Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Sarina Qld 9th August 2924 We were supposed to stay at Mackay, to be close to Parkrun in the morning. We had booked into Bakers Creek Caravan Park, but it turns out to be out the back of the industrial area, looked filthy, full of permanent camps and totally uninviting. Even I wouldn’t feel comfortable staying there. Other parks in Mackay demand a two night minimum, so our options were Sarina, 30km south or Rockhampton, way too far south. Fortunately Sarina had a spot left, so we booked that and headed out of town. We have stayed here a few times now. The van park is pleasant with a big grassy site for us. After some lunch we wandered out to Sarina Beach, where there is a nice hotel and a good view out over the ocean. Still a bit windy though and hard to spot whales with all the whitecaps. The park has a sausage sizzle on Fridays, so we went over for a hour, had a snag and a bit of old chat. The oddity of this place is that it has weird animal statues throughout the park: ele...

An early start saw us heading out along the Sturt Highway, and have slowed only to navigate our way through the straying cattle eating their way along the long paddock, we finally stopped for a short break and refreshments. We decided a nice hot coffee might be a better choice than a sip of cold water from the street corner fountain, despite its ornate looks and the fact that it commemorated the service given to the town by a long serving Mayor in 1883. Maybe if the original pewter mugs had still been dangling from their tethering chains we may have been tempted. Or not. The coffee was good at the Haveachat cafe, and we soon found ourselves back out on the road, heading west over the Hay Plain. The main, perhaps only, point of interest is that they grow cotton out here on the vast fields that stretch to the horizon and we must have come along toward the end of harvest as there were fields that looked like it had been snowing, and others bare except for the giant-sized rolls of picked a...