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Published: December 28th 2008
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Our plan for the day was to drive a few hours up the coast. There was nothing we wanted to see in between Town of 1770 and Airlie Beach, so our planned stopping point was literally just that - somewhere to rest during the long journey. Strangely enough, the South Queensland and New South Wales coasts were dotted with motor parks every few miles, with plenty of them centred around the towns and good beaches, but on this stretch of the coast they became much more infrequent. We’d chosen a place called Yeppoon for our break as once we’d passed there it was another seven hour drive to the next rash of motor parks.
Before we left our campsite I popped into the phonebox to book our next site. Inside there was a massive stick insect, as big as my outstretched hand, attached to the glass by my head and underneath the phonebook was a large squashed beetle. I made the call as quickly as I could and made my escape. When I told Matt what was in there he had to go in with a camera to get a picture of the stick insect. Once he’d done that he
picked up a branch to see if he could coax the insect onto it and help it get out of it’s glass enclosure to freedom. He got it on there ok, but didn’t realise it had wings and before he knew what was happening it sprang towards his face, then landed on his shoulder. I was watching from the safety of the van and just saw him lurch backwards, do a turn and run like a girl. I laughed so hard it hurt.
Back in the van I had to check him over to make sure it wasn’t attached to his t-shirt, like the squirrel in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, before we set off on the drive.
Bad planning on our part meant we were still driving at 2pm, and having missed lunch we were starving. Matt got lured in by the idea of a take away and I wasn’t strong enough to resist. We were at Rockhampton, just past the Tropic of Capricorn line, when we saw a small complex of take aways and supermarkets so we got out of our van to go and find some food. As soon as we stepped out the heat hit us. It was nothing like anything we’d ever experienced before. It had been hot before in 1770, but here it felt more like stepping into a hot bath on a sunny day. The air was thick and heavy, yet it was overcast. It was the hottest, most uncomfortable heat I’d ever felt, even worse than when I’d visited central Spain in 40 degree heat, although I somehow knew the actual temperature wasn’t that high today.
We jumped into the shops quickly to feel the aircon on our faces and then dreaded going back outside. When we’d got our food we had to sit in an unbearably hot van with the cab aircon on while we ate, but as we were stationary, it was only blowing hot air around us. By the time we’d finished, we both had sweat dripping from our top lips and our brows. I was pleased to get going and feel a blast of cold air again
Half an hour later we were checking into our motorpark in Yeppoon and eagerly eyeing up the outdoor pool at the entrance. The lady behind the desk laughed when we referred to how hot it was and told us we were in for a shock if we thought this was hot - she told us as we approached Cairns it would get worse by the day. Oh dear. I stepped out of the lovely cool reception area into the immense heat and my glasses steamed up.
We got our van hooked up as quickly as possible, got changed and rushed straight to the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Other than one other couple sitting on the loungers, it was empty and for the first time ever I jumped into the pool without timidly checking the temperature first. It was cooler than the air temperature but was still luke warm. The couple at the pool were Australian and we had a chat about the weather. They tols us that it was about 36 degrees, not that hot by Queensland standards apparently.
When a few noisy English people appeared, we decided it was time to get out. After a quick shower we tried to catch up on some washing. Inside the laundry room were so many bugs and creepy crawlies. The worst were the biting flies, bigger than hornets, that really chased us without provocation.
We came back in the dark to collect our washing and turned on the lights in the laundry only to find ourselves surrounded by giant moths. There were also lots of geckos on the walls but they don’t bother us anymore - in fact we grown to like them a lot. We quickly hung out our washing and rushed back to the van trying to dodge anything and everything. There were all kinds of wildlife sounds outside so we decided to use the toilet in our van rather than making our way to the toilet block in the dark even though it wasn’t far away.
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