Day thirty-eight meant it was time to leave Yeppoon. Another great place. Part relaxation, part adventure and our first introduction to snorkelling on the reef. Everything had been fantastic, from the caravan park, to the local beach and in particular the trip to the Keppel Islands.

But, as the theme of this trip goes, eight weeks is not a lot of time to do what we are doing, so we need to move on and we are now setting off to Mackay. This leg was showing as around four hours, but with stops, food and a bit of faffing around it could well be a lot longer. We didn’t have anywhere flagged for a lunch stop, so we will have a look round on the way and see how we go.

The trip down was the usual great scenery, parts of which may have resembled the Savannah, with huge flat plains as far as the eye could see, with a few trees thinly scattered around the place. It was extra-scenic, and we had more great weather to help the travel experience on its way.

After making reasonable progress and snacking on a few morsels that we had in the van, we needed a better quality feed and a well earned rest, so it was good luck that we chanced upon the Flaggy Rock cafe, literally a few metres off the Bruce Highway. There was a actually a bit of a sad story behind the cafe, as the people that set it up moved on when one of them was diagnosed with blood cancer, and the running of the cafe was now down to a group of local Flaggy Rock ladies (Flaggy Rock itself is one of many sugar cane districts in the region).

It was a great place to stop, and was set in large grounds with plenty of bushland and a couple of billabongs around the place. After a quick home-cooked feed and a couple of pics we were on our way. Destination Blacks Beach, Mackay.

The caravan park we had chose was the Big 4 Mackay Blacks Beach caravan park. This was a few k’s north of Mackay but was absolute beachfront. It looked good on the tin, and from our experiences so far being out of town was often a bonus.

We arrived in reasonable time and explored the site. It was absolute beachfront, no doubt it but it was another freezing cold pool. So much so even Mazzy didn’t want to go it.

Dad went for a beach walk (billy no mates for a few minutes, yay!) and everyone else just relaxed. It had been quite a long drive in the rattletrap-van and a big part of this trip is trying to find a few quiet moments when you can.

Blacks beach was pretty spectacular with a headland at one end, and view of the bay to the other. To be honest though, I think we are starting to get spoilt with some of the beaches, especially having been on the Keppel Islands just a few hours earlier, so Blacks beach, as much as it was great, was kind of just another beach.

A few pics were taken, then it was back to the van, where I met another new best mate and new best mates wife. New best mate and wifey were from Brisbane originally, but were in town awaiting their daughter’s birth. She was a week or so late and so they had been in this very caravan park for two and a half weeks. We had a good chat about travel, and all the great places. Lucky old buggers, travelling Australia with time to kill and not much else to worry about.

Well that was it for the night. We rustled up some reheats for tea and chatted about what happens next. Although we know where we are going, the plans are loose so we have wriggle room for whatever we want to do. From what we had seen of Mackay on the way through, it wasn’t much to look at and there actually wasn’t too much to do. End result, we will move on in the morning. Next stop Cape Hillsborough.