It was a little disappointing to leave Airlie Beach this morning after just one night. Our pack up was fairly smooth and just in time as it started to rain 10 minutes after we left the park.
This was the first time E and I had seen the rain this trip but Anthony tells us they had a little bit of rain in Seisha while we were back in Sydney. The rain was quite heavy and for a moment Anthony was afraid it was washing all the dust off the camper trailer. He wants the car to still be dirty when we get home so he can take an after shot to compare the before photo with the after photo. He needn’t have worried as even after the rain that red dirt is ground into the trailer cover, it will take forever to clean it.
Today was a little uneventful as we really just drove and drove. We dropped into Marlborough at around lunch time but nothing to see there and drove on out again.
We found a fairly new service station about 5 minutes out of town and ordered some burgers for lunch. This gave the boys a chance to see a little bit of the Bathurst 1000 but before we knew it, it was time to get back on the road again.
We decided Rockhampton was our target and after some discussion amongst the three of us we unanimously decided that we would pay for a cabin, elimination the need for a set up and giving us the opportunity to head off a little bit earlier tomorrow as we wouldn’t be packing up the tent and associated camping gear.
Walking into a cabin with only our bags and Harpers things was a great feeling. Ethan and Ant had a swim (Ethan has swum in all the camping ground pools) even though it really wasn’t that hot.
Harper enjoyed being able to crawl around on the floor without scraping her knees and we enjoyed not having to constantly monitor what we she was putting in her mouth as there were no rocks, dirt, bugs, sticks etc.
We headed back to the cabin for nice ling warm showers – almost as good as home. I took this opportunity to wash and dry my hair for the first this trip (the drying, not the washing) and I even took the time to straighten it and I felt close to human again.
We ordered pizza for dinner, Ant and Ethan watched a movie before it was time to give Harper her last bottle of the night and it was off to bed for all of us. It was such a nice feeling to be sleeping in a proper bed.
The Dmax team set up camp at Coffs Harbour and cooked up the last of the meat we had cryovaced in Cairns. We miss their company and while we are enjoying our trip I’m a little envious they will be home tomorrow.
Rookie mistake of the day – giving Harper a new flavour of food that she hadn’t tried before then getting Ethan and I to look through the service station for an alternative. We couldn’t see any, not trusting us Anthony had a look and found a jar of banana and pear. FYI she didn’t like that either.
Interesting fact of the day – A passenger tramway began operating on 16 June 1909, making Rockhampton the only provincial city in Queensland to have a street tramway. This was replaced by a bus network in 1939
Riff to Tip 2014 