Tuesday, 13th December 2022

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We missed our morning beach walk as we were running a bit late and needed to get on the road. What a lovely motel, as we drove out the lady who checked us in, made sure to meet us outside the office to say goodbye and also recommend a couple of places on our route today. It makes such a difference when you find one of these gems to stay at, just a shame we only had one night there.

Our aim today was to get to Bundaberg, but it was a long way so realistically, we were going to try to get as far as Rockhampton. It was another scorcher today, 32 degrees with the humidity making it feel more like 36!

One of the recommendations we had was to stop at Sabrina Sugar Shack on the other side of MacKay, which was a tour of a sugar cane processing facility. We pulled in and followed the signs noticing that the tour started on the hour and it was a few minutes past, we rushed the last bit but alas, they were unable to get us onto the tour as they’d already started. The next tour was 90mins later which was too long for us to hang around so we missed out on this one.

The Bruce Highway is a “bloody long drive” – this is what they put on their road sign! In fact the road signs were amusing and helped pass the long drive. The next one in the set said “There’s still a long way to go kids”, followed by “Are we nearly there yet”, “Still 2 hours to Rocky”, “No we’re not nearly there yet”. Further along we were told trivia helps you stay away and were challenged with the question “What is the highest mountain in Queensland” – we passed this earlier on the road! But still couldn’t think of the name and a few km’s later we got the answer “Mount Bartle Frere” – doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it!

Suffice to say, the drive was very long and there wasn’t really much to see. We did stop at Clairview for a comfort break and to take a picture of the sea which had tree’s growing out of it. It was only a short break, but at least we got to stretch out legs a bit. We actually saw our second snake here, unfortunately it was another dead one in the road.

After that, except for a quick stop at the Ogmore Truck Rest Area to get our lunch out of the coolbag and eat it in the comfort of the air con, we pushed on to get closer to Rockhampton.

The second of the recommended stops for today was Capricorn Caves. What else do you do on a day where the temperature reached a whopping 37 degrees (feeling over 40 with the humidity) – head to some cool caves! We got there just in time for the last tour of the day at 3pm, which takes about 45mins. The tour guides first comment was that he hoped we had bug spray on as the mozzies were really bad. This was the one day we’d not sprayed up as it makes you quite sticky and it can be uncomfortable in the car! So Roy had to dash back to the car and grab the spray so we could coat ourselves.

He wasn’t kidding – they were everywhere! Fortunately, they seemed to leave us alone and pester the people in front of us and we miraculously escaped getting eaten alive. We were led into the cave entrance and it was very different to the one’s we saw on the south coast. As we ventured further in, the mozzies reduced thankfully. The caves were quite bare, far less stalactites, but still impressive in a different way. The stairs to access each area were really narrow and there were lots of low ceilings to get past. At one point we had to walk up a slope on the cave floor which was pretty steep and slippery in places (perhaps flip flops weren’t the shoe of choice for this!)

We went through an area where the bats normally live, however they had moved to another nearby warmer cave to breed so there weren’t many left, and none to see in their usual place which he still showed us. However, if you looked up, there were quite a few of them zooming around the cave above us.

The highlight was the cathederal cave, unlike the last cave of this name we visited, there were no stalactites here, it was setup as an almost church like room, with pews and candles alongside the strategic lighting to highlight the rock formations. We took a seat and he played “Hallelujah” which gradually turning off all the lights until the finale where the last candle was blown out. The sound was absolutely incredible, especially when we were in total darkness. After a bit, he turned on some candle effect lights and a red light lit up the ceiling. You could see bats zooming around. It was brilliant.

After this, we had a look at one more cave which opened up to the outside world, although we were told not to venture out as there were snakes out there! The other thing about this cave is that it was so hot! I’d hoped it would be cool but with all the openings to the outside it was almost as hot and humid in there!

Our tour over ran as our guide was really chatty and enjoyed having a talkative group who were asking lots of questions! We ended up emerging from the depths at around 4pm and making a mad dash to the car to avoid the mozzies!

It was getting late and we still weren’t even at Rockhampton yet! So we continued along Bruce Highway arriving there at around 4:30pm. This is a massive place, very built up and busy, which isn’t really what we wanted for tonight, so we took a risk and continued on for another hour or so until we reached Gladstone. As it was getting closer to dusk, we even spotted a couple more kangaroo’s in the field next to the road (much better than them jumping out in front of traffic!).

Gladstone is still quite a bit place, very industrial on the outskirts with mainly coal production. But we found a lovely apartment at Highpoint International where we have a lounge, kitchen, diner as well as a separate bedroom.

We’re hoping to get an earlyish start tomorrow to get down to the sunshine coast, which will give us a bit more time in the Gold Coast area before our last push down to Sydney. Only 8 days to go now, which seem to be disappearing rapidly!

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Photos

1. Clairview
The view of the 'Beach' at Clairview

2. Capricorn Caves
The entrance to Capricorn Caves

3. Cathedral Cave, Capricorn
The Cathedral Cave, The acoustics were amazing!

4. Roots in Cave
Fig tree roots growing down into the caves for nutrients

5. The A1 PCW
The main A1 eastcoast road, 3 Hrs between Townships

6. How long
How long to go Dad?

7. Still 2 Hrs
Still 2 Hrs to Rocky Kids!