White Lace Motor Inn Hotel Mackay

The Trip to Mackay north of Brisbane and approximately half way to Cairns was unpleasant but relatively short ... Having arrived at Brisbane airport and checked our bags in we went through security and got some food and drink and one of the cafe’s there ... after a long wait we moved ourselves to the gate ...

... a treat by going to the beach for the 3rd time that day, the beach is a 5 minutes walk and there is heaps of space. We want to thank Ian and Linda for the use of their front yard , we took the view of their home away with all our equipment and they are probably happy to see the street again from their lounge room.
Next place of interest will be Airlie beach , the gateway to the whitsundays.

... year it seems to have improved.  At the entrance to the caravan site there is a sugar cane train line and about 4 loads go by each day. En-route into Sarina we saw several train loads of coal and the numbers of trucks were amazing, (impossible to count them), all filled with coal.  Apparently the mines are about 1 hours drive away from Sarina.

... was acceptable? And if so, aren't we due for a retro comeback of these more affectionate times?; · We continue to chuckle at what some small towns will do to get noticed. After leaving Cairns we started our return journey south, this time along the coast. We stopped in a small town called Bowen for no other reason than that we were tired of driving for the day. The local tourist guidebook highlighted the town's "world famous Big Mango". The 10 metre ...

... sure I have the directions jotted down in my notebook and noting which big population centres to head for. The way seems fairly easy, after I find my way to the Bruce Highway, it's just a straight line almost until I reach the hostel. Good stuff. Since I've got wireless working in my room finally, I decide to just check on Google Maps to see how long it will take. 10 hours 49 minutes, chirps Google brightly. What the hell? That can't be right. I ...

Back in Mackay - we made it! We chugged out of LPG and somehow our fuel just allowed us to chug into the petrol station before runing out phew! Now we are netting it, maybe grabbing a pizza and then going to the beach to take up the rest of the day - not a bad plan me thinks!

... 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 ...

... and drive each other nuts. Sometimes we get creative and think of fun little things to entertain us for 20 minutes, like paper, rock, scissors, but usually we just resort to sleeping (a lot) and often times drinking. The whole town may be shut down, and there's no where for us to get food, but the liquor store never fails. The first few days were miserable and we were fighting and driving each other crazy- mainly because it was something ...

... to see if the "Michelle's Sac" had arrived yet but to no avail, should be here by midday, I was told. Sure enough they rang at 11.30am and it was ready to picked up - finally after 6 weeks of waiting and 4 weeks of loading and unloading stuff out of the van and car that should have been on the roof of the car. After a quick bite to eat we headed back towards Mackay to Farleigh to do a tour around a sugar mill ...

We are going south and we are now in Mackay (capital of cane sugar, so it seems). Today we went to a beautiful animal sanctuary and finally seen some of the local wildlife free to roam around. tomorrow we will go to Eungella national park for some serious bush walking. no uploading facilities here therefore no photos for you, sorry!