Day 14- Calliope to Marlborough

Packed up the camp again. Getting a bit better at it but it's still a lot of work that takes about four hours!! Sad to see Calliope go, it was a lovely camp by the river. Would be great if you could swim in it! We had planned to call into Rockhampton for lunch, put the laundry from yesterday in a dryer (bloody rain!) and then head to the Capricorn Caves... but in the end Mum and I decided to wash all our sheets and towels so the laundry took longer than expected. No caves for us! We've been to Emu Park and Yeppoon before so just headed straight up the coast to stop at Marlborough.

The highways here are great! Hardly any traffic so we just cruise along. The land all through the last couple of days has been really flat flood plains for miles with a ring of small mountains that seem to surround us. And not the least bit tropical! Just typical aussie bush like around home.

We are at the Marlborough Hotel. A semi-free camp. LOL! It's $4 per person for shower and toilets. It's a fairly busy little stop. We were the only people here when we first stopped around 3:30 but i think there are four or five other groups camping here now. The Camps book said there was power but apparently they used to offer power but not anymore. This was going to be a top up before a few more nights on a beachfront camp at Mackay but we'll have to see what happens. Could not move on to a different camp though cos footy season starts tonight and there was no way Tim was missing kick off. Plus we have been told the blog is severely lacking in pub reviews so while i sit in the van with the kids Tim is hard at work at the bar reviewing beers. I think he may have needed to try another one (or two) just to be sure.

We ran into another family here that are travelling. They are 7months into their 12month lap. Lovely to chat to. They said it took them a month to really get into a smooth routine but that it's always full on and quite a bit of work (but absolutely wonderful!). We are finding that we are flat out organising / setting up / packing / cooking etc that there has been none of the leisurely strolls to practice photography or read a book or chill out that i had imagined. They are doing it in a van similar to ours and just a regular 4WD so lord knows what all the extra crap is that we are lugging around in the back of the truck! I guess they have a house where they have left toys and stuff where i have tried to drag half of ours with us. And also we have had to rush this section a bit seeing as we have already been through most of the coast here and we have to get to Litchfield in May so we are constantly on the move. Once we slow down i really hope i get one of those leisurely strolls!

Really intermittent dodgy reception here so lets see if i can get online to post this...