Sarina Qld 9th August 2924

 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: elephants, dinosaurs, crocodiles, emus, and this big lizard on the roof of the Meeting Place where we were, meeting, of course.

Lizard. Sarina Palms Caravan Park, Sarina Qld

Sarina Qld August 17th 2023

 Sarina Qld August 17th 2023

It’s almost like a time warp: all the roadworks from last year are still there, perhaps even multiplied. They start as you pull out of Bowen and never really stop until you get to Mackay, which they have now bypassed with a Ring Road. I missed t he turn and had to take the old bypass, which was just fine.

The plan was to spend two nights in Sarina. On the Friday we were booked to do the Sugar Mill tour, and on Saturday I was going to go the 30km back into Mackay to do Parkrun. The mill tour we had booked months ago based on our experience last year, when it had been booked out for weeks. Judy had done a check and found that they had plenty of availability, so a plan was hatched to do the tour this afternoon, and decamp to Rockhampton tomorrow. As it turns out, I haven’t done the Rockhampton Parkrun, so that’s a bonus for me.

The Sugar Mill tour turned out to be a Sugar Shack tour, which was Ok and informative as the guide told us all about cane, haw they plant and harvest it, and how they process the canes to produce sugar and lots of byproducts. The biggest claim about sugarcane farming is that “nothing is wasted.” Even the muddy sludge gets sent back to farms as a nutrient rich topsoil.

Original sugar cane "billet" planter.. Sarina Qld

Original local invention. Full cut stalk picker-upper. Sarina Qld

Chopped stalk sugar cane harvester. Sarina Qld

Sarina Qld Friday 26 August 2022 (225km)

Sarina Qld Friday 26 August 2022 (225km)

Just for the record, the roadworks stared at Bowen and ran for at least 50km, all posted at 60 kph whether they had started any actual work or not.

Sarina was picked out as an overnighter on our way back down the coast, but the town is close enough to Mackay for me to go in and do a Parkrun. I've done this one before and its quite pleasant as it follows the lagoon round and through the Botanical Gardens. Not that you’ve go time to stop and admire, still trying to get back under 40 minutes. Made it in 42 mins flat, so its not so bad. After Parkrun (which starts at 7am in Qld) we normally find ourselves looking for breakfast before we drive back to our van. This time we ended up back in Sarina, the only place open for food was the restaurant at the Motel, which proved to be quite good.

Sarina also has a lovely heritage precinct that includes museum and a Sugar Shed, which is attached to the very much operational sugar mills. They run tours but the afternoon one was booked out and the next morning one is too late for us and our planned journey to Mt Larcom. Might be enough reason to come back here net time.

Sarina Sugar Shed. Sarina Qld

The van park was a bit quirky, starting with us being put out the back, which turned out quite good as it was close to the loos. They also had a range of large animal statues all over the place such as this Rhinocerous...

Rhinocerous. Sarina Qld

We had a spare hour in the afternoon so we took a 20km run out to the beach. What a disappointment. Apart from being slightly better than a mud-flat, its almost total inaccessible due to the houses build right along it. We checked out another beach called Greengrasses, but that was more of the same and that was enough fun for us for the day.