Day 1,2 & 3 Saturday 18th - Monday 20th June 2011
We left home earlier than planned. I woke up earlier than planned at 4.45am, got up had a cuppa and finished packing the truck. We woke the girls and threw them in the truck, pyjamas and all, leaving just on 6.15am to start our adventure.
Our first stop was Macca’s for breakfast at Nudgee Beach, then back on the road heading North. We had a pit stop at Gympie and continued to push through to Gin Gin for lunch, where it was very windy, hoping this wasn’t the weather we were in for. A bunch of these birds were hanging around for a feed.
Along the way, we came across some army personal who were travelling in big Bushmaster armoured personnel carriers. The girls were fascinated with the military vehicles. They seem to be everywhere. We later found out they were going to an exercise up north.
We were finally on the home stretch to our first night stay at Rockhampton. An hour out of Rocky, we hit a hurdle, the road was blocked, due to a police siege at a little town on the highway. The traffic was blocking up with semitrailers, bus loads of army dudes and a wide load. After and hour or so, we were back on the road, making Rockhampton about 4.30pm. Checked into the Big 4 Discovery Holiday Caravan Park. A quick erection of the camper trailer, which was done well for our first time. We all had dinner and a few well earnt beers, before hitting the sack about 8.00pm.
The following morning, we woke up earlier than planned, as Melissa had to go to the toilet. We climbed out of bed and packed up the camper. We headed off, just before 7am, thinking we would get breakfast up the road. As we drove North, there was a Macdonald’s Restaurant on the opposite side of the road, I said to the girls, “we’ll push on to the next town and get breakfast”. Well, we pushed on, to find the next town, being 190km away, being Makay. All three girls were not happy, with cries of, I’m hungry and when are we going to stop coming from the back seats as well as the front passenger seat. We were all pretty cranky by the time we reached Makay, So breakfast and first coffee was at 10.45am. Won’t make that mistake again.
We refuelled the body and the truck, heading north to Townsville. We stopped at a little town called Ayr for lunch, the girls kept calling it lake Ayr (not quite). Our next stop was Bowen, which turned out to be quite disappointing. There was nothing in the town and we kept on our way.
We arrived at my mates house in Townsville. I hadn’t seen Aaron and his family for around 8 years, but it was straight back into being mates. It was good to catch up with them, sharing a few beers and talking about old times and current going’s on, before hitting the sack late.
The following day, we said out good byes for now and we headed towards Cairns. By the morning we had news that our travelling partners (Steve and Viv) were having some mechanical problems and would not be able to make Cairns today. A couple of chats on his sat phone and we realised they would have to stay in Bourke Town overnight, before joining us in Cairns on Tuesday.
On this leg of the journey, we were travelling through parts of Far North Queensland that had been ravaged by floods and Cyclone Yasi. We had coffee at a small sea side town, Cardwell. This is the town where the footage was shot of the multi-million dollar boats being piled up on top of each other at the Marina.
Things are slowly getting back to normal, but there are a few roofs with tarps still on and builders working frantically. The landscape looks like it had been through a bushfire, with all the small tree limbs and leaves having been stripped from the tree and the new foliage starting to gown back. This was evident from Cardwell to Tully, about 70km, with the devastation overwhelming.
We finally came through it and arrived at Cairns, pulling into the Big 4 Coconuts Beach Resort, feeling a sense of achievement, having travelled 1900km, so far. We were sad our friends were not arriving until Tuesday. We set up camp and the girls went straight to the water park. The place was voted best Big 4 Caravan Park in Australia and I can see why. Everything is clean, there are activities for the kids, water park, swimming pool, jumping pillows, mini gold, movie theatre, tennis courts, giant chess and free pancakes on Thursday.
We are looking forward to a few good night sleeps, exploring Cairns and getting ready to set off on Friday for the “start” of our Cape York adventure.
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