DAY 14 - TOWNSVILLE TO MACKAY TODAY

Another long day today as we take off and head for Mackay...
We left Townsville around 9.30am this morning, and drove through Townsville.  We wished we had more time to explore this city..
We heard the F111s fly over last night and this morning we found out why....

RAAF Base Townsville

 It turns out our van park was just down the road from the RAAF Base in Townsville.

Helicopters and the airport were real close to where we were staying

We hit the road works again and just out of Townsville,  we hit the road works yet again, and it took us over an hour and a half to travel to Ayr which is less than 100kms down the highway...
Got to cross the Burdekin River, the only river along the coast that had a bridge like this.

Over the Burdekin River

 Drawing close to Ayr and Homehill, we were once again in familiar territory... Sugar Cane, lots and lots of it... I grew up in sugar cane country... It is crushing time here at the moment, so we are seeing lots of cane heading to the mill.

A familiar sight along the highway this morning

And that cut cane is all heading here.

 It really reminded us of some of the bridges in northern NSW.
Once we got past Bowen we had a pretty good run.  It seems the road works were over.
By the time we had driven through Bowen, we were keen to find a rest area for a pit stop.  Funny thing, is the first one we came across was right on the ocean again... In fact it was opposite the Big Mango and we were the only ones pulling in there.  It was quite a pretty spot... Seems we are always drawn to the ocean...

Stopped for a pit stop

 Steve went for a little walk along the beach just to stretch his legs..

Low tide

 We took off again, and just before we got to Proserpine, we saw a sign to Hydeaway Bay and Dingo Bay, and since it was only 27kms off the highway, we thought we would go explore and have lunch there.  We have been there previously about 20 years ago.  Surprisingly it hadn't changed, a few more houses there, but still no major developments or shops...

Hydeaway Bay

 The beach was deserted, we were the only ones on it...

Heading down onto the beach

 The tide was low,  some views of the islands out from Hydeaway Bay

 The beach was also pretty rocky,  not the best beach we have been too.  Nothing like the beaches back around our way...

On the beach at Hydeaway Bay

Enjoying being in the fresh air and sunshine

 There wasn't really anywhere here where we could have lunch,  no real parks, and it was all pretty dry and barren...
We thought we would go onto Dingo Beach at Dingo Bay and check that out and see if there was somewhere where we could have our lunch break.

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 This was a much prettier beach, and it had some park lands where we were able to park and have our lunch,  It was still pretty dry, and brown, but there were a few people around enjoying the beach.  The views here were really quite pretty too.

This boat was left high and dry by the Low tide

 There was also an enclosed swimming area on this beach, so that even in the stinger season, you could still swim here. 

Steve on the beach... Swimming enclosure in the background

 Time to get some lunch... Love live in a van,  it is all so easy to prepare lunch, and every so cost effective. 

Getting lunch

Our view whilst we eat our lunch. 

 This place is really lovely.  After lunch we went for a walk along the beach to check out the swimming enclosure... 

Views from the island from the beach

 Steve found a sandcastle on the beach... someone has gone to a lot of trouble to build this... The tide will just come in and wash it all away...  This creation will not be lost now,  we have a photo of it. 

Building sandcastles on the beach

 Steve decided to wander down and check out the enclosure,

Swimming enclosure at Dingo Bach

 I'm not so sure how safe from stingers this enclosure really is...found this massive hole in the wire..

Big hole in the enclosure

 Had to take some photos of this coast line... the water was beautiful and clear....

Views from Dingo Beach

Views from Dingo Bech

 After we left Dingo beach, we decided to drive one of the back roads into Proserpine.  It was only an extra 3 kms to go that way rather than the main Bruce Highway and we have always found in the past that those side roads are much prettier than the main highway.  
 Whilst driving along this road, we came across this property called the Swinging Shoe.. and out the front where these couple of boots/shoes swinging on a post...

Male boot swinging

Ladies shoe swinging

 They were actually quite large.
We drove through Proserpine and headed onto Mackay.
Heading to Mackay, we were stopped on the main highway by one of these crossing the Highway.  These used to be a common sight when I was a kid growing up in Bundy,  Ah the memories...

Cane being carted by the locomotive

Loaded with cane

The last carriage always has a little flag.

 We didn't arrive into Mackay until nearly 6pm.  We had some difficulty finding our caravan park as they GPS kept taking us the wrong way.  Fortunately we drove in at 5.55pm and booked it.  If we had been much later the office would have been closed.
This wasn't a great park.. I think it had mostly permanents in it.  It was a huge park with over 140 cabins, and almost 80 van sites. 
It was clean, but most people kept to themselves and weren't as friendly as people had been in the other parks we had been staying in.  Still it didn't worry us, we were only here overnight and were leaving again first thing in the morning...
We unhitched the van, and then drove into Mackay in search of fuel and food.  Fortunatley we didn't have the same problems as the night before finding cheap fuel, there was a service station not far from where we were staying....
We also ended up at KFC for dinner.... It has been years and years since we have had KFC, and I reckon it will be years and years again before we have another feed...

 We headed home after dinner, had our showers and then just chilled out in the van,  I did some photo editing, Steve did some school work.  No TV tonight....
Early morning start in the morning for our last leg of the journey home.