Boulder Creek campsite to campsite (35 km N of Rockhampton)
Distance Travelled - 380.4 km
English backacking tourists should be sent home after doing 1000 hrs hard labour community service! Even that is probably too good for them. As you might have guessed last night was not such a good night. Even though pretty much everyone else had lights out and quietened down by 9 pm this group of noisy Poms decided to keep going until someone beat me to it and told them to shut up, none too politely, around 11 pm. Then this morning at around 5 am there was loud clattering as they got up and looked for things and then someone started singing loudly at 5.30 am. When the majority of us surfaced around 7 am they did not hang around long and were gone before 7.30 am. I think they were aware they had not pleased people and may be on the receiving end of some not too courteous chats so chose to vanish before being accosted.
There was a very heavy dew last night and the campground is surprisingly well shaded so it was just after 10 am this morning before I managed to get away with everything packed away dryly. While I was waiting for things to dry I chatted to a few people and wandered off to take a few shots of the creek in the early morning light. I drove a meandering route to Mackay and posted my blog at Maccas before heading on towards Rockhampton.
The drive was not particularly stunning, mostly being down the Bruce Highway but there were patches where the bushland or canefields and occasional macadamia plantations looked nice. The most interesting aspect of the drive was the road signage. If nothing else I will remember Queensland for their road signs. I missed taking shots of the first few but hopefully there should be repeats of them tomorrow and I will get shots of them then. The first one says, "Are we there yet, Dad?" The next one some distance on says, "How long to go, Mum?" and the last one in the set says, "Still 3 hours to Rockhampton, kids" This set is then repeated later with the 3 hours being substituted for 2 hours. There are numerous signs about driving tired but the best ones I think were the trivia ones. The first sign says, "Trivia games help you stay alert" and then a bit further on comes the sign with a trivia question on it. A short distance later (1 or 2 km) they have a sign with the answer. Unfortunately they only have one question in each direction on the road, I was hoping for a series of questions to ponder as I drove.
After refueling at Marlborough, I drove another 50 km or so before pulling into a camping bay already 3/4 filled with about 30 cars and vans. I found a spot for the car and my tent and watched in amazement as about another 20 cars and vans pulled in to find spots almost on top of each other.
The campsite is under the flight path of the Shoalwater Bay Army training base and I was able to watch several very large helicopters carrying large crates in slings underneath them fly into the base. The thud of their engines and rotors was very impressive.
Spent some time reading and then set up the tent, cooked and ate tea, made some phone calls, wrote my blog, sorted photos and then got ready to go to bed and listen to some music. Tomorrow I plan to get to a place called 1770 which is close to the Bustard Head lighthouse and hopefully I will be there in time to get some sunset shots
No comments:
Post a Comment