Day 48 Finch Hatton to Mackay

 Today we headed into Mackay or more specifically Blacks Beach, which is part of the northern beaches area. This is familiar territory for us as this was where we lived. The caravan park we are in is just down the road from the house we rented when we first arrived in town. 

Blacks Beach

This is Molly - my sister's dog. She is getting a bit old now so she can't sit with her legs folded up. 

We are staying here for a week so it's nice to be in a beach front park as I can sit in the van and see the sea. So what do we get up to? Linda and Trevor kept us busy and were very generous with their hospitality with many meals shared at their home. Trevor is also a motorbike owner, so we were lucky enough to be able to go on a few rides with them. Russ and Trev did a solo ride up to Eungella and back and then Linda and I joined them for a ride up to Proserpine to have brunch at the coffee plantation. Great place with heaps of beautiful parrots to look at. Some are in cages, others just have their door open, and they just come out to see if you have any food for them 

We also rode north to Mt Ossa which winds its way through the mountains out the back of Mackay to Finch Hatton for lunch once more.

The other great thing we did was go down to the Sarina Sugar Shed. This was set up by the local council to provide an educational facility to explain how sugar is grown and processed and the uses of both the sugar and the byproducts it produces. Really aimed at kids but there are benefits for the adults. You can take pictures outside but not once you go into their mini mill area.

They also have a shop that sells chutneys and sauces as well as alcoholic liqueurs which you get to taste at the end of the tour. The kids also line up for fairy floss at the end but I'm sure the adults could have some if they want. 

early harvester

Steamy from the humidity

Lime NOI - nice over ice

Russ also managed to have a good day fishing with the boys with a nice flathead. It was a great feed even though there were quite a few sandflies involved. 

We had a great time in Mackay- was fun to catch up. 

Day 45 Bowen to Finch Hatton

 Finch Hatton sits about 60kms west of Mackay in the Pioneer Valley and my sister and brother-in-law happen to have a block of land that backs onto to Cattle Creek. This little slice of paradise is where we ended up after leaving Bowen. We did consider going towards Cape Hillsborough way, but a quite country retreat won us over and we are really glad we did. 

At the moment Finch Hatton is a quite little town but has quite good amenities. It is on Wiki camps and the showgrounds are very popular with travelers and they are planning to develop the area for mountain bikes much the same as they have done in Derby in Tasmania so if that takes off, it won't be such a quiet place anymore. Great for the town in some ways though some of old timers might not be real keen on the idea. 

We set ourselves up on the block with power and water (Thanks Trev) which made things very comfortable. Beautiful green grass and the sound of the creek bubbling away. In the late afternoon, you could sit on the bank and watch the platypus swimming around.

We had a few days so Day one was a drive into Mackay as Russ needed a new oil filter and a quick look around as we will be spending a week in Mackay catching up with family.

That afternoon we went out to Finch Hatton Gorge - nice walk up into the rain forest and as usual lots of steps to get to the best bits. We did both the Cascades and the Wheel of Fire. These are named because the water cascades over a cliff and into a deep pool. It's a popular swimming spot for those who would like to take a dip. 

The Wheel of Fire named after the Queensland Firewheel Trees that surround the pool which flower a fiery red kin spring and summer.

Our next stop was Eungella National Park - a place we have visited many times. It is still a very beautiful part of the world and gives you a fantastic view down the valley towards Mackay. We stopped in at Broken River where there are more platy pus but again you ahve to be there at the right time of the day. None to be seen but plenty of turtles! Back to the chalet for a coffee and to see how things have changed, not much really except that the pool has been filled in.

Windy road to the top

Turtles

It was a lovely day up there. Finished our day with lunch at the pub with Trevor and another relaxing night beside the creek. 

Tomorrow Mackay.

Day 40 Rollingstone to Bowen

 As usual, we left early to try to get ahead of the traffic of which there is a lot. As expected, the east coast is a lot busier than the west and we see a lot more of the big rigs - RAMs etc. As usual the roadwork continues on the highway. I don't think I have ever travelled that road when they haven't been working on it somewhere. We headed off to Bowen for a few days and had booked into the NRMA Beachfront Caravan Park and yes, it is right on the beachfront. We had a sight behind the cabins which was a good thing as Bowen tends to be windy a lot of the time.

Just make sure you are there on a Sunday as they do a great bacon and egg roll breakfast BBQ for everybody. 

Line up for Sunday Brekkie

Bowen is still a bit of an undiscovered area and I think that is due to the fact that Airlie Beach is just down the road so a lot more people head there than to Bowen. The caravan park was still reasonably busy over the weekend as the Don River Dash which is a big motorcycle race was on. 

We spent our time fishing, swimming and walking around the area as it is such a beautiful spot to do just that especially around at Horseshoe Bay. It was pretty relaxing. We also managed to get a few nice feeds of seafood - prawns and bugs from the seafood shop as well as some exceptional fish and chips from the Grand View Hotel in town. Highly recommended if you are ever there. 

We did head down to Airlie Beach for one day to catch up with Steve, he was on a cruise with a few mates and one of their stopovers was AB so it was nice to catch up as we haven't seen him since March. WE did have some thoughts of staying at Airlie but just going for the day was enough as it was pretty busy and quite expensive. 

If you look really hard, the cruise ship is out on the horizon