5 July 2011 - Prosephine Tourist Park, Queensland

Yet another late afternoon outside; how lucky are we with the weather! We drove on up this morning from Finch Hatton, cutting across to the Bruce Highway from Marian rather than back tracking all the way through to Mackay. The road we travelled over was more undulating land than that south of Mackay, but the sugar cane fields continued on all the way through to the flat river plains of the Proserpine River, interspersed with some cattle holdings.

It is always strange to resume travel on the busy roads, and stranger still today to pass so many caravan rigs. An extremely conservative guess would suggest upward to a hundred, all travelling south toward the cooler weather. Obviously there has been a major event further north that is now over, one we did not get to but will hopefully find out about, just to satisfy our curiosity.

Proserpine is of course a rural centre to this sugar growing region, and the administrative centre for the Whitsunday coast. We are still 35 kilometres away from those famous shores, famous as a tourist destination and a hop off point to the more famous islands; Hamilton, Long, Hayman, Lindeman, and seventy more. Apparently 800,000 visitors visit this region annually.  Less than two months ago Larissa and her family joined their ranks, disembarking from their cruise to enjoy the wonders of Airlie Beach which is part of the Town of Whitsunday, along with Cannonvale, Jublilee Pocket, Flame Tree and Shute Harbour. Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring the land bound wonders of this area.

In the meantime we are parked up in Proserpine at the council caravan park, paying a rather hefty $27 per night (hefty for a council park, that is) booked in for a couple of nights. The park is right next door to the council’s heated Olympic pool, within site of the local sugar mill, within hearing of the rail and just a few blocks from the main street shopping centre. The sites are in booths lined with trees, offering privacy and shade.

We arrived just before midday, set up, lunched, did a load of laundry, then walked down into the town centre. The town has all services one requires including a couple of supermarkets, a couple of hardware stores and newsagents, a Transport Authority office and several banks among other sundry shops. Our electric kettle (purchased back in January for the grand sum of $9.95) had died a few days ago; we managed to find a replacement at Crazy Clarks. At the Woolworths we purchased a few food items as well as a replacement can opener which had also died and a wonderful steamer pot which fits our existing cookware. The Home Hardware store sold Chris a plumbing bracket he needed, promising a refund if it does not fit and were just so friendly.

We walked back in the sunshine very satisfied with the service we had received in this rural town, and decided to have a swim. One length in the chilly water was all we managed before coming back across to camp and soaking in a hot shower in the excellent camp amenities.