Grand Mercure Suites Mackay

Hi to all,<br><br>Sadly we are on our way home and our trip is coming to a close, but the Queensland coastline has refreshed us a quite a lot. We have arrived in Mackay just north of the city at an excellent little caravan park right on Blacks beach. The tiny caravan park is home to some very large paperbark trees that shaded the entire front of the park and the pristine beach was only 100 steps or so from our caravan. You wouldn't believe it, two caravans down from us were a family we ...

... on the first level and the waiter graciously gave us double helpings of cakes and also allowed Greg a slice of the trifle that was leftover from the Fathers Day luncheon they had not long finished serving, we were indeed feeling very spoilt.<br><br>We went upstairs to continue watching the footy when the café closed, enjoying cheap drinks prices and the lovely view from the balcony. Greg&#8217;s Fathers Day celebration was turning into a rather decadent afternoon ...

... of season so we didn't get to sample any:O( Now, was I stretching in the picture or trying to hold the thing up ?? <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br ><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br>

... pausing only to call me Lisa, staggered back to the bar. I necked my drink and disappeared to the loo at lightning fast speed, which as luck would have it was in a separate corridor which led straight to the front door. I was back in the hostel in two minutes. And what a hostel it is. This place, whilst suffering from a slight lack of parking (it's two hours free outside during the day but you have to move after that, which isn't too helpful, but ...

... sound. It made all the trees sound like they were laughing, very strange! We got up at 6am to go down to the beach and watch the wallabies having breakfast in the tree line and hopping about the beach. It was a beautiful place and we realised that the view at the beach was where lonely planet got there cover picture for the Oz book.

... few drinks one of the women wanted us to stay on her boat, her husband was having none of it. We met Rosco from Moscow here, he was some character. It was one big strange experience, but very funny. In fairness to all the people we met, they could not have been nicer. We followed the directions to where we were to sleep but could not find it. We ended up heading back into town and parking around the back of a petrol station. Free camping was by now becoming a bit of a pain.

We drove down to Eungella National Park after having picked up the car. On the way we saw several sugar cane plantations and factories, it was good to see the countryside after being in the city and on an island. This was our first visit to a National Park in Oz and it was fantastic. The road up to the peak was really steep ...

... Springs! Not long to go now (only a week!) We eventually arrived at Emmas amazing flat and all 3 of us just collapsed on the sofas and vegged out to sleepless in seattle for the rest of the night! Saturday, however was a totally different story! Emma introduced us to her new friends from upstairs who came to the beach with us for a ...

We left Hervey Bay yesterday after being very lucky with the weather thus far considering it's Queensland rainy or monsoon season now. As roads have been closed on-and-off around Hervey Bay for the last couple of days, we made sure we could actually travel north before leaving Hervey. Cyclone Nicolas has been forming over the Australian West coast and was expected to move over the tropical North towards the East coast, hitting areas from Hervey Bay up to Cairns with ...

... trucks and 4 tonnes in the small trucks The cane is transported in where is its first weighted and then tipped into a cane carrier. Next it is conveyed to the cane shredder, which chops and shreds the cane into fibrous material. Rollers feed the shredder cane into a series of crushing mills. The cane is crushed twice at each mill. The juice crushed from the cane is pumped away for processing into raw sugar. The ...