Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 14

Located next to the town’s sugar mill the Tourist Info Centre includes the Sarina Sugar Shed where we enjoyed a lovely morning cuppa before purchasing some treats of an epicurean nature to take home. There were tours of the mill available, but having done a few of these walk rounds previously we decided against joining in today. Instead I seized the opportunity of a “no appointment needed” haircut – definitely well overdue! The town of Sarinais an inland town, but not too far away (about 12kms) there is a little hamlet SarinaBeachwhere we enjoyed a lovely walk on the sand. A few clouds appeared in the afternoon sky, but checking forecasts for the next week showed there is only a slim chance of rain and temperatures are expected to remain in the mid-20’s.... read more

Our intention today was to return to Horseshoe Bay and have a swim and a paddle in the sparkling blue water, however waking to light rain falling we decided against that idea. Instead we pottered around the campground, catching up with a few domestic chores in the morning. We had a quick trip into town and drove around to Rose Bay – gone were the brilliant blue skies and shimmering turquoise waters, they were both dark and angry looking today. We could only just see the shadows of the Whitsunday Islands through the rain clouds. Refuelling done, we are ready to head further south tomorrow.... read more

Further south and tucked away 4kms off the Bruce Highway is Glen Erin Farmstay – best described as a bush caravan park as we have access to power and water, it is roughly 20 minutes from the town of Bowen and once again, so very peaceful. There is a resident pet kangaroo named Tilly and she deposits herself under any caravan awning she chooses whenever she chooses. When checking you in the camp hostess, a woman by the name of Lyn in her 70’s, invites you to the nightly happy hour around the fireplace where she bakes damper over the coals. She cooks 2 different flavours of damper every night and they are deliciously light. Needless to say we take our glass of wine across and join the other campers for a good natter and a ... read more

The Bruce Highwaytook us on a drive south to Ayr, travelling through sugar cane fields where the crops come right up to the roadside. Narrow gauge tracks criss cross through the fields with lengthy trains taking their loads to the processing mills. The air was sickly sweet. We took our lunch to Alva beach – a popular picnic spot overlooking the brilliant blue water. There was a fair size sand bank, possibly because of low tide, which was perfect for 4-wheel dune bikes as well as for fishing. Back at Lazy Acre we went for an afternoon walk - at the back of the property, roughly an 800m walk alongside the more productive trees, there is a little creek bed. It is not flowing fully at present, but what water is running is ankle deep, clear ... read more

During the gold rush era of the 1870’s it was said that you could buy anything you wanted inChartersTowers. A large outcrop of gold was found after a flash of lightning by a young indigenous boy, Jupiter Mosman, in 1871. Fortunes were made and lost during the ensuing years but the town continued to prosper. Today quite a few of the grand buildings of the era still stand with heritage listing. One of the things we really like about ChartersTowersis that the modern day big name companies – Woolworths, K-mart, Aus Post, NAB Bank etc – all occupy these proud old buildings. There is no large shopping complex on the outer reaches of the city centre. Because of forward bookings we are really only here for 1 day of sight seeing, so we couldn’t appreciate all ... read more