Last night was not only our final one at the splendid Silver wattle Caravan Park in Mount Morgan but, being a Saturday, was also the night of the charity dinner laid on by the owners. The food was excellent and the $20 per head plus the money raised in the raffle was donated to the Royal Flying Doctors. 

 The weather had been wonderful for the entire trip so far but we were predicted a bit of rain for the next couple of days so we packed most of our bits away after dinner ready to leave in the morning. It is worth noting that extra care should be taken on the roads around Mount Morgan and Rockhampton, there were three nasty accidents just in the five days we were staying in the area, we even saw one of them. I can't guess at the reason because the roads were better than in many places we have visited. 

Our next destination was 1770, so named because the town was built on the site of Captain Cook's second landing in Australia in May 1770. Apparently the name should be written in full, Seventeen Seventy, but the locals use the numbers and so will I.  

We had called ahead and booked The Summit, a dog friendly caravan site, because 1770 is a very popular tourist destination. On the way we stopped for a coffee at Caliope Historic Village. The coffee was terrible but the setting delightful with pretty gardens full of birds snacking on the feeders strung in the trees. It was extremely pleasant watching Double Barred Finches (the photo at the top of this page) Brown Honeyeaters and peaceful Doves munching away so we pretended to enjoy the coffee so as not to spoil the serenity. There was also a very popular area for free camping and we made a mental note to return in the future.

 When we arrived at The Summit ($30 unpowered, brand new amenities, off lead dog area) we discovered it was attached to a dog training school and offered doggie day care. The sites were all on a slope overlooking a small dam, very pleasant. Apparently there was a view over Agnes Water Beach from the very top of the hill but we forgot to go and look when the rain stopped. We drove in to Agnes Water passing a large number of buildings under construction including a new shopping centre which had only opened the day before. Agnes Water is right next to 1770 and supposedly beautiful but hotels and resorts had been built all the way along the shore line making sure the view could not be enjoyed by anyone but their customers, very disappointing. When we eventually scrambled on to the beach it was lovely but not somewhere I would visit again. However, we found a splendid fish and chip shop and, as we were leaving, the town centre was starting to fill up with campers and cars which clearly planned to stay for the night. That will teach the town planners for allowing the whole waterfront to be built up, usually the illegal overnighters find discreet spots to set up but there were none left so they set up right by the hotels and resorts, ha ha. 

 Just down the road 1770 was a different story entirely. The marina housed a cafe, a couple of shops and a tackle supplies, all a bit old, quirky and pleasingly tatty. Excellent gardens with a pathway and little playgrounds and sitting areas stretched the full length of the coastline for everyone to enjoy with an extremely windy lookout area at the end of the point. Agnes Water and 1770 were like chalk and cheese and I know which I preferred. 

Back inland and slightly south for 2 hours brought us to Mount Perry where we headed for the showground because it had good reviews. It turned out to be a fair way out of town with only three caravans camped there so we took a look at the caravan park right in the centre of town. It was pretty good and only $22 unpowered so that was where we set up. As usual, the unpowered sites were the prettiest and quietest and we are often the only van in the unpowered area. Caravanners seem determined to rig up their vans with all kinds of solar and battery set ups and then choose not to use them, preferring to camp cheek by jowl with dozens of others on the powered sites where they are all so close they can hear each other snoring. 

Mount Perry was an old gold mining town and we discovered there was quite a bit to see. We had breakfast at the cafe/general store then visited the art gallery. The art was a bit ordinary but at the back was a fascinating information display about Florence Broadhurst, a local who became a celebrated fabric and wallpaper designer and was murdered in Sydney. After that we took in the museum and the smelter. The smelter area was massive and the walk up to it was pleasant with plaques clearly marking where shops, school etc were when the gold and copper mining were in their heyday and the population was far greater than today. 

The best attraction for me was the Boolboonda Tunnel, the longest unsupported tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere. It was home to loads of microbats and a bit creepy but thrilling all at the same time. The whole town was bristling with historic bits and bobs and apparently receives quite a number of weekend and holiday visitors who stay at The Federal Hotel which was the, beautifully restored, old picture house or one of the several boutique hotels in the town. 

 After a few days at Mount Perry we drove to Wuruma Dam, a free camping area north of Eidsvold. The dam was huge and there were quite a number of people camped there, it was a very long road in though so you would not want to forget anything. We had stocked up in Eidsvold on the way, biggish town, a bit strange. They was a butcher proudly displaying a sign saying where his meat was murdered and I said hello to a friendly chap who was promptly arrested and taken away in a police car. The dam had a grocery man who turned up every second day with basics and campers could phone him with any requests. It was wonderfully peaceful and we had an excellent view over the dam where there were quite a few birds to watch but still no budgies. This was the only time we regretted not bringing our kayaks on the trip, most people were there with boats or kayaks fishing for Redclaw, a type of yabbie. The walk along the dam wall was interesting but the place was a bit too remote to stay for very long, we had already missed the fifth Ashes Test as the only place to get any kind of signal was over by the toilets, a ten minute walk away so after four days we moved on again. 

We were heading for Theodore but passed through the tiny town of Cracow. Again the place to camp was the Heritage Centre for a $10 donation with power, hot showers and spotless toilets. The Heritage Centre was good too, paid for by a big mining company who had an operation nearby, all the interactive displays worked and covered the history of the town. one information board amused me, it was explaining that the town was first settled by a man whose Polish wife was from Krakow. It then went on to say that nobody knows where the town (Cracow, pronounced Crack Oh) got its name, I think I could take a wild guess! 

 The town was dotted with little windmills all made by one artist who got the parts for them from old pedestal fans, a group of Guinea Fowl wandered around free and it was a very pleasant place to stop. We thought we should spend some money in the pub as we could not imagine how it survived in the little town, we soon found out at about 7pm when the place filled up with workers from the mine and was soon jumping like a Friday night in our old local, The Load of Hay! 

  After a very pleasant couple of nights at the Heritage Centre in Wandoan, we set off north again on our journey to reach the tropics. The weather was already warm this far up but we were determined to reach our target, so after a quick coffee and a visit to the world's cheapest op shop, we were on our way. The plan was to stop at Biloela next, a town which had been regularly in the news as the townsfolk had campaigned to keep their neighbours, a refugee Sri Lankan family, in Australia. We thought this little place deserved to have some of our traveller dollars but the drive along the road in revealed Biloela to be massive and a bit like Slough so we decided to give it a miss and continued to nearby Goovigen in the Banana Shire region which had been recommended by a man called Neil we had chatted to in Condamine a few days ago. 

We passed two huge Wedge Tailed Eagles snacking on a dead kangaroo in a field as we pulled into Goovigen Recreation Grounds and there was Neil set up near the entrance. He was right, this was a great spot to stop. $10 a night donation for power and water or $5 without, hot showers, toilets, a playground and a big oval to walk the dog around. There were spaces for around 12 vans to comfortably camp there and it was full by evening. The town was tiny but had clearly once been a buzzing little place with a railway station , shops and a pub. All of those were closed down now, perhaps the cheap camping initiative will help to change that.

  We found out we had stumbled upon and accidentally been following The Great Inland Way, which runs from Melbourne to Brisbane and features all these wonderful places to stop cheaply. Most of the travellers we met had taken this route out of Victoria to escape the winter down there, many did so every year and bumped into others they had met on previous years in exactly the same spot. That would not suit us, we like to try and see new places each time we get the caravan out. 

On the first morning I woke to an amazing dawn chorus so set my alarm to be up in time to see it the next day. We were determined to see budgies this trip so I was hopeful but all I saw were Butcher Birds and Choughs. Pleasant Lake was supposed to be a local attraction so we drove there to find it was no more than a puddle and not very pleasant so we continued to Victoria Lake which was very pretty. There were no campers there but people complain that it gets quite messy in the busy season because some campers do not know how to behave in an area with no toilets, I think we will give that one a miss. 

The campers all gathered around a big fire in the evening and I discovered two things: 1) Not many caravanners share my political views, there were some rather offensive comments thrown around regarding the upcoming  referendum for a Voice to Parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 2) I could not live permanently on the road like many of these campers. Some have a plan but others just seem to drift from place to place, I cannot see how one could maintain friendships or hobbies in that situation.

 It was time to move on to Rockhampton which lies on the Tropic of Capricorn. We knew there would not be any free or cheapo camps and were warned it would be difficult to find camping vacancies in Rockhampton, it was so we chose to stay about a 40 minute drive south in Mount Morgan at the Silver Wattle Caravan Park. What a beautiful spot, because we don't need power we bagged the best site in the whole place, right at the top of the park with views over the Mount Morgan range. Everything was spotless, there were even buckets in the showers to collect the first flow of water before it reached the desired temperature to then pour on the flowerbeds as there had been no rain for months. The town itself was a 5 minute drive away and a reasonable size with supermarket, coffee shop etc. 

We drove in to Rockhampton the next day and did all the touristy things like posing in front of the Tropic of Capricorn sign at the visitor centre where we chose our ferry for a trip over to Great Keppel Island the next day. We also went for a short walk in the Botanic Gardens, no dogs allowed so we couldn't leave Harvey in the car for too long. 

The gardens were beautiful and had recently been overtaken by a huge colony of bats. The trees were absolutely full of them and apparently they were becoming a bit of a nuisance but we loved them. Rockhampton is a big town and very ordinary in parts but has some wonderful old buildings lining the riverside, after a wander along there we set off home to Mount Morgan. 

Back at the caravan park there was a Happy Hour around the fire where the owners handed out spring rolls and damper, they even provide a complete meal on a Saturday night for $20 which all goes to the Flying Doctors. The park is very high up so beautifully cool at night and warm during the day, very green even though it was so dry and we could see fires burning in the hills surrounding us.

 Up early the next day to drive to Yeppoon for the ferry over to Great Keppel, one of the Barrier Reef Islands. All the ferries take dogs and we went with Freedom Fast cats $55 each and $5 for Harvey. The crossing was only 30 minutes and Harvey was not too sure about it but the island was glorious, turquoise sea and white beaches. 

There were a couple of nice cafes and a bar but I was a bit disappointed when I ventured inland to find derelict buildings and tumbledown fences. Apparently these resort islands were huge in the 1980s but have since fallen out of popularity, however we had a nice time and Harvey was happier on the return journey. 

Took a quick detour to Emu Park after disembarking the ferry, gorgeous town, very child friendly with a huge park on the waterfront which had been developed with a fund to help people work again after COVID. It featured a wonderful singing ship sculpture which was installed 200 years after Captain Cook found and named the Keppel Coast.