SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER   BRIDPORT TO ST HELENS   152kms

We had to do a full pack up this morning, and got away about 10am.

We decided to take the Tomahawk Road and go through Gladstone and on to the coast at Ansons Bay. As far as we could tell in advance, this route would avoid the steep and winding mountainous terrain of the main road to St Helens, although much of it was unsealed.

We refuelled at Bridport – 85cpl.

We stopped at the farm gate to buy some more bunches of asparagus.

The gravel sections of road were good at the start, but deteriorated for a while to being rather soft and loose – but not enough to give us any problems. The section through Gladstone was sealed.

It was a varied drive, quite of lot of it through the sort of coastal scrub you get on grey sandy soils, but some through farmland, and some through more forested country. At some points there were blue mountains in the distance. There was almost no other traffic on the roads.

Gladstone was tiny – far smaller than I’d expected. A couple of people in the streets there looked surprised to see a caravan and turned and stared at us!

We detoured into the hamlet of Ansons Bay and ate our lunch by a sea inlet there. It is mostly made up of lots of shacks, from the little we saw.

I found it rather frustrating to be rushing through this area – had hoped to spend some time camped somewhere on the coast north of St Helens. We might get back up here later in the trip, with luck.

We got to St Helens mid-afternoon. The night on a powered site at St Helens Caravan Park cost $15. We were able to leave the rig hitched up.

After basic set up for overnight, we went for a ride on the bikes, down into the town – the park was up on a hill – and around the waterfront. It looked an attractive town – I would like to have a longer stay here. The exercise of the 6.5km ride was welcome, even though it was very windy.

Tea was soup, cold lamb and mash, followed by strawberries.