We hit the coast at Mackay QLD on our trip back up again, but received the news that Heather's Dad had passed away, so a quick decision was made that Avan would stay on in QLD and Heather would do ANOTHER road trip down to Adelaide with her brother and sister. Heather certainly travelled a LOT of klms in June and July! When we were reunited again in Cairns, we spent a week or so getting ready for our Cape York trip, which we will detail in the next entry.

We stopped into very isolated Tambo for lunch and were pleasantly surprised to find a choice of 3 pubs offering counter lunches. We picked one and had a good feed and chat to the bar girl then pushed off for Mackay. Not long down the track we came across a very large and agitated snake.

Muttaburra is the geographical center of Queensland and the road in is long and dusty. The towns other claim to fame is that it has a dinosaur named after it, after the remains of a previously undocumented specimen were discovered nearby. We spent the night in Muttaburra's free camp site, situated in the main street and went down to the pub for a meal, this resulted in us staying to stumps and in being given a lift back to our camp by one of the locals!.

Our first engagement in Cairns was to catch up with Heathers eldest brother Dean and spouse Judy at Ravenshoe in the Atherton tablelands and to help them celebrate the marriage of their youngest daughter Jenny. The wedding went off without a hitch and we had a great time catching up with family. It was then down to Cairns to prepare for our trip to Cape York. Unfortunately word was received that Heathers Dad back in Adelaide had taken very ill so a quick change i...

 Hervey Bay was our next stop to check out our friend's,(Mick Sillcock) new house. New is right, we arrived as Mick was just moving in and actually stayed for the first night of occupation.  Unfortunately it also poured down with rain, making for a very muddy building site. Given that things were rather hectic and not yet organised, we had good excuses for eating out. Mick was a great host and we enjoyed our time in and around Hervey Bay. With a bit of bad...