Today was quite humid. Big clouds built up through the morning, then there were a few drops of rain at one point in the afternoon. It seemed more pleasant after that.
After breakfast, we did a lovely, long, beach walk with Couey. She cavorted in the shallow pools, rolled lots of times in the damp sand and generally had a good exercise workout. Despite the vigorous sand rolling, her coat is so thick that the sand does not penetrate too far. A brush down with the rubber horse grooming brush gets rid of it all, so we don’t have a problem with sand in Bus.
I washed clothes and our bedding. Then we drove into Ingham to shop.
We were stopped at the Victoria Mill by a long cane train, so I got out to take some photos. On most of the main roads, like this one, crossings have warning lights, but the many crossings one encounters on the back roads, do not. On some of them, the tall cane comes almost right to the road, so there is not much of a line of sight for trains that might be approaching. Fortunately, they trundle along fairly slowly. I was quite taken by a graphic road safety sign we saw a few times, featuring a cane train and a crumpled car, with the caption: YOU’RE FASTER – HE’S HEAVIER.
Cane train carrying newly harvested cane to the Victoria Mill
At Victoria Mill, an overhead conveyor takes the processed sugar from the mill, across the road to tall silo like structures at the train loading facility.
The overhead conveyor for processed sugar
From here, the sugar is loaded into a different type of train, with hoppers instead of open bins; these go to Lucinda and the ship loading facility there. These are still the same narrow gauge trains, though.
Loading the hopper carriages with processed sugar
We did a food shop at Woolworths, and because it was well into the afternoon by now, I bought a quiche for lunch. John had a pie.
Back at camp, the neighbour parked two sites up, B, gave us two whiting and a flathead. The couple had returned here after a sojourn further north somewhere. John said he remembered them from when we were first here. Most days, the man does down to the southern creek mouth to fish. His wife drives him as far as one can go by road, to a walkway that goes between the far houses at Cassady Beach, but he walks all the way back when he’s done fishing.
John had to go down to the fish cleaning table to deal with the gift. He was away for ages – talking! He came back with only five fillets of fish, having somehow mislaid one piece of flathead.
I cooked fish and some fries. As the fish fillets were small, John had those and I had a couple of eggs with my chips. He said the fish was delicious. It was certainly fresh.
M phoned to see if John’s medicine had arrived yet. We had a good chat.
The night was hot and humid – not great for sleeping.
We drove into Ingham, mostly for fresh food supplies, but also for other things. John needed to replenish his supply of socks and jocks at Target. I bought a couple of cheap navy blue T shirts that were ideal for wearing around camp. I favoured dark colours that didn’t readily show the dirt!
Renewed some scripts at the chemist. Autobarn supplied car polish, a lockable hitch pin for Bus, and a couple of plastic boxes that would fit John’s clothes shelf in the bedside cupboard and save him having to get down on all fours and scrabble around to get things from the back. Got food at Woolworths and scallops from the fish supplier – John’s choice. Had to refuel Terios. In other words, all the minutiae of normal living that must happen, regardless of location.
Lots of activity at the Victoria Mill as we passed it
Back at camp, the last of the circus was gone – except for some heaps of goat poo, of great interest to dog.
I booked us in here for another week, and also in for tea at the hotel, tonight.
I took Couey for a long walk on the beach, about 4kms. Managed to stub a second littlest toe on a rock buried in the coarse sand at the water’s edge. It hurt, big time, and then ached all night.
Cassady Beach area
While I was gone, John rigged up a shade at one end of the awning, from shadecloth he’d packed “in case”. Decided we must buy a proper end shade attachment.
The campground was definitely back to what passed for normal, here.
We got “dressed up” to go to tea – meaning clean polo shirts and denims. And lashings of Rid, since we would be eating on the outdoor terrace area.
Outdoor dining terrace at Forrest Beach Hotel. Motel units at left.
This was an experiment at leaving dog. We told her to stay in the Bus. She did her usual “You are leaving me and I’m not happy” little snap at my hand as I patted her goodbye. We’d figured that – if she decided to bark and be a pest at this first time of being left alone in Bus – we would be close enough to hear and take some action before she became a nuisance. But there wasn’t a sound.
Tuesday nights were 2-for-1 meal deal nights at the hotel, and they were doing a roaring trade. The hotel menu was surprisingly comprehensive – good bistro style. John chose mackerel in beer batter and I had the best salt and pepper squid I’d ever eaten. They both came with some excellent chips and a very nice salad. The serves were generous. Meal cost $20 for us both. We had a beer each before dinner, and bought a bottle of Brown Brother crouchen reisling – even that was fairly priced at $22, we thought. John had an extra, larger beer, too. Decided we’d definitely return next Tuesday. As John was of the “your cooking is cheaper and nicer” persuasion, we didn’t often “eat out” when travelling – or at home for that matter, but this was too good to miss out on.
Coeuy was clearly resigned to being alone and was soundly asleep on my seat when we returned to Bus. It was all “Ho-hum….you back already?”
THURSDAY 25 JULY CHARTERS TOWERS TO FORREST BEACH 287kms
Our near neighbour was also leaving today and announced the fact by starting his engine and running it for about 20 minutes before he even started to hitch up his van. The stink of diesel fumes…….
We left at 9.30, starting out on a warm day of clear blue skies. Later, close to the coast, some clouds appeared.
Today’s was a varied and interesting drive.
Railway bridge east of Charters Towers
About 20kms of Charters Towers was the Burdekin River bridge, with the flood height marker just before it. We wondered if the flood events of the past couple of summers had put a new top marker in, above the one we saw when we stopped there in 2009, but didn’t pull in to see.
Passed through the Range at Mingela. Easy going, scenic.
The road surface was excellent, for the most part.
Newly surfaced section of highway. You wouldn’t want to pull off here at speed!
There is no doubt that this route from Charters Towers to Townsville is one of the easiest ways to traverse the Great Divide, from the inland to sea level.
Great Dividing Range
We were back where there are big, blue, sharp hills, after the inland plains.
The driver of an Elgas truck was merrily passing other vehicles over the solid double lines – very bad and arrogant driving. It reminded us that we had long thought that – at least in relation to ignoring road rules, and unsafe overtaking – north Qld drivers are the most reckless in the nation.
Saw our first mango plantation of this trip. We relate to mango plantations, having worked the harvest near here, in 2002……
On the outskirts of Townsville, followed both the signs and our GPS directions, to get onto the Ring Road – a new section since we were last here. Spotted a new Woolworths fuel outlet, by a new Bunnings, and it was easy to divert around to it. It wasn’t quite so easy to get out of though, as we took the scenic route through a couple of carparks and round the same roundabout twice.
The diesel was $1.519 cpl. 32 cents a litre cheaper than at Belyando Crossing, two days ago!
Townsville seemed to have grown so much since 2009.
The Ring Road was excellent. The smooth traffic flow made it so easy getting to the Bruce Highway, about 10kms north of the city centre. For once, the GPS really helped, as I’d left my detailed street maps of Townsville at home. However, GPS lady got herself quite confused, later, in Ingham. There is still work for the old-fashioned navigator.
I made a note to check out the Blue Water Caravan Park, north of the city. It looked OK from the road, as we passed. Must see if it takes dogs, as our preferred park from past trips (Woodlands) did not. According to Google, later, Blue Water was pet friendly.
By the Rollingstone Beach turn off, saw our first sugar cane of the trip. Then our first cane train of the year. It was, of course, harvest time.
Definitely starting to feel we are in the tropics now.
Sugar cane
There was a lot of traffic on the highway north. The Bruce is notorious, at the best of times! Today, some sort of large bike ride event was causing long traffic tail backs.
The cyclists were split into groups. with escort vehicles in front and behind. A few kms separated each group – just enough to get back up to speed after eventually getting past a group, before having to slow right down behind the next. Signs indicated there were ten such groups. We counted ourselves lucky to only encounter five – all things are relative! There were some really, really lengthy tail backs behind some of the groups.
GPS lady wanted us to turn off the highway well south of Ingham, but we kept to the route we knew, despite her protests, and went straight through the town to the Victoria Mill/Forrest Beach turn off.
Leaving the Bruce Highway – thankfully……
It wasn’t long before we could see the Mill (the largest in Australia), in front, all chimneys steaming away. It felt like an old friend…..Loved seeing it again – the activity there at this time of year is fascinating.
Victoria Mill ahead
At Forrest Beach we parked out front of the hotel and asked to see our allocated site. We’d been put on Site 42, towards the front of the park, on the grounds there was nothing else available. They obviously had a lot more long stay winter people there now, than four years ago.
We walked down and inspected the site. Grassed, no slab. It was not a very big site, but adequate, with a nice outlook over the grassed hollow towards the sea. There was a bit of a garden at the front, and between us and the next site too. It was a bit of a hike to the amenity block though, as it turned out, with the septic system not always coping well with the challenge of numbers, the distance was a good thing!
John found there were five bars on the phone – hence good internet cover (I’d forgotten to ask when booking in and he couldn’t remember what it was like last time). He quizzed the reception lady about TV reception too. She said she’d heard no complaints about it…..
We couldn’t see a better empty site, so said we’d be fine there. It was probably better for dog for us not to be on a back site, close to the mangroves and forest, where we’d hoped to be – more chance of ticks there? There was a big bus occupying “our old site” – 26.
We paid $350 for a two week stay – very budget friendly.
Parked Bus on the site front first, so the living area under our awning would face the garden that separated us from that next site, empty when we arrived. There was a caravan quite close on the other side. Hooked up to power and water – and then realized that not all sites were so supplied. We were lucky! Things were still a bit haphazard in this park.
There was a nice area for Couey to be tethered in front of Bus, and a great ball throw area in the grassy hollow below. There was just room to park Terios behind Bus.
Forrest Beach site
It was very windy here today – probably pretty normal at this time of year.
After setting up, I put the tick collar on Couey. In paralysis tick areas, one should closely inspect dog for ticks, every day. I didn’t like our chances of finding black tick on black dog – especially one with a double coat of fur.
There had been some cleaning up of the amenity block since 2009. I suspected that cyclone damage may have led to some roof repairs and a repaint. Being painted inside made it look cleaner. But the tiled floors and composite stone basin surrounds really showed signs of age, likewise the cracked and broken tiles in the showers. The laundry had been neatened up, too, and more machines installed. There had only been one last time. The whole park appeared tidier and more cared for. These front sites, where we were, had not been turned into proper sites, back four years ago.
I had a chat with a Trakmaster owner, whose site was near the amenities. He was rather unhappy about the occasional waft from the septic tank, plus that from the large rubbish hoppers nearby. I was getting happier about our site, by the minute!
Once set up was done, John went off in Terios to the McKnade Bowls Club, near Halifax, and arranged bowls for Saturday.
Tea was a chicken stir fry, made with a packet sauce mix, and rice.
John was quite satisfied with both the TV – lots of channels and a good picture – and the internet – augured well for the stay here.
We got up really early, not intentionally, just happened. So we were out of the park by 9am. We’d had to pack up a very damp awning, due to condensation under it, through the night.
Could just about do the run north with eyes shut…..Seemed to be fewer stupid drivers on the road, today.
Tootled through the centre of Ingham, then on the northern outskirts, took the road to Forrest Beach.
A few kms along this was the Victoria Mill Estate – the large sugar mill and associated housing and offices. By then, we’d gone over the fourth cane railway crossing since turning off the highway. The Mill was churning out lots of thick black smoke. There were long lines of full cane trains, waiting at the Mill.
Sugar cane – the staple of the Ingham area
We were at Forrest Beach just before 11am. The actual small village was called Allingham, which disconcerted us the first time we went there, because we’d thought we were going to Forrest Beach. Effectively, they were one and the same.
Allingham Post Office……but…..
Parked in front of the hotel motel that fronts the caravan park and where we had to go to check in. Had to hunt around the premises a bit to find a person, who found out for us that we were allocated Site 27. But we could not formally check in and pay before 11am – no business until then because that was done in the bottle shop!
So we drove down into the caravan park section and found our site. It was right at the end of a row – great! It backed onto forest growth and a fairly bushy camping area on one side. It had a cement slab too. From our annexe area, we looked straight down an internal road, then a track, to the sea, which was not far away.
We liked the site and when I walked up to the bottle shop to pay, extended our stay to a week. It cost $150 for the week, which seemed pretty good.
After setting up and having lunch, drove back into Ingham, so John could try out his new bowls. He had to wait until the green was watered, and dried, so we filled in the time by cruising the main streets of Ingham and finding our bank, so we could do some needed business there.
John’s first practice session with the new bowls was very positive. He reminded everyone that he saw there, that he was available for the weekend event, if needed. Then, in front of a number of the local people, he leaned on me to play on Thursday next. I didn’t really want to, but couldn’t refuse without seeming rude to the locals. That man owed me a million bushwalks!
While we were practicing bowls, a cane train clunked its way by – they really do clunk and clatter and creak along. The cane line went right by the bowls club. The train was incredibly long – as we were to find on the several occasions we managed to encounter one at the crossings on the Forrest Beach Road.
Passing the Mill, on the way back, we could see the Lucinda train sugar bins being loaded from an overhead hopper. The Mill and its activities were always interesting.
Some whales swam past the beach, a way out at sea, late in the afternoon.
The mosquitoes at dusk were really bad. There had to be some down sides to things….
I cooked barra in batter, while John drove to the shops and bought chips from the take away – far more than we could eat. Most generous with their serves.
The night was windy and there was quite loud wave noise. It was so good to be right by the sea again. It was very humid, though.
We’d found out the current situation with the establishment here. A development consortium bought the hotel and associated caravan park. They began by re-developing the hotel – it looks very modern. They built a big deck area where there had been a swimming pool – dammit! The permanent residents of the caravan park were moved out. There were still remnants of those former set ups, like an old sink behind our site. Then, it seemed, plans for a 150 room resort on the caravan park site were put on hold, due to the economic downturn. The caravan park got slightly tarted up, like painting the amenities block. Inside, though, it still looked quite tired.
It would be a real shame if the caravan park was lost to development – ones on such a great location as this are hard to find.
This Adventurous Age 