Mackay

Once filled up, we set of to Cape Hillsborough via Mackay.

On the way, as we passed Clareview, we saw signs for a dugong sanctuary 1km. Bun really like dugongs but has never met one, so the thoughts of seeing them “in the flesh” was very exciting. We turned off and drove on down the road along the coast until we had gone way further than 1km. We stopped to ask a local who told us the sea was the sanctuary, the bay at Clareview was the sanctuary and they could be sen in the sea at high tide. It was low tide and the sea was several hundred meters away. Slightly disappointed, we got back into Bertha and drove back to the main highway - “Bruce Highway”.

We stopped for a coffee at “Flaggy Rock Cafe”. I hoped it would be like the Hard Rock Cafe it playing a local form of “flaggy rock”. No, it’s name after the to w of Flaggy Rock. Other than the joke crocodile and the lovely flowers, all that can be said is that they can’t make a decent coffee. We generally drink iced coffee, these are not difficult to make. Some places call them iced latte, others, iced coffee. The range of syrups, ice creams, creams etc that can be added is absurd. To be clear we always state, coffee, ice, milk, nothing else. Invariably the “nothing else” is interpreted as a squish of vanilla syrup or similar and that is what they put in today’s coffee.

“Sitting in the middle of the Queensland coast, the Mackay region stretches from secluded islands off the coast through golden sand beaches and into lush sub-tropical rainforests. The historic town of Mackay is filled with 1920s Art Deco buildings and public artworks, as well as a vibrant dining precinct. See wallabies on the beach at Cape Hillsborough National Park, dive with shy platypus in Eungella National Park or throw a line in at some of the state’s best fishing spots.”

We went to see two things, the mural depicting the history of Mackay, and the Orchid House.

The mural was on a long wall and was quite interesting, but was very difficult to read as the words from different stories were intermingled with others. It’s interesting to see that,in my eyes, Australia doesn’t appear any more comfortable with its own slave trade and persecution of the indigenous people than Britain is with its part in the slave trade.Read more