Day 70 Monday 18/7/2016, Mackay to Yeppoon (Capricorn Coast) the rain has stopped

Because of the wet we decide to forgo our trip up to Finch Hatton Gorge in the ranges and our next intended stop in the Byfield National Park and head straight to Rockhampton. We get 30kms down the road and the oil light flashes briefly. Our oil levels are ok so we hold our breath and continue on. All the creeks are rushing. At Marlborough where the highway had been cut, the paddocks are still underwater. We stop for a pie at the general store, wipe our feet on the hessian bag at the door on the way in and the lady behind the counter tells us what she thinks of the weather!

Back on the road and once more the oil light starts flashing, constantly. The highway is pock marked with potholes from the rain. The Rockhampton area has had nearly 500 millimetres of rain, that’s almost Melbourne’s annual rainfall. We try to avoid the potholes but the vans’ wheels certainly must have copped a couple. We stop at a rest area to check the oil and notice that the van door is wide open! Thank God the ukulele is safe. Door locked again and oil light now beeping and flashing we continue on. I ring every van park in Rockhampton then start on Yeppoon using the Wikicamps app to work in concentric circles. We finally get a park about 15kms south of Yeppoon at a place called Mulambin. It looks like all of the free campers have headed in to caravan parks to dry themselves out. We book a 4WD service centre for tomorrow and breathe a sigh of relief that we’ve arrived in one piece and have decent accommodation. In fact, it is really nice this Capricorn Palms Big 4 Caravan Park.

I jump into the van and can sense something is wrong, yep, the table has ripped out of the wall and is collapsed in a heap on the floor. What a day.

I ask reception for a handyman and find that there is a caravan serviceman on the way as there are many people with problems of which ours seems rather minor. He arrives cursing bad workmanship and at first suggests that we just go without a table! “It is shit!” He says. He waves his hands around at the vans parked nearby, “See that, it is shit, Galaxy, out of business, shit caravans, that Atlantic one, shit, I know I used to build caravans for Sunland, they’re quality, if I make mistake, the boss he throw it out, he no want shit.” We’re having trouble trying to contain ourselves because our mates are Sunland distributors. They’ll be so glad to know that they no have shit.

Eventually Woody convinces him to fix the table as best he can just to get us home. I whisper “Should we ask him about the door?” “No!” says Woody firmly.

I’m sick of tripping over the pumpkin that has been living on the bathroom floor, so we throw a rack of lamb in the oven and sit back to enjoy a roast. Woody pours a well-deserved red wine then knocks the glass all over the settee turning it a lovely shade of pink. 

Now you could say that it was an interesting day.

The positives:

The rain has stopped

The roads are passable and road crews are repairing the potholes

The door seems to be behaving now

The caravan park is a beauty and in an interesting area

The car is booked in for repair

We’ve decided to reupholster the settee, which puts an end to an ongoing red wine discussion.

The roast is delicious especially the pumpkin

Towing Kms: 363kms

2021 Note: OK, so the day didn’t turn out as planned but that’s pretty normal with caravanning. We eventually visited the hidden gem of Finch Hatton a few years later when the weather was perfect. Those Sunland vans cost about 4 times as much as ours so they certainly wouldn’t want to be s***. And Mulambin? Well…