20th July 2011 - Mission Beach

Co-incidence or what!  From the time that we started caravanning, we have followed the blog of a Melbourne couple, Mike & Minette. They sold their house and have been on the road full time for nearly 3 years, and every step of the way Min has entertained and delighted us. They'd been camped at Exmouth & Coral Bay in West Oz for some time, and then we followed them as they rather quickly moved up the coast to Broome (very short stop), and across to Darwin. Meanwhile, we were moving up the east coast and around far north Qld before setting up at Mission Beach. What do we find on day two – the fellow two sites from us was working on his boat, and I struck up a conversation with him. Wheels started to churn; facts seemed to be meshing; his name was Mike, he had a boat, he drove a Toyota LC200, he had a South African accent. Yep, it was they. Hopefully we’ll bump into them again, and share another drink or two. 

The entire ‘Cassowary Coast’ is certainly showing the aftermath of cyclone Yasi. Where once there was thick and lush rainforest, there are now many fallen or bare trees with huge areas that are impenetrable because of the debris.  Dunk Island is but a kilometre or so offshore and suffered the full force of Yasi, is still closed and will remain so for 12 months or more.

Paronella Park (google it) is 20 or so km south of Innisfail and what a magnificent place it is. But, it used to be even better! Cyclone Larry in 2006, then Yasi this year has caused major damage to some buildings. Because of the unique nature these buildings can never be fully restored to what Jose Paronella created all those years ago. If you ever find yourself wondering just what you can achieve, or doubt how much you can do by yourself, visit Paronella. 

Another interesting place is Innisfail. Way back in the early 1900s the town was virtually flattened by a cyclone. The vogue architecture of the era was Art Deco, so many of the new buildings were of that style. Seeing the individual flair that this gave the town, the civic leaders chose to apply pressure to anyone doing a commercial building to use that style. The town now has a specific and definable visual appeal that clearly identifies it as Innisfail. Pity other places didn’t follow and create their own special character.

One of the odd and interesting results of Yasi relates to the amount of damage to the cane crop(s). We did a tour of the Tully sugar mill and were amazed at the range of rubbish that is scooped up by the harvesters – yes, everything including the kitchen sink. It seems that a local was in the process of doing a bit of home renovation and had his new kitchen stored under the carport when Yasi came along and redistributed it into the middle of a nearby cane crop. Come harvest time, it ended up at the mill where the sorting machinery pulled it out and diverted it to the junk bin with all the roof panels, guttering, carports, cycles, and farm machinery.

As we were leaving the mill, our tour guide handed us small packets of “Tully Sugar” with the advice that this was the only way that we could get Tully sugar in Australia!  Tully is now owned by a Chinese Govt company and doesn’t hold a licence to sell within Australia. The entire output is exported to China. 

Mission Beach is a wonder to behold (even in its Yasi modified guise) as it seems to go forever, with each step backed by tropical rainforest or palms, and fronted by an island dotted sea of aquamarine. Typical of Queensland beaches, it is quite shallow and you need to walk out a fair way before you get your bum wet.

Our caravan site is totally surrounded by rainforest that, like all this area, holds small populations of cassowaries.  We had the magical experience of a male and his chick (yep, the female walks out as soon as she lays the egg) visiting the park and just wandering around like a movie star.

Packing up now and moving out to Townsville.

9th July 2011 - Atherton

After coming to grips with the fact that it was raining – and would continue for some time, we decided that a few rest days would be nice. But who the hell decided that ‘a few days..’ would last for a week?  To be fair, it hasn’t been pouring rain but simply continual relentless gentle rain.  As if that wasn’t enough, the night temperatures dropped so much we needed to put the doona on the bed – 9 degrees one night!

In between showers we managed to visit the Tolga Woodwork Gallery.  As someone who likes to do a bit of woodwork, the quality of the items on display is simply overwhelming. Everything from major furniture pieces to exquisitely small detail ones is presented. I must stop taking Shirl to these sort of places – she just keeps finding more things that she wants me to make (at the moment, my ‘to do’ list is full up until 2087).

There appears to be an innate need among the human race to apply pedantic superlatives to almost everything.  Sport is, perhaps, the most frequently encountered arena where this propensity is displayed.

“Bill Bloggs just bowled the fastest ball ever delivered on a Friday, from the south end of Kickatinalong, within a first class match, and by a left handed bowler shorter than 5 ft 8 inches, to a batsman of greater than 6 foot, etc etc etc”

This human need was brought to mind when we went for a ride on a steam train at Ravenshoe.  Record books show this town as the highest in Qld. However, Tumoulin at the other end of the line, is higher! How so, I hear you ask.  Tumoulin is not a town: only a settlement. Makes you feel a bit ripped off.

 Steam Train at Tumoulin - the highest & wettest thingo in Qld

Queenslands Highest Pub - about 2 metres higher than the one over the road.

But wait, there’s more. Babinda and Tully, on the coast, are the towns that we usually think of when considering which the wettest town in Australia is. Tumoulin is wetter than both, but doesn’t earn a Guernsey because it isn’t a town.

Then we get to waterfalls, of which there is a plethora (like that word?), up here in the tablelands. Every one of them comes with its own superlative – widest, highest, highest dual drop, greatest fall of a single drop within a multiple drop ...... the list continues to expand. The one ultimate fact is that they all look good and for some odd inner tranquillity, they make us feel good as we go ooohhhh, aahhhhh, wow.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Millstream Falls - widest in australia.

Nuts! Everyone knows that Kingaroy grows the majority of Australia’s peanuts – wrong. The Atherton Tablelands has the most acreage of peanuts, however most of them go into peanut butter, peanut oil, flavouring etc, and only a small amount into table nuts. We enjoyed our visit to the peanut place, and expect that the after effects will be with us for a while.

Another thing they do up here is coffee – 90% of the coffee that is grown is Oz, is grown here. We did the taste tour where 21 different coffees, plus 42 chocolates and 3 coffee/chocolate liqueurs are on offer.  It’ll take us a week to come down of our high!

The ‘Coffee Works’ tour includes entry to their museum of the history of coffee. Absolutely amazing the financial impact the coffee trade has had on the growth or decline of nations. Another eye opener was the enormous variety of plungers, percolators, blenders, and machines that have been produced all with the simple purpose of brewing your coffee.

I’m sure that within the local rainforests there are thousands, no make that millions, of strangler figs. When it comes to superlatives, there can be no doubt that the Cathedral Fig, and the Curtain Fig  near Yungaburra are supreme. You can’t help but be gob-smacked by each of these.

Cathedral Fig with Shirl standing inside it.

Curtain Fig - too big to get in a single photo.

Our two weeks at Atherton was a period of go go go – so much to see, so much to do.  The rain slowed us down a bit, but we still seemed to be going somewhere each day. Highly recommended.

Statue at Millaa Millaa - not sure just what he's meant to be doing?

We leave for Mission Beach on Sunday. The road down should be fun given that Atherton is at 750 mtrs, but you then need to climb up to nearly 900 to go through Millaa Millaa before dropping down the Palmerston Highway to Innisfail. It is the easiest of the four roads between the coast and the tablelands. The next one north is the Gillies H’way from Gordonvale to Yungaburra which is quite skinny and goes for over 25 km without a straight bit of road. It’s not super steep, but it doesn’t have any guard rails!

27th June 2011 - Atherton

We ended our stay at Wonga Beach with another day of ‘Croc spotting” on the Daintree River. As well as the obligatory big monsters, we also spotted a baby (500mm) croc laying on a branch, plus a big python doing similar. The departure point this time was a pontoon near a boat ramp, and the tour guide told us that they had a ‘big fellow’ that had taken up residence under the pontoon! And this was but metres away from all those fisherfolk guys who were paddling around as they launched or retrieved their boats.


Mossman Gorge was another spot we got to. The only regret we had was that our photographic skills weren’t able to do justice to this amazing tropical river gorge. As you wander through the rainforest, accompanied by the sound of the water flowing and rushing across the boulders and rapids of the river is ..... well, it just is! Numerous places to swim, or just to sit and cogitate or ruminate – Ah! Feel the serenity.


Mossman River





Mossman River (2)



walkway thru rainforset

I’d hazard a guess that most Aussies wouldn’t know how important the events of June and July 1770 were to our history. Well, let me enlighten you.

Capt James Cook had finished his explorations at Botany Bay and was sailing up the coast. Somewhere around the Whitsundays (which he named), he realised that he were hemmed in by a very long and large reef – he continued on, looking for a way out. On 11 June, just off Cape tribulation (which he named because that’s where his ‘tribulations’ began), they struck a reef. Oh! Bugger. After throwing everything that they could, the Endeavour floated free on the high tide, but with severe damage. After temporary repairs, they limped north looking for a safe harbour.

Finding the mouth of a river, they weren’t able to enter because of rough weather. Finally - and this is really important – Cook’s journal says that they were forced to WARP their way into safe anchorage. Thus we have absolute proof that Australia was founded by intergalactic travellers. Logic! Capt Kirk had Warp drive: Capt cook had Warp drive. Capt Kirk commanded the Enterprise: Capt Cook commanded the Endeavour. Capt Kirk explored strange lands with animals and plants never seen before: Capt Cook did the same.

After entering the river, which Cook named the Endeavour (the only Australian river that he named), the ship was careened (beached) while repairs were carried out.

Cook Landed Here

So, what did they eat? Fish. Plus a strange animal that they thought the locals were calling Kangaroo, but in reality, it should have been pronounced Gangurru (Gang,gur,u). So, for 240 years we’ve been calling it by the wrong name.

The view from the hill that Cook climbed to look for a route through the reef, is one of the great sights that Australia has to offer. Looking over the river mouth, as well as out to sea, there are many postcards that capture the view, but actually being there at sunset is to really nail it – a memory.

what cook seen from the hill (without the lighthouse)

Endeavour River entry

Sunset from Grassy Hill

We also did what has become a bit of a ritual for us: we visit the local botanical gardens. Firstly, the size and quality of the gardens was way above the size of the town. Secondly, they solved an issue that I have long wondered about – where do they come from (see photo).

But can we get different flavours?

A week at Cooktown is about right unless you wish to travel up to Cape York – Cooktown is only 9,654,493 corrugations away from the Cape. Another iconic 4x4 track is the Bloomfield. Older folk may recall the 70s when the “hippies, greenies, and anyone else who wanted to strip off all their clothes and chain themselves to trees” fought a long, and ultimately fruitless battle to prevent a road being bashed through the Daintree. The track runs for 70km from Cape Trib to near Cooktown and includes one of the ‘must do’ great challenges for heavily laden 4x4s – the hill! Most need low range to climb it in the dry, and recourse to higher powers and gods to do it in the wet.

The Bloomfield did rejuvenate one marvellous old icon – the Lion’s Den Pub, 20km from Cooktown. Way back in the gold mining days, a bloke started up a pub and a tradition. The miners needed a safe place for their funds – the camps were full of thieves and villains so they took to leaving their money at the pub, and used the corrugated tin walls to keep a tally. These days, if you donate to the local rural fire mob, you can add your name. Amazing result – almost every bit of wall and roof is covered. PS: they serve a great lunch.

Love the attitude

We also met one of the most interesting blokes imaginable. Willi runs Guurrbri rock art tours. The tour includes far far more than just looking at a few bits of rock art – Willi also talks about bush tucker, historical movement of aboriginals, relationships between clans and families, plus the spiritual aspect of aboriginal culture.

The great bit is that Willi will change your views and beliefs about the ‘aboriginal’ question. Regardless of you previous views, Willi won’t challenge you, but he will gently and simply explain a few things, not directly, but by way of comparisons with ..... well, with life. And you will come away with a different understanding.

You will change your thoughts, but won’t be able to explain why – you just will.

Left Cooktown on Sunday for Atherton where it started to rain.

13th June 2011 - Wonga Beach (again)

Cape Tribulation: are there enough superlatives in the English language to do justice to this area?  When the statistics are studied, your mind becomes boggled by just how diverse and unique is the flora, fauna and anything and everything else is.

The Daintree is the only place in the world where two pristine World Heritage Listed wonders meet: the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef.  It should also be noted that the Wet Tropics is the only site in the world that meets all four criteria inscribed on the World Heritage listing.

·         It provides outstanding examples of ongoing environmental processes.

·         It represents a major stage of the earth’s evolutionary history.

·         It contains the highest quality of natural occurrences and areas of natural beauty.

·         It contains the most important natural area for the conservation of the variety of life.

The Daintree forests are the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforests on earth.

Of the 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth, 12 are found in the Daintree. Similar figures apply when discussing the area’s fauna.

·         Capt Cook discovered what is now Australia about 240 years ago.

·         William the Conqueror invaded England about 1000 years ago.

·         The crucifixion took place about 2000 years ago.

·         Palmerston Range (Innisfail) Rainforest is about 50,000 years old.

·         The Amazon jungle is about 7,000,000 (7 million) years old.

·         Daintree is about 110 to 200 million years old.

As awesome as these sterile statistics are, sitting above them is the simple but overwhelming beauty of the place.

From when you cross the Daintree River by ferry, it is 35 km to the end of the tar – from there it becomes an increasingly 4WD only type track.  We drove to this point so that we could see, and stand on the ‘real deal’, actual factual’ Cape Tribulation. Step from the rainforest straight onto a beautiful tropical beach. There are hundreds of places north of Cardwell where this task can be achieved, but there is only one Cape Tribulation!

 Cape Tribulation Beach

 Duh! so tell me something I didn't know

We gradually worked and walked our way back, stopping at the numerous boardwalks that wind and wend their way through the different types of rainforest.

Eventually we got back to the “Discovery Centre” and where we were totally gobsmacked. They take you via boardwalks and a quite tall tower from the base, to the top of the rainforest – and keep you enthralled every step of the way. There are explanatory signs, information sheets, recorded guidelines and info, pictures and videos to ensure that you come away with a head not just full of knowledge, but of real understanding.  It took us 4 hours to complete the various paths and tracks.

 View from the tower

We also had a good day out at the Hartley Crocodile Farm. More crocs than you can poke a dead chook at, and the guides have really got there act sorted out so that it is informative but also very funny.

 Big Ted - 2nd biggest Croc in captivity @ 5.4 mtres

Freshwater Crocs

Amazing to think that the human jaw can exert a pressure of 180 psi, a lion can do 600 psi, but a croc has up to 3000 psi!  Once they get their teeth into you they won’t let go – I know some salespeople like that.  Despite surviving for millions of years, their brain is smaller than a chicken egg – I also know some salespeople like that.

Bart the croc has been doing this every day for twenty years, but still does his best to eat the guys.

This weekend in Queensland is like everywhere in Oz. Cars are packed, trailers loaded and hitched up and everyone heads to ??????? wherever, to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.  You see groups of good folks standing around singing “Happy birthday, dear queen, happy birthday to you”. Well, that’s what I thought they were doing.

I’ve just been told by Shirl that they’re really just swapping stories about what happened to them as they drove to ???????? and set up camp.

Firstly, the trailer had sat out the side of the garage for so long that the wheel bearings gave up about 20km from home. Then when they finally got to the campsite, the tent was covered in mould and the stitching had rotted.  The pots, pans and BBQ were all rusted, and the gas tank was empty. The airbeds had holes, and one of the  #$%&* kids had pinched all the fishing line.

But, like every year a lot of fun will be had by all.

road between Mossman and Croc Farm

Off the Mossman Gorge today.

9th June 2011 - Still at Wonga Beach

Through the forest of lost souls stalked the great bird of diversihues. His prey was within his penetrating night vision and he moved forward with precise steps, paused, then with nodding head continued to close upon his quarry. A few beats of his short but powerful wings and he was atop his victim. Taking care to ensure his body was perfectly balanced, he shat – and he shat great volumes.

With the breaking of dawn I emerged from a peaceful nights slumber to find great gobs of peacock poo oozing down the side of the van.  I don’t know the exact ingredients of the daily peacock diet, but I do know that it sticks like - - - - -well, you know. It’s also quite colourful with a proliferation of dark reds, yellows, and blacks – all overlaid with a pinch of green.

We’re still at Wonga. Why move? Daily temperatures are of mid to high 20s, with nights of 15 to 19.  Living right on a tropical beach, we need to keep reminding ourselves that this is winter. Neither of us can recall the last time that we wore a jacket: maybe last spring.  We had a big laugh a few nights ago when Scott called from Brisbane to complain that he was the one who traditionally called us to brag about the weather, now here he was shivering in Brisbane’s coldest day since the pre Jurassic period.

It is very true that life on the road produces regular moments of pleasure and joy it, however, does have one very big frustrating, annoying, anger-inducing issue. To get anything fixed or modified, or to even find the correct parts to do it yourself is guaranteed to test you to your limits, and beyond.

When in Brisbane, we decided to have a gas bayonet fitted on the outside of the van for use with our Weber.  Great idea – no more would we need to haul out the gas bottle, just plug directly into the van’s copious gas supply. Ha! Bloody Ha!

Does anyone realise the huge variety of gas hoses and fittings that lurk out there in the retail jungle?  There’s SAE or BSP, there’s left hand threads or right hand threads, quarter or half inch (I thought we went metric a while ago), and thirty two billion combinations of these on lengths of hose, together with almost twice that number of connectors.  But, it’s an absolute certainty that the exact one you need is (a) not in stock, (b) “No mate, I don’t think they make that one”.

After trying every hardware or BBQ shop between Brisbane and Cape York, I finally had success in, of all places, the small local Mossman hardware shop. Most probably old stock from the Pre-Columbian Period.

We Have a Working Weber .........!!!!!!

Now, does anyone have a need for a box of unwanted, and unused gas fittings and hoses – I believe they weigh 51 kg, or should that be a Hundredweight?

I am now going to turn my attention to a little modification that I’d like to make to one of our water tanks. I expect that I’ll source the two connectors somewhere around mid November.

On a similar subject, our battery charger / controller blew a fuse. Not a problem you’d think. Remove old glass fuse – where the hell’s the bloody fuse fitted?  After a long period of searching and feeling it is found to be at the back of the unit, and is in so tight that a screwdriver is needed.  The bloody driver won’t fit in behind unit!  Get up off the floor where you are laying to get at the unit, exit the van and go to tool locker, get spanner, re-enter van, lay down, reach upper body into cupboard, reach arm (whose elbow doesn’t bend the required way) into back of unit and %&*$%#  the spanner is the wrong one. Extract body, get up of floor and repeat the process. Finally the bolts holding the unit are removed and it can be taken off the cupboard wall and twisted so that a screwdriver can remove the faulty fuse. I try and read the info on the end of the fuse but its way too small.  “Shirl, do you know where my specs are?”  - - - “No, they’re not there, where else?” - - - - 10 minutes elapse - - - - “its okay, found ‘em, why were they in the Weber?”  I still can’t read the writing, must be really tiny font.  “Shirl, do you know where the magnifying glass is?”- - - - “Nope, not there” - - - - “Not there, you sure you haven’t been using it?” - - - “’S’okay, found it, why was it in the fridge?”  Nope, still can’t read it.  “Shirl, can you read this?”- - - “No, I don’t know where your specs are”.

Then I have the brilliant idea of getting the guy in the shop to read it. First stop is the service station – nope (why do they still use this name? – it’s been a long time since they offered ‘service’).  The auto parts shop was next – nope, auto electrician – nope.  Finally, in perplexed anxiety I went to a local radio control hobby shop. Here, the guy took my precious, but useless and unreadable fuse, and after placing it under a microscope that would challenge those used by NASA, and announced that it was all written in Chinese.

Thankfully he had a little box of similar buggers that he used on the power chargers for radio controlled helicopters. So, if you see a caravan flying around the sky, you’ll know it’s just me moving camp.

Having spent all my energy solving these issues, I needed to just sit and relax. There
I was, wine in hand, just chillin’ out in the warm evening twilight when I felt something touch my toes. Caravan awnings may look somewhat fragile, but they can support the entire weight of a large fully grown man who has just had his toes licked by an unknown night critter. Looking down, I spied a bandicoot just ambling away, and stopping on the edge of the light pool.  Why was he checking out my feet? Do bandicoots eat meat?

Upon checking with Google / Wikipedia, I discovered, among a lot of other things that they are prodigious carriers of ticks. It took me quite some time to be assured that I had checked my entire body out – 23 times.

The early next morning (actually, it was more like mid morning) we found that a peafowl had left a message on our awning mat. We had cleaned it, washed it, and laid it on the grass to dry when a peacock wandered by and pecked at it. Not satisfied with this, he began to vigorously scratch at it. Shirl yelled at him to stop it. His response was to turn away, raise his great fan of tail feathers, and ‘Moon’ her.

So Shirl has been mooned by a bird – priceless.

1st June 2011 - Wonga Beach

Our time at Bowen was great with not a single tiny thing to complain about.  The commercial centre of town is somewhat small and it’s easy to see why the movie people chose it to substitute for war time Darwin. Not a single building with more than two levels, but does have some really nice older places.

Our van park was right on Queens Beach where we walked in the setting sun. I went fishing, and maintained the style of not catching anything, although I had a lot of success finding yabbies.

Collinsville is a small coal mining town, about 80 km west of Bowen.  We did a day trip and would you believe, $5 for ‘honey mustard prawns’ at the local Mine workers Club.

The top floor held the historical museum of Australian coal mining. Everyone should visit these places to understand just what the folks of days gone did. Miners worked more than a kilometre underground with less light than a flickering match.  Teams of two: one blowing and digging, one shovelling into a skip hauled by a Clydesdale horse (Ponies were not used, because of the weight that had to be hauled). If the carbide lamp went out, the two blokes grabbed the horse’s tail and took the ‘Clydesdale route’ to the top.

Also of note was that Australia has had 9 major mine disasters since 1886. Five of these happened since WW2 and in each case subsequent coronial inquiries have found that management’s push for greater profits over safety have been the cause.

We left Bowen last Friday and pushed north through endless cane fields. The size of Townsville was a big surprise. It appears that a new satellite city called Thuringa has just popped up and claimed the title of Australia’s fastest growing city. We continued on to Cardwell. 

As we approached, the evidence of cyclone Yasi was everywhere with whole forests knocked over and trees every which way but up. Cardwell would have to have one of the most picturesque main streets imaginable. One side are the shops, and on the other is the beach and ocean with many off-shore islands. Unfortunately Yasi has eroded the beach and flattened the fringing trees. Approx 40% of houses still wear a tarpaulin roof, and 10 to 15% remain uninhabitable.

Only a few trees within our van park escaped without significant damage. The van park owner was one of the few who didn’t evacuate, but stayed in his house and watched from ‘within’. He tells of a 10 metre coconut palm that bent so far that the top was bouncing and beating on the ground, and yet when the wind died down, the tree popped back up with only some of it’s fronds missing – even the resident possum remained (the tree did have some really deep claw marks)

As if to test the resolve of the people, Cardwell flooded about 5 weeks later.  The parks rain gauge showed just under one and a half metres of rain within 5 days – that’s 300 ml per day.

Left Cardwell on Monday and moved northwards thru Tully and Innisfail to Cairns, then further to Wonga Beach (25 km north of Mossman).  We stopped at Cairns to have the damage to the van assessed and were amazed at the “retail opportunities” on offer.  Shopping centres, shops, malls, and discount warehouses seemed to occupy every available piece of land.

The road between Cairns and Port Douglas is awesome. Slow and twisty, but with the beaches hard up against one side and the mountains on the other, the magnificent views are so continual and prolific that by the time you are half-way, you become somewhat casual. If there is a weakness it is that Queensland doesn’t have any surf (north of the town of 1770). If it did have some real waves and breakers, this road would rate as one of the World’s modern 7 wonders.

We are now at the Pinnacle Village van park at Wonga Beach, and feeling very relaxed. Wild peacocks (and peahens) roam freely and readily come to you for food. I wonder what the collective noun for peafowl is?  A flock? A mob? A Group? Nah! It must be a Pod. As in a peapod.

Temperatures are around 25 – 27 degrees daytime, but does drop a bit at night – I had to do one of my shirt buttons up last night (while sitting outside sipping a wine).

Daintree River is a truly incredible waterway that supports the most diverse variety of life. We did a boat ride on the upper river and were astounded to find that the river floods a couple of times each ‘Wet’ – not just a metre or two, but 9 to 12 metres. I wonder how Canberra or Sydney’s drains would cope with that.

It was interesting to discover that at Daintree village, the river is mainly freshwater but still tidal!  Local cattle drink from the river, and 15 to 20 times per year, a croc takes one. Tourists only get to see the bigger males because the smaller ones have yet to develop the confidence to be seen in the open. Our guide told of his co-guide who worked all day taking tourists along the river and only seen 2 crocs. That evening, he took his own boat out for a bit of Barra fishing, and when he shone his torch around, he counted 48  pair of eyes. A few minutes later, he explained that even this far up the river, they still regularly see Bull Sharks  - I looked up at the rows of life jackets adorning the roof of the boat, and thought if the boat sinks, I’d want something to help me walk ON the water, not float in it.

A day of rest tomorrow, because this retirement thing can get very tiring.

21st May 2011 - Bowen

We left Hervey Bay after two nights with our treasured friends, Trish and Terry. Slept in bed number ??? (during the last month). Headed off to Benaraby, rather than Calliope as we had originally planned.


I always love hauling the van up the Bruce Goat-track; it’s hard to find a better example of how to do things wrong. Pot-holes, corrugations, bumps, dips, broken edges – it’s got ‘em all in abundance. The only solution is to drop the speed and curse the trucks that tear it up.

Whenever I’m dragging the van, I am not the fastest person on the road. If we go for an inordinate distance without an overtaking lane, a tail eventually forms behind me. I keep an eye on it, and if it gets (a) too long or, (b) a few vehicles been there for a few kilometres, I find a spot to pull over and let ‘em through. However, some drivers astound me with their failure to bring their brain along on the trip. Here they are, head of the queue and we come to an overtaking lane – it didn’t just “pop up”: there was a sign to say “Overtaking lane 5 km”, another at 2 km, and a final one at 300 metres. Why, oh bloody why, do more than 50% of drivers wait until they are well into the overtaking zone before they pull out and struggle to build up revs, and then just squeak past before the merge zone? And they stuff up all the others too! All I ask is that they drop back a bit, then at the 300 metre sign start building revs so that they hit the overtake zone with sufficient revs and speed to simply move out and toodle past without hindering those behind. End of rant, I feel better now.

Benaraby Caravan Park is on the Bruce Goat track, 20 km from Gladstone and the owner is grinning like the cat that’s got the cream. A huge big new gas pipeline project is starting up there, and there will be hundreds of new jobs, or 100s of jobs lost (depends on which political party you believe). Benaraby park has already purchased 80 new cabins (and has rent or lease contracts in place), and has another 140 on order.

We Left on Wednesday morning to head to St Lawrence which is about halfway between Rocky and Mackay. Stopped at Marlborough for lunch, all was good except that the bloody Bruce Goat Track was having roadworks every time you got into a bit of a rhythm. Watching the odometer and decided that St Lawrence should’ve arrived by then . . . . . pushed on, worried more, spotted a sign showing distance to Sarina, quick calcs ...... some bastard had stolen St Lawrence. By the time that we had confirmed our number crunch, we were at Clairview. Given the time, we had little choice but pull into the Caravan Park. After setting up, we were sitting outside trying to understand how we could lose an entire village – I can understand an item of clothing; a tool; or even a TV remote, but an entire village!?

A couple pulled in beside us and also began the task of setting up – overheard us chatting and came over and explained that they too we supposed to be at St Lawrence. So, who stole St Lawrence – I bags the TV rights to the series of “Australia, you’ve got lost villages”

When we were checking in at Clairview we discovered that the front window cover had come undone and been bent back towards the roof – buggered. Some phone calls established that our best only option is to wait until Cairns to get it fixed. So we now drive along with some big Gaffer Tape band-aids holding the cover in place.

If we thought that Tin Can Bay had big tide variations, Clairview has a 6 metre high to low range (park brochure says its the 2nd largest in the state, but I think that’s a bit suss). Apparently St Lawrence is the only larger tidal range ....... Ah, Ha. That’s what happened. It was high tide when we went past and it was underwater.

Thursday, arrived at Bowen and it is magnificient. The views are awesome. We are parked right on the beach and look out to a crystal clear smooth azure sea. Popped into town to see where they made “Australia”, and got mistaken for Hugh Jackman! This was a new experience for me, since I normally get mixed up with Brad Pitt (I really would like to do a little mixing up with Angelina). Might go for a swim tomorrow, if it’s not too hot.