We did it. Arrived at Mackay finally. the car and the van have done beautifully and not missed a beat all the way thankfully.
We took our time this morning knowing that we were booked in already, so it didn't matter how late we got there. Even still, we managed to be in the car and on our way by 9:20. We decided to call into the local Woolies to grab a few essentials, and 45 minutes later we had managed to empty the credit card with the weeks food shopping - apparently that is classed as essentials. For some reason the bottle of Jom Beam I picked up isn't. (Pretty essential to me as far as I am concerned!).
A couple of hours later we started getting peckish so we pulled into a dis-used road works site in the middle of the Peakes Range National Park and had lunch. Was literally in the middle of nowhere, but beautifully serene and the perfect stop for lunch....... Until I went investigating our immediate surrounds and discovered the source of the pungent tangy smell of rotting flesh on the other side of the gravel park. Decided not to tell the kids until after they had finished eating that we were sharing our stop with a third of a cow that was fertilizing the roadside verge to avoid the excitement that only a 5, 7 & 9 year old could have over such a discovery.
We packed up and set off a little later and I suddenly realised we were no longer encountering other grey nomads - I mean young caravanners - on the roads. We did however encounter some massive mine sites and living quarters. It shattered my vision of miners in FNQ where I was thinking they would be surrounded by luscious tropical lands.... This was as dry as the last 2,500km we had travelled and looked absolutely no different to what I now imagine every other mine in the country looked like (However some of the villages were pretty amazing with hotel like accommodation, their own sporting ovals and complex in the middle of the desert)
Eventually we saw the mountains up ahead and slowly but surely started the climb up and the steep descent on the other side..... And immediately the surrounding landscape changed into what we had expected.. Palm trees and sugar cane as far as the eye could see. The kids even got so excited at one stage, that they looked up from their iPads and glanced out the window... Will be checking later to make sure they didn't strain any muscles in their necks.
I had expected Mackay to be a bit more "Resorty", but it appears that is only by the beaches. The rest is just like any other town. The sky is brilliantly blue and the temperature is a balmy 24 degrees at 4:30pm ( still 18 degrees at 6:30). Set up the van, opened a brew, cooked a few pizzas on the WeberQ, had another brew, sat down for a while, had another brew..... Only 12 weeks to go.... Yawn.
Travelled 390km today with a number of stops
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