Day 8: Long travel day to Cape Hillsborough

June 29, 2018

The night was quite restless. It turned out that the tree under which we are standing is home to hundreds of flying foxes. They made so much noise at night and 'threw' the WoMo with fruits, branches, etc. that I thought all night I would have one of those animals lying next to me in bed.

Reminders of our WoMo trip in 2010 come to mind... we spent a night at the Grand Canyon and our site at the Mather CG was apparently the unofficial home to a herd of deer. They rubbed their behinds on the WoMo in the morning, causing the whole thing to shake like a ship at sea.... ;-)

The motto of the vacation is clear: the early bird catches the worm!
We have adapted to the Australian conditions so that we can safely get from A to B during the relatively short day before twilight.

That means: get up BEFORE sunrise, start the day with sunrise, and not go to bed too late after sunset. Since the days have been very eventful so far, going to bed 'early' is easier for us than getting up early... we are all 'late risers', so the kids sometimes complain in the morning when I seemingly throw them out of the warm alcove bed in the 'cool' night. Well, but there's nothing we can do - we have a lot planned for today too!

So we wake up before the alarm - even the kookaburra family in the tree next door helps us get up, so that we are sitting at the breakfast table before sunrise at 6:40 and plan today's day. There's not much to plan for today - it's purely a travel day of a whopping 620 km along the Bruce Highway to Cape Hillsborough. I tried out all possible route options from home, but this route couldn't be improved, not least due to the lack of attractions along the way. Our friends drove the route exactly one year before us and also went through. But in the opposite direction. However, they said it was no problem. We are familiar with travel days. We have always had at least one long travel day in our previous WoMo trips in Canada and the USA and we have always mastered it with flying colors.

We are ready to leave at 7:30. Perfect!
The sun is shining, we leave our dreamy beach site and quickly drive over the 'Captain Cook Drive' to the '1770 Headland Park' and take a walk to the 'Wave Outlook'.
The blue on the WoMo side has now dried and faded, but still visible... (at least it doesn't smell as bad anymore ;-))

My husband had already announced that he would definitely not drive over 600 km alone... Damn.... so far I have successfully avoided 'driving on the left'. Driving the motorhome doesn't worry me at all - I always drove in the USA and the motorhome was almost 2 meters longer...

But this driving on the left..... Help!!!! I have only driven 'on the wrong side' once. That was in South Africa in the middle of the de Hoop National Park - there was no oncoming traffic :-)

After 230 km we have to drive into the city in Rockhampton and refuel. When my husband paid, he handed me the keys and sat in the passenger seat. Oh no... now I have to start in the middle of the city too??? With intersections, roundabouts, and traffic lights.. all in left-hand traffic???
Damn damn damn!
But well, onto the driver's seat and off we go!

The first kilometers are hell... I have no idea where my motorhome ends on the left side and I am extremely uneasy when we cross the city on 3 lanes. Outside of Rockhampton, it becomes more relaxed as we are back on our 'highway'.

The 1-2 lane road is easy to drive and after 100 km I can hold the steering wheel less tightly and 'race' at 110 km/h on the partly empty road.
It's going well! Although I always dutifully drive with a look in the right exterior mirror, my husband can't help but say 'Ahhhh, ditch'. Grumbling. Of course, I'm not driving into the ditch. Nevertheless, this driving on the left is not for me.

Googlemaps told me during the planning that it would take us over 8 hours for the route. Luckily, that's not true. We are a bit faster, get through well, and reach the Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park (Campground) early in the afternoon. Everywhere outside the campground, wallabies await us on the left and right sides of the road.

After resetting the Star RV Navi to factory settings several times two days ago, it was finally ready to spend time with the GPS and navigate for us. It simply did not want to start its service before and annoyed us with the phrase 'keep it under the open sky', which is not necessarily easy in an alcove motorhome - there is no 'unobstructed view of the sky' on any part of the windshield.

At the campground info, they give us a map and the time for sunrise (6:41), with the advice to be at the beach well before to see the kangaroos. Oh great, get up early again....

Meanwhile, we have almost gotten used to falling into bed between 8/9 pm in the evenings and getting up with the sun - or tomorrow: getting up BEFORE the sun...

We take over our extremely spacious site 44 (this time WITH a slab) and explore the surroundings. Right next to the laundry, there are 2 kangaroos under the clothesline *lol*, a campground with kangaroos!

We walk to the beach. It's huge.

Since it's low tide, it looks even bigger.

We walk along the beach and enjoy the surroundings. There are countless crab balls again, from which you can see patterns / pictures.

After a 1-hour beach walk, the kids decide to explore the lookout hill with their dad. I don't feel like climbing anymore today and leisurely walk back along the beach, look at the baby wallabies that are fenced in on the campground

Afterwards, I enjoy the afternoon on my camping chair, where I promptly get a visit from 2 kangaroos that nibble on the small tufts of grass right in front of my feet.

How cool is that!

For statistics:

Campground: Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park
Costs: 39 € / Powered Site with Slab
Distance traveled: 639 km
Wildlife sightings: seagulls, kookaburras, birds, kangaroos
Weather: sunny, 25 degrees
Conclusion: kangaroos at the campground are just awesome!!!