Mackay

9th Sept
  Cleared as we left Airlie Beach & another cruise ship at anchor & more markets but hard to park with the van on so didn't stop. Once past Proserpine the rain set in & not pleasant driving on single lane hwy with very short passing lanes. As we arrived at the park it stopped & we were able to set up without getting wet & opted for an en suite site to make things even easier.

A large park with a separate area for permanent dwellers & lots of palms ,ducks & birds.

At 4pm the guy would bring a wheel barrow of bread to the waiting flock!

Next morning we set off just after 8am to go to produce markets at the Showgrounds & purchased nice fresh veggies. We then drove into town & wandered around but most shops closed on saturday morning. A scrapbook shop many years out of date was open & so over stocked it was hard to look . Some great walks along the river but decided coffee was next.

A very well presented town from the days when the mines were doing well!

We found our way to the Art Gallery where there was a nice cafe & a very helpful girl on the desk who mention many thing for us to do in the area. The exhibition was on mixed media & very different to classes I have done but interesting. Also some very simplistic drawings from a Sydney guy on display.

11th Sept
   We drove out to the marina & really interesting place with a separate sugar loading area & all covered a huge amount of land. Yet another coffee, watching traffic drive along the break wall in the back ground.

This break wall looked fairly new & around 1klm long & a novelty driving along it although the odd person walking. We parked at the end & watched guys fishing although many rocks to negotiate to get near the water.

We then drove into town & found a Cuban restaurant for lunch but just ok food. We did however find a huge shopping mall & spent a few mins at Woolies before going back to the park, Mackay is  much bigger than we expected & an interesting place to spend time. Love Bev & Allan.