrees and this had increased to 36 degrees at the Southside Caravan Park when we checked in.  With the humidity down to 5%, the air was extremely hot and dry – too hot even to walk across the road to the Visitors’ Centre and the Tropic of Capricorn.  We did manage a walk around this very large park very late in the day, just before sunset.  The region is suffering a severe drought and all the parks in Rockhampton looked rather dead and the ponds had very little water in them.

The dreadful drought conditions continued today, with the bare paddocks staying with us all the way to the Childers region.  It is so sad to see the cattle standing in the paddocks and the waterholes empty.

Although the temperature dropped dramatically overnight, it didn’t take long for it to climb above 30 degrees once again – thank goodness for climate control!  The road surface today wasn’t as bumpy as yesterday, however, today we did have roadworks!!!  Even when we did come across a stretch without workmen, and did become a little excited about being able to drive above 80kmp, we would find that “they” had erected roadworks signs and speed limits.  Our estimated travel time was extended by an hour.

With the temperature hovering around 33-34 degrees, we arrived at our overnight stop at Iron Ridge Park, east of Childers.  We have stayed in this bush setting caravan park, on a local farm, on a number of occasions and do enjoy the enormous sites, peace, quiet and local wildlife.  There are only about a dozen sites, so plenty of room, especially with only six caravans here tonight.

Farewelled Iron Ridge Park and once again passed the many thousands of macadamia nut trees as we returned to the Bruce Highway and turned south once more.  The road quality had improved today, as had the traffic!  Fortunately, there weren’t as many roadworks but enough to break the boredom.  The weather continues to be very hot and dry but the colour of the countryside changed from dead to green as we neared Gympie.  Obviously being close to the Sunshine Coast, this area actually receives rainfall.

Despite being close to Brisbane, we had decided to stop at a caravan park about 24 kms east of Gympie, called Standown Park.  This park had originally been developed as a retreat for Defence Force veterans (initially Vietnam) and is evidently very popular around Long Tan Day.  This park consists of sites around the edge of a very large grass paddock, surrounded by pine plantations.  There is a memorial lake (complete with “crocodile”) and large amounts of memorabilia in the camp kitchen.  Very much a park for blokes.