We were up early again today, for what we expected to be a quick trip up to Rockhampton. It’s only a bit over 300Km up the road, so we were expecting something in the vicinity of 3 ½ hours on the road ought to see us done. Naturally, as is our luck, whenever we envisage an easy trip, it all goes pear shaped, and you all get an extra laugh out of reading about our trials.

The day started out all well, driving out of what has become our favorite caravan park so far, at just 10:10AM. You can mark us down for another lost 10 minutes. As much as the caravan park has been to our liking, Bundaberg itself has not been our favored town that we have visited. That mantle remains so far with Tamworth, which I think will take some beating.

About to be demystified.

Our first stop for the day was about a half an hour away, on the way to the small town of Gin Gin. It was at a little known tourist attraction, the Mystery Craters. We weren’t able to unearth much information about this place, you could say it was a mystery, but from what we did find promised that it would be an experience to behold. How wrong were we? The mystery was, how do they get off charging $7.50 a person to look at some holes in the ground of somebodies backyard.

Thought to be a natural phenomenon, but proclaimed variously as the result of dinosaurs, UFOs or other unworldly energies, there is a series of small craters bored into the surface of the ground. Varying in size from about the size of a small dining table, to large enough to be a swimming pool, they are set in a strange tan hued rock, stippled with splodges of ochre. The first craters were uncovered originally, to much fan fare in the mid 1970s, there are now over 30 of the holes available for inspection. Far from the expansive vista, spread over acres and able to be walked among as I had expected, they are confined to an area no bigger than a standard house block. A viewing platform gives an overall look of the holes, while it is no more than an unhurried 5 minute stroll to complete the circuit of the perimeter fence which precludes access to the actual hallowed ground.

That’s it. Now you’ve seen them too.

Down the back of the property is a shed housing an antique machinery display, although antique machinery might be overstating it a little. More like a rusty lumps of iron display. There was also a display of polished rocks in the main foyer, although the protective coating of dust precluded any reasonable prospect of viewing them properly.

On our way again, we had nothing else on our list of things to see between Gin Gin and Rockhampton, preferring today to wait and see what comes our way. As it turns out, not much, apart from a seemingly never ending course of road works, with accompanying pot holes that would have been worthy of inclusion at Mystery Craters. Then, to make the drive even more tedious, a consistent dense drizzle began to fall, as we got cocooned between a convoy of slow moving semis hauling wide loads, which were next to impossible to get past.

It was just as we were finally rounding up the fourth and final truck, that Bec mentioned that she might soon need a rest break. Looking in the rear view mirror and seeing nothing but the flashing orange beacons of the escort vehicles, there was no way I was stopping and getting stuck behind them again for the final run into Rockhampton. According to Shazza, we were only a bit over an hour out by this time.

Noooo! Not more road works.

It was after 3:00PM by the time we finally stopped outside the Rockhampton Information Centre, located right on the Tropic of Capricorn, the border between the temperate and tropical zones. Strangely enough, it looked neither temperate nor tropical. With the rain still falling, it was just plain miserable and judging by the capacious grey clouds, there was to be no end in sight to the melancholy. By now, we had already been on the road for 5 hours and still had the final leg of todays journey on which to embark. So much for our quick, sunny 3½ hour jaunt.

Oh, and just to add to the joy, upon opening the caravan door to see how things were travelling, we found a puddle of water pooling by the bed. On closer inspection, this appears to have been caused by user incompetence, as the window had been left ever so slightly ajar. Not enough to notice, but enough to let a steady stream of precipitation access to the inner sanctum.

With a collection of brochures collected from the information centre, we headed off again, in search of our camp site for the night. We’re going to be bedding down at Becs Cousins place, so at least we won’t be having to pay for the bliss that is unhitching the van in the middle of a down pour.

It was only a half an hour or so before we were pulling up the drive, and ever so carefully negotiating the tight slalom course between trees to the concrete pad in front of the shed where we’ll be setting up. It was an entire hour later however by the time we were finally in position, Bec absolutely drenched to the bone from having to stand outside ‘The Beast’ to guide me in at a pace slower than walking.

Wet, cold, dirty, hungry and exhausted, we’d had a rotten day. We didn’t even have anything out for dinner, nor was there any chance we were going out again to get something, so we raided the fridge, and thankfully located the remains of yesterdays lunch provisions. So a dinner of bacon and eggs it was, which we hungrily devoured as we ruminated about the day.

It is days like today that are surely testing, and I was asking myself why in hell we ever thought that this trip would be a good idea. We can barely extricate ourselves from the van without getting saturated, let alone even take the dogs out and the forecast for the entire time we are due to be here is more of the same. Wet and miserable, but thankfully not cold, which of course just makes it unbearably muggy, as the humidity rises towards 100%.

I am almost looking forward to next winter, when I will be safely back in Melbourne, rugged up against the cold, the heater roaring, in a watertight house, and looking fondly back on the winter that wasn’t.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.