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22 July,

We have left the tiny town of Home Hill with its free 48 hour rest area - and four pubs in the main street. Some of the residential parts of Home Hill have really wide streets (left) and this picture has not been stretched - and neither has the truth.
When some French backpackers wanted to pitch their tent in the grassy part of the rest area beside us, I gave them my permission and made them feel welcome (they were 18 year old femmes) ... I didn't tell them about the "Tents Not Allowed" sign. The Council Ranger came by the next day and translated the sign into French for them.

Our next stop was only 57 kilometers down the road at another free overnight rest area called Guthalungra. The locals at this place (left) were not as friendly, in fact they were rather intimidating.

In a "Muscle Man" contest he would have been slightly ahead of me. In fact he may have been able to beat me in a "staring" contest too.

23rd July,

Our next stop was Conway Beach about 35 klms from Airlie Beach (Left). You must remember Airlie Beach surely? It is a quiet, sleepy, one street village with a marina. ..... well that's how we saw it many years ago.

Today it is bursting at the seams with tourist, backpackers, new housing developments, and businesses to service them all - including Bunnings and Woolies. 

One of the psychological tests to see if you are ready for Airlie Beach is in the gents toilet. The wall in front of the urinals (right) is difficult to ignore and makes it difficult to pee. I found it easier to close my eyes, but my feet got wet!

The free public swimming pool is a dream. On a nice warm day there are crowds of people sun baking around it. Most days here are "nice warm days" and today is no exception. You can see that I moved everybody to one side whilst I took the photo.

There are sugar cane farms for many kilometers up and down the coast in this area and sometimes you can drive for kilometers without seeing anything but sugar cane in all directions. The smoke in this picture (right) is a common sight at this time of the year. When the cane is ready for harvesting (it has white feather dusters growing on top of it), the farmer sets fire to the entire paddock and the cloud of smoke and ash can be seen for kilometers around.

24th July,

The Conway Beach Caravan Park is as pretty as a picture. Everything in the park is painted with bright colors. The whole park is really well maintained. Unfortunately, I had a nasty incident with a big fat "Vietnam Veteran" in the next caravan. My radio had apparently upset his TV. Instead of politely letting me know, he accused me of destroying his TV, his mobile phone, and his power supply !!  - and "it is all because of that antenna" he said. The discussion got warm and in less than a minute he reached into my van and tried to drag me outside for a fight!
He was lucky ... I didn't accept his challenge.

The owner inadvertently revealed that there is at least one other "trouble maker" in the park! Why?

I told George (the park owner) that he wouldn't be seeing me again .. ever.

Most beaches in Queensland have vast mud flats when the tide "goes out". Conway Beach has more sand than mud. However, none of the sand is white or yellow - it is all brown sand.

It was a little cloudy, plenty of sun, slight breeze, warm - as you can see.

25th July.

Moving on from Conway Beach - and we have been told about Boulder Creek. We were told it was 17 klms inland from the town of Calen. When we made enquires at the Calen Post Office we were given a great deal of helpful information about how to get there. But it was all wrong and they sent us about 50 klms out of the way. When we finally arrived at Boulder Creek (left) it turned out to be worth the extra effort.
 

And a bonus ... there are some tall trees for my antenna!

The amusing thing at Boulder Creek was the little Ginger dog called Rex (right - look carefully just below the centre of the picture) who welcomed every traveler into the rest area. When things were a bit quiet, he took us for a walk along this lovely creek then ran off - chasing a little girl dog and left us - lost.

When we finally found our way back to the rest area he gave us another warm welcome - but he didn't get a feed from us!

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