Keith gets a bit Country on the way to Cardwell

Friday, April 13:  After filling Keith up just outside Bowen, we happily headed up the Bruce Highway....leaving the ill wind behind us.  And just as Danny had predicted,  ahead was a wonderful free camp site - RV FRIENDLY (that Sammy had heard about from other Nomads):  Bluewater Park just north of Townsville.  Lots of green grass, right next to the creek with toilets & taps.

And yes, the water is very blue!  Parked next to us, was Dirk (originally from Holland) who lives in his station wagon.  He was a very interesting chap who had lived for 10 years in Coober Pedy and various other places.  Then across the paddock, we saw a sign that said "Country Music" and wandered over to the community hall to see what was happening.
Danny spoke to any old guy setting up music equipment:
"Hi Mate.  We've just come from Bowen and - "  
"You're welcome.  Do you have a guitar?"
So after an hour or so we wandered over again, guitar and ukulele in hand, and sat down for $5 hamburgers & cheap drinks.
We were about 6th on the blackboard line-up which featured a variety of performers from the Thuringowa & Townsville club.   Dirk turned up in his black stovepipe jeans and cuban heels, and we did our 3 numbers and were asked for a 4th.  We stayed for most of the singers, then crossed the paddock for a peaceful night's sleep.


 


April 14:  In the morning we had a closer look at the creek, said Happy 50th Birthday to Dirk for the next day and then motored off to Cardwell.
The ocean front didn't look the same as remembered from 8 years before, but cyclones will do that to you. 
We  weren't planning on staying at a caravan park, but we needed to charge our phones and do some washing, so we picked a small one for $17 a night.  B grade is probably generous, but it had nice grass and was across the road from an IGA. 
Indigo enjoyed meeting "Junior"  a Mastif X (below) who was definately pleased to see her.
We liked the toilet signs:  Man & Lady written in electrical tape.
And I rang Bruce, from the Buoys B & B to see if we could start our HelpX stint earlier than we had anticiapted.  He said that was cool and we organised to go there on Monday.   

 April 15:  We managed to do three walks:
1.  Along the beach front to the mangroves and Danny found this cemented plague which states that it is an offence to remove it!  
2.  To the beach just a couple of streets from the van park to do some hula hooping.
3.  To the bottleshop at the beginning of town.  I've always liked seeing a man carry a whole carton of beer cradled in his arms.
We had our dinner, took our beers / wine and went and chatted to the English and Italian banana working backpackers.  We had already met one of the Italians who had been smoking a rather large 'cigarette'...
So although Cardwell didn't look like the lush, tropical town right on the highway that we remembered, we still had a fun couple days just hanging about in our C grade caravan park. 
The tree sculpture below  really brought home the impact that Yasi had on North Queensland over a year ago. 

Now we were heading for a place that copped it right in the guts by Larry then a couple of years later by Yasi. 

An ill wind...Carmila Beach to Bowen

April 11:  We drove up the A1 along the dreaded "Malborough Stretch" and Keith went like a dream.  100km/hr...too easy.  We eventually stopped at Carmila Beach, (100km South of Mackay), for some free camping  right on the beachfront. 
A waterspout formed nearby, but never made it into the ocean.  I helped Danny give Keith a service...well, I held the cut off drink bottles for the old oil.
The wind was blowing a gale, so late that arvo, we decided that Keith might get too much sand-blasting and moved a few kms to outside the Carmila Pub. 
We ended up listening to a slightly intoxicated but highly amusing storyteller who had been a Ringer.  And had the $10 specials:  Bangers & Mash for Danny, the meatballs for me.

April 12:  We bypassed Mackay and went on to Bowen, where we had a couple of friends to visit who live on a yatcht.   We tried them on the mobile, but no answer.    We had a couple of negative experiences during the day in town with an impatient driver and a not-so-friendly Librarian, and then parked on the esplande at Front Beach.  It was still very windy, so we had dinner inside and had an early night. 

10pm:  "Bang, Bang, Bang"  on the door and Indigo's barking, Sammy nearly put her neck out and Danny got up...he knew who it would be.

A Regional Council worker gave us a warning and this notice to move on or be fined!  Bloody bastards!  There is no free camping spots in Bowen, or on the highway north or south, so with not many options, we rang a couple of pubs / backpackers and a caravan park.  No answer. 
So after driving around 30mins looking for a spot, we settled on the footpath in front of a car yard in a back street.  A lady nearby was having a loud, verbal fight with someone, but we didn't care.  As long as we didn't get evicted again! 

April 13:  We hung out at Queens Beach in the day, and found out from Dazza's mum (Yvonne) after lunch, that he and Ruth were out of town working and the mobile doesn't work.  So around 2:30pm we made the decision to say farewell to Bowen.  We just missed them, but that's life on the road.  Sometimes the timing just isn't right.  So, catch you next time Dazza & Ruth!

But Danny said something good was waiting up ahead for us...and it was!

Keith pops his Engine Mount...thankfully near Wattlebank

April 5:  So Keith's engine mount snapped and caused the fan to go into the radiator.  Hence, the awful sound.  And after long conversations with RACQ (not happy Jan), we had no option but to get Keith towed privately from Rod, Rockhampton Heavy Towing. 
A guy who just happened to see us waiting for the tow truck suggested we call his cousin, Rob Clews who lives on the same road about 10km away.



He took us the back way (as suggested by Jim, our house sitting contact who luckily said we could bring Keith to his place) and through the lovely hills surrounding Rossmoya & The Caves (where Rod grew up).


 






So when we got to "Wattlebank", Jim got on the phone and lined up Rob Clews to fix Keith.   Country hospitality is muchly appreciated, especially in situations like this where we didn't know anyone in this area.  The house and property is magnificent with large rooms and tastefully restored and decorated by the owner, Twigg.

The next morning, Jim hitched Keith up and away he and Danny went down the road to the Clews's Farm.  Rob said:  "He's F@#ked, but I can fix him".

 

EASTER:  So Twigg and Jim went off on their Brisbane-Ballina-Kingaroy break and we settled in with the dogs.  I did 4 loads of washing and Indigo tried to work out what game Muster was trying to play.  He is a Weimarana x Ridgeback with lots of energy.  She put him in his place a few times...now why didn't she do that with the Shit-tease at Cedar Galleries?
After careful deliberation, Danny decided to sell the z50 Monkey Bike and it went that night online. 

The next 3 days were spent just hanging out:  playing music, rotating the sprinklers, hula hooping (Danny has improved greatly)...and Danny went on some photo expeditions at Wattlebank and on his push bike to Alligator Creek and the old Barmoya School House.
The next day, Tuesday 10th April, was spent frantically running around Rocky & Gracemere for the new radiator, chasing up a fan at the wreckers (Danny had to remove it from a ford falcon ute) and a wheel nut.  Danny took it all to Rob and they fitted it all that afternoon.  Keith was ready to go and the next morning, we said goodbye to Muster, Twigg & Jim and left Wattlebank. 

So Keith - like the magnificent eagle - was off on his adventures once again!

Emu Park, The Big Whale & a Monkey Bike

3 April: 
Just after Kinka Beach, we stopped at a house with fishing gear out the front for sale. Then the bloke took us down the back shed and Danny bought a new-looking cast net (his old one is knacked from the snags).  He noticed an old Honda Z50 monkey bike hanging up and asked if it was for sale.  Ken said he'd think about it. 









We travelled a few kms to Emu Park and Danny loved it just as much as me.  First, we did a bit of looking around at the Singing Ship and old houses.  Then we got a great song book from the local op shop:  101 Country Hits for Buskers. 

Danny wanted to do some casting with his new net, so off we went back up the road and bumped into The Big Whale!  There were some weird looking plants in jars inside and a building nearby as part of the closed tourist attraction.
We camped next to the boat hire at The Causeway Lake and Danny netted a nice Mullet (on the surf side) for dinner.   Unfortunately there was heaps of sandflies / mozzies so we couldn't have our usual alfresco dinner. 

April 4:  We went back to Emu Park the next morning and spent some time in the library and Bell Park.  On a bike ride, Danny spotted this Ford Transit Mk 1 at the beach.  And we met a local and his dog, King.






 

Later on, we parked next to him and saw we had picked up some big green ants from the park.  Luckily they didn't come inside and decided to eat the black ants that had been hanging around since Miriam Vale.

That night we parked on the windy cliff overlooking the Keppell Islands and went to the Trivia Night at the Pine Beach Hotel (we didn't win, but did pretty well for our first time).

April 5:  Danny strongly encouraged me to get up and watch the sunrise. We hung out at the beach and spent a bit more time in the park and library. 

After lunch, we drove back to Ken's place to see about the monkey bike.  It needed a lot of restoration to get it up to scratch.  He sold it to us and we rearranged inside Keith so it could lay down in the middle. 

It was time to go to our house sitting job just north of Rocky, so we went through the big round about near Yeppoon and off down the highway... 
A loud screech was coming from underneath Keith!  Sammy thought a tire had blown and Danny quickly and carefully pulled him off into a turning lane to a landscaping business.   It wasn't a tire.  We got out and had a look inside the engine bay.  Keith wasn't going anywhere!!

Hello Cousin Col, Rocky & Yeppoon

April 2:  For some reason, we set off towards Biloela from Gladstone.  Perhaps because we both had a memory that it was a cute town...Sorry Bilo, but we had our lunch and kept on going.  We went through Dalulu and took the road heading for Rocky via Gracemere.  We stopped outside a Kabra Pub to let a big mining wide load bucket pass and met a local character.


Sammy rang her cousin Col (cousin Keith's brother), who lives nearby, and we went to stay with him, his lovely wife Irene and their toy poodle, Gypsy.  On the way, Keith's vapourization got the better of him after we filled up.  But Poustie (our Redcliffe handyman friend) came to the rescue over the phone and Danny managed to get him going again.  Danny has learned a lot from Poustie about fixing problems yourself and if you can't...then ring Poustie!  We had a great meal at the old Gracemere Pub (thanks Irene & Col) and settled in the back yard for the night.

Next morning we went into Rocky and checked out some op shops:  Danny got himself a good pair of busking trousers and braces.  We walked down to The Criterion Hotel on the riverfront and saw the mud marks from the resent flash flooding.

Next was Yeppoon for lunch and a walk around.  Nice main street and visitors centre. (Oh no, now I'm sounding like a travel blogger!)   But we didn't stay because I had made a promise to Emu Park in 2010 that we would come back.  So we took the scenic road along the beach front and Danny spotted these black cockatoos.
Danny had never been to Emu Park...was he going to like it as much as Sammy?

Keith Gets Arty Farty: A week at Cedar Galleries

Sunday 25 March-1st April:  On our way to Cedar Galleries, (near Calliope) we stopped off at Danny's cousin Katrina's place at Tannum Sands.  We had a quick catch up with Kat, Paddy, Ruby, Charlie & Roxy.  Indigo loved meeting the kids and we made plans to get together the following weekend with Auntie Mazza. (We had a lovely bbq with them all and friends at Canoe Pt Reserve on the 1st and did some free camping that night.  Bit spooky, as no one else was there, except some late night cars who popped in for a while.)

We got to CD in the arvo and were greeted by Angie (the owner) and two Shitzu-Maltezers:  Mr Bojangles & Jamima.  They baled Indigo up and the whole visit, Jamima continually let her know whose property it was!  A unique place with art works, galleries, accommodation, alpacas, art workshops, open-air function deck and chapel. 

It also was home to Angie's mum (co-owner), her cousin and boyfriend, and local artists Peta, Sandy & her son Tom and James.  Danny and James shared a lot of common ground and we all had some great jamming sessions in the Chapel and by the Dam.  He had a great banjo uke, pictured above left.  This is Danny's fav pic of the week.

Danny and Sammy did some cleaning up work around the place and Danny restored these old benches and artwork plinth.

 On our last day, James set up his amp and mic and we all had a busk at the Farmer's Markets.  There wasn't a truck load of people, but we made $38 in the hat with a few fivers in there!    Danny gave Sammy a hoop binding workshop the night before and we had some for sale. (Sammy did a demo on the grass - still need to do lots of practice!)

It was a great place to hang out with interesting people, art and animals.  My fav picture is this one.