Swan Park

After all that, Goondiwindi was a disappointment! I turned up in my togs for a dip in the thermal spring spa and it were that dirty, I instead spent five minutes marvelling at the diseases brewing in there, yet to be named. The dog loved the park though, there was a 5 acre paddock to gallop about in. The town is famous for cotton growing and processing. Which was a relief as I thought all the white stuff on the verges was used bog roll.

Taroom was a teeny weeny little rural village, but had excellent bike tracks behind the caravan park, that took you into town or to dams or disused railway lines. We were just there for a few days and helped the caretaker with some dog training.

We moved on to Biloela and the less said about that town the better. The caravan park was on an industrial estate and the town has seen better days. There's a general feeling of hopelessness and despair. The locals had faces that spoke of a long, hard life. It should be twinned with Grimsby in the UK, reputed to be the most miserable town to live in.

Our next town was Yeppoon, and that put us properly back on track heading northwards on the lap of Aus. We have been moving on at quite a pace to get here. We stayed just outside the town at Island View Caravan Park, Kinka Beach. It was lovely. Very tidal. It took a few hours to walk out at low tide to the sea.

There was a fresh water creek that ran out from under the main road to the sea that had created a shallow channel along the beach. So I tried an experiment one day to see whether, instead of wasting time using my dumpy little legs to walk out, whether if I simply laid down, the creek would take me out to sea. This exercise was not overly successful, mainly due to the size of my arse. My stomach hurt from laughing and Dick tried to save me several times, thinking I must be drowning in four inches of water.

We did some 4WDing along the beach and Dick spent his days chasing balls and pestering the swarms of blue Soldier crabs.

The access road onto the 4WD beach was similar to that at Goolwa Beach, SA, where Helga, Channi & I used to go 'surfing' (dicking about) i.e. it had deep sand and huge ruts.
I saw several folk get stuck and had to be winched out and was debating whether to bother as the Pajero is not at its best in deep sand. I let the tyres down as far as I dared and was pleasantly surprised to be able to cruise along smoothly, instead of needing to gun it as the locals were doing. One other solo female 4WDer stopped for a chat and it turns out they were all too lazy to let their tyres down, hence they were getting stuck. Silly billies.

There were street markets, noodle bars and boutique shops in Yeppoon, so we were in heaven. Dick loves a street market as there is usually food.

The small coastal town of Emu Park was 10 minutes in the other direction and it was beautiful. Lots of history, gorgeous coast, emus made out of metal that held all the info signs. And a cute little museum with some very attentive volunteers. All the families from the bigger towns nearby used to pack onto the old stream train earlier in the century with a special ticket issued for public holidays and have a lovely day out at the beach - the photos of this were very sweet.

We met lots of different folk here, including a seemingly sane lady on the beach who was keen to chat. It became apparent after a minute or two that was she was actually quite mental. After assuring her I would give up dairy and tomatoes (as they were making me fat) and become vegan, we made our escape and took the scenic way back to avoid bumping into her again. And enjoyed steak for dinner.

It seems my shit magnet is still working.Read more