Thursday, 5 September
2019
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Found this fellow in our shower before we departed Cairns |
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Looking for turtles at Tyto Wetlands, Ingham |
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Waterlilies |
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Found the turtles! |
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Magnificent sculpture in the Information Centre |
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Shady part of Blacks Beach, Mackay |
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Enjoying the late afternoon sun, Blacks Beach |
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Nice view |
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Marlborough locals |
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Found him hiding under a tree at Southside Caravan Park, Rockhampton |
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Cooling down after sunset |
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Iron Ridge Park |
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Standown Park |
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Memorial Lake, Standown Park |
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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.