Thankfully, the rain seemed to hold off for the most part overnight, so we awoke to a gloriously warm, sunny morning, although the humidity was nearing 80%, making it muggy and stuffy. Not only that, but the ground had barely even started to dry out, so the slush was still evident around the van as we began to pack up. We really are hitting our stride with this packing up business, even having time to have a bite to eat for breakfast as we each busied ourselves with our assigned tasks.

Much easier than backing in yesterday afternoon, we drove ourselves out of our miniscule site with a minimum of fuss, waving and wishing the nearby neighbours safe travels, we were out of the gate by 10:10AM and continuing on our north bound tack again. (See you at 8:00PM towards the middle of October.) Our day today was again to be spent staring at the white line flowing endlessly down the middle of the road, as we made our way towards Townsville. For those of you who have a copy of our proposed itinerary, and are playing along at home, you will note that todays drive will put us in Townsville a whole day earlier than anticipated. This is because of the changes we made to our plans the other day, prior to leaving Rockhampton. These changes will become even more evident over the next couple of weeks, until we slot back into what we had penned out before we left. I won’t give too much away, but we are sure to continue having a ball despite the alterations.

The drive today was much the same as yesterday, although the roads were less than perfectly surfaced and the much despised road works zones made a recurring appearance throughout the day. We got stuck a couple of times for almost a ¼ of an hour each time. Sitting there in “The Beast’, the warm sun uncomfortably invading the cabin, twiddling our fingers, waiting impatiently for the bloke holding on to the stop/go sing to weave his magic and have us on our merry way again. Very frustrating.

The scenery was lovely today though, alternating from expansive fields of lurid green sugar cane, to sprawling forests scrubby gum trees, to bright blue ocean vistas, to towering ranges crowned with foreboding rain clouds.

Surrounded by sugar cane fields.

We made time to make a couple of stops today, rather than pressing on in abother non-stop marathon. The first was a little way out of the small costal town of Bowen, home of the ‘Big Mango’. Stopping to solely view the mango, a fiberglass effigy that apparently cost $90,000.00 (only $60,000.00 over budget), yet hardly resembles the fruit it is meant to depict, we didn’t stay for too long. Enough time for an obligatory snap or two, and we wheeled back out onto the highway.

The Big Mango?

Not much further down the road, we chose to pull in at Ayr, to let the dogs out for a toilet break, and to allow us to stretch our legs and fill our bellies. We had been intending to dine at a little deli, that we saw advertised on a number of roadside billboards, but upon closer inspection, nothing appeared appetizing. Strangely enough, we then went next door and bought some lunch which consisted of uninterestingly bland meat pies. The pies were followed by a pretty good caramel tart however, so it wasn’t a complete and utter bust. So much for our homemade lunches of healthy goodness each day though. We can’t keep this up.

From Ayr, it was only an hour or so later we were rolling into Townsville, although the caravan park we are staying at is located a further 25Km north of town. We are staying at the Black River Stadium Caravan Park, as it promised a wide open expanse to run the dogs about, and as a bonus was cheap. Just under $25.00 a night, which is good value. It’s got none of the fancy stuff that some of the other parks have had, such as pools, playgrounds, recreation rooms and so forth, but since we haven’t used any of that stuff so far, we figure if we don’t need to pay for it, we may as well not. So basically, we have a large spread out patch of grass, with plenty of room for all of our stuff, no neighbours right near by (at the moment), and easy access to water and power. The showers and toilets are nearby and look clean enough, so what more could we want? As a bonus, phone reception is good, so we can get access to the Internet, and TV reception was also meant to be good. That’s a big plus, as it’s my turn to get all excited about the tele, hoping to watch the finale of Survivor. Having seen Bec miss out on My Kitchen Rules, I had my fingers crossed that the TV would work tonight. Imagine my disappointment, when having tuned in the TV, our mate Murphy made his presence felt, as the only channel we didn’t receive was the one I needed. Crest fallen, I frantically twisted and turned the antenna this way and that, until all of a sudden, the stars must have aligned, and through the crackle and hiss, emerged a perfect picture and sound. Well, that’s not quite how it transpired, as digital TV doesn’t pop and crackle, but you get the idea. Not only that, but excitingly, we haven’t seemed to lose, damage or otherwise destroy anything today.

A quick walk around the park to check it all out, found us in the open air camp kitchen, laughing at the page of rules and regulations posted on the wall. Whilst it wasn’t advertised as such, at least not anywhere we read, the park is designated as an over 50s park. I think it’s as a way of keeping out loud mouthed young bucks and annoying families with hoards of kids, so even right smack bang in the middle of our thirties, we ought to fit right in here.

Some of the local wildlife comes knocking on the door.

With all of our ducks in a row for the night, we cracked open a couple of cold tinnies, from our seemingly functioning fridge (fingers crossed), kicked back and congratulated each other on making it through 4 weeks on the road without yet resorting to homicide.

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