Saturday, 24th February 2018
When we woke up, it seemed that we were going to have a good day but by the time I returned from the showers, I had another shower – outside it was a torrential rain and it did not stop for 3 hours!! This was supposed to be our beach day and we were also planning a day trip tomorrow to Lady Musgrove Island for some snorkeling and an underwater observatory. We quickly changed our minds about that and did not make the firm booking we were supposed to make this morning.
We just spent 3 hours indoors in our camper van and thinking of different routes to go further north. The radio was saying that it was raining badly all along the coast so we needed to get up north as quickly as possible.
Round about 10 the sun broke through the clouds and those grey clouds melted away and blue sky appeared. We watched how an instructor gave theory lessons to a whole group of kids and soon after they all trooped down to the beach to put their theory lesson into practice. Well we were ready to go down to the beach too and first has a fresh fruit juice at our holiday café and check our social media as this was the only place on the campsite where there was free WIFI. It was so calm and peaceful sitting under the shady pine trees and enjoying our drinks. When we left, we had to cross a strong stream of murky brown rainwater that was making its way into the ocean. It looked quite deep but it wasn’t – just not clear!
We set up our gear on a bench under a tree and that was quite shady as once the sun was out, you would never have thought that it had rained so much – it was a real a real scorcher. The waves and surf were quite high so the kids were having quite some fun and we enjoyed watching too.
Gerry decided to get into the water and after some time I joined him too but the waves were quite high to my liking and I went under a couple of times……….
By 13.30 we were back at our camper van for lunch and I had a siesta as I had been up ever so early due to the rain. By 16.00 we were down on the beach again and this time we took a long walk along the beach – the weather had improved tremendously which meant we could have a nice glass of wine and snacks at our pitch when we returned from our walk. Luckily we could sit in the shady side of the can and soon afterwards I started preparing dinner – penne with vegetables and canned corned beef in tomato sauce and mozzarella – it was ever so tasty.
After dinner, we both went to do the washing up at the camp kitchen and by the time we returned, it was nearly time for bed – we enjoyed a cup of tea outside and then moved indoors. The clouds were gathering again so we had taken the right decision not to go on the excursion to the reef island tomorrow.
We decided instead to break up camp and drive further north – some 300km to Rockhampton, which would be half way to Mackay.
