Brisbane to Tannum Sands

After two nights staying with Barrie's cousin, where we were able to make a few adjustments and do some shopping, we left at 8 for Tannum Sands, just south of Gladstone. This was one of our longest driving days. We started out on the busy four lane motorway and gradually lost traffic as we headed north. Just north of Brisbane the Glasshouse Mountains appeared on the left. Most of the road was undulating, with attractive scenery along the way. As we headed further north we saw cane fields and macadamia plantations. They haven't had their usual rain up here either, but the countryside remains green. It's getting noticeably warmer, although the breeze is still cool enough to be pleasant. We are sharing the driving, with Barrie starting in the mornings and Joy taking over later in the day. The caravanning fraternity (the word is well chosen) wave to one another as they pass. We have yet to see another female driver.  

As we approached Tannum Sands we were reminded of our 1989 sailing holiday. On that holiday we sailed up the Mary River, still the same muddy brown, to Maryborough. As we passed at the sign off to 1770 and remembered the tiny town inside a sandbar that we touched on the way in. Down the coast from Tannum Sands is the beautiful Lady Musgrave Island where we anchored in the lagoon, and just north of us is the large port of Gladstone, which we will bypass tomorrow.

Tannum Sands is a small town with a very attractive esplanade. It's a pity that the beach on the other side of the sand dunes is not quite as attractive as the parking areas.

Tannum Sands to Mackay

There's a cold snap in Queensland at the moment — it's cool enough for a jumper in the morning and the breeze has been cool all day. We've been extremely fortunate with the weather so far. It's been sunny most of the time, and there's been no wind. The breeze when we arrived today suggests that we may be about to get some wind. It gets quite warm driving, so we're not minding the cold snap at all.

Once again, we drove through some pretty countryside today. However, although varied, the photos look like many others we have taken along the way. The early part of the day was green, then we went through a very dry stretch, then green again. However, although green, they are short of water. We saw a lot of cane fields today, and banana plantations further north.

We stopped for fuel as we entered Mackay. Joy, who was driving, turned the ignition off — and the motor kept running!!! We drove to the first service station with a mechanic. He looked at the diesel motor, and said that it had to be an electrical problem, and almost certainly simple, but that he wasn't qualified to find it. Just as he was about to give up he noticed a broken hose on the newly installed cruise control. He replaced that and the motor turned off.

We are in a large caravan park which appears to be full. This is the fullest of any of the parks we have visited. At five o'clock they have a bird feeding. The ducks and the rainbow lorikeets are extremely tame. Their home seems to be just opposite our caravan, so we may be off to an early start in the morning.

To finish the day we had a magnificent sunset.

Mackay to Townsville

Sugarcane and mountains describes today. There have been mountains, or at least hills, every day since we started. It reminds us of Spain, with it's line of mountains the length of the eastern coast, although our mountains are neither as high nor as stark. In addition to the cane, we saw mango groves and vegetables, mainly potatoes. 'Fruit barns' selling local produce were dotted along the roadside. In places the sugarcane was reminiscent of the hedged roads in England, with nothing to be seen but sugarcane lining the roadway. As we passed the welcome sign driving into one town we wondered if there was a town there at all. All we could see was cane fields. Along a bit the road turned and the town came into view.

It's 'cold' and dry here according to the locals. We are finding the temperature very pleasant, warm sun and a cool breeze. There are areas along the road where the lack of rain is very evident and other areas that look green and tropical. The scenery does tend to repeat, although much of it is very attractive.

After arriving in Townsville we walked along 'The Strand', as advised by the man at the tourist information centre. He thinks it is much better, although less well known, than The Strand in Cairns. We thought that the Benecassim (Spain) equivalent was far superior, although The Strand is well endowed with areas for families to enjoy the beachfront. Just offshore is Magnetic Island. After walking the length of The Strand we stopped for a drink at a restaurant/bar with a view of the harbour, Jupiter's Casino and Magnetic Island.

When we drove past an auto parts shop Barrie did a quick U-turn and we took the opportunity to buy a new jockey wheel for the caravan. Barrie has been struggling with our jockey wheel for several days, as it has become increasingly difficult to raise and lower. After fitting the new wheel and trying it a big smile lit up his face.

Townsville to Cairns

We made it!!! We are booked on a tour of Cape York departing Sunday, so we were relieved to arrive in Cairns on schedule and without incident.

We had to laugh a little at our neighbours of last night. We never actually saw them, they arrived, set up quickly and disappeared into the tent, and hadn't reappeared by the time we left this morning. We don't know whether they were a couple or just friends. However, the little tent and the two bikes did look a bit incongruous, particularly as the site had an en suite.

Today we passed through more sugarcane fields and banana plantations. There's an enormous quantity of sugar grown in Queensland, perhaps not surprising given that the average American (and probably the average Australian) consumes 3 pounds of sugar a week.  We were interested in the bags covering the bunches of bananas. Mountains were evident most of the day, and higher than usual. The area around Tully has one of the highest rainfalls in Queensland, and this was evident in the dense plant life along the road. We encountered our steepest climb to date along the road today. Road works at the base caused us to slow to 40 kph, and we weren't able to improve on that. For the first time we used 1st gear during a climb. One of the huge transports, also off to a slow start at 40 kph, was stopped part way up and had to be pushed to the top by a council truck that was following it.

It's definitely warmer here than anywhere we've been so far. For the first time we are sitting outside the caravan in the evening. Apparently there are five or six other caravanners from Geelong in the sites immediately adjacent to us. We've travelled 4001 kilometres since we left home.

Cairns

We're still resting and relaxing after the trip up here. A late (for us) phone call from Adam detailing his plans (28 hours on a bus to Warsaw, Estonia, Sweden, England, Turkey, Greece, Western Europe, Thailand, Sydney and home) kept us awake well beyond our now usual 9pm. Joy's intention of doing a load of washing yesterday afternoon was delayed until early this morning, and delayed again until after lunch when she wasn't in the laundry sufficiently early. The clothes lines were full and there was a queue in the laundry by the time she arrived there this morning. It's no wonder the laundries are busy. Each of the large caravan parks we have stayed in the past three nights has been full. On the trip from Mackay to Townsville about half the vehicles in the road were pulling caravans.

We went out and arranged to have the Musso serviced then did some shopping this morning. We then drove around to find out what we might go to see when we have more energy. Finally, we went to look at Lake Placid, which is a widening of the river just by our caravan park. At the lower end of the lake is an island (seen in the photo) which was sacred to the local aboriginal tribe. The whole area is very pretty and the caravan park blends in with the surrounds. The tree that overhangs our site serves us very well as an annex.

Sitting outside our van we were approached by another Musso owner. He has just returned from a trip to Cape York in his Musso.

Cairns

Much of today has been spent preparing for our trip north. Our Musso and van are to be stored at the park, so we have to leave them ready for moving. Fortunately, we don't have to store them ourselves before we depart at 7:40 am.

We took a scenic drive through a World Heritage rainforest area to the dam that is the Cairns water supply. It was a beautiful drive on very windy narrow roads up and over the mountains to the west of Cairns. Initially the views were across Cairns, with sugarcane fields, with their mauve plumes, in the foreground and views through to the sea. Higher up we entered the rainforest area, and travelled through rainforest most of the very slow (but we're used to slow by now) 16 km drive.

From tomorrow until we return next Saturday evening we will not have internet access.

Back to index

Next Page: Cape York Peninsula

CLANCIE\index.html