Travelling with Mr C.

You will be pleased to know that we have nailed the awning and the annex – when we stop for one or two nights, we just put the awning up. When we stay for a week or so the annex goes up. It doesn’t take me long to put the annex up with some help from Mr C – he, is generally trying to give the orders (I practice patience). I have also mastered the drill to put the big screw pegs in the ground, much better than nailing in pegs, as my wrist and hands get tired. We have become quite the team; I’m the workhorse and Mr C is problem solver.

We are travelling well together, with the usual marital bliss and the occasional spat over something stupid, lucky it doesn’t happen often. In saying this I did lose my shit one day, can’t remember over what (it was driving directions) and just got out the car and went for a walk, told Mr C to go and find the spare part on his own – when I got over myself, I bought two sausage rolls from the bakery sat outside and ate mine (nearly ate his as well). Sometime later I saw Mr C return to the shopping centre – I gave him his sausage roll, he said he had the spare part for the caravan door, and we were good as gold again. Thank goodness this has only happened once.

We continue doing 50/50 driving and enjoying caravan life. I think Mr C prefers this nomadic lifestyle more than I do, I miss home, family and friends. I’m not saying Mr C doesn’t, but he has a charmed life, no housework, gardening etc – he has the occasional repair job otherwise I do the rest, which I love doing because I like to keep busy. I’ve made new curtains and a new blackout curtain for the caravan, so when one of us can’t sleep the other can be in darkness – it’s great, I just want a new caravan now.

Insight to self:

I’ve learned so much about myself and it’s been a period of adjustment for me. Some of the mundane (can’t make this blog too heavy) things I have noticed: I realise that I don’t like closing cupboard doors, not sure why…Mr C is often bumping his head, and me too. I do like to keep busy and find different ways of doing it in a caravan…I am always on the go…I don’t like to see a flat surface that doesn’t have stuff on it. I don’t mind if Mr C falls asleep during the day, because that means I can please myself. When we go to a new town/place, I love to challenge myself and see everything there is to see, at least the important things – now this is no surprise. I do this when we travel overseas, however I do plan rest days now.

One morning after breakfast I was hurrying Mr C along, when he said…..” we are meant to be on a relaxing holiday…. no but I should’ve known with Pauline there’s no such thing“. It was 11am and I had gone for my morning walk, I left Mr C sleeping, came back, cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast, washed the dishes and it was now time for sight-seeing. This is our usual carry on, I think Mr C just likes to whinge, after all he is English. Or maybe, I hear my mother’s voice saying, “Pauline there is plenty time to rest when you are dead“.

Mackay

The drive from Proserpine to Mackay was uneventful, it was mainly highway. When we were on the sunset cruise at Airlie Beach, we met a beautiful couple Karly & Andrew who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. We promised we would stop at her shop in Mackay for a cake and that’s what we did. It was Karly that suggested to stay at Emu Park or Yeppoon and not Rockhampton for our two weeks, I was so pleased we took their advice. I am a firm believer you meet people for a reason, they teach you something or vice versa. If you are ever in Mackay please stop at this shop, Healthy Stuff n Junk – the power balls are a real power hit, and the sausage rolls were so tasty, I wanted seconds.

Claireview:

We left Mackay and continued on, until we came to an interesting little town Claireview, we were going to free camp, however, there was not one in the town. It was a beautiful sunny day, a little humid, a great day for a swim. We parked up the car and caravan and Mr C sat on a seat whilst I walked on the beach, it wasn’t a nice beach. That dreaded sign that said “DANGER Box Jelly fish might be in this area” meant no swimming – the beach was full of stones and rocks, it was very hard to walk on, so it was a short walk I was disappointed. However, Fat Cat (the grandchildren follow Fat Cat’s adventures) had a play on the park. The toilet block had great murals to see and there were pretty flowers planted in tyres – the houses were old and some unkempt, it was an interesting place, we did not see any local people.

St Lawrence:

Our journey continued until we found a free camp – we had two options in a town called St Lawrence in the Isaac region – there was a shire-controlled park or at the local St Lawrence pub. Again, as luck would have it, we chose the first one we came to which was the shire showgrounds. Payment worked on an honesty box system, $15 per night – we stayed two nights and paid at the shire office when we left town.

The first night, I went for a cycle ride to the St Lawrence Wetlands. I am always worried about getting lost as I have no sense of direction, so I was a bit cautious about how far I rode. I made a conscious effort to remember some landmarks, however it was pretty barren. Sadly, there were not too many birds to see, but it was still a great ride as I got to see lots of Kangaroos and I found my way back to the caravan.

The history of St Lawrence is that it was originally built to service the Customs Office for the Port of St Lawrence – they have some very old buildings one of which is the pub. We are so pleased we didn’t stay there as it looked like it was dilapidated. Interestingly the shire offices were newly built and seem quite out of place in a rather undistinguished town. There were some really old houses an interesting butcher shop, police station and school. The Christ Church Anglican Church is heritage listed and is well preserved. Again, we did not see many locals milling around the town. I wondered how this place could ever be a port – you couldn’t access the beach; it was all overgrown with bush. It’s now mainly a tourist town.

The drive to Rockhampton was not long after a two day stop. We booked ahead for one night in Rockhampton and then onto Yeppoon for two weeks. Mr C’s brother has been unwell in Perth, and we made a decision for him to return home to see how his brother was travelling – I was happy to spend two weeks on my own in Yeppoon – I had some marking (work 78, 2000-word assignments) to do which would keep me busy.

Rockhampton:

On first arriving in Rockhampton, it looked like a real working town – spread out and a bit untidy. The Tourist Park was right on the river, we arrived late in the afternoon unpacked a little – I didn’t like the look of our Tourist Park, I went for a walk to the river, didn’t like the look of it either it was murky, so I went back to the van. I was pleased we were only staying one night. We also had to restock so went to the shopping centre followed by an evening at the Rockhampton Cowboys League Football club where we had dinner – we both had a roast dinner, it was delish.

On return to the Tourist Park that evening we kept seeing a low flying rescue helicopter with its spotty on searching – people around the park were talking about a man who had jumped into the river trying to run away from the police – he apparently called for help and then disappeared. Later we heard that the river has its local resident crocodiles and bull sharks – so not the kind of river you want to jump in. Sadly, the man was found dead a few days later. We left the next morning heading for Yeppoon, only 30 mins away, I was excited. More about Rockhampton in the next blog.

Next blog – Yeppoon & Rockhampton

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