NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 7 – MACKAY TO ROLLINGSTONE NORTH OF TOWNSVILLE…

Most of today was spent in the car driving… We made the decision that we would head quickly up the coast before it got too hot and then slowing make our way back down again, so today we decided to tackle a bit drive leaving Mackay around 9.15am this morning heading north… Our destination to be Rollingstone just north of Townsville…

Steve did some research last night and found good reviews on the Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort.  I had also heard good reports about it, and although it was above our budget, we decided to have a bit of a splurge and book in for two nights. 

By staying here, it gave us a good opportunity to explore the Big Crystal Creek in the Paluma National Park which is about 20kms north of Rollingstone…

It was a pretty uneventful drive out of Mackay.  The scenery between Mackay and Bowen is really quite pretty with lots of lush green cane paddocks and fields framed by the continuous range of undulating mountains. 

We had planned to stop at Bowen at the Big Mango for morning tea, but when we arrived we couldn’t find picnic tables anywhere, so we just had a 15 minutes stop where we took photos of the Big Mango and the other exhibits that were on display here, mainly the seahorses made from beach debris that had been washed up onto the beach… (this included driftwood and plastics)..

From Bowen we headed north to Home Hill which was where we planned to have a lunch stop…

The scenery wasn’t quite as lush on this stretch of the journey, the countryside was a lot drier and brown…

Along this stretch of highway, we came across a Big Pumpkin and a Big Slice of Watermelon at a roadside Fruit market.  As today was all about photographing the big things, of course we had to stop and take some photos….

Ticking off more Big Aussie Icons as we visit the big pumpkin & big watermelon

Whilst we were there though, we checked out the fruit and vegetables that were on offer and $32.00 later we came away with a pineapple, tomatoes, mandarins, and eggs…

Once we had taken the necessary photos it was back on the road again…

We got to Home Hill around 1pm and found the Lloyd Mann park which was on the main road through town and pulled in so that we could have a picnic lunch there…

The Big Sugarcane - Homehill..

The Big Arrow...

Lunch at Homehill

It so happened that there were several of the Big Aussie things right in the vicinity of the park.  I managed to snap photos of the Big stick of Sugarcane, the big stubby, the big question mark, the big arrow and the big tin of sardines….

When Steve went for a walk to the toilet, he also managed to take a couple of photos of some lovely murals in town…

We probably spent a good hour in Home Hill before taking off on our final leg of the journey…  

It was quite slow going in places as there are obviously lots of road works going on in this area… Whilst we weren’t particularly held up by them today being a weekend, there were many kilometres where we could do no more than 80kph.

We arrived at Rollingstone just after 4pm and by the time we got the van unhitched and set up it was closer to 5pm.  The sites here are good sizes with plenty of room to spread out… 

We met our back neighbours who were very friendly and helpful.  Whilst we are not right on the beach, we do have a view of the ocean from our van…

As we were setting up, we could hear live music coming from the camp kitchen area just up from our camp site… Apparently it is Pizza night on a Saturday night, and you are able to order them and either have them served where the live entertainment is being held or bring them back to your van…

I had gone for a bit of a walk and found the pool which was just a few rows up from where we are parked and it looked amazing… It reminded me very much of the pool area at the resort we stayed at when we were in Corinda up in Kakadu in the Northern Territory and I was keen to cool off by having a swim…

Whilst I was swimming, Steve went off to investigate the pizzas for dinner and ended up ordering a meat lovers pizza for us.  It was due to be ready by 6.15pm, so I really couldn’t spend too long in the pool if I wanted to be showered and ready for dinner when the Pizza arrived…  One thing for sure is, I will be back in the pool tomorrow but I will be dragging Steve in with me…

We decided to have the pizza back at our van as there was very limited seating up where they were cooking the pizzas and we couldn’t find a spare table…

Whilst Steve was collecting our pizza, I poured us both a glass of wine, and then we sat out under our awning enjoying the lovey sea breezes whilst we ate our dinner and at the same time listening and enjoying the live music that was playing in the background.

After dinner, we gave Ian and Kathy a ring.  They are planning on having a couple of days in Ingham as of Monday.  As we are booked in here until Monday, the plan now is that we will join them there for a few days before we head further north and they head further south.

We finished chatting to them with the view of us both doing a little research overnight and getting back in touch again tomorrow to decide where we will stay for a few days…

Although we are really tired from the long drive today, it is nice to be back on the coast near the water and after the  lovely swim this afternoon, we are feeling very relaxed tonight and looking forward to the new adventures that tomorrow will bring…