Saturday 27th August – Day 35
We awoke to a cloudy, dismal looking day. We sat around for a while to see what was happening. We decided on Magnetic Island. For $29 return ferry price, and $6.50 for an all-day bus ticket, we thought that was the way to go. We got on the ferry and arrived on Magnetic Island 20 minutes later.

It was still very hazy, and not a good photo day at all. The early weather had gone, but we were not sure if it was going to rain or not. Hopped on a bus and ended up in Horseshoe Bay. We didn’t find a café, but did find a pub, so we had a counter lunch in there.

I think we got off the bus mainly to get away from the crazy bus driver, who drove the bus far too fast for the roads. We went for a walk down the beach, and sat in the park just watching the world go by. Back on a bus again, this time headed for Picnic Bay, which was where we wanted to go the first time. The second bus driver was worse than the first one I think.

I was watching his face in the mirror and I am sure he was on drugs or something. He was talking to himself, and moving his head in all directions, with weird expressions on his face. He also drove very fast. We pulled up at the bus depot and I was relieved to see him get out of the bus and a third driver get in. He was much better. He drove sedately and even spoke to the passengers.

When we got to Picnic Bay, we decided to stay on the bus and head back to Nelly Bay, where the ferry docks. We got back just in time to get straight on the ferry and back to Townsville.

From the wharf we decided, instead of going back to the cars, to walk along The Strand. This was the foreshore walk through parks and beach sides. It was only about 2 kms but it was a nice walk, as the sun was out and the place was full of families enjoying the water activities and grass. There was a TV camera and crew fiddling around on the beach and we soon realised that a guy from the turtle hospital was going to return a turtle to the sea. They were there to film it for the local news I assume.

Sunday 28th August – Day 36
We left camp about 9 and headed south. Not a very exciting trip, as our destination was around the Mackay area but we really had no plan as to the specific location. The road was not very exciting and we didn’t stop anywhere of note, except for lunch at Proserpine.

We went through Mackay, then through Sarina, until we hit Ilbilbe. It was a town of a motel, 4 houses and a Caltex.

The only good thing about Ilbilbe was that there was a turnoff to a bush camp out near the coast. The book says 11km with 1km of dirt. We hit the dirt and found the campsite but it was an area of about 15m square and it was next to the mangroves.

We kept driving as the GPS location was not exactly as the map said, but it was close. We drove though woodland until we thought it was getting a bit rough for the van, so we stopped and walked a bit.

The track was getting worse, and it was getting darker, so we just stopped in a small clearing and started to set up camp.

We had already had a few small showers on the road – the first in 5 weeks since leaving home, when we heard the rumble of thunder. This did not look good as we also had some lightning strikes nearby.

Mark threw all Marg’s tent stuff in the back of their car, and told her she could bunk in with them. They had just put up the tent as the rain hit  and did it hit! I was inside the tent helping Mark and the other girls ran for the van. It bucketed down for about 20 mins. It finally eased enough for Mark to run across to the van too. He was soaked.
It rained for most of the night. We found out later that they had 35mm overnight.

Monday 29th August – Day 37
The previous late afternoon we had seen some vans out on the point but couldn’t work out how to get there. The track we had been driving on, actually led there. It was Yarrawonga Park Reserve and it was free camping. It was a beautiful place with plenty of room, but no amenities of course.

The track was full of rain puddles from last night, but it was a lot smoother than the track we had ended up camping next to. Mind you, if we had kept driving, we wouldn’t have made it in time to set up camp before the storm hit.

The neighbouring farmer stopped by and told us that it was a good thing we didn’t camp at the spot that was in the book, as there was a resident 14′ croc there that had already attacked two boats! He said they had never had so many croc sightings as they have had this year.

Back out to the main road again, and turned south. The road was really boring, with no features to talk of. Just before Rockhampton, we turned towards Yeppoon, and when we had gone the 33kms to Yeppoon, we turned south along the coastline and ended up at Big4 Capricorn Palms, Mulambin Beach. We setup camp as quickly as possible to try to dry out the camper from last night’s storm.

Marg will stay in the camper again tonight as we are taking her to the Rockhampton airport early tomorrow, and she will fly home.