Heron Island and the Proposal

July 20 – Heron Island

We woke up fairly early and left our little spot by the river to head into Gladstone. We stopped into Hungry Jacks for breakfast and I was able to Skype Mom and Dad. They seem to be doing well and things are looking good at the cottage. It had been awhile since we last Skyped. We chatted for a while then Beau and I had to go to catch our boat to Heron Island. This time we arrived at the harbour and checked in no problem. We paid for our trip at the tourist information center and only were charge $199/night about $120 c heaper than normal since we had had to reschedule our trip. We boarded the boat around 11am and hit the high seas. It was pretty windy and ride was a little rough but we made it in one piece about 2hrs later. Heron Island runs on “resort” time and is an hour ahead of the mainland. Once on the island we had a complimentary, non-alcoholic drink, and our welcome brief before we had lunch. Lunch was buffet style but delicious. We went to the Marine Center to get the down low on diving. It was a bit more expensive then we originally expected. There was a separate price equipment rental. It cost $65/day for dive gear and $65/dive. We decided we do two dives tomorrow so we'd only be charged for one day of gear hire. We got set up with dive kits and signed up for the 9am dive. We then hurried over to the information center where there was a reef walk going on. We grabbed some old sneakers and joined the group on the reef. The guide talked about sea cucumbers, sea stars, coral, crabs. We passed around some sea cucumbers and sea stars. He also managed to catch an epaulette shark which Beau had spotted. We was a really interesting walk and last about 2hrs. We headed back to shore and put on some warmer clothes. We hurried to catch the sunset but we had just missed it by the time we got to the bar. We bought a beer and took a few pictures of the lovely colours in the sky. We headed back to the room and I read while Beau played guitar for a little bit before dinner. Dinner was a three course meal and we both had seared scallops with bacon to start and a kangaroo fillet with sweet potato puree for dinner. The food was good but the service was a little slow and they forgot about our dessert. But we reminded them and I had a lemon-lime tart and Beau Vanilla Panacotta. The coffee is quite good and we enjoyed some brewed coffee with dessert. We took a tea to go and headed to the bar to listen to the live music for a bit. We played some a Jenga/Uno game which was pretty fun and then reclined on the couches for a bit. After the music had finished we were joined by an older Australian couple who wanted to catch the second half of a rugby game. Beau got into but I grabbed my book since I wasn't very interested. After the game we headed back to our room, had a shower and read for a bit more before bed.

Heron Island

Epaulette Shark

 

July 21 – The Perfect Day

Beau and I had set a 7:30am alarm so we could be up early for breakfast and have it fairly digested before we went diving at 9am. Breakfast was another buffet with eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles and much more. I was a little disappointed with the waffles they were like eggo and had to be toasted. I'm dying for real waffles! After breakfast we went back to the room and got our bathing suits on then headed down to the Marine Center. We struggled into our wetsuits and then waddles down to the jetty with our gear. We got our equipment set up and took a 2min boat ride to our dive site, Heron Bommie. There were 4 of us divers and 2 guides with us. As soon as we got in the water and down to depth our guide started tapping on his tank to point out a green sea turtle. A moment later he did it again and there was a white tipped reef shark. Again and there was a mantaray. Again and he pointed out a lion fish. It was like an amazing creature overload! We saw lots of other fishes and had an awesome 40min dive. The super thick wetsuit really helped keep me warmer although it did mess with my buoyancy. I had extra weight on but I was a little too heavy. We got back on the boat and were taken back to shore. Beau and I decided to go out on the 3pm dive so we could do some snorkeling around the island while it was high tide. We decided to hop in right away and snorkeled/drifted to around part of the island. We saw a sea turtle and lots of fish. Unfortunately we didn't see any lemon sharks that tend to hang around there. I was pretty cold by the time we got out and we went back to the room to rinse off. We sat by the pool for a little while suntanning before lunch time. Lunch was another awesome buffet and I tried not pig out too much. After lunch Beau was restless so went for a walk around the island while I sat and read. He came back around 2:30 and we got ready for another dive. This dive was at Coral Cascades just off the north of the island. It was another incredible dive with 2 types of turtles, a moray eel, a tiny pip fish, a huge lobster, a big white tip reef shark and tons of fishes. We also did some swim threws which were pretty sweet. Both dives today were pretty amazing. Back on the island we headed to our room and got showered up before heading to the bar. We got a beer and sat on some loungers writing up our dives. We chatted with a German couple for a little bit before someone came by claiming there were whales. We headed to the jetty but didn't see any whales but did get a beautiful sunset. We were both a little chilly by then from the wind so once the sun was gone we headed back to our room to put some pants on before dinner. Dinner was a seafood buffet and we pigged out. We also treated ourselves and bought a bottle of wine with dinner. We had crab, bugs, shrimp, muscles and oysters. I have to say I'm not that big on the oysters, they were okay but there is other seafood I'd much rather eat. We also had some really yummy dessert, there was cake with caramel sauce and strawberry mousse. Yum! We were both stuffed and had some of our bottle of wine left so we headed over to the bar to enjoy some live music. After the music had finished and we polished off our bottle we decided to head back to the room. Along the way Beau convinced me we should go down to the beach to look at the stars. We started to talking about how amazing our trip had been and how happy we both were travelling together. Before I knew it he was down on one knee asking me to be his life partner. Then he officially asked me to be his wife. Of course I said yes and he put a grass ring on my finger. (It wasn't actually grass more like a leafy needle thing obviously we'll get something a little more permanent when we get home). It was an amazing ending to an amazing day on an amazing trip. 

July 22 – Back to mainland

We slept in a bit compared to yesterday and were up around 8:30. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast before getting our room packed up. We left one bag on the doorstep for the porter to pick up then headed over to the reception to settle our bill. Afterwards we headed to the pool area and lounged around. I read my book and Beau played his guitar. We decided to go for a little walk about the island, Beau had done one yesterday but I hadn't. We put his guitar on the porter truck so we wouldn't have to worry/carry it about. We walked along the beach but as we came around the northern tip of the island the wind was raging so we opted to walk back through the center instead of the full perimeter. We was a nice albeit short walk. We ended back by the pool and lounge a bit more in the sunshine. Lunch time rolled around and we pigged out on our last meal. Before we knew it it was time to congregate at the jetty waiting for the boat to arrive. We took some pictures in the crazy wind then watched the Heron Islander bob into dock. We got loaded onto the boat and had a pretty rough ride back to land. I tried writing up but found it made me a little sea sick. So I had a nap instead. Once back in Gladstone we got our belongs and fired Dotti up. We picked up some groceries and returned a call about the van. We set up a meeting for tomorrow down on the Sunshine Coast. We drove about 100km out of Gladstone then pulled into a rest stop for the night. There was a well lit picnic area which aided us in making dinner. We passed the evening writing up and went to bed fairly early.

The Proposal Location

The type of tree my ring was made from

July 23 – Back to the Sunshine Coast

We awoke to another beautiful day. I called Mom and Dad after breakfast to tell them our awesome news and Beau gave his parents a call too. We started our drive down to the Sunshine Coast. We had said we'd be there about noon but that was a little optimistic. We stopped in Maryborough for lunch and to check our e-mails. We also got in touch with the woman we were supposed to meet and said it would be closer to 2pm. When we finally did hit the Sunshine Coast in a town called Coolroy it was about 2pm and we were about 20min for our destination. The check battery light came on again.... crap. We pulled into a mechanics and they had a quick inspection. Sounded like the alternator was about to go kaput. The owner called around and could get one in for us tomorrow. We just couldn't believe that when we were about to show the van the alternator went. We figure it's due to our battery issues from last week and the alternator getting over worked. We told the mechanic we'd see him in to morning then head slightly out of town to a rest stop. We also rescheduled to show the van tomorrow. At the rest stop I gave Elaine a call to tell her our good news and we had a little chat since we haven't talked in ages. The rest of the afternoon/evening passed with writing up, reading and guitar.

Great Barrier Reef Day 3 and back to Cairns

July 14 – Great Barrier Reef Day 3

We were up bright and early for our 6am dive. We actually went in the water a little later than that as we moved dive sites and headed back to Fish Bowl. Our dive wasn't as exciting as some of our others, we headed down the wall to start our dive profile off deep enough. We saw a sleeping turtle and some fish but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Back at the boat we got some breakfast which was similar to yesterday then had to pack our room up and check out before our 8am dive. It was a bit of a rush. We got back in the water and it seemed the fish had woken up. We saw a juvenile bat fish, a couple of reef sharks and a well hidden blue spotted ray. Back at the boat the sun had started to show its face, finally! We moved back to 360deg Coral Garden and had our last dive at 11am. We got the see Larry the barracuda that usually hangs out under the boat. We also saw a huge school of parrot fish, I didn't know parrot fish hung out in schools. We had some lunch up on the sundeck in the sunshine. We could still go for a snorkel at 1pm but I decided to enjoy the sunshine instead but Beau took advantage and hopped in with the water camera. Then we had to say goodbye to the Kangaroo Explorer and board Reefkist. We had a 2hr ride back to Cairns with a short stop at Fitzroy Island again. We had a quick stop for some whales too but they weren't as active or as close as last time. I read my book up on deck while Beau pseudo-napped. Once at the marina we were shuttled back to the dish shop and picked up Dotti. We headed to the caravan park we stayed at before and got settled in. We both enjoyed a hot shower before setting out to find some where to eat dinner. There ended up being a good little Thai place up the street and we had a yummy meal of padthai. Beau had an e-mail from Bombardier confirming a phone interview in 3 weeks time. We went to bed pretty early since we were both too pooped to poop.

Yellow one is a Foxface Rabbit Fish

Nemo!

Briggs Reef from above

July 15 – Cairns

We sort of took advantage of the fact we didn't have to be up early but really we didn't sleep in too late. We did some laundry before heading into town. We were all excited because we had two showings of the van today. Once in town we met an Italian couple and they had a look over the van. Beau took them for a test drive but for some reason the they didn't actually drive it themselves. We thought we had a second showing an hour later but it turned out to be the same couple. They had e-mailed us and texted and we replied to both but obviously they didn't keep track too well. Their English wasn't great either. We had some lunch at an Irish pub which included a pot (small glass) of beer. We wandered around downtown and got a 30 cent ice cream to enjoy on the board walk. We decided to head back to the caravan park and maybe hang out at the pool. Back at the park we got changed but then decided to try to fix the windshield instead. It didn't go as well as we had hoped and the sun hide itself away so it wasn't really good pool weather anymore. We did get a text from the Italians wanted to know about getting QLD rego and if we'd take $6000. We said we'd get back to them because we wanted to see how the safety we had scheduled for tomorrow would go. We took our camp chairs over to the pool area, the seats their were full of French people, and started doing some research on changing over the registration. It looked to be simple enough but we figured we should give them a call about the proof of address thing; in NSW just a receipt from a motel was good enough. We made some dinner and watched some tv. I set to work on updating my journal and trying to get some pictures fixed up. We got some stuff posted to our websites before bed.

Cairns Harbour

July 16 – Van stuff

We had to get Dotti in for her road worthiness check this morning at 8am. We dropped her off and walked into the Cairns CBD. It was pretty quiet since most things hadn't opened yet. We wandered around checked out some used bookstores, and souvenir shops. We killed some time in an electronics store too. We called the QLD rego people but found out we had to have a permanent QLD address to change our registration. I'm not sure what other backpackers do but I guess we wouldn't be able to do the registration here. We finally got a call about the van about 3 hrs after we dropped it off. We walked back to the garage and they had some bad news for us. She hadn't passed her road worthiness and had quite a few deficiencies. Crap... some of them were dumb though and I don't think we'll have a problem down in NSW but we'll definitely have to fix some of them. On our way back to the caravan park we popped into an auto parts store to start pricing out the parts we might need. Back at the caravan park we started googling some of the work that needed to be done hoping we (Beau) could do it ourselves. We called the Italian couple to tell them about not being able to do the QLD registration and they said they didn't want it then. Fine, we'll just sell Dotti to someone more deserving then. We started looking at some of the easier fixes in the van, we found the windshield wiper pump needed to be replaced and a fuse was blown for the heater fan. We rode our bikes down to the auto parts store and picked up these items as well as detoured to the grocery store. We now have functional wiper juice and heater. After dinner we started planning a route back to Sydney and figured out any stops we might want to make on the way back down.

Great Barrier Reef Day 2

July 13 – Great Barrier Reef Day 2

Beau and I made an executive decision to forgo the 6am dive. We are allowed 4 dives a day and with 5 opportunities this seemed like the best one to skip. Breakfast was quite the feast with pancakes, hashbrowns, sausages, beans and tomatoes. The boat moved dive locations and we were now on 360deg Coral Garden but still on Briggs Reef. We really had only moved about 500m. We had a dive brief before jumping in the water for our 8am dive. We descended right off the back of the boat but by the time we hit 19m we still couldn't see anything and were pretty disoriented. We didn't want to swim out into the great blue yonder so we surfaced then snorkeled till we could see the bottom then descended again. We had a nice dive and saw tons of fish but by the time we had surfaced we were a bit of a ways from the boat and most likely back at Fish Bowl. Once back on the boat we had a short break then went in again for our 11am dive. This time we snorkeled to the front of the boat and descended. We were joined by another diver whose buddy was having trouble with her ears so the 3 of us stuck together. This dive was awesome we petted a turtle saw a puffer fish and a mantaray! We got super lucky with the mantaray we had started swimming in the opposite direction when we heard a metallic tapping. We turned around and one of the guides was behind us trying to get our attention to point out the mantaray. It was super cool. After our exciting dive we had lunch and then a big break till our next dive. Beau went for a nap and I read up on deck. There ended up being 4 mantarays around the boat at one point and I ran down to get my camera waking Beau up in the processes. I got some surface pictures then turned to Beau and commented that we had seen turtles, whales, sharks and rays the only this we are missing is dolphins. Next this we knew someone was yelling there were dolphins off the back of the boat! Pretty awesome! A bunch of people, including Beau, hopped in the water since the mantarays were still around. Those of us on the boat were yelling at the people and directing them to the rays. Beau got some shots of a ray before it left him in the dust. Then we were back in the water for our 4pm dive. This dive had lots of fish again and was really nice too. We tried not to pig out on dinner again but it was hard since it was fish and chips. Not really a light meal before a night dive. We went on our dive unguided this time and it was super good. Right at the begining we saw a purple and yellow cuttle fish and we got pretty close before it jetted off into the night. There were red bass around again but we still couldn't get them to eat a fish. We also some white tipped reef sharks and a sleeping turtle with his head under some coral. We were heading back towards the boat when Beau starting flashing his light over one spot. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what he was trying to show me until I saw some glowing green eyes (sharks eyes are green in the dark). It was a wobbogong shark, they are super camouflaged and are pretty flat too. You could easily miss him if not for his glowing green eyes. Back on the boat we had a quick shower before falling into bed.

Yellowtail Fusilier

Moorish Idol

Titan Trigger fish

Bat Fish

Mantaray

Mantaray, from the boat

The Great Barrier Reef Day 1

July 12 – The Great Barrier Reef Day 1

We were up very early this morning and had Hungry Jacks for brekky. We parked in an area that was pointed out to us as free parking and walked the short block down to Cairns Dive Center. We got checked in, filled out safety paper work then were loaded in a mini bus and driven down to the dock. We boarded Reefkist, the day boat the would be taking us out to the liveaboard, Kangaroo Explorer. We boated out to the reef with a stop at Fitzroy Island. We also stopped for a bit of whale watching along the way and saw a couple of whales breaching. It was awesome they were actually jumping out of the water. We made it out the reef and transferred over to Kangaroo Explorer. We went through the welcome brief then got a tour of the boat before being assigned our cabins. Compared to the last boat we were on these cabins were luxurious. Actually compared to the van it was spacious too. We had some yummy lunch then got ready for our first dive. The first dive was with a guide so they could assess our skills. We went in at East Timor on Moores Reef with Tanya the Dive Master. She is very energetic. We got to hold sea cucumbers, Tanya loves sea cucumbers, and touch some giant clams. I went through my air fairly quickly though. I'm not sure if I just was cold, excited, nervous or what. Previously Beau would go through air faster than me but then again I'm not sure if we really had equal amounts in our tanks. They were also smaller tanks so the air doesn't last as long either. Anyways it was still a good dive. We then moved dive sites to the Fish Bowl at Briggs Reef. Beau and I had our first unguided dive and really enjoyed it. We saw several sea turtles, one only had three legs! A few more giant clams and tons of fish. We also decided to rent a dive camera and attempted to take lots of photos. After that dive we had a break and some dinner before our very first night dive! Since it was our first night dive we had to hire a guide. There were 6 of us in our group plus the guide and it felt crowded. I guess we have been spoilt in the past since we usually have 4 or less in a group. We did see a bunch of white tip reef sharks as well as a sleeping turtle and some red bass. The red bass use the torch lights to help them hunt but we didn't get to see them in action. After our night dive we had a shower then were pretty much too pooped to do anything else so we went to bed.

Cairns

A breaching humpback whale

The Kangaroo Explorer

Underwater Beau

Underwater Diane!

Turtle

Can you find Nemo?

Turtle!

Trumpet Fish

Three legged turtle :(

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Whitsunday Islands

July 4 – White Haven Beach and the Whitsundys

The engines woke everyone up around 6am this morning but we put off getting up until the breakfast bell rang at 7am. Breakfast consisted of white bread and cereal but sadly no peanut butter for the toast. A bit disappointing but I guess it's easy for the crew. We were motoring towards White Haven Beach and arrived around 8am. As our skipper Matt says everything's takes about 2hrs to get to. We were load into the tenders (or dingys) and driven to the beach. It was pretty windy out and, since it was still early, fairly cool. We went for a walk up to look out and were rewarded with a great view overlooking the Whitsundays. One our way back down to the beach we spotted some green ants that one of the crew had told us about. Apparently if you lick their bums you'll taste a very strong citrus flavour. Two of the girls decided to try this and confirmed it was true. Back down on the beach Beau and I went for a nice walk along the beach. When we made our way back to where the group was they were playing baseball. Beau joined in and I observed. Beau made a dive for the ball one time and ended up water for his efforts. After the game broke up a soccer game got started and I actually joined in. It was a lot of fun but we had churned up the sand so much it made running difficult. We all got together for a big group shot before heading back to the boat. We had sandwiches for lunch and then put the wind to good use and sailed around to Mantaray Bay. True to it's name we saw a mantaray as we were being shuttled in on the tender. He was just gliding along right at the surface and the tips of his wings were breaking through. The dive instructors were doing everyone's free “scuba experience” which was a brief introductory dive to show people what diving can be like. For those of us who were certified we would get a little bit of a refresher. Beau and I went for a snorkel for a little bit and saw some fishes but not another mantaray. We snorkeled for a bit before trying to warm up on the beach. Beau decided to go for another snorkel while I struggled to warm up. Every time I got close the wind would whip up and cool me down again. When we finally did get to go for our dive we were in with a couple other people. We didn't really do much for a refresher just went over the hand signals. We got to go for a short dive and fed some fish. Once back on the boat I had my 1 minute shower and got desalted. I spent some time before dinner chatting with Rachel who's the trial run photographer on the trip. She's taking marketing pictures for the boat and since this her first time out it's a trial run for her and the owner. She was crocheting so we got talking about crafting and such. She's been making beanies and selling them as she goes, not a bad idea. It was nice talking with some one who's like minded about crafting. She's also American. Dinner was much better than lunch with roasted chicken, potatoes, and veges. We had eaten up on deck and I took our plates down. When I came back up everyone was looking over the side of the boat, there were dolphins. We ended up seeing 4 dolphins, I can't be sure what kind they were but probably bottle nosed. There was a game of charades going on down below but we hung out on deck talking with the skipper and some other people before bed.

Overlooking the Whitsundays

The Anaconda 3

White Haven Beach

Hoisting the sails

Sunset

July 5 – Diving the Whitsundays

We awoke to disappointing news, the seas were too rough so we wouldn't be headed to the Reef. Boo thwarted again in our attempt to go to the GBR. Instead we went to Maureen Bay. We had a dive briefing with Chase and told him we would probably go diving twice so which two would he suggest. He said here and Blue Pearl Bay. So we took his word for it and decided to go for a dive here. It was just the two of us who were going so the photographer, Rachel, joined us. We were double wet suited with our 3/2mm stinger suit and then a 3mm shorty over top. The water is only 21 deg. We were dropped out at the reef and rolled off the tender into the water. Unfortunately the visibility was pretty poor, only 3m, and the sun had disappeared behind a cloud. The vis had cleared up some by the end of the dive and the sun had come back out so we were able to enjoy the colours more. It definitely wasn't the greatest dive and it was pretty chilly but it was nice to go for a real dive again. Back on board we got warmed up and had tacos for lunch. The skipper made a small change of plans again and decided we would go to Blue Pearl Bay this afternoon instead of tomorrow. When we arrived at the bay we were still feeling pretty full from lunch so we put off heading out to the reef for about 30min. We got suited up and dropped into the icy water. The visibility was much better here and there were lots of fish to see. We started the dive by feeding some fish. They went nuts and were all around us. We continued onwards and got to do some swim throughs, we went through gaps between two big chunks of coral. It was pretty cool. We saw some bat fish, butterfly fish, a lizard fish, and a massive wrasse. It was a much better dive than the first one. We got picked up by the tender and headed back to the boat. We had the option of going out to the beach and doing some snorkeling. We opted to stay on the boat and warm up again. I helped the one cook peel a large pot of potatoes and we chatted away for a bit. She's from California. Normally the boat would overnight in the bay and this is where the night dive would occur but the winds hadn't calmed down so we head back to the sheltered Hook's Cove. After a late dinner, I think we had to wait for the fish to be delivered, the two crew girls organized us to play “The Best Game Ever.” We had to split ourselves up into teams and come up with team names. The game was to see which team had the best ______. For example the best moustache, best ninja move, best original dance move etc. You had to pick one person to represent your team and they would show their stuff. It was hilarious! Our team ended up coming second by only one point. We were pretty worn out by the time the game finished and headed to bed.

Blue Pearl Bay

July 6 – Land Ho!

Beau and I had an awful sleep last night. It was much warmer last night so we had our hatch open but, since it was pretty windy, every time there was a gust our door would squeak against the latch then slam shut. So we enjoyed squeeeeeak bang all night. We had another boring breakfast of toast before the engines were fired up to take us over to the Sandy Cay. It was a relatively late start but we didn't have very far to go. It was very windy this morning and we were dropped off at a sandbar that had some reef surrounding it. Chase asked if we wanted to go diving again but we decided just to snorkel. The snorkeling was pretty good though. The tender dropped us up stream from the main beach so we could just float with the current There were lots of fishes around but we had left the camera on the beach. The coral was also very nice too. I got cold pretty quick though. We floated back to the main beach and I quickly got out of the water. Beau was more leisurely about it then grabbed the camera and went back in for awhile. I wrapped myself up in my towel and sarong and tired to warm up in the sun. A couple of people got lucky and saw a turtle while snorkeling. The dive guys said sometimes passengers see them here. Beau finished up his snorkel and we caught a tender back to the boat. We had some lunch and then set sail for Airlie Beach. They hoisted the main sail and the head sail so we legitimately sailed most of the way back. There was a large open area between the mainland and the island and the sea was very rough. There were some big waves that splashed us up on deck. It was difficult to find a spot with some shelter from the wind as well as safe for the water spray. We got back to the harbour and were unloaded around 2:00pm. Beau and I returned our wet suits then headed into town. We grabbed some Subway then headed to McD's for internet. Along the way we got sidetracked into a store selling opals and didgeridoos. They apparently had on the best sales they have ever had before and you could get a small, about 3ft, didgeridoo custom painted, shipped internationally and a free boomerang for $350. It seemed like a really cool idea but it's a little out of our budget. After checking our e-mail we headed to the caravan park we stayed in before and checked in. We both had nice, long, hot showers before having a little nap. Some people for the boat were meeting up at a club called the Phoenix for an after party. It was also advertised on the boat and if you spend $5 you get free pizza. Beau and I arrived a bit after 7 but no one had showed yet. We got a jug and put in our pizza order. A little later the pizza showed up as did about half the people from the boat. We yelled at each other over the loud music then they decided to change venues. We decided we were tired so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the caravan park for a relatively early bed time.

Sandy Cay

 

Airlie Beach

July 7 – Out of Airlie

We got oatmealed and packed up this morning and were ready to get out of Airlie. We stopped in at the Saturday morning market but it seemed quite a few stalls were missing or else the market is just kind of lame. There were a few fruit and veg spots and we were able to get a bunch of vegies but I expected more arts and crafts or at least knick knacks. We stopped at the Hungry Jacks for wifi and Beau got his website updated. We picked up a bunch of groceries then nipped across the road for gas and a grease gun. We are hoping if we grease the ball joint the creaking will stop. We headed out of town and onward to Bowen. Sadly the road conditions leave something to be desired in this country and while they were trying to fix the road in one section is was quite gravely and a passing truck kicked up some rocks at us and chipped our windshield. Beau and I just looked at each other in astonishment for a moment before we started cursing. We even have a rock guard to prevent travesties like this! We'll have to look into getting that fixed now too! We stopped into the info center in Bowen to find out where some bbq's might be to make lunch. The also told us there were some races going on in Townsville and everything would be booked out and our rest stop for the night would be full too. Thanks buddy. We made some lunch in a pretty windy park but then again everywhere was pretty windy. Then Beau greased Dotti all up and it seems to have done the trick, we'll see if it lasts. We drove onwards to just before Ayr, about 100 odd km outside of Towsnville to Home Hill Comfort Stop. It was a rest stop that was just on street parking but there was a kitchen area we could use, bathrooms with showers, and a couple of plugs. The rest stop was quite busy but we parked no problem. The only problem we did have was finding somewhere to plug in the computer since the two jacks were over plugged. We made very spice pork vindaloo. I was surprised at how spicy it was since it was just a package mix. After dinner we headed back to the van and read for a bit.