Woolgoolga, Carnarvon Gorge & Mackay

Hi everyone, thought I'd put up a few pics of the trip so far. So here we go, this is Pop's beachhouse at Woolgoolga, where I spent a bit over a week:





And then Evan's head to stay with Paul and Becky, Lewis and Jack:


And here is the Disco crossing the border into Queensland:






Carnarvon Gorge was a top spot, a really interesting sandstone gorge in central Queensland. Had a good time there, the place was interesting enough and I camped next to an interesting couple from Melbourne, Geoff and Maree, who invited me to share their roast dinner, which was nice, and Geoff invited me to go sailing around Townsville. Here are a few of the Gorge



From Carnarvon I headed to my cousin Matt's place in Mackay, where I spent the next two and a bit weeks, I had a cool time there. Matt's place is awesome and they all enjoy a good lifestyle up there. It was great to meet Caitlin and her family as well and of course all the excitment is about the baby due in a couple of days from now. Here are some pics, firstly Matt and Caitlin

We went 4wd'ing one day, Matt managed to reverse his Navara into a tree:




possibly because he was laughing at me getting stuck and needing to use the winch for the first time! naturally I explained that I'd always wanted to test the winch out for real and I just saw the perfect opportunity on this track- I don't think it was generally believed.




Here's Matt's awesome boat returning to the marina at Mackay- no luck that day, but cruising around was a laugh anyway, not for Terry, Caitlin's dad who you can see holding on- he got a bit seasick and was pretty happy to be back on dry land


Oh well, we still managed a feed of mud crabs thanks to Debbie, caitlin's mum- best thing I have eaten for a while. I went to BCF the next day and bought a pot so hopefully somewhere up the cape I'll get on to a few.

All up Mackay was great- gave the car a service with a bit of a hand from Matt, and left with a bunch of fish in the freezer and a tank full of free diesel thanks to the generosity of some of the mining companies Matt's mates work for! Caitlin's family were great as well and had me over for tea a few times all up- by the time I left I reckoned I'd eaten and drunk enough to keep me going for a while. I'll catch up next time with a few pics of Airlie beach and Townsville, cheers, Dan