20 July 2011 - Bluewater Park, Queensland

Here we are parked up in a free caravan stopover at Bluewater just off the Bruce Highway. This park is apparently one of about four or five made available by the Townsville council on the Northern Beaches and the settlements just inland, on the main highway. We were warmed that the beach parks are full soon after breakfast (a slight exaggeration I am sure, given that people are only thinking of leaving then) and so we did not risk hunting out a better park than this in the possibility of missing out altogether.

This morning we left the Black River Stadium, assuring the caretaker that we would surely stop there again when we next come this way. It has proved to be an excellent camp; clean, convenient and fairly priced, although we would always prefer the free variety!

With the very pregnant Danielle

Minutes after 10 o’clock we pulled up outside Danielle and Aaron’s house in Saunders Beach, to be greeted by our blooming hostess. As Chris is so apt to say to ripely pregnant women, he remarked she had put a bit of weight on. It was lovely to see their house, a charming “miner’s” cottage, with all the wonderful accoutrements that houses in tropical Queensland should have: ceiling fans in every room, more than one electric air-conditioner, cool rooms with high ceilings, a fridge that dispenses ice (either chunky or crushed) and chilled water, cane palms, frangipani trees, a covered outdoor area, and proximity to the long sandy beach. We were served tea and freshly cooked shortbread, treats that are indeed rare in this life we have chosen to lead, and chatted for more than a couple of hours about life in Australia. Aaron is currently doing his week in Charters Towers in the mines, twelve hours on and twelve hours off, and will be home for his week off in a few more days when we will be long gone from the area, so we will have to meet him another time.

The roadside park at Bluewater

We came on up here to find all but one place taken. We are all rather tightly packed in, lacking the privacy we enjoyed at Black River Stadium, however we are pleased to have a spot in this very pretty park. Chris and I wandered across the road to what appeared to be a store, to buy our daily newspaper. The store is closed, and the post office alongside is open from three until five, but does not run to newspapers. We retraced our route along the creek, across the playing fields and back through a fitness trail which is better suited to India’s agility and height, than mine.