This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: October 2021


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2009 Travels July 13

MONDAY 13 JULY     TOWNSVILLE TO CARDWELL     160kms

We left the caravan park just after 10am, heading north again over what was becoming our well travelled route.

This morning, John seemed a bit slow with the outside pack up. Then he was diverted by the people on the site opposite, who wanted to talk about where we’d travelled. Great timing! When I’d finished all “my” packing, went and did some of the outside stuff, to try to move things along.

On the way north, diverted on to the side road to the Rollingstone Caravan Park, to buy a couple of pineapples, but drove all the way down to near the entrance in order to turn around. The caravan area – from a distance – looked nowhere near as full as it was when we were there.

Just south of Ingham, we came up behind a Bushtracker caravan. He was one of those who holds everyone behind up, as he dawdles along at about 70 kmh on the no-passing sections of the highway, but then speeds up on open sections when others try to pass him.  John tried to get past him in Ingham, where there was a section of dual lane road, but the Bushtracker pulled across in front of us, to the lane we were in. As there was no reason for him to do so – he didn’t pass anyone in front of him, we could only assume he didn’t want us to get past him. Maybe he saw it as some sort of competition? Idiot!

A little further on, we came to a steep uphill section, with a passing lane. John held back a bit, to let a double semi that had caught up to us, get past. The truck then caught up to the Bushtracker, with still some passing lane left, enough for him to get past the van – which promptly pulled across in front of the truck! We saw the flare of lots of lights as the truckie stood on his brakes. From what we could see from the back, it was a rather close shave. Unbelievable.  After that, we slowed down to make sure we stayed well behind the clown and didn’t get caught up in any mayhem he might cause.

Further on again, we were passed by a 4WD towing a large van. He took a risk, passing us on a winding, hilly section of the Cardwell Range road. Then we could see in the distance, he got impatient with the moron in the Bushtracker, who was back to dawdling along, and passed him – on double white lines and approaching a blind corner. No wonder there are accidents involving caravans! There had been one such fatal crash somewhere around here, a couple of months ago.

We had been consistently surprised at how many Qld drivers totally ignore white line markings. Both the fools we encountered today were towing Qld registered caravans.

The Beachcombers Holiday Village in Cardwell was our destination. After discount, our powered site cost $24.75 a night.

The sites in this park were quite strange. They had small slabs that would be adequate for small campervans, but the sites themselves, overall, were far too small for most vans. The reception lady said they were not using the central two rows of sites, except occasionally for small campers, therefore we shouldn’t have problems accessing our site. As we hadn’t yet seen it, this sounded a bit ominous.

It did prove to be a hard site to get on to, because of the narrowness of the access lane and the lack of depth of the site. We had to drive Truck back and forth over the high and jagged edges of the slab on the other side of the roadway. Bad for tyres. Having an extended length drawbar – originally for the bike carrier – had its benefits, but it did mean we needed a bit more wiggle room, sometimes.

Cardwell site and slab with raised, rough corner

At book-in, we’d been offered the hire of a co-ax cable to plug in for TV. It was a plus that they offered that before John spent time fiddling around trying to get a signal in the usual way. But there were not many other positives in this park.

The place was over the road from the beach front, but its associated motel units had all the views of that. The caravan park section was at the back – right by the Bruce Highway.

I was not happy with the female showers. There were four of these, with a common drainage channel. Unfortunately the wash from adjacent showers went not into the drain, but the other way, across the floors of the neighbouring ones, and pooled in the end shower, in a rather revolting mass. It certainly kept me from wanting to linger in any shower! But there were a couple of beautiful, dark green tree frogs up in the wall corners, and geckoes around the windows. The paper towels by the handbasins ran out early on our second day there, and had not been refilled by the time we left. Much too slack.

After we’d set up, drove to the Information Centre for a browse. It was a very attractive one, nestled in a jungle of greenery, between the highway and the beach. I collected some interesting looking pamphlets. In keeping with the wildlife in the shower, green tree frog illustrations featured prominently.

Nearby was a little jetty and we walked out to the end of that and back. Wandered up and down the line of shops along the highway. I ordered a couple of bread rolls to be kept for us for tomorrow morning. Bought a paper and a small cook book that gave lots of different ways to use mountain bread and pita bread. We found an attractive organic fruit shop, where John bought some bananas. I bought some locally made herb and garlic pasta – some of which was later cooked for tea, and was yummy, with pesto (from a jar).

There were wonderful views from Cardwell, across to Hinchinbrook Island and other little islands dotted about in the sea, and along the coastline itself.

Looking south along the Hinchinbrook Channel

It was quite a narrow coastal strip here, with the mountains looming behind the town. The town itself was small and kind of lacked  definition. The van parks, and a lot of the shops, seemed rather second rate. It obviously did quite a trade, though, as a break stop for buses, not to mention other travellers passing through.

Hinchinbrook Island, just off Cardwell, is one of the largest island National Parks in Australia. Its core is mountainous, with peaks reaching over 1100 metres above sea level. Given this range of altitude, for an island, it contains a unique number of different ecosystems and environments, and has had National Park status since the 1930’s. It contains the Thorsborne Track,  a rugged walking trail between the northern and southern ends of the Island, that takes at least two days to traverse; and on a small leased area at the northern extremity, a small resort.

Hinchinbrook Island from Cardwell

Whilst the extended hike along the Island was beyond us, these days, we were booked to take a commercial tour day trip to the Island – the reason why we were in Cardwell.


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2009 Travels July 12

SUNDAY 12 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

After breakfast, drove to Thuringowa, a newer outer part of town, on the southern  fringe. Used the new ring  road, which we hadn’t been on before, since its entry was close by the park.

We parked near the Arts Centre at Riverway, a big park area, fronting the Ross River. Walked a big circuit, along the river side, crossing the Ross River on a footbridge, then back along the other side and on a footpath that went under the bypass road bridge. It was a most enjoyable walk: 3.7kms, according to the signs.

Riverway walk circuit (from brochure)

There was a series of such circuits, along the Ross River, towards the city centre. Townsville had certainly put a lot of money and effort into creating their outdoor recreational areas. There was a large area of “lagoons” – swimming pools – by the Arts Centre. The footpaths were excellent. We also passed a first class sport set-up, for AFL football and cricket. There was some apartment style housing at Riverway, and some very stylish housing that we walked past on the other side of the river.

The walk took us past Black Weir, one of a series that dated from when the Ross River was the city’s water supply. Now it is more renown as the name of a virus – Ross River Fever – mosquito borne and now quite widespread in Australia.

There were surprisingly few people using the area. Maybe they were all at the car races?

This was one occasion when I missed having our mountain bikes with us, as we did in the early years of our travels. Cycling these river side paths would have been very enjoyable.

Called in at the nearby Willows shopping complex for some supplies, then went back to the van.

John watched the car races, then the football. I chose to stay inside because of the horrible men in the cabin behind us. The drinking had started before 8 am again, today, so he and his friends were well obnoxious by the afternoon, yet again.

I thought I knew why our otherwise pleasant site had been the last one allocated over the weekend period, by park management!

Tea was steak, mushrooms, potatoes in foil, and green beans.


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2009 Travels July 11

SATURDAY 11 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

Before breakfast, we walked to the little local shopping complex. It was quite a do-able walk, maybe a km? There was a footpath for only part of the way, so some of it was a bit scrambly, including clambering down and up the sides of a little gutter-like creek. Perhaps when all the local road works for the construction of a fly-over/intersection, outside the park, were finished, there might be a full footpath put in.

We walked past a guy with a utility, blatantly stealing some of the orange plastic mesh stuff, from around the works.

Bought papers, a new Sudoku book, some groceries and meat.

Through the rest of the day, John watched football and the V8 Supercars, racing here, on TV. I read the papers, had a session on the computer, made a Thai style chicken salad for tea.

Behind our site – the cabin where unpleasant occupant resided

There had been a man occupying the cabin behind our van, on what appeared to be a longer term arrangement. Today, he commenced drinking alcohol before I’d had breakfast, continued to drink steadily throughout the day, and was joined by friends. They were loudly into obscene jokes, comments and abysmal language. The worst type of yobbos.

It was unpleasant to sit outside the van because they were so loud and intrusive. I thought about complaining to management, but worried about possible retribution, so didn’t. I just hoped that, come the morning, they would feel like death, and that karma would catch up with them at a later date, in a really painful way.

They kept up the carousing and noise well into the night.


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2009 Travels July 10

FRIDAY 10 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

John went for a walk around the camp ground, before his breakfast. I did not. I had a sore foot, and had to bowl later.

We drove into town, to The Lakes area, to Toyworld, to hunt for a Thomas the Tank Engine toy for grandson, as an extra reward for him tackling the Read-a-thon. I knew he wanted Bertie the Bus, or Bill and Ben engines, but John found a train washing station, on special – half price. After a quick phone consult with daughter, we got that. The register put it through at full price, which we didn’t notice until the credit docket had been processed. It then seemed easier just to get a second one to put aside for one of the other grandsons, for Xmas, rather than go through the hassle of reversing the credit card charge. Apparently the washing stations had been on special until last Sunday – but no one had taken down the sign. Lucky us.

Went to bowls at the Jubilee Club, in the afternoon. We played adequately and the afternoon was pleasant.

We were told that this was very mild for a Townsville winter – it should be hotter!

Barra and fries for tea.


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2009 Travels July 9

THURSDAY 9 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

Late last night, I thought I’d smelled rain in the air, but we hadn’t had any. Found out this morning that it had rained at nearby Toomulla Beach.

I walked some circuits of the Park before John got up, then he went walking whilst I got the breakfast ready.

The fridge was fine: freezer stuff was frozen, fridge stuff wasn’t. There had not seemed to be any excessive running throughout the night. From memory, this was the second new thermostat the fridge had needed, in something like a cumulative total of eight years of running, since we bought it in 1991, and some of that in excessively hot conditions. It was regassed in 2007. We certainly couldn’t complain about it!

An outing was needed – my turn to choose, since John had bowls a couple of days ago.

We went to Reef HQ, an aquarium type of display. It cost us $18.95 each for entry, after concession. It was worth the money – with bells on!

The main exhibit showed different faces of a live coral reef, from the quiet inner face, to the side that faces the waves, and all in between these extremes. Sophisticated technology simulated wave and tide actions, so there was constant movement all round the reef. Viewers walked around the central reef exhibit, which contained the world’s largest exhibited (captive?) living coral reef, with over a hundred different species of coral growing on it, and over a hundred species of fish swimming around it, just doing their thing. As well, it contained critters like starfish and sea urchins.

A different display held sharks, sawfish, turtles and moray eels.

It was engrossing to watch what happened on any particular piece of reef, as the water moved about. The antics of the fish were captivating. It was a wonderful way to “see” the Great Barrier Reef, without going diving. In fact, one probably got a better picture of it this way – unless you were really hooked on being wet and having to watch out for anything that might view you as lunch.

We spent over three hours there – much of it just sitting watching the action.

I bought some postcards of the place, and a pale blue polo shirt with the Reef HQ logo, that was marked down to $20.

It was a place I’d quite happily go back to another time, and spend another long session there.

Reef HQ (tourism brochure)

There were some NAIDOC Week events happening in the same building complex. We looked at a display of aboriginal art. (NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. It has become an annual celebration of culture and remembrance of past struggles).

We’d parked Truck part-way along the Strand, so got some exercise walking between there to Reef HQ.

Stopped to watch kids having fun in the water playground area. It was still school holidays somewhere, it seemed.

Drove to the Fishermen’s Co-op, over on the South Side. We had to take a really round about route, due to street closures for the V8 Supercars Race, on at the weekend. Some of the roads we would usually take to the South Side would be part of the race track. It was a real hive of activity, with stands being erected, barriers altering routeways, all sorts of vehicles being moved into place for official and catering purposes.

I bought barra for two feeds, plus extra to add to what I already had for this week, and two kgs of prawns. It only occurred to me afterwards that there was a bit of a disconnect between spending ages admiring the live sea creatures, then going to buy some to eat….

Stopped at the Woolworths in the little shopping complex near the caravan park, for a couple of things. It was a rather poorly stocked supermarket. I decided it was here more to preserve the site and business for when Townsville expanded more out this way, rather than to really cater for the current passing traffic.

Back at the van, spent two hours peeling the prawns for freezing. The tool that John bought at Halifax did not help much, after all. In theory, it sliced the shell open down the back, for easy peeling and removed the poo tube. In practice, it was easier to do it the old way.

I made some extra salads for tea, to add to the leftovers from last night.


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2009 Travels July 8

WEDNESDAY 8 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

It was another cloudy day.

John was annoyed that, when he did his weekly weigh-in, with the scales we carry under the bed, his weight had jumped up. I suggested we do a few brisk rounds of the caravan park before breakfast, which we did.

Site at Woodlands

He went off to the Ingham Road PO, but no fan parcel was there. However, just after he’d departed from there, they phoned to say there had been a second delivery and our parcel was there. Good service from that PO, we thought. John went back and collected that, then went on to the fridge place.

The man was not there. The office lady pointed out that there was a $95 charge, before work was even commenced – and it would not be deducted from the cost of any subsequent work. It was not a minimum fee, but a fee to start work! There was no way John was going to pay that, so he collected the fridge and left. He asked the lady if she ever got embarrassed, working in such a place, and she said yes, she did!

Back at the van, John installed the new thermostat. He couldn’t put in the new fan, because it needed special welding. But he used our air compressor to blow the whole area out – lots of dust came out. He decided the fan was working fine, so we slid fridge back into its hole. It was awkward manoeuvring, of a heavy object, in the small space that was inside our van. It helped, knowing that we’d done this a few times before, and hence could manage it.

The fridge seemed to work well, through the rest of the day. Fingers crossed!

I had to throw out some vegetables that were frozen – and not meant to be – by both the Chescold of ours and the camp kitchen fridge, but was able to disguise some  part-frozen lettuce and cabbage in the salads for tonight’s dinner.

Seeing an electrical link on the fridge wiring, whilst it was out, had given John an idea. He checked the van  brake controller unit and found two such links there. He then felt there might not be enough power going to the van brakes, so soldered those connections, instead of just having the links. He wouldn’t know if that had made any difference until we were back on the road again, of course.

I had an email from (on behalf of) grandson, accepting the challenge that John had made him – to read fifty books in the coming Read-a-thon at his school, for which we would donate $10.


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2009 Travels July 7

TUESDAY 7 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

There was some cloud about, looked like we might get rain, but it stayed dry.

One surprise of our time here was just how many trains went by. The line was just on the other side of the highway from the Park, and the train noise carried across to us, especially at night. I didn’t think there were any branch lines to the inland, north of here, so the many freight, and occasional passenger, trains must be servicing places between here and Cairns. One of the things that really impressed us about Qld was that they seemed to use railways for freight, much more than the other States. I wished Victoria would do that, and reduce the truck damage to country roads.

Across the highway from our caravan park

John went to bowls in the afternoon. He enjoyed it – kind of. His conclusion – this week – was that he was not a very good bowler. Next week? Who knew. My view was that the new bowls he bought earlier in the year, that he thought would be easier to use because they did not curve much, had wrecked his game. They might not be trendy any more, but I was sticking to the bowls I’d had since starting to bowl,  over ten years ago. I could be confident that, when I got my part right, they would do what I wanted.

Some of the bowlers had told John that the fridge repair place we were using,  charged huge rates. So he decided to actually get a quote from them, and if he didn’t like it, would try to do the work himself, and get it regassed later in Cairns, if needed.

Spag bol for tea, which John really enjoyed.

A couple of phone calls came in tonight, from members of John’s family. Both long and depressing.

Tonight’s MasterChef menu involved very fiddly, convoluted items – not for me!


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2009 Travels July 6

MONDAY 6 JULY     TOWNSVILLE

Today was a lovely day – sunshine, moderately warm. There is no doubt that the weather is the main reason we southerners flock to Qld in the winter.

I unloaded the fridge, then we wiggled and wrangled it out of its space. I put the frozen food and some vegetables into the park’s camp kitchen fridge, which was not too far away from us. Everything else went into the outside Chescold.

There wasn’t as much dust in the fridge cavity as I’d expected to find. It hadn’t been cleaned out since the fridge was regassed in 2007, and since then we’d travelled lots of dusty tracks.

John drove off with the fridge in the back of Truck, to the repair place. I will not name it! He left it there because they would not even begin to test it until the new fan had come in – maybe Wednesday? At this stage we did not even KNOW if it needed a new fan, so we were not impressed.

Went to the Castletown shops, which were starting to feel like home! Made some enquiries about a new phone battery for the one I was using. Got some groceries. I managed to get into a no-appointment needed place for a hair cut, and was quite happy with the results. John bought another book about Access.

It got to be lunchtime, so John had a Subway and I bought a savoury muffin.

Drove to Jubilee Bowls Club, where John booked in for bowls tomorrow, and put us both down for a game on Friday.

It was starting to feel like I’d only dreamed Rollingstone and Taylors Beach, and that we’d actually never left Townsville  at all.

Back at camp, John had a sleep. I sewed and read.

For tea made a stir fry of chicken thighs, garlic, honey , soy and udon noodles.

Watched MasterChef and again found it really interesting. They cooked a caramel pannacotta with macaroons and a passionfruit “slick” – fancy name for a bit of sauce. But I was engrossed in the program – a vanilla pannacotta with berry sauce was one of my standard desserts when cooking at the safari camp in the remote NT. Maybe I should have termed it a berry slick?


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2009 Travels July 5

SUNDAY 5 JULY     TAYLORS BEACH TO TOWNSVILLE     140kms

We got out of that site a good deal easier than we got in! Helped by the fact that the people on the opposite site had departed early. Their large 4WD and boat on its trailer, had been parked in the road in front of the site and they hadn’t offered to move it when we were trying to back in last week.

Site directly opposite us, after departure of large van, 4WD, and the boat and boat trailer that had been parked in the road in front of the site

Won’t be going back to Taylors Beach. Apart from being unimpressed with the park, there wasn’t much for people like us to do in the area.

It was a rather routine run back to Townsville. There seemed to be a lot of vans going north. We were definitely bucking the trend.

We stopped at a produce stall near Ingham and bought passionfruit, beans, bananas, potatoes.

Woodlands Big 4 Holiday Park was the one I’d noted as looking good as we came north, recently. It was on the northern fringe of the city.

Our powered site was much better than I expected, given it had been the last one left. It cost $27 a night, after discount, for the week, and $31.50 for the extra night. It was quite large and easy to get into. There was no slab, just grass, which was fine by us. The site had afternoon shade. It backed onto a cabin and was not too far from the amenities, which were of the individual bathroom style – very new and very nice. TV reception was excellent, so John was happy, and there were three bars on the phone, so internet was alright too. The pool looked quite inviting too.

By the time we were set up, it was late afternoon. We went for a walk around the park. It had a number of permanent dwellers in a section away from us. There were a couple of rows of ensuite tourist sites, too, but those sites were much smaller than the one we were on.

The fridge seemed to have worked normally today. Grrrr!

I made Atlantic salmon patties for tea.

There was a program called MasterChef on TV tonight, that we watched for the first time. I was probably the last person in the nation to discover it, given my usual lack of interest in things TV. But I really enjoyed it. They cooked a whole salmon and a chocolate-y dessert. I kept thinking that, back in 2005, when I was trying to convert this home cook into a professional seeming remote area caterer, I really could have done with having watched a program like this! Not that I had whole Atlantic salmon – or any Atlantic salmon, for that matter, but I might have picked up some good tips for the whole barramundi and threadfin salmon that I did have up there. I would continue to watch that program, for sure.


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2009 Travels July 4

SATURDAY 4 JULY     TAYLORS BEACH

Another “in” day today, although the fridge appeared to be working fairly normally again. I was almost in two minds about whether we did need to go back to Townsville. As far as John was concerned though, it was a done deal.

He spent much of the day inside, on the computer.

I sat outside, doing the usual things – diary, reading, sewing – and watching new arrivals trying to fit onto these difficult sites. Every one I saw had difficulties – which made me feel a bit better about our less than glorious efforts of the other day.

Late in the afternoon, we went for a walk up to the inlet and along it, on a road beside it, for a little way. It was not very far, but John was battling. He was now also worried about a knee hurting too. Possibly he was trying to compensate for the hip, and that had affected the knee. Wearing our elastic knee brace bandage seemed to help.

The inlet at Taylors Beach, looking up towards the blind end

Then we packed up the awning and outside stuff, so it wouldn’t be wet to pack away in the morning.

I made garlic prawns and rice for tea.