Airlie Beach to Rockhampton

Once we left Airlie Beach we called in at Proserpine, just 20kms away and on the main highway south.  It has a totally different feel to Airlie Beach, being just a nice country town with sugar cane farms all around. 

The mill is bang smack in the middle of town.  We camped overnight here on our bike trip in July 2017 and the mill was in full operation.  There was a subtle background noise throughout the town.  It seemed strangely quiet this time, as the season has not yet commenced.  There appeared to be tradesmen on site getting things ready.

We had a nice wander up and down the street and Mick's eyes lit up when we came across a shop with this lovely collection of bikes on display.  Some very tasty examples there were too.

Like so many towns, there are some lovely old buildings dating from the 1920s and 1930s.  These are just a few.

I was surprised to see this little chap in the middle of town.

...... In the late morning, on a handrail in the supermarket carpark.  He is rather cute.

The next town as we travelled along was Mackay.  This is another town that we have just driven through on our way somewhere else and never had a look at.  Last time we were here I had my little snake scare.  We have since been told it was more likely a taipan than a brown snake. Yikes!

Anyway, this time we had some time so turned into the city centre.  There are the usual big thing stores and big shopping centres, but right in the centre of the city are some lovely old buildings.  The original part is based around the river and the adjoining few blocks.  Come for a walk.

This is the front of the Police Station.

The rear of the building used to be the front and is so much nicer.

The Catholic Church.  The architecture of churches seems to be different up north as well.  You don't seem to get the Gothic style we often see down here.

The Anglican Church Hall.  The church itself was too hard to photograph, as it had lots of trees around it.

The hall houses Trinity Op Shop.  What a spectacular building.  They have been undertaking the restoration of the ceiling over the last year or so.

We had fun checking out all the op shops as we travelled along - trying to find a mug like Mick's favourite coffee mug that has developed a chip.  Sadly, we didn't find one, but we certainly had fun looking and it gave us a great excuse to go up some back streets of towns and do some walking.

There are also some nice modern buildings in the centre of town.

A walkway follows the bank of the river and has some colourful tropical plantings.

We were surprised to see this great mural up a little alleyway.  Once we thought about it, it all made sense.  A few years ago Elton John performed at Mackay.  It was rather poignant, as he will be performing here at Bathurst in January, on his Beyond the Yellow Brick Road farewell tour.  It will be the smallest venue he plays at in the whole tour.  Yes, we managed to get tickets to go along.  We can't wait. Maybe we will end up with a mural here too?

Sarina was our destination for the day.  Previously it has been our lunch stop, but we were actually taking our time this trip.  There is a nice collection of old buildings next to the information centre, the centre one has a nice craft shop.

The information centre is housed in the old railway station.  It was so well presented.  The construction is of horizontal concrete panels dropped down between more concrete uprights.

Some  nice tropical colour.

We had a nice wander around the town in the late afternoon.

Sadly, the patchwork shop was closed when we were there.

As we continued south we started to see lots of coal trains.  It is a huge industry in central Queensland, as was played out in the federal election results for Queensland.  We weren't that surprised, having heard several people discuss the topic in the lead up to the election.

Our lunch stop was at the service station at the little town of Marlborough.  This is always our fuel stop and we have taken previously photos of the bike under the nice shady trees, so this time it was the turn of the caravan.

By mid afternoon we had reached our destination.  I'll share what we got up to in the Rockhampton area soon.