Don’t exactly expect maps in tourist brochures to be to scale. Just a small modicum of accuracy. Proportionate. But the one I’d picked up for a van park north of Rockhampton? Positively logarithmic. Showed a pub. Local school. Just off the highway. The site pretty well adjacent. Actually a couple of miles further on. Steep climbs. Arriving at dusk. But worth the effort. Peaceful. Pitch amongst the trees. Just two fellow campers. Couple of wallabies. Numerous green tree frogs.
Don’t want to sound ungrateful. But the road south from Mackay to Rockhampton is pretty dull. Actually no. Very dull. Monotonous. Scrubland. Open savannah. And quite a bit of it. Almost three hundred and fifty kilometres in all. About the length of Wales. Roughly the distance you’d cover cycling from Anglesey to Cardiff. But far more sparsely populated. Long sections without a soul.
Beyond the small town of Sarina, twenty or so miles south of Mackay, just the odd watering hole. Carmila. Clairview. Delightful stop at St Lawrence. Marlborough. The Caves. Suddenly aware that potable – drinkable – water doesn’t flow out of all taps. Hardly the Outback mind.
