0048 Jericho to Yeppoon 7th August

Leisurely wake up in Jericho, good showers and toilets for a showgrounds, cool morning so we had porridge, and then headed out.  On leaving the campsite we were confronted with one of two bad aspects of “free campers”.  We too like to free camp where possible / suitable, but there are certain rules to follow in doing so.  Do not free camp near a town or a paying campsite – It only gets people upset.  And don’t use the facilities of paying campsites without paying.  So coming out of the campsite, we see a motorhome parked outside the campsite, with the couple heading into the campsite with towels etc for a free shower and use of the toilets.  Everyone there had paid for these showers, so it got all the campers upset, plus the people in the motorhome had a shower and toilet in their motorhome anyway.    Just not on, and eventually ruins it for everyone else, and gets a lot of local people “anti” free-campers – and rightly so.   Rant over.

 Coming out of the camp site I must have been so angry, I turned right instead of left (everyone who knows me will tell you that my sense of direction is not good at the best of time !! I am lost without my Tom Tom.) and we ended up in Jericho again !!  Just as I am doing a U turn (having realised the error of my ways – My Tom Tom was shouting at me “Turn Back, Turn Back !!), Janet spots this drive-in cinema screen – And it is in the middle of town, just on a vacant block.  Space for about 20 cars, plus, up the back next to the projection booth, a bunch of double canvas deck chairs like they used to have in the old days !!  I love drive-ins – they were so common when I first arrived in Australia, and so novel for me.  But like so many things, they have disappeared with the advent of DVD’s etc.  There were some locals standing outside a shop next to the Drive-in, so we asked them about it and they told us they have a movie night once a month (Hey, Jericho is a tiny town !!), and that this is the smallest Drive-In in the Southern Hemisphere !!  Almost worth coming out here for one of their movie nights !!!  So for once I was glad I had turned in the wrong direction or we would never have seen this icon !

A couple of hours later we came to Emerald, and had our second experience of the day (and indeed the whole trip) with bad free-campers.  This time we stopped right on the edge of town at a picnic spot where you are legally allowed to stop for 20 hours.  We found a nice shady spot under a tree, away from everyone else, and no sooner had we pulled up than a great big 5^th Wheeler (ie ENORMOUS caravan) pulled up 2 feet from us and asked if we were overnighting.  When we said no, just stopping for lunch, they said “Good, we will park right beside you and wait for you to leave so we can have your spot when you leave.”  I mean, they were SO close, we could hardly open the car doors !!!  Janet couldn’t restrain herself and gave them a serve – deservedly so !!  We then proceeded to take about an hour and a half to eat our sandwich, go for a walk, and visit the local toilets before we gave them the satisfaction of getting our spot.   Just so rude and unnecessary.

Soon after that we crossed the northern end of the Great Dividing Range – Only 550 metres altitude, but at least there were some hills so it made the road a bit more interesting than many of the recent days !! As we neared Rockhampton, there was even water, and wetlands with wild birds on it, so it was all very different than what we had seen in the past few weeks.  As there was no point in stopping en route, we had decided to make a run for Rocky, and got in at about 6 pm.  We knew the camp site we wanted to go to near Yeppoon from past visits, so came straight here and set up in the dark.  We know we are beside a lake, so look forward to waking up at dawn tomorrow and watching the dawn come up over the lake.  Our neighbours from the Gold Coast, Jamie and Susie, are here at the moment on their 48ft yacht Solitaire, so we intend to spend a few days here and hopefully get a chance for a sail with them in the beautiful waters off Yeppoon, out to Great Keppel Island.   We will also be eating some of the fresh scallops straight of the fishing boats that are SO fresh and SO delicious, that you can eat them raw.  We can’t wait……………………………………

 

Pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0048JerichoToYeppoon?authkey=Gv1sRgCOiAobj4puXFqgE#