We left Cairns reluctantly and headed south towards Townsville with no real plan on where to stop for the night. Wikicamps hasn’t let us down yet so we didn’t think about it until around 3pm. We like to camp no later than four o’clock so that we have enough light to set up camp, cook dinner and relax.

On the way we called into Tullly. We didnt stay long but it was interesting to see their display on the history of their sugar cane industry.

We headed to a camp at TYTO in Ingham which had good reviews. We pulled into the car park at the Visitors’ Centre and booked in for the night. It cost us $15 and we had to be fully self contained. No cooking was allowed outside which was a problem for us having an outside kitchen. Luckily we had been a bit naughty and had something at a bakery in Ayr on the way through so we had a little cheese platter inside the van with a red wine. This was a lovely camp right on the wetlands. So peaceful and pretty. We had a good sleep – as we always do.

It was chilly in the morning (for us) so we donned track pants and jumpers and walked across the boardwalk to a little training cafe for a nice, hot breakfast. (We didn’t want to get out our muesli in case we got into trouble!). The scenery was beautiful and there were lots of birds enjoying the wetlands.

From ingham we drove to Townsville where we had arranged to camp for a couple of nights at John’s friend’s place which turned out to be quite close to the city. It was great to see Darrell again and he seemed to really enjoy having us to stay: he insisted on cooking dinner both evenings.

Townsville was not at all what we expected. It was clean, easy to navigate through, and not terribly big. We strolled along The Strand enjoying the holiday feel of the place – the beach, the pier, the cafes and families out enjoying the sunshine. We could understand why people enjoyed living here.

Later we drove up to the top of Castle Hill to check out the view of the city. We were surprised at how many people were walking up! At the top, there were several paths and lookouts with different vantage points. We certainly got a very clear picture of what Townsville is like.

We really were impressed with Townsville which I felt was a very liveable city. And we had a lovely visit with Darrell and Lorraine. John and Darrell enjoyed talking about the old days over a few beers. We hope he might come back over to WA some time soon but he seems perfectly happy where he is.

So off we went again heading towards Airlie Beach where we thought we would spend a few days. We drove first of all into Proserpine to check out a free camp but it was full up. What a shock we got when we arrived at Airlie Beach! It was absolutely packed with tourists. All the caravan parks were full to the brim despite the school holidays here in Queensland being over. With Victoria, in particular, being so cold, it seemed that most Victorians were coming north and filling up the caravan parks. We did eventually find a private property that took in vans at a cheap rate to help wildlife.

We were not impressed with Airlie Beach purely because we couldn’t find a place to park. It was much too busy for us. Proserpine was nicer and not as busy. We enjoyed a coffee at the bakery there and watched the world go by.

Our next stop was Rockhampton but on the way we stayed at a nice free camp at Marlborough. The following day we detoured to walk around Yeppoon which was very pretty but, again, really busy. We did enjoy a coffee and brownie at a nice little cafe called The Alley. (I’m wondering if you recognise a pattern here?)

We arrived into Rockhampton in the early afternoon and settled into the Riverfront Caravan Park, the only Park with vacancies in the whole of the town. The best part of Rockhampton for us was catching up with friends and fellow travellers, Sue and Ross who ended up in town for the same night as us. They camped their van next to us and we shared travel stories over dinner. It was great to see them and we plan to catch up again in New South Wales later in the year.