Gracemere, Yaamba, St Lawrence, Clearview, Sarina

From Dululu I went to Gracemere via Mt Morgan. Sign telling c/vans to be careful but a pretty good although winding  road. Mt Morgan is a hilly town – thought about stopping but need to get the spare tyre holder welded. Detour out of town – glad I was going north as a VERY steep drop on the back road we had to take! Stayed at a Caravan Park in Gracemere then back up the road to an engineering place. $50 to weld tyre holder – ok but didn't tack on to the bottom frame – or straighten itL Headed towards Rockhampton – and got stuck in a traffic jam about 2km long on the motorway. Road works ahead and down to one lane. Very pretty town with a huge park, tidy houses, gardens, new suburbs and shopping areas etc but so much traffic so kept going to Yaamba. Large sealed area beside pub and heaps of people here. Headed to the pub for dinner – and found  a couple I met at Jingellic so went with them and had a lovely catch-up. Gave myself a big fright coming out – didn't see the bottom step (no lights!) and fell over. Slight graze on knee and elbow and a bit shaky!!

Noisy night – ute parked on the grass beside me about 11pm and lots of door banging while they set up camp!  Lots of trucks park here at lunchtime. Another couple I met at Broome will be at St Lawrence tomorrow so will catch up with them also.

 Bruce Highway to St Lawrence is pretty good and not too much traffic. Mostly wide  flat with hills along each side. Interesting line markings in places north of Marlborough. Maybe a couple of feet between the centre markings – so double dotted lines – or solid for no passing. Certainly feels safer with the extra distance. Waverley camp looked pretty full – nice spot also. No towns up to here – just road houses. St Lawrence camp is a big area beside old stock yards. Our group of three managed to park together. Very strange tides - water in the estuary for an hour either side of high tide  - then just mud flats. I waited for ages after low tide, then went back a couple of hours later - still nothing.Hundreds of Harlequin bugs on a tree. The guys caught a Threadfin salmon - delicious.  Then a campervan arrived with TAS couple who played ukes & sing so we had a great session for an hour or so. All my favourites! Their music is on IPad – Hobart uke club. So much easier to see at night!

A very noisy night at Clearview, - trains and trucks -  although the camp spot was fine. the 3 of us managed to find a spot under the trees. Made damper but we still dont really know how to cook it yet - burnt the bottom but was very tasty. Left the 2 couples I was with and to a CP in Sarina. So looking forward to a long hot shower etc!

Tame possums that come down in the evening for apples. Entertained by the young one pinching it's mother's pieces then scampering up the tree again. Glad they didnt squawk too much during the night - or scamper on our van tops! As a Kiwi it is very hard to get excited about them - such a pest at home and many an hour spent shooting them! I have some beautiful sox and gloves made from possum fur and merino wool.