Mackay

We left Calliope to head to another free camp at St Lawrence but kinda had a few problems along the way.  Not the best day to be traveling with a hang over (me not Mark).  Our bike rack on the back of the van came loose and our bikes got a bit damaged before we made it to St Lawrence.  We secured the bikes and started off again but somehow managed to completely miss the turn off to St Lawrence, buggered if I know how.  We realised when we were further along the road and decided to keep going.  We are trying to head north quickly at the moment as we are meeting up with my parents in Townsville in a week.  
We eventually stopped in Flaggy Rock and stayed at the community grounds for $5 a night. We were greeted by a nice old guy, the caretaker, he even invited us over to his campfire!  We stayed hooked up and took off early the next morning.
We went straight to Mackay so we could access a welder and bike repair shop.  We stayed at the Central Caravan park, a dive but was cheap, wouldn't recommend it unless you aren't planning on stopping long.  From what we saw of Mackay it is a big mining town.  The motels are full and the caravan parks cater a lot for miners.  And to top it off it rained again.  Now I know it sounds like I'm whingeing but I had got used to this lovely winter we've had so far.  Prior to the last week it had barely rained the whole last 4 months!  After a Tassie winter this has been a luxury.  We took the kids to the local library for the morning to do school.  We needed a change of scenery.  They had a ball reading books and playing, ohh and doing school work too.

Jake 'working'

Mackay has a great place to take the kids.  Its called Blue Water Lagoon, its a big water park and its free!  The kids had a ball swimming, climbing and going down the slides.  Am thinking it would be a very busy place in summer.  But it wasn't while we were there, only other people were an Irish family.  Saying something isn't it, a Tassie family and an Irish family the only fools in the water!!!!

Jake and Charlotte fighting for pool space, wow the crowds!

Charlotte is a darling big sister to Jake, she really looks after him, lucky boy!

Mackay didn't exactly warm our hearts. It would be an okay place to live for work but not somewhere I would go on holidays, guess I was expecting a bit more.   We got all the repairs done and are off to Airlie beach next.