Southward Bound

Thursday, 5th September

The time has come to head south!

 
Yesterday was an another babysitting day, but only Aidan, while Dave, Shan and Jack spent the morning inner-tube rafting on the Mulgrave River – after being assured the crocodiles were in another part of the river!  We had a lovely morning with Aidan, he helped with the grocery shopping, the laundry (very good at selecting pegs from the bag) and preparing the caravan for departure the following day.  After a big sleep, he came with us to refuel the vehicle and say goodbye to Bev at the ice cream shop.  Of course, it would have been rude not to have bought an ice cream each while we were there.  We then returned him to his parents at their new accommodation in the city, made a quick dash back to the caravan to roll up the awning, change and meet the family again for a farewell dinner.  Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse and we were treated to a couple of impressive tropical downpours.
 
This morning was fairly relaxed, with most of the packing up done on Wednesday.  Following the heavy rain overnight, the ground was a bit muddy – as were the hoses and power cord.  The curlews also decided during the night that the front of our caravan would be an ideal place to raise their chicks and after some coaxing, settled beside the sump sink.  This did cause quite a few hissing fits as Leslie retrieved the hoses.  After many more goodbyes, we were on the road by 9.00 am, heading for Townsville.

The weather was fairly good until we reached Gordonvale, then the mist, rain and wind arrived – and stayed with us all the way, although we didn’t have any rain after Cardwell.  It was very exciting watching the numbers increase quickly on our fuel consumption – head winds are not as good as tail winds!  We stopped for lunch at Cardwell and were pleasantly surprised at the foreshore development; despite the appearances on our way north, the local council have decided to leave large sections of roadside parking for caravans and limited the angle parking.  Unfortunately, it was too windy to sit outside and look at the view across to Hinchinbrook Island.  As we neared Rollingstone, we noticed a large bushfire burning in the vicinity of the Rollingstone Caravan Park – probably a bit on the smoky side for the tourists staying there.  The countryside around Townsville is very dry, they obviously haven’t had the rain that has fallen on Cairns in the past week!

We are once again staying at the Walkabout Palms Caravan Park, which is currently undergoing some renovation – a nice new playground and jumping pillow has been added.  I had made a reservation before leaving Cairns and were allocated a site, with the comment, “You should fit on it!”  We did try, it was plenty long enough and easy to back into.  Unfortunately, the space between the concrete slab and the concrete sink surrounds wasn’t quite wide enough for our wheels.  Much muttering on my part, as we didn’t want the sides ripped out of our tyres and I wasn’t happy to stay on the allocated site.  At this point, two park workmen walked passed and Himself pointed out that the site was too narrow for a caravan.  Turned out one of the men was the owner and not impressed that the site had been allocated to a caravan.  He offered us an en-suite site for the night, no extra charge.  Much happier chappies.  Now, if only the wind would drop …