On the road again

We had left about midday, and decided to stop at the Capricorn Caves on the way. These were only about 20 kms out of Rocky, so we stopped to take a tour. The next big town was Mackay, over 4 hours away, but we were never going to get there that day.

The caves were interesting, but not as pretty as Buchan Caves. They are "dry" caves, so don't have all the stalagmites and stalactites making all the beautiful formations. That just means you have to be more imaginative in "seeing" shapes in the rock formations. But they did have one large cave they call "Cathedral Cave" as it has a few features reminiscent of a church. The thing is they do weddings here, about 35 a year. That means one every one to two weeks. They put down red carpets, and romantic candles everywhere. That would be a wedding with a difference.

We continued on, and stopped for the night at a tiny town called Marlborough. The Marlborough Hotel has a large empty patch of grass behind it, and has opened it up to self contained motor homes and caravans. They charged $5 a head for use of the toilets and showers. A great deal, and a great idea. There were at least 10 vans there for the night , with 2 people in each van. That's $100 straight off, not counting the drinks or meals many of these people went ahead to order. Not bad for a town with one street.That's what you call a win-win situation. And its reputation precedes it. It's in all the Camps books and apps, and people have been stopping here from all over the world. They have several walls of graffiti signed by the hundreds of people who have been here.

The next day we pushed on towards Mackay. We were getting back into sugar cane country, with fields of cane lining the highway. Every now and then we would see a large machine harvesting the cane and chopping it into small pieces, and occasional cane trains to transport it.

As we approached Mackay, we stopped off at a little town called Sarina, 30 kms out. Sarina's claim to fame is The Big Cane Toad - something George could not pass up. So we had our photo opportunity, and checked the rest of town, looking for a cafe. There were none, but we counted six different hairdressers and barbers. Finally we found one cafe, disguised as an Indian restaurant. The sign said Indian restaurant, but it had a good coffee machine and some nice cakes.

Investigating further, we found there was really very little to the town, but there was a road going off to Sarina Beach. Ah! we thought - this is where all the action is. The beach was nice and quiet, and yes, there was one cafe at the Surf Life Saving Club, but really nothing else. And I think that is all that club did, because there was certainly no surf. All the beaches here are very calm and flat, with the sand being a dirty brown colour. Apparently that is the effect of the Great Barrier Reef off shore.

So we continued on to Mackay - a big city, with traffic! And crowded streets! A real culture shock after all this time. And we arrived in the middle of the Mackay Show, just to make things worse. We had a bit of a look at the town and the marina, but were glad to soon head out to quieter haunts. We had found a BP station about 10 kms out of town with a rest area across the road from it, with free use of the toilets and showers, as well as picnic facilities, and a 24 hour shop.

We settled in for the night, with only 2 or 3 other vans. However, halfway through the night a truck pulled in - carrying a refrigerated load, so it had to run a noisy generator to keep it cold. This was not so bad in itself - the real problem was that it decided to park right next to us, as in 6 inches away, and hemmed us in, with a van in front and a van behind us. The thing is, the rest of the rest area was empty. So when we got up in the morning (as we really couldn't sleep) and wanted to leave - we couldn't. We were stuck.

So we decided to have our showers, hoping someone would have left by the time we got back. It was quite surreal walking across the Bruce Highway in pyjamas carrying a towel and soap. However when we got back, the truck was still there. The car in front of us contained two people sleeping in the back. They were still in bed, but had the door open. We explained our predicament, and they drove forward a few metres, allowing us to escape.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the area around Mackay, as we didn't really want to go back into town. We checked out the 'Northern Beaches', a collection of four or five beaches and beach towns, none very exciting. We finally gave up on Mackay, and decided to move on to Proserpine (or as George call it, Porcupine), another hundred or so kilometers away.

This was a really tiny sleepy town, not far from Airlie Beach, which is where all the action was. We thought it might be too busy and expensive at Airlie Beach, so we might stay here and travel in each day. But the caravan park was not cheap as it was in 'peak season.' (In the middle of winter? Oh yes, that's when all the Victorians come up.) So after one night we thought we'd try our chances at Airlie. Thought we'd get a coffee in the morning before leaving, but all the shops were shut, even Woolworths. Apparently it was the Proserpine Show, and they had a public holiday for Show Day. But luckily the one cafe we did find open had the best almond croissants we had ever tasted.

Moved on to Airlie Beach, which was absolutely beautiful, but more on that next entry.

GeorgeY's bit

The Caves - good to see if you have never seen caves before.

Marlborough - great hotel deal, attracting millionaires in their full size bus motorhome that expands sideway in many parts, and towing Land Cruisers. Rolled in for a cheap spot in a quiet grassy place.

Sarina - where the Big Cane Toad is. Wasn't that big. Moving on.

Mackay - tried really hard not to move on. Visited the marina, then Northern beaches. Bucasia nice, but nothing special. Blacks Beach (felt at home here, will be renamed African-American Beach). Dolphin Heads, overdeveloped exclusive rubbish (hated it.) Moving on.

Prosepine - closed. Next day, closed. Still managed to find the best custard almond croissant in Australia. They do not know that, otherwise they will close.