Are we There Yet?

We left Bowen and drove along the coast line at 8am. It was already 32 degrees outside and people were already at the beach swimming. We still haven’t gotten the chance to go in the sea water yet, but the more south we go the less stingers around, so we’ll have to wait until Brisbane or something close to that. The reception at the campground closed just after we got there last night, and was still closed this morning so we just left. We weren’t gonna wait around until it opened because we had to start clearing some serious distance, out first week was gone. So we got a free night at the campground. Sweet!

I was woken up this morning by the lorikeets squealing at each other. There were heaps in the trees above our tents. I had a shower and my hair dried so fast! It usually takes hours to dry back at home, but here it dried in about 15 minutes. We drove back through Bowen and discovered that it is the ‘fruit town’ of Australia, particularly for Mangos. We spotted a big mango statue as we drove through the town. We drove for hours until we got to McKay - which was awfully quiet for a big town. We needed to do some shopping so we headed to the mall, only to find it absolutely deserted. There was nobody around and the whole mall was shut at 10am on a Monday morning. We found out that its a public holiday here in Australia, because boxing day was on a Saturday. We had nothing for dinner so McDonalds was looking hopeful! But then our dreams of McDonalds got shattered as we found a small grocery shop called ‘Spar’ open. Dad bought some food for dinner and we set off again south.



The country side?

On our way to Rockhampton were some cool signs that the city council had put up. When we left McKay it had signs saying ‘How far to go mum?’ ‘How far to go dad?’ ‘Still 3 hours to Rocky kids!’ and as we got closer there were signs saying ‘2 hours to go kids!’. It was funny, someone in the city council obviously had a sense of humor! We stopped in the tiniest town called Clearview for lunch. It was just one street that had a few houses on the beach front. We pulled up into a patch of dirt and trees and ate there. There were heaps of ants and spiders on the soil, and we found a big ant hill.


The ant hill

We turned off just before Rockhampton to stay in a place called Yapoon. We didn’t like the campground there, but it was nice and cool. I think Yapoon is where everyone goes to escape the heat. We drove for another half hour south to an even small town called Emu Park. We stayed at a city council campground, which was full of toads - they were so loud! As it got dark, bats flocked the entire sky. I hate bats, I think they are disgusting creatures! Camiel and I watched them as they would come close to an object and then quickly turn away as they used sound to direct them. I saw my first wild snake! Dad spotted a small black snake slithering through the grass next to the kitchen. Even though it was small, it could still be lethal but It soon quickly slithered away into the forest.

I’m tired now!
Fem
xox