In the 15 days since leaving Cape Hillsborough we have visited Bowen (5 nights), Burdekin Farm Stay (3), Townsville, (2) and now we are at Rollingstone Beach (5).

On the way to Bowen we almost got run off the road by 2 road trains tailgating each other. It was very scary our good car and caravan set up allowed us to brake without losing control. We had a non-powered site in Bowen’s Wangaratta Caravan Park and we thought it was the best in the park, sunny and shady areas, no close neighbours and easy walking distance to the beach. A highlight at Bowen was seeing Where the Crawdads Sing in a very small theatre that has been in operation since the 1940’s and is maintained close to original condition.

The Burdekin Farm Stay was a highlight of the trip so far. Just a few km from Ayr and about 30 km from the coast, we were surrounded by cane farms. Our site was on the bank of a creek running through the property, with green grass, mango trees covered with flowers and with just a few other campers. It was exciting to see cane burns then harvesting the burnt crops; also surprising because we didn’t realise that cane burning still happened. The Burdekin region is one of only two areas that still allow burning.

Townsville was mainly an opportunity to re-stock and do the laundry after a few days in the bush and before the short drive to Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort.

Located on the coast just a few km off the highway Rollingstone is more of a bush caravan park than a resort. It has a nice swimming pool, a jumping pillow, a dirt bmx track, a bar/cafe that’s open four afternoons a week but it’s best feature is the park layout. There are about 150 van sites and a few cabins spread over a very large grassed area, either along the beach front or around a marina-lake. Many of the sites are quite large. The beach is not particularly nice but the sound of waves is relaxing. Generally, it’s a good place to stay for a few days.

Today has been busy. It’s our last day at Rollingstone so we treated ourselves to a hamburger for lunch and will have pizza for dinner, with cocktails and wine. We had intended going north to Mission Beach tomorrow but there is rain expected for the next week so we will go inland to Charters Towers instead. We did go there about 10 years ago and are quite looking forward to returning.

As usual, we hope everyone keeps safe and well. Bye from North QLD.