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.

One Monthly Goal for June

Here it is, well into June and I still haven't posted my One Monthly Goal (OMG).  I was itching to get back into the sewing room when we returned home, but I haven't stitched a stitch.  It may have something to do with the fact that I can't find my cutting or sewing table, and the ironing needs catching up.  It was all a little crazy in the lead up to our big holiday.  I'll get there.

I sent my machine in to have a spa treatment while we were away.  There was nothing wrong with her, but I thought a good clean up would do her the world of good.  The best thing is that the original light has been swapped out for a brand spanking new LED light.  What a transformation!!  I'm looking forward to getting sewing with her again.

So, what is my goal for the month.  I've decided that I want to make eight blocks towards the Splendid Sampler 2. That's two a week, which should be doable, even though I haven't made a start as yet.  We have the long weekend coming up, so I may get going then. 

There are quite a few Foundation Paper Piecing blocks and I still have to have a think when I start them, so my plan is to work on those; select my fabrics and then make a heap while the method is in my head.  That's the plan anyway.

In the background, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour this month is dark blue, so I'll work on those as well.

Also, I'm trying to have one finish each month for One Project a Month.  I'm not sure what I will do for that, but it will be something quick and easy.

I'm linking up over at Elm Street Quilts with Patty.  Pop over and see what the others are planning on doing.  I'm sure they will be more ambitious than mine.

Charters Towers to Airlie Beach

Our next leg of our journey took us from Charters Towers to Townsville, across the mighty Burdekin River.

When we have previously been here we have taken a photo of the bike in front of the flood heights sign.  It doesn't quite have the same effect when it is the ute.  Surprisingly, the floods in February weren't as high here as they have been in the past.

What we did notice was hills.  The terrain is quite different to what we had experienced for the last couple of weeks.

We had a special occasion to look forward to in Townsville.  We met with Jenny of Elefantz and her lovely hubby for lunch by the water.  What a contrast the scenery was compared to the outback we had been travelling through.  It was so nice to see them both again and chat about all sorts of things.  Did we take a photo of us all?  Nope, too busy talking.

Jenny had suggested we meet at a large servo on the edge of town rather than try to negotiate the main city with the van.  It was an excellent idea. After enjoying our lunch they told us a bit about the floods as we drove back to the van.  The area in which we had parked was about the worst affected by the flooding back in February.  The Bunnings store next to where we parked has only just re-opened and the servo is still working out of transportable buildings.  There is a nearby housing estate, full of nice new homes, which had all been under water - mostly up to the eaves - and many were still uninhabitable.  Of course, there is a shortage of tradesmen to complete the work with so many homes affected and negotiating with insurance companies is always quite a task.  If you want to order new furniture, which most need to do, there is a delay of several months on delivery.  The area really has taken a hard hit.

Surprisingly to us, the main business centre of the city was unaffected by actual flooding, just the non stop rain during the monsoon low.

After our pleasant interlude, we started to head south, seeing our first sugar cane fields for this trip.  The cane is quite mature, with some already in flower.  Harvest starts in June.

The next town we travelled through was Ayr.  Ayr has quite a sizable retail area and is obviously the main centre for the surrounding districts.  

We had intended to camp here for the night, but as we were travelling well, kept going to the next little town, Home Hill.  The council run caravan park was an ideal place to stay.  The town had experienced a very busy day, as the picnic races had been held.  When we left the following morning, we were rather surprised at the number of marquees and tent etc at the race track.  It had obviously been a really important day on the social calender.

Home Hill is just 10kms south of Ayr, and is looking a little sad.  There is a nice, new supermarket complex, but the old supermarket building is empty, as are many others.

These impressive murals were on either end of a long row of shops.  Sadly, only one was trading.  I dare say the close proximity to Ayr is having a detrimental affect on this little town.

Our next stop was at the seaside town of Bowen.  We had hoped to go to the lookout on Flagstaff Hill, but the road was unsuitable for caravans.  We did find a nice spot to park by the sea and have our morning tea.

Bowen is famous for its mangos and features "The Big Mango".  No, we didn't call in, just drove past.

Our destination for the night was Airlie Beach.  We had been told how lovely the town is, so thought we may spend a couple of nights there.  Note that the name of the town is Airlie BEACH.  The above photo is of the beach!!!

If you want to go swimming or sun bathing, you go to the Airlie Beach Lagoon on the waterfront.

This sign may also influence your decision to swim in the lagoon.

The town is really commercial and is mainly a jump off point to visit the Whitsunday Islands.  Unfortunately, it wasn't really the weather for it, despite how nice it looks in the above photo.  There was a really strong easterly wind, that had blown for days, and scatty showers came across all the time.  

There is a nice walkway/cycleway along the waterfront, but we only went along a bit of it due to the weather.  If it had been nicer weather we would have got out the pushbikes and gone for a ride along here and gone out to one of the islands, but it wasn't to be this time.

What we did do was go for a drive around the area.  The marina housed some rather spectacular craft and with the backdrop of all the apartments it looks rather exotic.  As well as the rich, with their boats Airlie Beach is also really popular with backpackers.  There were so many small campervans at the caravan park. The whole place is a lot like the gold coast.

In the end we decided to just have the one night there and continue south the next day, as we tend to prefer smaller, quieter places.

More soon.