Yaamba

27th August

We left Finch Hatton with so much left to do, but the kids legs and attitudes were indicating that nature walks through rainforest wasn't on their top 10 "to-do" list, so we decided to do a reasonably big trek (big for us anyway) towards Rockhampton. I mapped out to call into a place called Clairview for lunch about 2 hours into our trip, with another 2 hour leg afterwards to a place called Yaamba, just short of Rocky. We had the iPad out with the trusty google maps and set off, only to discover the road very quickly got narrower by the minute, and shortly thereafter turned into a gravel road. It was in good condition, but I had previously declared there was not going to be any significant dirt road travelling so I found a driveway to demonstrate my impressive reversing skills and we headed back to our starting position and took the simple route into Mackay. There goes 40 minutes in the car to get nowhere. Next I realised I was running pretty low on fuel, so we called into a previously attended petrol station with a Woolworths next door.... That's right, guess where Tracy went (it wasn't to get alcohol ! - only more essentials.) I think we have now mastered the art of getting 7 days worth of supplies every 4-5 days.

Finally got moving and found our lunch stop at Clairview - which is a sanctuary for Dugongs. I chose to not go for a swim for this very reason just in case the locals saw me coming out of the water and then try to roll me back in , and/or keep me wrapped in wet towels. 

We got to our destination at about 4:15 and were struggling to find a spot to stay..... Caravans and motor homes already set up and this is just a parking bay!!! 

As we were setting up the van, all we could hear was the B-Double semi's thundering past and began to realise this wasn't going to be a restful sleep - and we were right. Some of the truckies lived up to their reputation of being A- Holes by yanking on their air-horns during the middle of the night as they rumbled past, just to make sure they woke everyone up. Which they did.

The morning was well worth it though, because we found one of the other "campers" hand feeding the wild lorikeets, which he then proceeded to show the kids how to do it, and they were over the moon.

It even helped me feel a bit better after my 4 hour sleep night.

Distance travelled - 350km plus the 40ish km on the dirt road

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