June 15 (Day 136) - Proserpine to Home Hill

While packing up to leave, our neighbours mentioned they were going to a camp ground near a town called Home Hill. It was a free camp, which unfortunately wasn't going to work for us because we no longer had 240V to recharge the laptop; which meant no work for me! I'd charged both the laptop and the Surface up in the park picnic area last night but this would only last a couple of hours, and we weren't due in Townsville until Thursday (currently it was only Monday). But we thought we might make it through one night at a free camp.

First up we headed to the post office to post off the faulty inverter, so the new one could get on its way as soon as possible. I also posted some books back home we'd finished with so there was room for some others. While I was doing this, Mim and the kids dropped into the local library where our resident bookworks bunkered down and devoured some fresh reading material!

We left Proserpine and made our way to Airlie Beach, stopping in at a Bunnings to pick up a couple of hose fittings. We'd unfortunately left our hose connector behind at Mackay (the connector which goes between the tap and the hose fitting on the fresh water hose). It is easy to forget these and leave them on the tap when you unplug the hose!

We didn't really know what to expect of Airlie Beach, but we'd heard nice things about it so wanted to check it out on our way up. It is a nice beach area with the typical palm trees, set on some plains just in front of some large hills, which provide a nice backdrop to the beach area. Being the hopping off point for the Whitsundays, it was an area with lots of apartments along the hills face, and probably luxury resorts here and there although we didn't see any, but there were plenty of luxury yachts in the marina.

Airlie Beach

Using the magic corned beef key to undo the can!

The kids had a play on a good playground by the foreshore and then made lunch for us. On our last trip the kids tried tinned Spam and tinned corned beef for the first time, and quite liked both. The corned beef, in particular, was a great novelty as this particular brand they still make with a key you have to use to undo the tin! Both boys enjoyed having a turn of this novelty!

The three chefs at work!

The Big Mango, South Bowen

 After lunch we did a bit of quick shopping; the boys and I went into Supercheap and Repco for a few things. I'd spent quite a bit at Supercheap in Morayfield (while we were staying with Luke and Tammy in Wamuran), and as the prices on some things had dropped I had about $35 of credit on my account, some of which I used up.

While I was at Repco I saw some caravan electric brake magnets and toyed with the idea of getting one; but since I already had it booked in to get everything replaced I let it go. We headed on up the coast, stopping off along the way at the Big Mango, and started looking at free camps for the night. Unfortunately in this area there are very few free camps, and those that do exist are just rest areas right alongside the highway, which naturally get pretty noisy.

We pulled up at one which looked bigger than some of the others. We set up and had dinner, but while we were eating we discussed our location around a bit more and decided that since there was still hardly a breeze, it was still fairly noisy and warm, that we'd pack up and drive on about another 20km to Home Hill, where the showgrounds had power and water for $20/night.

We got to Home Hill showgrounds about 7pm and found the main gates were locked, but we phoned the caretaker who opened them and let us in. It was a later night because the caretaker was quite chatty, when we really just wanted to set up and get to bed. Which we eventually did!


-- Greg