That finishes our time in Darwin for another year and the long journey of 3000 kilometres south begins. Today is only a short hop with 300 kilometres to Katherine. Originally the plan was to go through to Mataranka but unless we left at 6am, we would not get a powered site by the time we got there. And I am still on holidays so that is not going to happen. I was on the road by 830am so it was still early for me.

Luckily Garry rang a couple of caravan parks in Katherine as most were full. We found a couple of sites in the Shady Lane Tourist Park which I have stayed at before and is not a bad park far enough out of town to not have the highway noise. Unfortunately you still get the aircraft noise from the flyovers from Tindal Airbase.

Making a few stops along the way for a couple of geocaches I missed on the way up to Darwin, arrival was just after 3pm.

Once again made the fuel fill up at the card only 24 Fill Stop which is 10 cents a litre cheaper than anywhere else in town. Word must be out as there was a queue of caravans waiting but they were only waiting on the main pumps and had not spotted a diesel pump mixed in with the petrol pumps. So no waiting for me.

There was also a queue at the card machine, with it not working properly. I asked those in the queue whether they had pushed the help button and blank looks. They had been waiting for about 5 minutes for something to happen. After pushing the help button, someone came online and reset the machine and it was working straight away.

We believe the main reason for the sudden full caravan parks was tonight was the second game of the Queensland / New South Wales State of Origin and most of the normal free campers came in to watch the game. There was a bit of grumbling with those without satellite not being able to get Channel 9. No problems with the Thompson Taj. Satellite dish up and Channel 9 coming in strong. By the way, Queensland won the game in the last 5 minutes to tie up the series going into the final game – that is very convenient to ensure a large crowd at that game in 3 weeks.

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Well I didn’t quite get to midday but I did manage to sleep into 1030am. It would have been later but the air conditioner decided to stop cooling and start heating about 130am.

So the AC was turned off and a fan was turned on with the van getting warmer all the time. At 1030am, the van was already at 27C. I checked out the AC and it appeared the filters were due for a clean. After cleaning the filters, the AC was back to its old self and cooling the van very well. A little too well as it got down to 12C while we were out and about all day and into the evening.

The caravan next to us offered massages but only neck and shoulder. A massage would be great. Managed to find a Chinese massage place over at Parap and booked in for an hour at 100pm. After all today is all about R & R. The massage was great until he grabbed my right foot which is still not recovered from the gout. I didn’t need to scream but he knew something was wrong from the rest of my body cringing.

The afternoon was spent exploring around Darwin by means of finding Geocaches.

We ended up at Stokes Hill Wharf to check out the Bombing of Darwin experience and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Museum. This was not your normal museum with use of Virtual Reality movies, holograms and other effects to bring both the bombing of Darwin in World War 2 and the history of the RFDS to life.

Since we were already at the Stokes Hill Wharf, it was time to have another feed of Barra and feed the fish swimming around the wharf the bits on the plates we didn’t feel the need to eat. I am sure there was 3 kg of chips on the plate but the fish and the seagulls made short notice of them.

It was cooling down which was perfect to do some urban geocaching around Darwin. There is not as many people around and you can spend a little more time looking for those tricky hides. I even managed to spot our first cane toads for the trip. We finished back at the caravans at 1030pm.

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No way at getting away from my birthday even on the road. The Facebook feed went nuts with birthday greetings from friends so I was not going to forget it. Also I had a bout of gout so a painful reminder of getting older. Jenny surprised me with a prawn wrap for birthday lunch.

We farewelled Liz and Bruce and we were once again on the road again. Todays travels took us from Bundaberg to Rockhampton, well just north to Capricorn Caves. Another good day for travelling with blue skies and 27C.

Arriving around 4pm at Capricorn Caves, we were soon descended upon by mosquito’s which certainly put a damper on spending some time outside in the bushland setting. Apparently they only arrived a couple of days ago after some soaking rains.

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Bundaberg is synonymous with Bundaberg Rum so what do you do when visiting Bundaberg, visit the Bundaberg Distillery, even if it is Sunday morning.

I had tried to book online for the tours last night with no success but found out today that it closes off 24 hours before the tour time. This was not an issue as there was not that many around on a Sunday morning so they were happy to take our money.

The tour starts by going through the museum showing the origins of the distillery and the process involved in making the iconic rum.

Following a bit of knowledge it is time to head into the distillery and the sights and mainly the smells of the distilling process.

They are fairly serious with regard to ignition sources. You are not allowed to take in cameras, phones, watches and even car keys. I guess after a couple of large fires in their history, it is understandable.

First stop on the tour is the molasses well which has some amazing amount of product stored. They have 3 large wells and need to store enough molasses for 12 months production even though they only get molasses from the sugar mill for 6 months of the year. The smell is overpowering and I can still smell it in my clothes now 12 hours later.

The tour then takes you through the various plants that distil the rum. There is not a lot to see here apart from vats, then it is into one of the Bond Stores where the barrels and wood vats store the rum while it matures.

The tour ends in the bar and shop where of course there is the opportunity to taste the finished product. Bundy Rum is just not rum anymore with a large amount of blended products now. I just had to try the most expensive bottle (sells for $180 a bottle) and it didn’t really rock my socks. Remember I am a bourbon and beer drinker. I was more partial to some of the blended rums but I will probably stick to bourbon.

After leaving the bar with a Bundy Buzz, it was time to head to the local park and meet up with the Bundaberg Geocachers for an event. Even though it wasn’t a huge event it was a fun way to fill in the afternoon and meet other cachers. We even all headed out to do an underground geocache.

Tonight we headed out again for a meal with Liz, Bruce, Graham and Cheryl, this time to a local Indian restaurant. The meal was really good even though we were the only ones dining in. They did do a lot of take away while we were eating.

We bid farewell to Graham and Cheryl and headed around town with Liz and Bruce to grab some caches before heading back to camp.

Tomorrow we continue north to Rockhampton.

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At some ridiculously early time (it was probably around 7am) there was some little banging on the door. It seemed that Chloe and Amelia had woken the house so Ken thought it would be good to get the girls to wake up us as well.

First order of the day was to fix the bed. A trip up to Stratco and some steel hinges were purchased to replace the flimsy aluminium ones. A bit of drilling, pop riveting and screwing and we soon had a bed better than the bought one. It should last a bit longer than 2 years now.

We bid our farewells to all and we were soon on the road north, passing the Ettamogah Pub, missing the turn-off to the Big Pineapple (there were no signs) and finally stopping at the Ginger Factory and Nutworks in Yandina. Some sampling and purchases and we were on the road again.

It was good going while the Bruce Highway was still a dual carriageway but that soon ended and we were at the mercy of slow drivers. The was a bit of cat and mouse for a while with the carnival trucks coming out of Maryborough and heading into Bundaberg, each time I stopped for a geocache.

We arrived at the caravan park in daylight around 4pm and moved onto our riverside site next to cachers, Liz and Bruce. It wasn’t long and it was happy hour with Liz and Bruce arriving back at camp then Graham and Cheryl (some newby cachers but enthusiastic from the Sunshine Coast).

After getting the initiation of bitten by midgies (I am sure they know we are southerners), it was off to the Bundy RSL for dinner meeting up with some more cachers, John and Christine. With the 8 of us there, it was almost a mini event.

Tomorrow is a big day with the Bundaberg Distillery visit. Is 11am too early to be sampling Bundy Rum.

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Another perfect start to the day with blue skies and temperatures warming. Kally and her two kids joined us for breakfast and we all chatted for the morning. A nice laid back welcome to Bribie Island.

Where to for lunch? Why the Sandstone Point Hotel of course with its overlook of the back channel between Bribie Island and the mainland. It is a very impressive complex with still a lot more work to be done over the next few years. The meals and atmosphere was great and soon a couple of hours had been gobbled up.

We enjoyed some seafood and sandwiches with appropriate beverages, before going on a tour of the Island checking out the canal suburbs and the beach on the eastern side at Woorim. There was even a car carrier heading through the channel towards the Port of Brisbane.

It was approaching afternoon smoko time so off to Scoopys for Icecream and coffee. You could definitely get used to this island life.

Julie and Jenny headed down to Brisbane to catch up with Jenna and to grab the grandkids for the night. The kids are apparently early risers so it looks like Jenny will be staying in the house tonight. Aunty Jenny will be in charge of the kids in the morning.

Thought I had better catch up with Liz and Bruce since we are staying with them at Maryborough tomorrow night. Lucky I did. They are up at Bundaberg for a Geocaching Event so I guess we will be heading through to Bundaberg now.

We were about to go to bed when one of the corners moved forward. That was strange. I check to see if there was an issue with the slide out motors but they were working OK. Then the whole bed launched forward. That was very strange. A quick check and the first movement was a bed hinge breaking and the second movement was the other 3 hinges opening up and letting go. The two lifting rams then pushed the bed forward.

On checking the hinges, they were only aluminium with little strength. After doing a quick fix it was off to bed. I will look at replacing the hinges in the morning.

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Well Queensland lived up to its slogan, “The Sunshine State“, today with sunshine all day and temperatures around 27C. In fact, this afternoon the shorts came out and should stay out for the next month.

The moment of truth with the repaired camera cable this morning and the verdict was positive. It is amazing how much you miss the caravan camera when you haven’t got it. It makes it a lot easy to tow in conjunction with the mirrors.

Another travel day but not that far with 140 kilometres from Stanthorpe to Toowoomba, geocaching along the way.

I did make a stop to “Robins Nest”, a caching team but unfortunately they were not home. Found out later in the day the local Cancer Morning Tea was on. If I had known earlier, I would have made an appearance but not sure that I could mimic some of the costumes.

Tomorrow it is into Brisbane and pick up Jenny for the next phase of the trip up the East Coast to the Great Barrier Reef.

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