Week 10 – Rest

Just a short blog this week.

Well we finally reached the eastern shoreline of this great nation of ours.    Surf, sun, and sand -v- dry landscape, sun, and red dirt.    That basically is the conditions we have travelled.

We have been lucky to experience both and have enjoyed every minute, but I have decided that I am a definitely a fringe dweller.  Give me the Australian coastline any day.

Day 63 – Hughenden to Charters Towers – 247klms

We are doing a hop skip and jump to get to the coast by tomorrow for our 10 day stop over.

On arrival in Charters Towers we set up camp and rolled into town to have a look around.  

Charters Towers was founded in 1871 after the discovery of gold.     Over 36 years 200 tonnes of gold was mined.    The town is only 134 kilometres inland from Townsville and was probably the last of the red dirt for us for quite a while.

Day 64 – Charters Towers to Rollingstone Beach – 188klms

We headed off early and thoroughly enjoyed the drive town to the coast through green landscape and then onto the smell of the Pacific Ocean.  

Rollingstone was settled in 1883 and is mainly pastoral land.    We have passed acres and acres of pineapple farms and mango farms.    The local pineapples are to die for, sweet and fresh.

Day 65 to Day 70 – Rollingstone Beach Resort

As luck would have it, we scored a cancellation and are camped right on the edge of the park facing east.   We back right onto the beach and our view is magnificent.    We lay in our van at night and listen to the waves crashing over the rocks.      

Our section of the beach is very rocky (we presume this is where the town name came from) but there are nice sandy patches to the right and left of us.   Unfortunately, no swimming in the ocean at this time of year due to the box jellyfish.

I have enjoyed walking the beach fossicking for cowrie shells and enjoying the sunshine.

We can see Magnetic Island in the distance.

We have taken day trips to Paluma in the Mount Spec Ranges and into Townsville city and surrounds.

The road to the top of the Mount Spec Ranges was through lush rainforest and on a very windy and narrow road.       We stopped at Little Crystal Creek and took a short walk through the rainforest to view the stone arch bridge built in the 1930s and the cascading waterfalls.

We then travelled to Paluma township for a quick stop at the lookout for stunning view back over the pastoral lands and coast.

Our visit to Townsville was very pleasant.       Townsville is home to RAAF Base, the destination port to hop over to Magnetic Island, the home of the Cowboys NRL team and V8 Super Cars street circuit.    What more could a person ask for?   

The rest of our days have been spent at the van park having lots of downtime, drinking, and eating time and for the old boy “sleeping” and “socialising” time.      I know he deserves it but please do not tell him I said that.

We have four more days here before moving further north but back inland to the rainforest area.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and a special shout out to Glenn and Kate on the arrival of their beautiful daughter.   

I have been in contact with Ty and Jay regularly and they maintain the status quo.      

It was nice to hear from Kerry and Lee and my work partner in crime, Mel.

Hope everyone is well and not too sick of reading my blog. 

.