Clairview – 330km

The Queensland weatherman has predicted a high pressure system for the next few days bringing sunny warm weather and he was right as this morning there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. In fact it was such a lovely morning we decided it called for another walk on the beach before we made our way north. It is really amazing the millions of shells covering the sand. It makes a definite crunching sound as you walk.

After our walk we made a driving side trip to Byfield National Park. As we were driving along we thought we were going through a logged clear cut area but it was kind of unusual as all the tree roots had been pulled up as well. As we got closer to Byfield we started to see large areas of blowdown, then it clicked. Nature is amazing as the palm trees tended to be standing tall, straight and firm but the pines, eucalypts, etc. were either uprooted, snapped off or bent over. When we stopped in Byfield for diesel the lady working there told us they had been hit by typhoon Marcia in March and what we were seeing was the cleanup efforts. She had been in the area during the storm and told us it was terrifying! Apparently the wind speeds reached 225 kph.

At the general store in Byfield they had these huge (at least a foot long) pineapples for sale for $3 so we decided to sample one. We will be eating it for days!

We did drive further into the park and found a fish ladder system on the road where they have built on one of the cement creek crossings. We are back into the croc warning signs, by the way, and as usual no sign of beady eyes staring at us from the water.

Fish Ladder

Our drive into Emu Park, and Yeepoon was along the Capricorn Coast Tourist Drive, a very scenic drive along the coast. We spent the better part of the morning moseying along so again needed to adjust our plans for destination from last evening. On coming out of this area we joined the Bruce Highway and carried on along the coast. The road ended up inland a ways and it was getting pretty boring and flat. They have pegged this as a high crash area so have sign posts suggesting things to help you keep alert, like highway trivial pursuit with a question then the answer a km or so further along the way. We sucked at these Australian-based questions.

Around two pm we decided we had had enough driving (besides Norma kept falling asleep) and came across a road sign for the Barracrab campground at Clairview so in we came. We have a great spot on the ocean as you can see from the view from our rig. There were lots of people fishing though we only saw one man pull in a few. Not sure what they were but the gulls were sure interested and when he came to his camp spot to rinse one of his fish off they were onto his stuff in a jiffy! Speaking of birds we did see a white faced heron fishing. We are wondering if the crashing of the waves is going to lull us to sleep or keep us awake tonight.

Campsite

 

 

The Australians love their camping. We are seeing all kinds of rigs, big trailers, small trailers, pop up lid trailers and campers, tent trailers, motorhomes of all sizes and even the occasional fifth wheel. We are continually amazed with the lack of a sewer systems like we have at home. All the rigs with toilets have a porta-a-potty that needs to be taken out, carried to the dump site and manually lifted to pour out the contents. We see all these older gentlemen struggling with the weight of their container taking it for disposal. We have one in our unit and it has been and will remain unused. Why can’t someone get with the program and incorporate a holding tank system like we have at home. They have trailer dump sites at most campgrounds so all that is needed is the systems built into the trailers.