Thursday 15th July.. After leaving Cairns and the green ants in the rain, we headed for Cardwell. The house on the left has been the same every year that we have travelled this road. It has a magnificent front garden that is as big as the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. Um.. well not quite .. but it is big. Somebody spends a lot of time manicuring it.

Cardwell is just a row of shops (left) with a few streets of houses behind them. The shops all face the beach which has a good strip of sand - for a Queensland beach. The water is brown because it is so shallow and the mud that is further out from the beach is being stirred up all the time. The Hinchinbrook Chanel (right) appears to be much bluer. On our return trip south, we stayed 2 nights in Cardwell. We learnt that "Crystal Bay" prawns were actually farmed right here in Cardwell in the Hinchinbrook Passage (right) and were more expensive than if they were bought at St Clair in Woolies !!

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From Saturday 17th until Saturday 25th we are back in Townsville again, and the weather has been superb for the first two days. Now that we are "on the way south", we have to find something interesting that we didn't tell you about "on the way north".

Firstly, I must tell you about the Imax theatre - with it's huge domed roof. It means that you have to lie down (almost) and look up at the screen (the roof above). The picture spans the entire roof and puts you right IN the picture. The circular theatre is housed in the building shown on the left. It takes up the entire floor area. The movie we saw was about modern thrill rides (big dippers etc.) and it left us wobbly at the knees. It's even better than the Imax at Sydney Harbour or Katoomba. If you go to Townsville, don't miss this.

Townsville is of course, the home of an RAAF base and the big old plane (left) with huge propellers sits right at the entrance to the RAAF base.

"The Strand" on the beach has other attractions with huge .. .. um !

The more mature adult community sits beside small fountains (left) - and the kids sit UNDER big fountains (right).

This is the last picture (left) taken at Townsville, at the northern end of The Strand. This pool must be perfect for the summer months in Townsville.

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th nights we stayed at the free rest area in Home Hill. This town has the right idea. All travellers are invited to stop for up to 48 hours in the rest area beside the main shopping centre (right). Toilets, hot showers, water and a complete shopping centre is on the door step. In return, the travellers spend money in the town and at the pubs. 

Monday 26th was spent exploring. The first venture was into a place called Wunjunga village and Funny Dunny Caravan Park (left) about 20 klms south of Home Hill. To get to Wunjunga village we had to travel around 15 kilometers of dirt road (that did NOT amuse Connie). The village and the caravan park are on a secluded point of the coastline. We made a hasty retreat when we were almost carried away by mosquitos - thousands of them. The next exploration was Molongle (right) in a place called Cape Upstart. It turned out to be a fishermans heaven - but thats all. The camp fees were more aligned with a 5 star resort and not worth it, in our opinion.

On Monday 26th we spent the night at Guthalungra rest area, a freebie, about 30 klms north of Bowen. The only thing in Guthalungra is a service station, a free rest area, picnic area and toilets. There are no restrictions on using generators [to keep the caravan batteries charged - so Allan can play radios] ... unless you keep it running too late, in which case your neighbour will let your tyres down.

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Tuesday 27th July .. and Wednesday 28th we sleep at Bowen. We have stayed at Bowen (left) many times but were surprised this year by the foreshore development that has taken place (right). The developments include a stage for outdoor shows, a skateboard park, kids playground and even a Catalina (airplane) exhibition (to tell the full story ... I didn't go in there but the building was big enough to hold a Catalina, and it had "CATALINA" on the outside, and I think I saw a picture of an aeroplane on it somewhere ... so, is that good enough?).

The views from Flagstaff Hill are brilliant (left, & above left).

The weather has become windy and cooler. The nearby mountain tops are hidden in low cloud but thankfully the temperature is a comfortable 21 to 24 degrees during the day and only an odd few spots of rain were noticed. Everybody knows that if you live in Bowen, you eat tomatoes. But did you know that the cattle eat tomatoes too? (right). 

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The nights of Thursday 29th and Friday 30th July were spent at O'Connell River, about 20 klms south of Proserpine. The hostess (left) who welcomed us at O'Connell River Caravan Park was unbelievably friendly - day and night! Our site had no tall trees nearby and an antenna was too awkward. The first thing we did was when we set up camp here was to wash the car using some water that was left in our caravan tanks, but the park manager thought we were using the park's very "expensive" water supply. His initial approach was "AGRO" until he saw where the hose was connected to my caravan and not his park taps. There's nothing within 20 klms of here, so it was a very peaceful two days of perfect weather. I easily accessed the Mackay repeater and chatted with Frank on both days.

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Continued in part seven.