To be honest we weren’t real sure where we would wind up at the end of today. Our plans had been to reach Mackay but with it being less than 200kms, and no let up from the weather, we really wanted to go further north – but how far, we weren’t sure.
So, with rainclouds threatening overhead we began our eastward journey bound for Mackay. I must admit I was driving a lot more tentatively than I had in the past. Losing a wheel the day before didn’t help but the amount of “Crash Site” placards that littered the sides of the road was a little disconcerting.
Fortunately we arrived in Mackay around lunch time so found a decent sized parking bay and then descended on a few shops to pass some time. Admittedly, Mackay was a little bigger than I expected so it didn’t interest us too much to stay for very long.
Once back in the car, we went in search of some water/lagoon/park thing that others had told us about but once the rain set in for good we abandoned this and headed back to the Bruce Hwy. (We later found out that Mackay received 93mm on this single day, 15mm more than the monthly average for November!!!)
I can’t say that I’ve ever felt as safe and grateful to be on this road – if you’ve ever done it you’ll understand what I mean – but having travelled some of their [Queensland’s] inland roads for the past few days it was like driving on the Autobahn.(Not that I’ve ever driven on the Autobahn. It’s more like how I imagine the Autobahn to feel like).
So, dodging the bullet-like raindrops we pursued the northern route again, hoping to finally rid ourselves of this incessant rain. As it was getting later we pulled off before Proserpine and headed into Airlie Beach to find that the Schoolies had seconded this place as their northern mainstay. It didn’t matter though, our caravan park lodgings were a few kilometres out of town and the rain was dampening their celebrations.
As we pulled into our site the heavens dumped their payload while we hurriedly tried to set up the van and annexe. Regardless, our haste wasn’t rewarded and we soaked through to the bone while the area around our spot quickly became a mushy, squelchy, slimy quagmire.
Queensland’s advertising message for a long time has been, “Beautiful one day – Perfect the next!” While we certainly haven’t experienced any of that our slogan for this state has been, “Raining one day – Pouring the next!”
