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 9th July 2026:We awoke to sunshine! Left. Mt Larcom and drove to Auckland Hill, Gladstone walking up 120 steps to a viewing point over 2 coal shipping terminals: Wiggins Island and RG Tanna terminals, and over to Curtis  Is where there are 3 LNG terminals- Santos, Australian Pacific LNG, Queensland Curtis LNG, and over the grain silos, the petrol and the diesel storage tanks, and the alumina terminal- Queensland Alumina 85% owned by RioTinto. We then proceed down the Bruce Highway- single laned with lots of roadworks happening with intermittent overtaking lanes. The speed limit was 100 km/hr but only safe to drive a caravan at about 80 to 85 km/ hr so Nic was constantly having to let trucks in particular pass us.. We stopped for a coffee at Gin Gin then proceeded over the Burchell River and travelled the next 60 km into Hervey Bay, hugely developed since our visit in 1995, and to the Hervey Bay Caravan Park, where we chose the far more private unpowered site over the cramped ...
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 8th July 2026: those Cotton Pygmy-Geese were promenading around the campground this morning strutting their stuff of deep green iridescent capes with dark red patches tied onto their white chests with a black band across their white chests! My bird book says they should have black bills, but these 2 ? Males definitely both had white bills! Cape Palmerston Holiday park had great facilities with the unpowered area offering privacy and not many occupants! We set off back along the Bruce Highway once again a narrow single lane in each direction, with so many traffic light controlled single lane roadworks along the way! Fortunately along the way there were overtaking lanes,  but nevertheless it was stressful driving for Nic as the majority of vehicles wanted to travel at the ridiculous 110 km/hr speed limit whereas we preferred 85 km/ hour! Most of the countryside was dry grass and melaleucas. We stopped at Grandma’s Groceries and Coffee shop in Marlborough, the only show in a tim...
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 7th July 2026: awoke in Airlie beach caravan park to gentle steady rain. The curlews stood very still all around our van, unperturbed by the rain. We set off to head to Proserpine-much more as I remembered it when I spent the night on Proserpine railway station some 50 years ago! Queensland weatherboard simple housing still prevails. We then continued down the Bruce Highway - single lane with overtaking lanes at regular intervals-to Mackay where we drove into the city and walked around to get the feel of the place.  Nic then wanted to visit the Hay Point lookout to see the huge coal loading facility operated by the Qld government The road up to the viewing are had a > 20% gradient so we were forbidden from taking the caravan up, so we walked! There were 2 wharves one is 1.8 km out to sea and the other is 3.85km long!!this is the largest metallurgical quality iron ore facility in the world ( suitable for steel making) We then drove as close as we could get to the facility b...
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6th July 2026: Left Forrest Beach after a brief look at the beach for me, a site for green turtle nesting. We left via backroads through cane fields until we eventually rejoined the Bruce Highway. Driving was quite stressful for Nic because the Bruce was single lanes albeit with overtaking lanes at intervals. This didn’t stop many vehicles trying to overtake us anyway! We bypassed Townsville travelled through Ayr and refueled at Bowen. We then headed for Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach unrecognisable from the tiny places they were in 1975 when I was last here! The development has been extraordinary, but not unexpected for such a beautiful place. There were just so many boats anchored in the harbour and moored at the Marina! We ended up at the Tasman Caravan park, surrounded by bush stone curlews. We shopped locally and ate at the Pub. Tomorrow we head for Cape Palmerston.
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 5th July 2026: Left Col and Mo’s about 10am after washing sheets and towels etc and tidying up,  and  a delicious breakfast of fruit. We drove past Walsh pyramid, looking like a volcano. We drove through lots of rainforest and drove through Innisfail and Tully. We stopped at Cardwell for lunch as recommended by Mo at the Seaview Deli Cafe for crab sandwiches- the most expensive sandwiches we have ever had, but with 250gm of crabmeat they were delicious! We continued on down the one laned Bruce Highway. We heard one impatient driver say something derogatory about our caravan. He then said “ I bet they’re fucking old!”. Nic agreed that we were indeed “fucking old” to which he replied “and no fucking brains!”. We laughed a lot at our first and only case of road abuse! We stopped at the wonderful Hinchinbrook lookout with magnificent views to Hinchinbrook Is and surrounding waterways from a high vantage point(126meters) We rolled into Forrest Beach via backroads with high su...
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 4th July 2026: after early starts for our mechanical issues the last 3 mornings, we slept in this morning, in fact so much so that Col and Mo arrived back from their bike ride to Palm Cove and back for coffee with friends before we got up!! We had a relaxing day sorting out the caravan for our departure tomorrow!  We enjoyed breakfast on the verandah and a tour around the garden with Mo. She discovered a couple of bush stone curlews reclining in a garden bed, one of whom stretched out longitudinally as soon as he saw us looking at him so as to make himself invisible! Interestingly, they were bush stone curlews rather than the beach variety, even though they are on the beach! We had another delicious lunch on the verandah and the afternoon passed by!  Col cooked the most delicious chicken stew for dinner followed by fruit and ice cream.          Bush stone curlews                    Bauhinias frill...
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