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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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 3rd July2026: Once again we got up early to take our caravan and the Prado to Cairns Autoelectrical! Mo kindly picked us up and drove us to Rusty’s Bazaar, where we bought bread, avocados, red pawpaws and Manchego cheese, and I bought a dress from an Indonesian woman, trying it on in a tiny cubbyhole with a hanging shirt for a curtain.!. Mo drove us back past the mudflats and the new hospital built onto the old. We headed back to Kewarra for lunch on the verandah. Nic and I went for a stroll along the beach, patterned by Fiddlers crabs.I saw a spangled drongo. We were then summonsed to pick up our van and car and Col kindly took us back into Stratford. Amazingly, albeit at the cost of $3000, most of our problems have been solved! There turned out to be a very difficult to locate break in the brake cable up right near the water tank which was repaired. They replaced all 4 shock absorbers, but explained that instead of the bolts being inserted into 4 round holes, these holes were no...
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