Day 46: Bloomsbury – Gindoran (just south of Miriam Vale)

When we arrived at the BP rest stop at Bloomsbury last night, there were vans parked all around the outside, with one single van in the middle of the oval area.

The only space on the outer circle was perilously close to both the fuel pumps and the toilets – both of which have the potential for unpleasantness – so we circled around and stopped in the middle facing away from the guy that was already there.

We saw a spectacular sunset, and those pictures were posted last night.

Dinner, shower, coffee and ready for bed a bit early because we were tired.

We could hear some other vehicles arriving after dark, so I did a quick reconnaissance under the pretence of ”checking that I’d locked the car”, and found that someone had parked right beside us and was in the process of climbing into their roof-top tent.

That’s OK. It’s not like we paid anything for the site, and we were grateful just to have somewhere to stop for the night.

Into bed and we did some reading, and we could hear other vehicles moving around. A couple of trucks, maybe?

Around 9.15 I was ready to slip into something comfortable – like a coma – so lights out, eyes closed and off to the Land of Nod …

… but why was that truck engine still running?

All night long.

We woke this morning and I peeked outside to see that we were surrounded by a sea of semis. A tidal wave of trucks. A bushel of B-doubles.

Get the idea?

And 2 of them – one 10m in one direction, and the other about 15m in the other direction – were refrigerated trucks … so they had left their refrigerator motors running all night so that the ice-cream (or whatever they were carrying) wouldn’t melt.

We didn’t get much quality sleep, but at least there is no ice-cream crisis this morning.

In fact there were so many vehicles parked around us that I needed to reverse out so we could make our getaway.

We set a new PB this morning. Showered and dressed – although un-caffeinated – we were on the road before 7.00am.

A seriously heavy dew this morning, or a seriously heavy fog. I’m not sure which, but Elsie was wet. We pulled out of the camping spot and turned south, and were on our way.

First stop was Mackay around 8.30am. We found a coffee shop and got 2 coffees and an almond croissant to share.

On the road again 20 minutes later and a brief stop at Koumala. A tiny dot of a township that had the 4 Ps … Post Office, Pub, Phonebox, and Public Toilets. I’ll leave it to you to guess which one of those 4 venues we utilised.

By 10.15 we both needed to get out of Elsie for a stretch, some breakfast and more coffee. We stopped in a Clairview (population 167), a very pretty little seaside township in the Isaac region where I’m certain that the majority of the population collect a pension payment each fortnight, and I’m fairly certain that being a funeral director would be full-time work.

While I appreciate the warnings about box jellyfish, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about point #3 on their list of safety instructions (below).

“Most victims recover …” except for the ones that don’t survive?

I will say however that Clairview has the most colourful and artistic public toilet block that I have ever seen. Well done!

We stopped again at Yaamba for lunch around 1.00pm.

No, not Yamba … Yaamba. Just north of Rockhampton. Or is that Rockhaampton?

We had a long drive yesterday, and we’d started early today, and I was feeling weary … so after lunch I had a 10 minute power nap while MBW read her book.

Through Rockhampton, and through some other small townships. It’s all been fairly mundane. Driving, and more driving, and all of the townships start to look the same after a while.

We stopped off in Miriam Vale to empty the can and MBW located a nice freebie camping spot about 40km further south of Miriam Vale called Gindoran where we have pulled up for the night.

Unlike last night when we arrived late and got parking spot leftovers, tonight we rolled in around 4.30 and got the pick of the spots. It will probably be a bit noisy again tonight because we are about 100m from the main highway and there are lots of trucks zooming past, but I’ll probably experience the sleep of the dead tonight because I’m exhausted.

630km or so today, so it’s been a big day.

But that means that we will be home tomorrow (Monday), which is a day earlier than what we told Zach. If you are speaking to him tonight, please warn him …

Maybe suggest he plans something for dinner?

We have seen a great deal of traffic on the roads heading north today, and I am seriously over waving at every caravan that we pass. We have realised it is the start of school holidays, so that probably explains the people on the move.

I know that I have expressed some frustrations about the behaviour of other drivers, and in particular the lack of awareness of other caravan drivers who just puddle along and ignore everyone else, making it difficult to pass or even know when to pass.

We heard a (I assume) truck driver on UHF40 give an earful to someone today who was clearly being thoughtless.

Truckie: “Hey you in the Newlands caravan. Why don’t you pay a bit more attention and pull your f…”

OK, maybe I’ll turn the radio off until that tirade is over, or we are out of range. MBW doesn’t need to hear those words.

We have seen lots (and lots) of signs saying “take a break and stop at the Driver Reviver station (when open)”. They should say “take a break but don’t expect a free coffee because the Driver Reviver stations are NEVER open”.

We pulled into the free campsite today at Gindoran – in the middle of nowhere – around 4.30pm and guess what?

A driver reviver being run by the local Men’s Shed. One coffee and one tea, please.

A pretty little park with one enormous tree just near us. If I keep eating at the rate that I have been over the last 6 or 7 weeks, that’s what it will look like when MBW tries to give me a hug 🙁

I can hear other vans pulling in now, so I guess it will be filling up soon.

Terrible phone reception here again, so MBW probably won’t be watching Masterchef tonight. Shame. She will have to play catch-up tomorrow.

We ate the last of our frozen meals tonight, so MBW’s planning and timing is impeccable. Or very lucky 🙂

One more day and we will be home. There should only be about 450km to go now, so if we get away early and set Elsie’s turbos to warp speed, we might be home just after lunch if we are lucky.

I’m going to miss the tripping around and seeing new things, but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for a change.

And seeing OFLP 🙂

Ciao

#Retirement2024

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