Further south and the weather is cooler

We've travelled almost to the southern border of Queensland.  In a couple of days we'll be back in New South Wales.  We're about 1,200km south of Townsville and the weather is a lot cooler.

We took almost a week to get to Maroochydore on the Sinshine Coast, only a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane.  On our way we spent a couple of days overlooking the Whitsunday Islands at Conway Beach on the coast from Proserpine, north of Mackay.  It's much more relaxing in this small fishing town than in the hustle and bustle of popular Airlie Beach.  We did drive into Airlie Beach, where we had a camping holiday 38 years ago.  The place has certainly changed in that time.  The caravan park where we pitched our tent was very new and the palms were only about 1m high - now it's like a forest.  We had coffee overlooking the beachside park.




On our way to Airlie Beach we detoured into the range to visit Cedar Falls.  No water flowing over the falls but still a lovely place to visit.

After a couple of days on the Whitsunday Coast we made our way to the town of Seventeen Seventy.  We passed over the Tropic of Capricorn as we bypassed Rockhampton.  We've been in The Tropics since late April.  Seventeen Seventy is so named because it was visited by Captain James Cook in May 1770 on his voyage of discovery.  



Botanist Joseph Banks collected many "new" plant species while the Endeavour was moored offshore.

Then we made our way to Maroochydore to spend a few days.  We booked our trusty battlewagon into Bushtracker for a full checkup and to have a Dexter Anti-Sway system fitted.  As expected there were no real problems with the caravan and only a few little things to get tweaked.  We have been so happy with this caravan - it takes us everywhere we want to go and our camping gear has only had one airing 2 years ago.  We also took the opportunity to have the batteries and solar system health checked at solar experts Eniquest who had provided us with excellent service when our batteries died in mid-July.

After a couple of nights in relative luxury in a cabin at Alexandra Headland, we were back on the road.  A night at Cruice Park, Woodford, where we've often camped and then on to Lake Broadwater, where we are now.  About 30km south of Dalby on the Darling Downs, this shallow lake is a popular spot.  There is plenty of flat camping space.  We were last here with our new caravan in November 2012 and always said we'd be back.  There are a few other campers here just chilling out.