Evil Oddie

Luke and Scott went to drop off the Jeep early this morning and we waited for them to get back before we started breakfast.  I was catching up on blogging, so Alex and Garry cooked pancakes for breakfast.

The boys had to move the water reserve for the windscreen now that the skirt has been removed from the Challenger.  They were doing that while we were having breakfast.  Seeing that this was taking a while, I went to go do the washing.  When I got there, I met a lovely lady that had been waiting there for ages.  Another lady was using all 3 machines and she had more loads to go.  The lady that was waiting told me that they had come through Nolan’s Crossing yesterday and got stuck.  She said that the water was up to her waist in her Nissan Patrol.  I asked if the people in the Cherokee were still there when they went through and she said yes.  They were still bailing out water from their car.

I came back to camp without putting the washing on.  When I told them that the lady waiting told me that someone was using all 3 and had more to do, Glen got cranky and went up there.  The nice lady was gone by then, but in Glen’s words, a large woman was up there hanging up her sheets.  Glen asked her if she was using all the machines to which she said no.  Glen said to her, well my missus said that someone was and  I think that that is pretty rude.  He checked the machines and they were all in use.  I just decided I’d do the washing later.

When the boys had finally stopped fluffing about with the Challenger (11am – I’m not good at waiting) and we were on our way to the tip!  The road is very rough and the shrubs are close to the sides of the car.  Glen says on the way that we should celebrate that we haven’t killed each other yet!  When we got to the carpark, I asked Glen if he’d disconnected the winch.  We’d heard stories of the locals getting your winch and then putting it over the top of the car and hooking it to the back bar.  They then switch on the winch and it opens your car up like a tin opener.

We started the 15 minute walk to the Tip. Take your time during the walk as it is quite steep and rocky.  I took lots of photos – the view was fantastic.

How far are we from Brisbane?

When we got to the tip, there was already a tour bus group there and another on the way.  So I put in dog quickly for a photo and then we started with our photos of us.

When it was Glen & me, he hugged me and said “Should we do it? Should we tie the knot?” I said “Are you serious?” and I started to blubber.  Glen got on one knee and asked “Will you marry me?” and I nodded yes.  All the tour groups clapped and cheered and the guys that we were on the trip also knew that this was going to happen.

We all made the TOP!

We took lots of other photos and then took the long way back to the cars.  We went to look at the Somerset ruins, the graves and the other stuff on the east coast side.  We took the beach track and it was really pretty scenery but very soft sand.

Glen defiling Somerset Ruins

Dog with millions of crab balls on the beach

When we got back to camp, Glen and I called our parents to let them know.  They don’t have payphones here, all you can use is 1800 REVERSE.  So our olds had to pay to find out – haha.

We had Peanut Butter Sausages for dinner.

Funny Sign at the Croc Tent

Happy birthday Shaz!

The night was cool and we slept well at Nolan’s.  The weld that Glen had done on the control arm at North Alice broke during yesterday’s trip.  Seeing we got to Nolan’s quite late in the day, Glen said that he wanted to wait until the morning so he had full daylight to see what he was doing.  The boys hooked up a couple of batteries and Glen welded it together enough to get the Jeep to Bamaga to get it properly welded.

Dog handing Scott Tools

Dog getting ready to do some Bush Welding

I started cooking Corn Fritters for breakfast after Glen had said that they could take a break.  During cooking, the oil spat and burned my right leg.  I’ve got 3 nice teardrop burns and gosh did they hurt.  After a day with Rawleighs and bandaids (it looked pretty funny), I’ve now just got some purple / red teardrops on my leg.

Dog licking the burns better

We left camp at almost 11am and travelled to where the old crossing of the Jardine River was.  We pulled up and there was no way that we were going to attempt to get across.

Old Vehicle Crossing at Jardine River

We made our way to the Ferry.  The ferry costs $88 return and it is a shorter cable crossing than the Moggill Ferry.  We think it was a bit expensive, but hey, what can you do?

When we got to the Ferry, it was approx 12:20pm.  The Ferry actually stops when the staff are on lunch and resumes at 1pm.  So we stopped in the shade so that we could have our lunch too.  We’d just stopped when this older guy (Pretty Prado Man – PP Man) came and had a go at us.  He said to Glen “We were all here before you and you have to let us on the Ferry first”, Glen said “No worries mate, we’re just here for the shade.”  Some of the guys that we had met at the first crossing on the OTL were waiting at the Ferry too.  They came down and we had a chat about what we’d done and how the trip was going and what the plan was for the tip.  They had their lunch with us and when they went back to their car.  PPM was asking all the other cars to move right up to the Ferry launch so that “other queue jumpers” pointing to our direction didn’t get in before them.  The guys that we knew were just like, don’t worry mate, if you want to go and park your car in the boiling sun, go right ahead.

Before 1pm, PPM was waiting at the office door, trying to get everyone to line up in order of arrival.  We thought it was really quite amusing as none of us were in a rush.  We went over and bought our tickets and when we’d got out, the Ferry had already done to return trips.  Our group got on and away  we went.

When we pulled into Injinoo, we saw some council workers and stopped to ask if they could do the welding.  They said the best guy to do the welding was at Seisia but couldn’t tell us the name of the place.  We weren’t planning to stop at Seisia, so I had a look in our Hema Cape York Atlas & Guide book, it states that the RACQ Mechanic for up here is in Bamaga and they do welding.  So that was our first stop at Bamaga.  The Challenger went to the BP to fill up $1.95 for Unleaded and $1.90 for diesel.  Scott was pretty much ignored by the guys at the mechanics at Bamaga (probably why the locals referred us to Seisia), so we went to Seisia.

Top End Motors at Seisia was easy to find.  They guy was super helpful and he said that all he gets are Jeeps and Rovers.  He said that he’ll weld anything that has come loose and to drop the car off in the morning.

Alex and I went into the supermarket at Seisia to get some more milk and some other stuff.  $47 for 3 bags!! Wowee!  A 30 pack of Coke was $50.63!!  The guys waited out the front while us girls were shopping.  Another traveller pulled up and told the guys about his trip up and that he’d have a snorkel too if his wife hadn’t seen a pair of red stilletos and a matching bag.  Now whenever we see them, we’re like “Hi Red Stilletos”.   We’ve since found out their names are Ron and Ellen.  He’s a funny guy.

We got back on the road to get to Punsand Bay Safari & Fishing Lodge.  $12 per person per night for camping.  Seeing we had booked and we’re quite a big group, we actually got a Tour Group Site called Dugong.  Everyone else here has really been sandwiched in.  One guy came up to me and asked how we scored this.  Haha.

Garry and Ristan were already here when we got here and they came into the office when we were booking in.  They’re in a cabin (really a thing that looks like an old shipping container and dodgy 70′s caravan panelling.  I don’t think I’d like to pay $200 a night for that with rattling air conditioners.  However, seeing every time I’ve gone to use the toilet or shower here, there’s been a line up of about 5 people before me and I would pay a lot just to be able to use a toilet / shower when I wanted to.  There’s so many people up here and they just don’t have enough amenities.

Dog at Punsand Bay

We set up camp and the bush turkeys have wandered around our camp non-stop.  There are heaps of them here.

The boys noticed that the Challenger didn’t look right.  His skirt was coming off (front lower bar).  Luke pulled of the bit that was coming off.  Luke has lost his skirt.  I’ll put up some piccies when we get the photos from all the other travellers

We had Savoury Mince with Rice and Apple Crumble for dessert.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Jeep – A lot is broken
Oddie – Burnt Leg
Scott – Burnt Toe
Glen – A bit of Welder’s Flash

My big sister’s birthday – Happy Birthday Sally! Sorry we don’t have any phone coverage so I can’t call you…

We had Toad in the Hole (made by Scott) for breakfast today.  Not a great fan cause I don’t like soft runny yolks.  While packing up, Alex dropped a chair on her ankle and it looked pretty painful.

We finished off the Southern Section of the OTL and Gunshot was quite interesting.  Once again there were lots of cars waiting to go through, but no one was stuck.  We all got through fine.

Dog at Gunshot

We stopped at Fruit Ball Falls and had a swim.  The boys got right under the waterfall and got pummelled.

Dog at Fruit Bat Falls

The next stop was Eliot Falls.  Eliot Falls is absolutely beautiful.  It is well worth the stop, but the campsites were pretty crappy and the toilets stank!!

Twin Falls

Eliot Falls

We did a creek crossing and it was really weird – we’re not sure what creek it was, but it was like the surface of the moon.

We were all pretty amazed with the landscape.

The northern section of the OTL is awesome.  There isn’t as much traffic and **most** of the Poles are untouched.  We had heard some pretty bad stories about Nolan’s Brook and that was the last crossing for the day.  The boys walked the crossing thouroughly before going across.  We all got across fine and made camp there.  There were lots of flys, but other than that it was a really good campsite.  There is an old log crossing that we jumped into the creek from and floated downstream to where the crossing was.  Lots of fun.

Alex was reading and I had started dinner when Scott said he’d heard a car.  The boys went down to the creek and they thought that the other car (a Jeep Cherokee) was going to make camp on the other side of the crossing.  A little while later, I said to Alex, “Does that sound like a winch motor to you?”  We went down to the creek and the Cherokee was well and truly stuck in the creek.  The boys asked if they wanted a snatch out and then Luke went up to get the Challenger to pull them out.

These people we had run across before and let me just say that we have met nicer people on the track than these guys.  Their entire car was a swimming pool.  They were bailing water out of the car all night and they had all the stuff out of their car.

We had Shephard’s Pie and peas & corn for dinner.  Scott stepped on a hot coal that the fire had spat out and he’s got a lovely blister on his big toe.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Alex – Ankle
Jeep – Weld that Glen did for the Control Arm broke
Scott – Burnt Toe

We had pancakes for breakfast this morning.  The boys were still pottering around the Jeep to make sure everything was okay.  We let all the other cars go before us incase we had anymore problems.  One  thing that I’ve noticed already is that people have defaced the Poles that were used for the OTL.

Defaced Telegraph Pole

It really annoys me that people can’t respect property and give all the other people doing this trip the chance to see the history of the Line.

Dog in the back of the GU

Today was the day I got to drive the GU through the OTL.  I will admit that I can’t drive as quickly as Glen, but we were also going slow to see if the Jeep would be okay (my excuse anyways).  Alex has been driving the Challenger for a lot of the way because Luke’s ankle is still really quite bad.  Alex and I are alike with driving.  We don’t enjoy driving just for drivings sake.  We drive to get from A to B.  I’m not sure if Luke realises the sacrifice that Alex has made for him during this trip… Not giving Luke a hard time – I think any boy wouldn’t appreciate how much pressure it puts on us girls who don’t have that much experience.

Anyway, during my driving stint, Glen was crapping himself.  “You’re too close to the left”, “Slow down”, “Did you see that hole in front of you?” and “Change gear” were all said quite often.

We saw an Australian Scorpion at camp!

Aussie Scorpion

We made camp at Delahunty Creek and we decided to stay for two nights. The first night was pretty warm and there were lots of flys; other than that, it was an awesome campsite.

Dog at Delahunty Creek

We went for several swims.  There was a small waterfall and at the top, there was a small spa like area where all of us could fit.  I went total bogan style and washed my hair with Eco Soap.  It wasn’t a good look.

Camp oven Pizza was for dinner.

We had Cereal for breakfast because we needed get up and going very quickly due to needing to be at the bridge at 9:30am (it opened for 5 mins).

Dog in the Pantry

We got up early and had a good run to the bridge and we had some time to kill so we went to Red Beach.  We had a look around and Garry spotted a log that didn’t really look like a log. When the log moved, we were sure that it was a chomper.

Dog at Red Beach

We filled up at the BP 149.43L $216.52 (1094km since filled up totally – Cairns).  We stopped at the Bauxite Terminal to get some piccies and then we were on our way.

Dog & Glen checking out the Bauxite Process

We took the Batavia Downs turn off to get to the start of the Old Telegraph Line (OTL).  We stopped for more piccies at some huge Ant Hills.

Oddie & Dog with Ant Hill

Ristan was interested in checking out the Moreton Telegraph Station and we stopped there and got more piccies.

Dog with Telegraph Pole

Next stop was Bramwell Junction.  They guys had to fill up (again) Unleaded – $1.80 per Litre and Diesel – $1.86 per Litre.

Dog at Bramwell Roadhouse

Once everyone had had amenities stops, we started on the OTL.

Dog at the start of the OTL

When we got to the first creek crossing, there was a back log of cars waiting to get across.  A car had got bogged and someone was pulling him out.  We met quite a few people while waiting for the guy to get pulled out.  The Jeep went across first for our group and Scott drove it easily.  The GU was next and Glen had his frilly skirt firmly on.  A small log that the bogged guy had tried to use to get out, flicked up and hit the GU. Luke helped another guy towing a trailer down (snatch attached to the back of the trailer and the Challenger lowered the trailer slowly – releasing the pressure on the tow ball etc) and then the Challenger went across without a problem.  Garry and Ristan decided after a while that they weren’t going to risk their son’s Hilux through the crossing.  The Hilux took  Bamaga Road to the top.

Not long into the track, Scott broke his front driver’s side control arm and then noticed the mount to the rear driver’s side shockie mount had broken off.  The guys took off the control arm and the shockie and we decided to make camp so they could attempt to fix it.

Scott with his broken Jeep

We made camp at North Alice Creek.  They guys that we had met at the first creek crossing asked if they could camp with us and if we could all share a community fire.  These group of people were awesome.  They were quiet and even set up the fire for us.

A note here for Mick and Shaz – Oddie made like a bear in the woods at North Alice Creek…

We had Wagyu Steak and Mushroom Risotto for dinner.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Jeep – Front Control Arm
Jeep – Rear Shockie
Jeep – Castor Slap

We had Corn Fritters for breakfast – yum! and then we were off and racing.  I need to mention again how shocking Battle Camp Road is.  It was really really bad – slow going!!  We stopped at Musgrave Roadhouse for the guys to fuel up (again – we still didn’t need to).  Glen and I got icecreams – it feels like such a treat!

Km’s from Musgrave

Garry needs to have medical attention for his toothache.  We stopped in Coen, but the nurse was on lunch.  We decide to check out The Bend Camping Site.  We got there and we were not impressed.  The toilet stank!  The campsites were not level and the site was actually on the main road.  Not so good for the light sleeper – ie me.  We decided that we would have some lunch and Garry and Ristan would go back into Coen to wait for the nurse to come back to the Medical Centre.  We had just finished lunch and were about to head into Coen to see how things were going when Garry and Ristan turned up.  The nurse had given Garry the drugs he needed without a charge.  They gave a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service instead.

Garry’s Swollen Face

We decided that we would continue on to Archer River Roadhouse as they had Amenities – including a hot shower!!  We got to Archer River Roadhouse at about 2pm and we were the first campers there.  We got the pick of the campsites and got the flatest bit and all of us made camp around a campfire.   A winnebago parked next to our car and the guy got out and had a good chat with us and even gave us some crap about chewing up the roads (bloody 4wders as he said).

On the menu for dinner was Rib Eye Steak with Mushroom Sauce, Deb and Peas & Corn.  We had Apple Crumble for dessert.  I cooked my first Camp Oven Bread and it turned out fantastically.  Yum Yum fresh bread.

As the evening wore on, more and more campers were setting up camp.  Soon, we were in the middle of a huge nest of campers.  We went to bed and could still hear people pulling in.  The attendant when booking in told us that the generators would turn off at 10pm.  At midnight it was still going and we had bogans come to our fire in the middle of our camp and they made noise and yelling until 2am.  We had tried several times to ask them to be quieter, but alas, they were bogans (bevans, wankers, f*cktards, morons etc) and didn’t care who they annoyed.  WE WERE NOT HAPPY!!!

When they bogans (finally) went to bed, the locals (after drinking) went balistic.  Glen went to the men’s facilities and saw two Aboriginal males having a full on blue.  Glen said one guy was speaking english and the other was speaking a different language.  When we drove through the Archer River Crossing, we saw where the locals had made camp and there were beer cans and other mixer cans everywhere.  It was like a trash site.  I feel sorry for whoever has to clean that up.   We spoke to some other people futher up the Cape and they stayed the same night as us.  They saw a local lady that had been bashed to a pulp and she was in the middle of the bridge.  They went and found help for her.   What can we do to stop this?!?!

Advice for all future people heading up the Cape – DON’T STAY IN ROADHOUSES – IT ATTRACTS BOGANS!!

Injuries & Ouchies:

All – No sleep and cranky!!

We checked in to the Sebel Reef House and Spa on Sunday.  Our room is fantastic! We have “ocean glimpses” and it was a bargain on Wotif.

View from our room

Glen testing out the bed

View of the pool from our room

Dog getting in on the act

On Sunday after we checked in, we went for a walk down the beach and wandered down the esplanade.  It is a really touristy spot and if you plan on using the campground, book in early.  It’s pretty busy.  Most of the restaurants / eateries charge approx $30-$40 for a main meal, so if you want to do Palm Cove on the cheap, get an apartment rather than a room like ours (as awesome as it is).   Mind you, honestly, every meal that we have had here has been fantastic!  The banana pancakes from the Sebel’s restuarant were devine.

Monday we did the tourist thing that you’ve got to do when you’re up this way – Kuranda.  We were picked up from the Sebel by bus (at 7:10am) and we  caught the train up to Kuranda.

Dog on the Bus

Dog at the Museum at Freshwater Station

Dog on the Train

We had 3.5 hours to do what ever we wanted while in Kuranda.   I actually got Glen to come with me to the markets (and I bought a dress – two ground breaking moments in a day!)

Dog at Kuranda

We also got some pistachio nut bobbleheads…

Dog with Pistachio Nut friends

We caught the Skyrail back.  I can honestly say that getting off at all the stops is worth it.  Take a wander to the lookouts and look at all the stuff they’ve set up for you.  At Red Peak, wait for the Ranger to do the guided walk, the info that you get is really interesting.

Dog on Skyrail

Glen and Dog check out Barron Falls

When we got back to the room, we were both pretty tired.  We watched “Love the Beast” with Eric Bana.  After we watched the movie, we went to go get some dinner.  We were going to go to Clifton Beach to get Fish & Chips.  When we got in the car, I said to Glen, where did you put the aerial?

Glen’s response “F*ck!”  Our aerial had been stolen from our car.  I went to reception to see if / what they could do… not much; they gave me the Smithfield Police phone number.  I called them and the number rang out.  We called Suncorp, and there was nothing they could do – our excess was more than the aerial.  Glen was furious!!!

We had a pretty restless night as we have our tent (Oztent’s 30 second tent), gazebo, spare tires and other good stuff stored on the outside of the car.  Glen was  doing multiple trips to the car to check on it.  Hamish, the employee that checked us in, caught up with Glen near the car and had a good long chat with him.  Very much a fate thing.  Hamish actually works in the restuarant here and was taking out the rubbish when he saw Glen.  Hamish reckons that it could’ve been the local kids… grrrr…

Tuesday involved chasing an aerial.  Obviously, this event has really dampened our holiday mood and has jaded our thoughts on the people around here.   We ended up getting the aerial from Dick Smith. $198… bugger…

When we got back, the Sebel’s Maintenance guys hooked  up a hose for Glen and I to us to fill up our 60L water tank.  It didn’t take very long to fill.  We went for another walk down the beach and esplanade trying to soak it all in.

We went back to the room for a cuppa tea (well that’s me anyway).  It wasn’t long before Glen got a call from Scott to say that they had just finished their Skyrail ride and they were on their way to Palm Cove.  We met them at the Coles at Clifton Beach to do final shopping (milk, bread, cheese etc).

We’ve just had dinner all together (Garry, Ristan, Luke, Alex, Scott, Glen & I) at the Thai restaurant.  We’re meeting at 8am at the Camp Ground at the end of the esplanade to start the actual trip to the Cape… part 2 of our holiday – woot….

Maybe a while til we get coverage again…

NB. Glen and I are no longer embarrassed taking Dog with us placing and setting him up.  We’ve actually  turned into entertainment for other tourists, pointing and talking to us.  The pistachio nut photo was pretty amuzing.  People were taking photos of me setting up the photo – lol!

Today, we slept in.  That’s a first, we didn’t get out of bed til 7am.  Glen woke up at 4ish again, but went back to sleep.  We packed up quickly and went down for the breakfast that was included in the room’s tariff at SeaBreeze.  We were the first guests down for breakfast and caught the staff during their break having coffee.  They were really friendly and showed us to where the food was and our table.   We had raisin toast, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, tea & coffee.  We checked out and were on our way to Townsville.

I really wanted to stop at That Sapphire Shop at Leap, but it didn’t open til 10am.  Glen has said that we’ll stop there if we come back the coastal road.

We stopped at Home Hill.  Glen and his olds lived in Home Hill some time ago.   We drove around looking for Glen’s old house, but it has been knocked down.

Home Hill Caravan Park

Glen has got a Tourmaline at home that he bought from Home Hill when he was a boy for $6.  So we went to the store to check it out (seeing I was disappointed about the other gem stone store).  We had a look at the tourmalines and they were now $130 for a decent  size rock.  I had a look at the Sapphires (my birth stone) and they were all chips and expensive.  Very keen to go back to That Sapphire Shop to see what they’ve got!

Dog posing in front of the Gem Store at Home Hill

On our way to Ayr, dog met his first snake!  He was not impressed!!

Dog meets Snake

We stopped at Dal Santos Gourmet Deli in Ayr for lunch.  We had to wait 20 minutes for a couple of sandwiches (read cranky Glen), but it was well worth the wait!  I had roasted capsicum, grilled eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes and jarlesburg on a pannini and Glen had pretty much the same but with meat.  The latte was perfect too!

We met a couple of kiwi ladies at the Deli and Glen was comparing stories with them.  Their husbands were in Townsville for the V8 race and they were kicking back in Ayr.  They told us that Townsville wasn’t that busy and they had enjoyed their day at Townsville the day before.  They had flown over from NZ just for the race.  Talk about keen.  They were so lovely, they even waved us off when we left.

When we originally planned our trip up to Cairns, we didn’t know or  investigate if there was anything else planned up this way.  So a couple of weeks ago when I read the Sunday Mail about the V8 Supercar Race on July 11 in Townsville, I freaked out.  After many calls, emails and rumours of rooms available, I got a room at the Dalrymple Hotel.  Glen was a bit tentative seeing it’s a hotel and we’ve heard how busy Townsville was going to be.  So far so good.  We’ve just had room service and the food was good.

After we checked in the room, we walked down the block and checked out Anaconda, Spotlight, Dick Smith and a couple of other stores.  Glen is very taken with Howard’s Storage World.

We checked out the race and here’s dog getting close to the action! Haha!

Dog getting close to the action

Next stop over Cairns (Palm Cove!).

After 18 months of planning, Glen and I left for our Cape York Trip yesterday, Thursday 9 July 2009.  Glen and I aren’t the biggest fans of having our photos taken so a work friend (Hi Tricia) gave me the idea of taking  a mascot and letting them tell the story of your trip.  Don’t get me wrong, there will be pictures of us during the trip but already we are having heaps of fun setting up our mascot.

Our mascot is… Dog from Footrot Flats.

Now to the story so far.

Glen had taken Thursday off work to pack the final things into the car and he picked me up from work after I had sent the 170+ PAYG Summaries out!!  Glen had packed the car, was ready to go and I still had work to do, so Glen went to say “Bye” to his olds in Brisbane before he came to pick me up.

Dog says Bye to Glen’s Olds

We left Upper Mount Gravatt at approx 1:30pm and we stopped at the BP northbound for lunch.  The first of many takeaway meals on the way up.  Seeing we were both starving and the fastest moving line was McDonalds, that’s what we had.  We had a pretty good run up to our first overnight stop, Bundaberg.  We stayed at my olds place.  Dinner: Glen – Pork Chop & Veges Me: Spaghetti Bog (yum yum my favourite) & Veges.  Dessert: Apple Pie & Custard.  After dinner we went to my sister’s for second desserts: Little Cakes, Chocolate Slice, Anzac Slice & Tea / Coffee.

Dog making friends with My Olds in Bundy

10th July: Glen woke up just after 4am, and we were on the road by 5am.   This is the biggest kilometre day for the trip up to Cairns, our official start for the Cape Loop.  We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast – top hint – 24 hr open Maccas will give you old crappy stuff if it’s sitting there.  We didn’t eat all our brekky – we felt crook.

We stopped at Rocky for the touristy photo ops (and a P Stop).

Dog meeting a Santa Gertrudis

Dog at the Tropic of Capricorn

Dog showing the km’s to go from Rocky

Something that we’ve noticed is the amount of caravans that are heading up north with us.  We had two different episodes of where people pulled out in front of us (in a 110 zone) and Glen had to JAM on the brakes to stop from ramming into them.  I understand that the highway is busy at the moment, but hell, wait and not cause an accident!!!

We stopped at Sarina for some lunch – Bakery food.  Sarina reminded me of Bundy.  Probably something to do with the Mill and the smell.

Dog checking the ties on the Roofrack at Sarina

From Sarina, we stopped at Hays Point to check out the Coal Port.  Glen counted 32 ships waiting off the coast to come in to fill up with Coal.  The tugs bringing them in were awesome to watch.

Dog checking the Coal Port

Walking down from the car park at the Coal Port (Hays Point), I saw this sign and freaked out (wearing thongs!).

Dog making sure the snakes don’t get us

Our stop for tonight is Mackay.  I booked our accommodation on Wotif and when we plugged in the address, we kept driving and driving and we ended up at Slade Point.  It’s on the beach north of Mackay.  Driving through Mackay, Glen and I  really liked it.  The CBD is really beautiful, and there seems to be a lot works happening here, so we assume that Mackay is really growing and moving ahead.

Our room at SeeBreeze is pretty good.   I saw some dodgy places in Mackay that wanted $90 per night and we paid $100 for here and that includes Breakfast. The shower is awesome!

Dog enjoys the shower at Mackay

We went down and had dinner in the Bistro.   Glen got the seafood pasta and I had a vegetarian stirfry.  Big meals and pretty reasonable cost.

Our stop tomorrow night is Townsville.  Should be interesting seeing the V8 Supercars are in town this weekend too!

Okay, so I’m slightly addicted to The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.  Carol from our external accountants let me borrow “One for the Money” and I was addicted.  This was maybe last month! I’m now up to book six “Hot Six” and I’m even dreaming about the books.  I can honestly say that I haven’t been this bad ever before.  I’ve been carrying the novels around in my handbag and at any opportunity I’m reading;  in the car; during ad breaks on TV; before bed.  Speaking of reading before going to bed – I’m even reading til late into the night.  Normally I’m the person bugging Glen to turn off the light because he’s reading!!

So the gist of the story is: Stephanie Plum went to College (yes an American book) and she got a job as a lingerie buyer.  When she loses her job, she cons a job out of her cousin, Vinnie, as a bounty hunter.  Then a couple of gorgeous men get involved.  The first (and the guy who I currently love) is Joe Morelli.  Stephanie lost her virginity to Joe and Joe is now a Vice Cop.  The other guy is Ranger.  Ranger’s the mysterious type so I’m a bit hesitant – but in my imagination he’s pretty hot…  Oh – I didn’t mention that Joe is also extremely good looking.

If the books get made into a movie (apparently TriStar signed a deal in 1994 – so hurry the f*ck up people), us girls have been discussing who we think should be cast.  We can’t come up with a guy that has dark brown curly hair with brown eyes and is drop dead gorgeous to play Joe.   I’m really struggling!  There’s websites around that have suggested, Chris Evans, Mark Wahlberg, Mark Raffalo, James Denton and Hugh Jackman.  Well, if they’re going to do the first book, Joe should be 29ish.  These guys are a bit older than that except Chris – and he’s the perfect age… I just imagine Joe would be a bit buffer… hrm hot muscley guy – WOOT!!