To Townsville

This morning dawned fine and warm again. This is ideal to pack up rather than dodging rain showers and damp gear. After a leisurely breakfast, I commenced packing up the Karavan. 

On completion of packing up, I was visited by the family, Leo, Veronica and their 3 sons, who I had camped beside at Carmila Beach who came to say farewell as they were going on an island excursion for the day. A lovely family and so friendly.

I left the Caravan Park and decided to go into Airlie Beach and have a muggacino before I left town. I returned to the cafe that I had been to yesterday as it had reasonable coffee and the price was very acceptable.

By 9 am I was on the way to my destination for the day, Townsville. The countryside changed all the time. Initially there was heavily timbered and cane farms with hills around then it opened out to flat grazing land inhabited by Brahman cattle. Then more big hills or mountains to the west and more cane land. This is the region where most of the sugar in Australia is grown. Various sugar mills placed around with the narrow rail tracks to take the cane there. 

I passed through various towns including Ayr and Bowen. Bowen has been in the news as some criminal has poisoned millions of horticultural plants to go to farms to grow various things like tomatoes, egg plant, melons etc. This will have a major impact on price we all pay for vegetables and also a major impact on the Bowen community income. Many people will be unemployed for some time due to this low act.

As I was getting close to Home Hill, I noticed another Kimberley Karavan behind me. We made contact by UHF radio and then stopped for a while in the town for a chat. It was Peter and Chris from Gosford with their April 2010 model on their way to Cape York, too. We shared information and soon we all moved on.

About 1 pm, my GPS guided me to the Coral Coast Tourist Caravan Park exactly. Thank goodness as I had no idea where I was. The park seems nice and clean and is beside the RAAF Base so there is the occasional blast from a jet departing. That is usually only during daylight the neighbours tell me.

During the afternoon, I perused various leaflets to work out what to see during the next few days. While I was doing this I received several calls from several friends who used to live either in Lennox Head or Lismore and now live here. We have arranged to get together separately tomorrow and Sunday. 

So that was the day to get to Townsville.