June 12 (Day 133) - Mackay to Proserpine

I rose early to take the car down to Pedders to get the work done, which they were able to do pretty promptly. Most of it was just tightening up some fasteners but they found the front shock absorbers were leaking, probably as a result of our Fraser Island experience, so I booked that in up in Townsville.

With that done, we packed up and went for a bit of a scenic drive around Mackay, as so far we'd not seen a lot of the town itself.  First up we visited an op shop to buy some more books for the kids, as Bek had found a series of horse books there in a brief visit a couple of days ago. We then went to a bakery to get some lunch, and dropped into a local butchers where we got, among other things, crocodile steaks and camel sausages! Having since consumed them, I can attest that the flavour of crocodile is a pretty balanced mix of chicken and fish, while the camel was a bit hard to taste exactly as the sausages were fairly well spiced.

Not making any money
when you're shop's like this!

We sat and ate lunch outside an old vacuum cleaner shop. While we were sitting there the owner came to the door and flipped the sign around to say 'Closed for lunch'. I commented at the time that this meant the shop could be making no money at all at the time, and if someone happened to come along and want to spend money during that half hour window, then that money was lost to the business. Lo and behold, a few minutes later a customer did indeed come up and was frustrated he couldn't get in!

"Take my money!"

This was a big contrast to our Amazon business, where people can buy and receive our goods whether I'm sitting down working, sitting at lunch eating a pie, or sleeping. While our business still has its challenges, this type of flexibility it offers is a huge improvement over a traditional business where you have to be physically on site to make any money.

We carried on our way, with our destination being a camping ground about 20km west of the town of Proserpine. Proserpine itself is about 25km inland from Airlie Beach, which is essentially the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands which lie off its coast.

As we were driving out to the camp ground during the afternoon, we saw what we thought was a dead snake on the road but it turned out to be still very much alive and well! We turned around and went back to it and saw it was some kind of python. We are far from snake experts but it had a diamond type head shape and a pretty mottled pattern on its skin. It turned around and slithered off the road, where it was probably making the most of the last bit of warmth from the day, and disappeared into the nearby sugar cane

We got to the campground, which was lovely. It was right next to Lake Proserpine, which is a reservoir which allows recreational activities on its surface, but we found there was no phone signal! :( This was going to be a particular problem because I was running an Instagram competition at the time and announcing the winners live the next morning. So we reluctantly left and headed to the nearby Lions Camp Ground which had sufficient signal. This was about $45 for the night, a cost we were hoping to avoid, having already paid for accommodation the last five nights at both Finch Hatton and Mackay, but there was nothing else for it. So we pulled up and set up.

At this place there were some delightful wallabies which a regular couple fed some evenings with sweet potato and banana. They let us come within a few metres of them while they fed. It was so cute seeing them hold onto these bits of sweet potato with both their front paws and nibble away - there was even one with a joey in her pouch!

-- Greg