July 17 – Mossman
We were up early and ready to hit the
road. We drove north to the Mossman Gorge expecting to go for a nice
walk through the rain forest. We smelled some sulphur on our drive
up and worried that it was the battery. Maybe the check battery
light had actually come on for a reason. We arrived at the visitors
center and found out a bridge was damaged so only a small section of
the path was open. We also had to pay $5 for a shuttle bus up to the
start of the path. We figured we were here anyways so we might as
well go. The board walk route was fairly short, maybe a kilometer
loop but the rainforest was very pretty. There were a bunch of
people around though too. You could go swimming in the river but it
wasn't all that nice out so we opted to not. Back down at the van we
called the RACV and found out where the nearest accredited shop was.
We made it back to the little town of Mossman and had our battery
checked at an auto-parts store. The guy deemed it toast due to
overcharging and recommended we see an autoelectrician to find the
cause of the problem. Fortunately the mechanic was just around the
corner and were able to squeeze us in in about an hour. We left
Dotti at the mechanics and went for a little walk around the town.
We stopped into a bakery for a meat pie and sausage rolls for lunch
then headed back to the mechanic. We read in the reception for a bit
and found out a there was a wire shorting out that blew a fuse and
pooched our battery. $300 later the problem was solved and we had a
new battery. We drove south back past Cairns, got some groceries and
gas along the way, then stopped for the night about 200km north of
Townsville.
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| Mossman river |
July 18 – Townsville to MacKay
We chatted with a Polish woman for a
little bit at our rest stop before breakfast. She was quite the
talker but very nice. We hit the road and headed down to Townsville.
We skipped Josephine Falls again because it was raining. We had
also talked about going to Magnetic Island but the weather wasn't
reliable and we had a lot of ground to cover so we decided against
it. Once in Townsville we stopped for lunch at Hungry Jacks and got
updated. Beau called his dad to wish him a happy birthday. After
our hour rest we got back on the road and drove all the way down to
Mackay. We ended up staying at a rest stop/gas station for the
night. I wasn't entirely sure if we were allowed to stay overnight
but there was no sign saying we couldn't. We made instant noddles
for dinner. There were also showers at the stop so we took advantage
of those too.
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| Driving photo |
July 19 – Mackay to Gladstone
We were up early and headed out of the
reststop with making breakfast. We had thought to stop into a Hungry
Jacks for brekky and wifi but weren't able to get to one. We drove
south of Mackay then stopped into another rest stop for some belated
oatmeal and coffee. We then drove the boring drive down to
Rockhampton. It's about 300km of nothing. Once in Rockhampton we
found another Hungry Jacks and had lunch while doing more updating.
After an hour in Hungry's we headed down to a rest stop just west of
Gladstone on the Calliope River. It was a nice little spot a bit off
the highway. We arrived in late afternoon so we spent some time
sitting outside before the sunset. Beau played some guitar and I
read. We made pasta again for dinner and then read a bit in the
evening. It was pretty frigid out tonight and I could see my breath
on the walk to the bathroom.
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