30 November 2016 - Emu Park to Maryborough

It was a big drive today - 435km.  We have the home tail wind really driving us homeward. 

Having walked around Emu Park last evening, we had little to do but hit the road.  We have been this road before so there was nothing really new.  For this reason we did not take the roads into Bundaberg, Burrum Heads, Gladstone, Hervey Bay etc.  

We are now into an increasingly busy road system and everyone wants to do the maximum speed limit, so we are left with little choice than to join them or get run over.  This is a far call from driving out west, where we were able to dawdle our way along at a speed that was of our own selection.  Still, it did not take long to get back into the groove.

301116 Traffic - Ugh! in Rockhampton

301116 Rockhampton, beef capital of Australia

Driving at speed amongst traffic does not provide a good environment for taking photographs, as some of the following photographs show. 

301116 Balustrading on the bridge over the
Fitzroy River at Rockhampton

301116 The Burrum River from the bridge - lucky to get it at
100km/h with a semi pushing from behind

The countryside between Rockhampton and Marlborough is pretty ho hum and it was not until we reached Gin Gin and Childers that visions splendid reappeared - fields of sugar cane, a coffee plantation and macadamia nut orchards.

301116 Back with the cane near Gin Gin

301116 More cane near Wallaville

301116 Coffee near Wallaville

301116 Macadamia nut orchard near Childers

Gin Gin was a very busy place.

301116 Beehive of activity at Gin Gin

We did meet an interesting character who somehow found his way into the van.  This was one of two. The other got away.

301116 On the caravan floor.  How did it get in?

301116 different colour in the sun - almost translucent

The frog was real.  The giraffe was realistic.

301116 This is a long story at Gin Gin

Blossoms also caught our eye today.  We first noted these as we crossed a bridge.  Along both sides of the creek bed, trees were blanketed in a creeper covered in brilliant yellow blossoms.  We could not photograph from the bridge so we pulled up at a parking area and shot away.

301116 The creeper was truly spectacular

301116 And the creeper was everywhere

301116 Tree in blossom.  Note the yellow 
creeper on the RHS

As this penultimate blog goes to bed, we are being threatened by thunder, lightning and so far, only a few spots of rain. While it wasn't too hot today, a storm would probably help lower the temperature and bring a smile to the locals.

Tonight is our final night out, before we head for home.  Tomorrow's blog - some statistics.

29 November 2016 - Cape Palmerston to Emu Creek

Oh the joy of a cool night.  We slept well.

Our first task this morning was to check out our caravan park at Cape Palmerston.  It is an isolated park, 15km from Ilbilbie.  The park itself is a short walk from the sea.  We had expectations of a lovely beach and it may well be, if the tide were in.  Tide in, a great beach for kids.  Tide out, a great place for a cricket match. 

291116 Cape Palmerston Beach looking  to the NE

291116 Cape Palmerston Beach, looking to the SE

291116 The view to seaward from Cape Palmerston Beach

Negatives aside, the place has a great reputation for fishing and crabbing, and the facilities were very good.

We did take a few shots around the park to give some insights.

291116 Beautiful in its simplicity

291116 Shrub not so attractive but it was not in full bloom

291116 The blossoms were beautiful though

291116 The leaves are as pretty as the blossoms

291116 Ants nests in the trees

291116 Another shrub at the caravan park

291116 Burdekin Ducks

291116 Burdekin Ducks invited some water hens
to share breakfast

291116 Pillars of ..... clothes lines

Today took us southwards through Marlborough and Clairview to Emu Creek near Rockhampton.  We mention Clairview because we had free-camped there a few years ago. The bougainvillia alongside the road had not grown much but the site of our camp had been given over to a dump point and the little town itself has many new homes on the beachfront. Ah! The price of development.  We had morning tea there anyway.

291116 The beach at Clairview

There is not a lot to report about our journey today.  The road was OK, the sun was out and we had left behind the large cane farms.  Instead we passed through cattle country, which was in fair condition, as were the many Brahman cattle that were grazing on the grassy plains.  The Great Dividing Range was ever present on our right hand side.

We headed to the coast as we neared Rockhampton, ending up at Emu Park, about 25km from Rockhampton. It's right on the beach too.  Emu Park has a memorial to Captain Cook in the form of a "Singing Ship".  The wind through the wires in the memorial "sing".  A video was taken in an attempt to capture the sound but it was not very successful.  The view from the memorial is a worthy default outcome.

291116 Plaque at the "Singing Ship" Memorial for

Captain James Cook

291116 The Singing Ship Memorial

291116 Video taken from the Singing Ship

291116 The Emu Park Beach late afternoon

28 November 2016 - Bowen to Cape Palmerston

Oh boy are we enjoying the relative cool.  This evening we are even able to leave the windows open without screens - no flies and a lovely cool breeze.

We got up early this morning and had a good look around Bowen.  Being on the beach, it has many interesting beaches and bays, a very large harbour and the view from Flagstaff Hill was excellent. The hill overlooks the town of Bowen, its boat harbour, its commercial harbour Port Denison, the northern islands of the Hinchinbrook Island Group and points north as well.  There are a couple of videos below taken from the hill.

281116 Rose Bay, Bowen

281116 Grays Bay, Bowen

281116 Looking towards Yasso Point from 
Grays Bay, Bowen take 1

281116 Looking towards Yasso Point from Grays Bay Bowen take 2

281116 Exercising on surfboards at Horseshoe Bay, Bowen

281116 Exercising on surfboards at Horseshoe Bay, Bowen

281116 An interesting rock structure looking northwest
from Flagstaff Hill

281116 Bowen Boat Harbour from Flagstaff Hill

281116 Bowen Harbour with Bowen in the background
from Flagstaff Hill

281116 Tug returning to Bowen's Port Denison

281116 Tug from Abbott Point returning to
Bowen's Port Denison

281116 Looking north Flagstaff Hill

281116 The Hinchinbrook Islands Group from
Flagstaff Hill, Bowen

Video (1) from Flagstaff Hill

Video (2) from Flagstaff Hill

281116 Looking south from Yasso Point, Bowen

281116 Looking north from Yasso Point, Bowen

281116 Bowen township

281116 More of Bowen township

281116 The Big Mango at the Bowen Information Centre

We followed the sugar cane fields and the ever present Great Dividing Range southwards.  

281116 Sugar cane near Proserpine

281116 More sugar cane, more mountains

281116 More sugar cane, more mountains

281116 More sugar cane, more mountains

281116 More sugar cane near Proserpine

281116 Irrigating sugar cane - maybe a blow out?

We resisted the temptation to take the turnoffs into Airlie Beach, Shute Harbour, Mackay and Hay Point. The heading home wind was at our back all day.

281116 The Mackay bypass

We did pass through Proserpine and Sarina of course. 

281116 The town of Proserpine

281116 Proserpine sugar Mill

281116 The Pioneer River near Proserpine

281116 Coming into Sarina

281116 The Sarina Station out front

281116 The Sarina Station platform

281116 The Sucrogen Plane Creek sugar mill at Sarina

On the advice of our host at the Caravan park last night, we decided to stop over at Cape Palmerston, an isolated caravan park near the beach.  We will take a look at its surrounds tomorrow.

We "destroyed" a tyre on the caravan trying to move around a tight Woolworths car park. Replacing it in the carpark and finding a tyre service centre for a new tyre left us both red faced.  Well, it was rather hot in the sun.  Felt rather strong though.  We held up the traffic in three directions as we reversed out of the car park.

We did see some unusual wild flowers up on Flagstaff Hill in Bowen.  The tree and its closeup were photographed at Horseshoe Bay.

281116 Never seen one of these before

281116 Unusual flowers/blossoms/fruit?