AIRLIE BEACH

Left Bowen and we did head towards Airlie Beach but couldn't even find a spot to park the van and look around so we decided it wasn't worth the stress and headed out towards Proserpine which unfortunately was the same thing....too busy and no parking. 

Also these places are still trying to rebuild from the cyclone so most of the beaches here were really hammered and are fenced off while they try to fix them. Everywhere we went their were builders trucks of all sorts, so in a round about way, it has created a lot of employment......but at the expense of these lovely towns.

Now that we have come on to the number one highway that travels right around Australia, it's so busy and we are just not used to all this traffic. We have come across a huge amount of backpackers as there is a lot of produce that needs to be picked at the moment but they are like ants.....they are everywhere! They cram themselves into these little camper vans with all they own....but they are so happy and so polite. What an experience for them all to travel like that. 

Our next stopover we found was a campground at St Lawrence.

This is the general store in this small town of about 190 people.

The town is located on the south side of St Lawrence creek, which flows into a vast bay known as broad sound, a waterway noted for its large tidel range of up to 9 meters (30 ft) in the summer!!! That's big!!

This is the local pub!

And the local butchers!

This is the campground we stayed at. 

You need a dollar coin to operate the showers, and I put 2 in the slot which would give  me a six minute shower! 

Now these coin slots are situated outside the shower cubicle, so you have to be very organised with your towel, shampoo and soap, because that six minutes starts as soon as you put your money in!

So, I get organised, dropped my money in, quickly lock my door and turn the taps on to regulate the temperature of the water......and nothing......no bloody water....I turned the taps on and off.....opened the door and tried banging on the damn coin machine...luckily I was in there alone as it wasn't a pretty sight!!....I swore at it....that didn't work....and of course I'm panicking as my time is clicking away...then I looked at the coin slot numbers and realised I was in the wrong number shower.....OMG..what an idiot!!!

So I quickly grabbed all my stuff and found the right shower and out came the water! What a dozy cow!!

I had a nice shower...but a short one!

We came up this way twelve years ago with Mark, Melinda, Jake , Byron and Noah when we were all travelling up to Cairns for a holiday.

Back then, the kids were all very small, and Mark had bought a big plastic rubbish bin and that's what they used to bath the kids in. They filled up the bin, put it in the back of marks ute and the two little ones , Byron and Noah bobbed up and down in that. It was such a funny sight to see these two gorgeous sun tanned little blonde kids having so much fun in a rubbish bin. 

Great memories of this place ❤️❤️❤️

So the next morning we left there, (it didn't feel the same without the kids) and we drove a whole 10 Klm's and stopped at Waverley Park roadside stopover.

It's not a bad stop, right on the highway though, but it was packed later in the day. We took a walk around and counted 40 vehicles. A lot were young campers in their vans, and at dinner time their were some lovely smells from their cooking....yum!!

We went to see if there was any water in the creek, but it was dry. We've had no rain so the only thing that grows is the weeds! 

We left next morning, driving through Mackay, Sarina and have stopped at Rockhampton for two night to stock up with more food and water.

We have decided to head back inland as we are not too keen on this main highway business....so off we go inland again. 

We will revisit a few places we loved, then go back to the coast into Hervey Bay. It's school holidays which we forgot about so we will try to avoid the coast for a couple of weeks.

Back to the bush we go!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️