Monday Leaving Blacks Beach for Townsville.

Having been up early we were able to pull out of Blacks Beach at 8.15am. It was another beautiful day with a clear blue sky.

Having driven this road last year we were interested to see what or if there had been any changes made along the way. We found the Bruce Highway was still the same with no major upgrades and most of it still being just two way traffic with very few over taking lanes.
From the Mackay region it was mostly cane fields and with the cutting season just about starting from now until November there were warning signs about giving way to the cane trains that cross the road. With the only indication being lights and bells you had to keep aware of what was happening.

We stopped off for our coffee outside the information centre and the Big Mango on the outskirts of Bowen.
Stopping off for lunch after another couple of hours we continued on to Townsville having checked out somewhere to stay and phoning ahead to confirm that they had a space for us for a few days.
By the time we had set up we felt quite exhausted so before dinner we walked around the caravan park to get our bearings and then read our books and planned what we would do for the next few days.
However we found that our quiet evening was not to be as the caravan park was situated right by the                                            
                                                       RAAF BASE TOWNSVILLE

 RAAF Base and it appeared that they were having night flying practice and those big Black Hawk helicopters make an awful lot of noise especially when they criss cross the night sky right over your head. I 'm pleased to say however that it did all finish just after 10pm so they did have some consideration for the townsfolk. Thankfully the commercial airport flights came in over the sea so they didn't trouble us. We did though have the railway line within earshot and with the train horns and whistles it all added to the noise of the place.