|
|
|
 |
|
Monday 16 May 2005
Day 24
|
On the road by 10.30am we travelled up the
number 1 highway once again. Most of the road was flat and reasonably straight
so it made for an easy if somewhat boring ride. The scenery really reminded me
of a lot of the areas around home, valleys between ranges of hills and
mountains. The only distinguishing feature that showed it wasn’t home was the
cows, most of them are pale grey and I think of Brahman descent. As we got
closer to Mackay the grazing paddocks were replaced with sugar plantations.
We had a couple of breaks along the way and
arrived at Mackay about 3.30pm, called into Mackay Harley so that they could find out the size
of the tyre that we need, the back one needs replacing. We then headed to the
caravan park at Bucasia
Beach 10km north of Mackay
and booked in for a week.
My sister, Noelene, has a friend Randina,
who lives in Mackay and we’d been trying to contact her yesterday so that we
could visit her while we’re in town. She gave us a call and asked if we wanted
to meet up with her.
|
|
Tuesday 17 May 2005
Day 25
|
We didn’t do much at all today. We started
off by getting ready to go for a walk on the beach (aerogard, for the sandflies
or midges that we’ve been told are on the beach and sunscreen). The dark clouds
that were looming suddenly let go and you guessed it, more rain! A thunderstorm
even. So we had to stay in the tent until it passed.
Our tent it facing directly onto the beach,
there’s an island not too far off shore and a wide shallow area of water then a
sand bar and then the sea. I picked up a brochure from the park office about
jellyfish and I’m not keen at all to go in the ocean after reading that. But
the view is lovely.
In the afternoon we rode into town and had
a look around the shops, it’s what we usually do when we get to a town, look at
all the stuff that we can’t fit into the trailer if we bought it.
After tea we went and met up with Randina
and Steve. They were competing in a pool competition, as practice for a coming
tournament where a team from Mackay and Rockhampton will compete against a team
from Brisbane.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll have that walk along
the beach.
|
|
Wednesday 18 May 2005
Day 26
|
VIEWS OF BRAMPTON ISLAND AT SUNRISE
This morning the birds woke me up. Normally
I probably wouldn’t take much notice or not even hear them, but last night I
had a thought about photographing the sunrise. Our tent is facing east looking
directly over the beach. So there I was 6am in my dressing gown camera in hand
on the beach. Funny how when you look at the sky at 8am and the sun looks to be
way up there and you think gee the sun must move pretty quick in the mornings,
well when you’re actually standing there waiting for the sun to rise it seems
to take forever. I got some quite nice photos, then went back to bed.
We went for a ride to the mountains today,
to the Eungella National Park (pronounced young galah),
which is about 80km from Mackay. The road through the mountains has grids every
so often, I’d say it would be to allow the water to clear away from the road
when it rains, but they make for a rough journey.
As you near the summit there’s a chalet
from which the views are spectacular. There are various walks that you can do
in the park through magnificent rainforest. Eungella was recommended to us by a
couple of people as somewhere that we should visit. I don’t think that it’s any
better than the forests in National Parks in Victoria, just different. There are palms
and buttressed trees with staghorn and birdsnest ferns growing from them. The
walks range from 300 metres to 8.5 kilometres, we did a couple of the shorter
ones.
|
|
Thursday 19 May 2005
Day 27
|
 The bike was booked in for its 16,000km
service today, so we were in town by 8am to drop it off.
We walked from the harley dealer’s down to
the central shopping centre and because we were there so early hardly anything
was open, so we bought a newspaper and had a hot chocolate. After 9am we went
and had a look around the centre of town, we must have walked quite a few
kilometres around the shops and they aren’t terribly interesting, just trying
to pass the time till the bike was ready.
In the afternoon we went a saw Star Wars
Revenge of the Sith, it was just released into cinemas today so we thought we’d
kill a couple of hours watching a movie, it was so so.
|
|
Friday 20 May 2005
Day 28
|
Today we met up with a fellow Ulyssean,
Paul, who has the Clark Rubber store in Mackay. We called in to Clark Rubber to
say hello and finished up staying for a cuppa and talking for over an hour. He
told us a few places to visit on our travels. There are so many friendly people
in the Ulysses club and we’re really enjoying meeting them.
We went and had a look at the Botanic
Gardens which are only two years old and couldn’t compare with the ones we saw
in Bundaberg (We’ll have to come back in 50 years time)
TREES IN EUNGELLA NATIONAL PARK
|
|
Saturday 21 May 2005
Day 29
|
 We went for a ride to Sarina Beach
which is south of Mackay and then back to Mackay and had a look around the
gallery.
In the evening we went to Randina and
Steve’s place for a barbecue tea. Randina’s mother and her husband came to tea also;
it was nice to catch up with them all over a lovely meal.
SUNRISE WED. 18 MAY
|
|
Sunday 22 May 2005
Day 30
|
We spent today at the caravan park it was
quite nice having a restful day; we polished the bike and went for a walk along
the beach, and just pottered about.
There are lots of birds around the caravan
park and it’s nice to sit and watch them, the rosellas feeding from the bird
feeder and the ducks, someone told me they are whistling ducks, will come up
and get bread from you. There are honey eater type birds, ibis, pee wees and
crows. There are also possums and while I was washing dishes in the camp
kitchen a green tree frog was sitting on the bench watching me. There were
little geckos on the walls in the kitchen; it’s nice to see some wildlife, just
so long as the crocs stay away I’m happy.
|
|
|
Site Navigation 
