Townsville

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Similar vehicle to the rollover

 

Cane train

Part of the Burdekin River

Another warm night followed by a rather humid start to the morning – so humid it was called misty rain.  At least the wind had abated somewhat.  We were ready to hitch up a bit earlier than normal, but needed to wait until the caravan next to us moved off site so that we could then get out much easier.

Shortly after leaving Bowen, we were halted by an army sergeant and quickly realised that while there were a large number of army vehicles stopped on the right side of the road, there was also another very large carrier thingy which had fallen over and was on the left side, surrounded by army personnel, fire engine, ambulance and police.  The army were doing a wonderful job directing traffic and the sergeant told us that the vehicle had clipped the bridge and rolled; fortunately there we no injuries.

The traffic was very heavy today in both directions, with many army convoys travelling south to a major training exercise – let’s hope that Townsville isn’t invaded in the next few days, because Lavarack Barracks must be nearly empty!  Although we did encounter a few showers, the tail wind helped once again with fuel consumption.  Apart from the accident, we were also held up for some time owing to roadworks on the Burdekin River bridge at Home Hill.

When we arrived in Townsville, we discovered that major roadworks were happening in the region of the Walkabout Palms Caravan Park, our overnight stop.  After making a left turn off the highway, we suddenly discovered that we couldn’t turn right into the caravan park, so made a quick phone call to the caravan park for directions.  (I am sure our call was not the first nor the last!)  The service station attached to the caravan park must have lost so much business due to the roadworks, as cars can no longer simply pull off the highway for fuel.  Once again, being an overnighter, we seem to have drawn the short straw with sight allocation.  Having checked in well before lunch, I was surprised to receive an email this afternoon acknowledging my cancellation!  Perhaps I will get a refund ...

After setting up, our first visit was to Jayco for a new screw knob thingy for the awning, then it was Stocklands Shopping Centre for some lunch and a new watch battery, before returning to the caravan and undertaking the awning repairs.

The weather has been much warmer today, about 27 degrees, quite humid and not much wind after arriving at Townsville.

Bowen Continued

Monday, 29 June 2015

Looking south

Rose Bay in the distance

Marina

Low tide

Wind socks

Jabiru in flight

Jabiru walking

Looking for birds

The Big Mango

Rocky headland

Horseshoe Bay

Lookout, top right

Windblown

Please SMS if rescue required

Bowen has proven to be very, very windy and a bit on the damp side.  Sleep on Saturday night was very patchy owing to the awning creaking, groaning and flapping in the wind.  Sunday morning was very overcast and very windy and NOTHING happens in Bowen on Sundays, absolutely nothing with the exception of the IGA supermarket.  We drove up Flagstaff Hill to look at what view was visible through the murk, then followed the shoreline around the marina to the old Catalina flying base from World War 2.  We concluded our Bowen tour with a stop at the Don River, where we were lucky enough to see two jabirus – wow!  On our return to the caravan, the awning was rolled in – Herself refused to have another sleepless night.

Today was still very windy and wet; of course, as soon as the washing went into the dryer, the rain stopped and the wind continued.  We had a quick trip to the Big Mango for a photo opportunity and then stopped at the local bakery for some bread – they don’t sell bread, so it was on to the supermarket.  After lunch, we drove to Horseshoe Bay, a lovely cove at the headland and spotted a sign to the Rotary Lookout (Rotary must spend most of their time constructing lookouts).  Naturally, lookouts are on the tops of hills (have worked that one out by now!), but it would have been much more comfortable climbing over and around the large sandstone, snake infested boulders if wearing more appropriate footwear and the walking poles weren’t still hidden at the back of the luggage compartment.  However, after a good aerobic workout, we arrived at the lookout, with some spectacular views back towards Flagstaff Hill and northwards towards Queen’s Beach.  Then it was back down the hill and a quick walk (deviation, really) onto the beach for a quick photo amid the flying sand before escaping into the Pajero.  The lifeguard on duty seemed to be having a fairly quiet day.

Bowen

Saturday, 27 June 2015

Following a beautiful sunset last night, we waited and waited … but the expected stink was obviously a Thursday night special.

This morning was warm but quite windy as we set out for Bowen, with traffic much lighter than the previous days, but the scenery was very similar – sugar cane, scrub, dry grass and some mangos making an appearance as we neared Bowen.  With only two and a half hours to travel, we were at the Big4 Coral Coast Holiday Park well before lunch.

At last we are staying in a fully booked caravan park (only other one was Brisbane) and although we had booked, the only site available was a grass site in what had been the tent area.  With four sites in a square and sharing a communal drive, it was nice to have Matt’s assistance to reverse in – we are in the back corner, of course, with a nice fence outlook.  It was while setting up that Himself discovered a tightening knob thingy has unscrewed itself on the drive north and is now waiting on the side of the road for someone to find it.  A couple of guy ropes are holding one arm of the awning in place; we should be able to find a replacement in Townsville.  The afternoon was spent doing laundry (the windy conditions helped this dry very quickly), checking out the local Woollies and a long walk along the foreshore, through Hanson’s Park.  Unfortunately, the tide was at the wrong position for comfortable beach walking.

We are in Bowen for three nights – and have our fingers crossed that the wind will abate.  The caravan park is very nice and has absolute beach frontage, with some caravans having an uninterrupted view of the Coral Sea.

Mackay

Friday, 26 June 2015

Sugar cane

Perfumed orchid

Creamy white orchid

Orchid with measles

Green and white orchid

Lady with white orchid

Dancers - or spiders???

I'm looking at you ...

Queen's Garden/Park

Monument to Lord Baden Powell

Lady in park

Monument to Rats of Tobruk

Enough said!

White bird walking on lily pads

Us with Margaret and Milton

Wow, less than six months to Christmas!

Thursday saw us up relatively bright and early, with hopes of leaving by 8.30 am for the much longer drive to Mackay.  The countryside was mainly scrub, with some grass, but very dry.  Again, we encountered a lot of traffic heading both ways but the truckies today weren’t as voluble with their comments.  We had a brief stop at Marlborough for a break and driver change before continuing north, with another stop about Camila.  As we neared Sarina, the country changed, with sugar cane filling the view; cutting is well underway.  We had intended to stop at Sarina for a bought lunch (a bit of a treat) but with no where suitable to stop with a caravan, we continued to the next roadhouse and joined the truckies.  We arrived at Mackay shortly before 2.00 pm.

We are staying at the Top Tourist caravan park, simply known as The Park.  It is a very neat and well maintained park – again only about half full, like the majority of caravan parks we have stayed in.  All went well until about 7.00 pm when a rather unpleasant smell was detected.  A quick check of shoe soles showed no problem there, Himself assured me he hadn’t had an accident (not that I thought he would have had one) and Cat became quite huffy when we looked at him!  Then the big mistake – I opened the door to look outside and the smell was unbelievable!!!  The hatches and windows were very quickly secured.

This morning, when I again opened the door to check, the air had a distinct odour of baby powder/air freshener.  Hope it doesn’t happen again tonight.  The overnight rain had cleared by sunrise and we have had clear blue skies all day, with the temperature around 24 degrees.  We paid a visit to the Orchid House at Queen’s Gardens (lots of orchid photos!) and a look at the monuments before moving on to the Botanic Gardens for a wander (not sure about the signage, though).  It was a bit of a surprise to discover a funeral happening in the carpark of the gardens, though - complete with hearse, coffin, mourners and Harley Davidson motorcycles.  We then met up with my cousin, Milton and his wife, Margaret, for a very enjoyable lunch on the verandah of the café at the gardens.

Rockhampton

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Caliope River

Farm at Marmo

Cattle country

A couple of Capricorns

Getting tropical

Butcher bird

Tuesday was another pleasant day, weatherwise.  We had a fairly quiet day, “doing” the township in the morning.  We drove across the river to Boyne Island (not sure if it is an actual island or just the name of a suburb) and as far as the Boyne Smelter, with enough aluminium ingots stacked in the yard to keep manufacturers happy for quite some time.  As we drove back down the hill, we could see dozens of coal ships anchored out to sea, obviously waiting their turn to berth at Gladstone.  Unfortunately, there didn’t see to be a lookout over the sea and town.  We followed the beach route back to the caravan park but the thick scrub between the road and sand prevented us from getting a good view.  Tuesday is also the weekly sausage sizzle at the caravan park – with sausages, bread and coleslaw provided by the managers, Geoff and Andy.  This couple (yes, definitely a couple) were previously at Lake Maraboon near Emerald and have been at Tannum Sands about a year.  For a gold coin donation, we were treated to food and entertainment – singing and dancing, as well as some unrepeatable jokes!

This morning the weather was glorious, clear skies and mild temperatures, as we packed up and said goodbye to Denise and Barry.  We had a relatively short drive of two hours to Rockhampton, passing over both the Boyne and Caliope Rivers and through cattle properties.  There was also plenty of traffic today, lots of trucks and a surprising number of southbound caravans – Himself nearly ended up with RSI from all the waving.  We are at the Big4 Discovery Park on the north side of Rockhampton – most definitely in the tropics now.  After sharing lunch with a very insistent butcher bird, we visited the Stocklands Shopping Centre and I treated myself to a $14 iron – it has to be better than the one which has been relegated to the rubbish bin!

Tannum Sands

Monday, 22 June 2015

Rex, Carlene, Les

Friendly bald coot

Nesting ibis

Les, Denise, Pauline, Barry - finally worked out how to use the timer!

A friendly bird

The winter solstice has now been and gone – we are now looking forward to the summer solstice!

Sunday morning at Hervey Bay was quiet, until we arrived at the “must visit” market – everyone was there!!!  All the stalls that we had seen the previous day at Urangan were there, along with plenty more; lots of nice fruit and vegetables to be had at a very reasonable price too.  The market was set up surrounding the local animal shelter – dogs and cats – and Himself made special friends with a lovely, placid cat but had to leave her behind as Cat would not have been amused.  Shortly after lunch we were enjoying the caravanners’ past time of watching new arrivals’ attempts at getting onto tight sites and suddenly realised it was Rex and Carlene.  Of course, the remainder of the afternoon was spent catching up on news and sampling my orange and poppyseed cake.  As the afternoon passed, word was spread by the local midgie population that dinner was being served at Site 129 – red and itchy legs now for the next fortnight.

Today it was time to pack up for the move to Tannum Sands but, of course, it did take us much longer this morning by the time we farewelled Red and Carlene and then the people opposite suddenly decided to get to know us and have a long chat.  The drive north was uneventful, traffic wasn’t too bad and the countryside was mainly bush with some sugarcane and mango farms.

We arrived at the Tannum Sands Top Tourist Park shortly after lunch; Denise and Barry arrived here this morning, so there was more conversation this afternoon and devouring the remainder of my cake.  We had a very friendly kookaburra visit us while we were sitting and talking - he flew underneath the awning from one end to the other, directly above our heads and then sat on the awning strut right above Denise and then flew back to the strut next to the door and was quite happy for me to stand beside him.

The weather today was a bit warmer than yesterday – about 23-24 – and a touch cloudy.