Day 22 (9 August) – Hervey Bay (Lazy Acres @ Torquay – Tin Can Bay golf and crabs)
Not a great day in Hervey Bay so we headed South to Tin Can Bay. We tried to get some mud crabs but the sign said none until 15:00 (today). So, a trip to the golf course and a very wet round of golf at the Tin Can Bay Golf and Country Club. We tried to have lunch there but were too late so went back to the crab place to get the mud crabs (around 15:15). Lyn was surprised that the crabs were still live and so we had a couple of passengers on the way back to Hervey Bay.
Lyn drove back to Maryborough in what can only be described at TORRENTIAL rain. It was pretty scary driving through this and so I took over the driving once we reached Maryborough but by then the rain had eased to pouring.
Despite having the crabs available for dinner, we headed to the The Beach Motel Hervey Bay again for another excellent meal.
No football tonight – I don’t know what I’ll do when the season ends.
Day 23 (10 August) – Hervey Bay to Gracemere (Gracemere Caravan Park via Miriam Vale)
Still a shocking day in Hervey Bay so we decided to head North to get past the rain. The rain was consistently falling but at times the rain got quite intense. I managed to hook up the Jimny and get the power and water disconnected feeling like a drowned rat and rushing to get everything done between massive downpours and finally we headed off around 09:00.
On the first few days we had the AEBS hazard light come on which disabled cruise control and the adaptive cruise control. A couple of days previously I sprayed WD40 into all sockets and plugs and this seemed to stop the problem. I must admit the sockets in particular were very dusty and so I’d had to jiggle to connections every now and then previously to get them to work. So, on this very wet morning, I was very surprised that the AEBS lights flashed and warned multiple times in the first 5 minutes although we didn’t seem to be having too much trouble driving. It was then, as I was thinking about the drive train disconnect handle on the Jimny, and wondering if I’d locked it in properly, that I realised that I’d left the handbrake on in the Jimny. What a difference it makes to the AEBS system to have a freewheeling Jimny behind – no more warning lights. There was a very slight burnt rubber smell as I released the brake, a fairly red face (mine) and, as we continued, (still in the rain) all seemed to be OK.
We stopped at the Star Roadhouse in Miriam Vale for fuel and loved the toilet sign on the roadhouse wall. I took a photo as Lyn said that Wren would love to see the sign. It certainly describes the feeling you have after a couple of hours driving!!
After a brief lunch break in the Star Roadhouse carpark, we continued on towards Rockhampton. Lyn took over driving after about another hour and drove for half an hour whilst I fell straight asleep. It’s been a hectic few days with the motorhome problems and driving.
We finally arrived at the Gracemere Caravan Park around 16:00 where I was met by BB. I think I was in reception for about half an hour before she walked us to our caravan site next to the pool. We had had quite a conversation about a number of things as Lyn waited in the motorhome. BB is a Rabbitohs and Cowboys supporter, has a grandson Micah and knows about Moze, Gam Gam, Wren and Luna (BB LOVES THOSE NAMES!!!!). Also, I shouldn’t ask for a big rig or drive through site when booking a site as these can be hard to get – BB said just disconnect the Jimny and use a normal site – great advice.
Dinner in the motorhome as we continued to explore cooking the crabs. Lyn cooked the crabs in the oven with the idea that we would have them cold the next day.
Then, naturally, I watched another disappointing loss by the Demons against Port Adelaide. I think the Dees have been badly impacted by injuries to key players and seem to have lost the edge they had. At least there was a bit more passion and fight in this game where the Power got up by 2 points.
Day 24 (11 August) – Gracemere (Gracemere Caravan Park – Gracemere Lakes Golf Club and crabs)
At some stage I had to take the Jimny into Yepoon during a working day to get some advice on our A-frame connection between the motorhome and Jimny. The Hitch-n-Go A-frame is manufactured near here, just this side of Yepoon. We decided to try the Gracemere Lakes Golf Club today (Sunday) then head over to Yepoon to play there on the Monday after going to Hitch-n-Go.
Over to Gracemere Lakes Golf Club, we arrived around 09:30 where the main weekly competition was getting underway. We were told we could wait half an hour then follow the field. We decided that we could do some practice putting and follow the players after a warm up – the first time we’d had anything like a warm up on the tour. So, I had a few putts then went and watched the groups leave. I’m pretty sure one of the players out of the 4 groups I watched made the first fairway but I can’t say for certain! At least 2 of the last group hit slices across 2 fairways. Whilst we were waiting to hit off, Lyn was offered lunch after our round – $5.00 for a chicken schnitzel, chips and salad. (I was told $4.00; I think they saw Lyn coming!).
So, as we finally hit off the first at around 10:30, it dawned on us that it was a 9-hole course with dual tees. Although we’d waited a while to hit off after the last group, we caught them on the second hole and had to wait again. It was then we decided to hit 2 balls each and only play the first 9 holes. It made a difference and we were only held up a couple of times after that. Every hole on the course has a water hazard somewhere (there are 2 creeks through the course) – alongside, in front (lake) or behind the green. Although I lost 2 balls (admittedly one was my second ball which I wasn’t scoring), I managed a respectable 16 points. Lyn played off the white tees as there weren’t any red tee markers on the first hole. Thankfully they had grass greens and a fair bit of work was being done to get them in better shape.
After the round (we finished around 13:00), we headed back to the camp site and decided that we needed a proper clothes line. The temporary lines we’d used weren’t easy to put up and didn’t allow the clothes to dry properly. So, we headed to the big BCF in town and bought a new clothes line – absolute luxury.
We then went to the local K-Mart and bought some deep plastic storage containers. Lyn spent the afternoon re-arranging her things whilst I prepared the engineering paper for a Cessna 206 that I was planning to get an endorsement for in Cairns (Mareeba airport). I also spent some time summarising my aircraft endorsements and experience for the instructor at Mareeba.
It was then we checked the crabs and decided that they may be best left as they hadn’t been cooked through enough – this was the first time Lyn had used the oven and the gas went out a few times.
What a surprise! – For the first time in years we were able to both watch the same movie – Lyn tends to watch Netflix and I watch the football. BUT we had Top Gun – Maverick followed by Top Gun. We did switch off after about an hour of Top Gun.
Day 25 (12 August) – Gracemere (Gracemere Caravan Park – Yepoon & Caravan Park)
We woke to find the day had turned against us with light to steady rain falling. I finished my engineering paper for the Cessna 206 and sent it off. I then loaded Adobe Premiere Pro and discovered how to load the videos I’d taken of the whale watching and to capture still images from the movies. These have been loaded into the blog now.
I called the Hitch-n-Go people, explained our situation again (I’d spoken to them a few weeks before) and explained we’d planned to play golf in Yepoon that day. Ryan said come in any time but he wouldn’t recommend the golf. Lyn was reading so, as the rain continued to pour, I re-arranged my things in the motorhome – so much neater now and additional space as we have packed things more efficiently.
Mid-morning we headed to Yepoon, still in pouring rain and went in to the Hitch-n-Go offices. Ryan was surprised that our ‘Vehicle Under Tow’ sign wasn’t working, he gave us a new one, checking it worked properly in our vehicle, and then also gave us the certificate that we were meant to have when towing the Jimny. So, all good now.
As we left the Hitch-n-Go, we noticed some banging from outside the Jimny. After some investigation, it apparently came from the roof rack carrying the bikes. We drove into Yepoon, stopped a few times to identify the source and try to fix the sound problem and had some lunch in a beach side car park in Yepoon (still raining). Lots of investigation and adjustments trying to remove the noise problem, refuelling the Jimny at the Yepoon BP then trying the BCF to see if they could help with the Rhino Roof rack and bike mounts. No luck from them. We tried a number of things, the final (partial) improvement came when I used some G clamps from Supercheap Auto to better clamp down the mounting bracket on the roof rack.
As I was struggling to find the G clamps in the Supercheap store, one of the female customers mentioned that it was typical that men couldn’t find the ‘G clamps’. A few minutes later when I arrived at the G clamp area with the store assistant, there she was, holding a G clamp, with a big grin saying that women are better at finding the G clamps.
Back to the caravan park where I spent a couple of hours updating the blogs whilst Lyn continued reading her exciting book.
We decided to go to the Gracemere Hotel for dinner tonight. A typical pub meal then back for a coffee before we head North towards Mackay tomorrow.
Day 26 (13 August) – Gracemere to Proserpine (Gracemere Caravan Park – Proserpine Tourist Park)
Another shocking day! Rain pelting down over night to the extent that there was a creek behind the ablutions block in the caravan park. I’d brought my jacket that we got on our Arctic and Antarctic tours and took the inner lining out and wore the rainproof outer shell. It was great, I was able to do all the tasks – emptying the cannister, lowering the self-levelling device, disconnecting the waste water, fresh water and power and connecting the Jimny. Admittedly after that, I had to put the saturated outer shell in the back of the Jimny to avoid getting too much water in the motorhome. I applied our new ‘Vehicle Under Tow’ sign from Hitch-n-Go, disconnected the drive train, attached the Jimny to the motorhome with the A-frame and REMEMBERED TO TAKE OFF THE HAND BRAKE. It’s amazing when you do everything you should, how easily the whole unit moves and with no warning lights.
We headed off towards Mackay not knowing where we were staying that night. We started looking at Airley Beach, Mackay or somewhere else close by. All we wanted to do was to get out of the rain.
Driving up the highway I’d been using the CB when we travelled inland to Lightning Ridge and out again and found it great for overtaking or assisting people behind to overtake. I turned on the radio again for this leg of our trip – it isn’t so great on the main routes as most people don’t use the CB. However, we overheard one of the truckies say that he’d been driving South and had hit the rain after Clairview, telling his North-bound mate to expect rain up to Clairview. It did clear up a little just after St. Lawrence and was definitely better after passing Clairview.
It was a pretty long drive and so we stopped at Flaggy Rock Cafe for a brunch. The aim was to refuel at Sarina as I’d been monitoring the displayed fuel range versus the distance we travelled. The vehicle gives a range around 15 to 20% further than the distance we travel (I’ll do some more accurate analysis later as we have a very comprehensive travel log for the motorhome). This had been usual since we’ve had the motorhome and I think the Jimny adds around 5% fuel consumption. I’d been using BP stations as I’ve now got a BP card – I don’t think it’s the best but I like using the same fuel in case we have any fuel related issues. As we arrived in Carmila, I noticed a BP station and pulled in. Carmila is 50kms short of Sarina so I felt better as my calculations only gave around a 40km buffer heading into Sarina. I dutifully refuelled at the Carmila BP station and went in to pay to find that the BP loyalty system didn’t work. The boss didn’t want to reboot the system – “It’d take 15 minutes to reboot and we have so many customers”.
Lyn was making a number of calls to caravan parks as we left Flaggy Rock Cafe, mostly with no available powered sites, one with one night only. We finally agreed to travel to Proserpine Tourist Park where they had a non-powered site for the first night, then a powered site for the next 2 nights.
On arrival, I was given a multi-page and multi-minute briefing of the highlights of the area and how to get to each one. Our non-powered site backed on to the local bowling club and was in an area replete with trees. It was tricky disconnecting the Jimny then negotiating the trees to park the motorhome. I managed to get it into position in such a way that we could put out the awning and park the Jimny alongside the awning. We set everything up then headed into town for a meal.
I tried to call the golf club to book a round for the following day and, after being on hold for around 5 minutes, went through the voicemail with a message promising the message would be transferred to email and they’d get back to me. I’d found out that they did a 2-person, one cart deal on Wednesdays for $90.00 so was looking forward to a round at Propserpine Golf Club.
We also found there was a 50m pool next door and Lyn had one of her many swims in the pool – free and very well maintained.
Our hosts had recommended the Metropol hotel for dinner so we headed into town to the Metropol. The meals were great! – Lyn had Baked Salmon and I had a Chicken Schnitty – really good meals with very fresh salads. We’d highly recommend the Metropol.
Back to the non-powered site where we managed to keep the power usage very low. We started at 199+ hours worth of power and only got down to 16 with a number of appliances being used and then back up again as we switched off items.
Day 27 (14 August) – Proserpine (Proserpine Tourist Park – bike rides and relaxing)
Well, I’ve learnt one thing! Don’t leave any clothes/towels/items out on a brilliantly clear night up here as the frost and dew in the morning is very, very heavy.
After clearing away the things we’d left out overnight, I went for walk to the pool next door to check out the local area and, on returning to the campsite, received a message from the golf club that the course was closed that day due to the extreme weather (it had been pouring here over the past few days also) and that they hoped to have the front 9 available on Thursday. I found the golf course was just the other side of the bowling club that we were parked next to, so I went for a walk into the golf course to see what it was like and the conditions. Yes, very wet! the greenkeeper was trying to mow the fairways and I think the water was getting the better of him.
We had to wait for the powered site to be vacated and so I was checking out the rest of the campgrounds a few times. I must admit the ablution block was in really good condition and we were impressed with the cleanliness.
I got into a conversation with the guy in the unpowered caravan site next door (Jacques) – he’d been having trouble with his driving lights glass becoming very foggy and losing their brilliance. It turned out they were also both golfers from Cairns and on their way back after 5 months travel. They recommended Bowen Golf Club, Home Hill and their course in Cairns, Half Moon Bay. We had a long talk about golf, driving lights when Lyn joined us after she arrived back from one of her swims.
As they left, I found our new site had been vacated, so we moved the motorhome and Jimny around the corner and set up for the next couple of nights.
I got the bikes off the roof of the Jimny. We then decided to ride the bikes into town around 1.5km away. I stopped at The Reject Shop and bought some basket tubs for my bedside cupboard; it was very interesting cycling back with the baskets balancing on the front handlebars. I inadvertently hit the button to increase speed whilst balancing the baskets and so left Lyn behind as I pedalled back to the motorhome. My clothes had been sliding out of the cupboard shelves as we travelled so I tried the tubs and found they fit fairly well, put my clothes in the tubs and then the tubs in the cupboard – I’ll have to see how it goes but, so far. so good.
We headed back into town for another ride and had lunch at Healthy Haven, a nice little shop near the end of Main St. On our way back, we stopped at an op shop where Lyn bought a couple of items for Wren and Luna and I got a pair of wraparound sunglasses as I’ve found I need sunglasses a lot more these days – I now have a pair in the motorhome, a pair in the Jimny and a pair for flying. The items for the girls came to $9.00 and my sunglasses were $2.00, I “bargained” the lady down to $10.00 as it was much easier than having a lot of change (‘Cash Only’). Lyn wasn’t happy as we normally like to give more to charities. However, I put on the new sunglasses as we started back to the motorhome. I think the sunglasses were for children as the frames were extremely annoying to the extent that, when we got back to the motorhome, I decided to return them. The lady wanted to give me back the money and said they’d just got some new sunglasses if I wanted to try them. I thought it was better just to give them back – and treat the return as a donation.
The afternoon was spent reading (I’ve just started reading a book for the first time in probably 10 years). Lyn has been reading a book that Kaye lent her and worrying that it might get wet or dog-eared before she returns it to Kaye. I’m pretty sure Kaye won’t mind – such a lovely and generous person. Lyn misses the walks and talks with Kaye as we travel!
Wonder of wonders! Lyn and I (yes me!) went for a swim in the pool. This was the third swim for Lyn in just over 24 hours.
Back to the motorhome after the swim, dress for dinner (at the Metropol again) and then back to the caravan park to write up blogs and watch some TV before heading off tomorrow.
Our plan is to go to Airley Beach tomorrow then play golf at Bowen on Friday morning as we head to Lyn’s sister – Sue – and her husband Laurie’s at Alligator Creek near Townsville.
Day 28 (15 August) – Proserpine (Proserpine Tourist Park – Airley Beach, Cedar Falls & Proserpine Tourist Park)
Lyn went for another swim in the pool next door before we headed off to Airley Beach.
Airley Beach is a round 25 km from Proserpine, a nice leisurely drive. However, when we arrived in Airley beach we could hardly recognise the place we visited 20 years ago! Back then we had hired a yacht over Christmas and sailed around the Whitsundays – just the 5 of us – Lyn and me, James, Michael and Lachlan. It was definitely one of the best Christmases I’ve ever had as we sailed around the islands, visited Whitehaven beach and then returned to the harbour in 40 knot winds heeling at 45 degrees as Lyn tried to pack in order to disembark when we arrived back in the harbour.
Hasn’t Airley beach changed though – it’s now a tourist Mecca for this region. We had coffee at a foreshore cafe, walked around the town and swimming pools and were amazed at the number of boats in the harbour in Airley Bay and the Coral Sea Marina. We had a ‘picnic’ lunch under the shade beside one of the pools and then headed off, checking out the marina on the way back.
As we were travelling back to Proserpine we noticed a sign to Cedar Falls, with some time to spare, we diverted to the falls and were amazed at the waterfalls some 30m high. Lyn decided not to go in – the bottom and surrounds were rocky; we were told the visibility wasn’t great and the water was cold.
We stopped at the Reject Shop on the way back and picked up 5 more tubs. So, back to the caravan park for some more reading and tub packing. Then later in the afternoon another swim in the pool next door – I managed 12 laps of the 50m pool then back to start packing for tomorrow’s departure.
Lyn cooked some magnificent prawns – she cooks them better and more consistently than any other place we’ve been. And then to watch the Panthers vs Storm match – what a great effort by The Storm – beating the Panthers by 2 points and looking to seal the minor premiership. GO STORM!
Day 29 (16 August) – Proserpine (Proserpine Tourist Park to Townsville)
Tomorrow I’ll fill this in.
Well, it wasn’t tomorrow as, having arrived at the Sue and Laurie’s, we spent a lot of time talking and doing things – subjects for next week’s blog.
We departed Proserpine around 08:45 after Lyn had another swim in the pool. Fortunately, this time, no rain! Even the heavy dews we’d been having didn’t eventuate. We’d decided that we’d try to play golf at Bowen Golf Club after out talk with Jacques a couple of days earlier, so we rang ahead and arranged a 12:00 time slot.
So, as we headed up the Bruce highway, the fourth week elapsed and for further adventures, it’s time to check out our week 5 blog.
Leave a Reply