Stinger net, Balgal Beach, Queensland
Once again it started raining during the night. Though the rain had nearly stopped by the time we finished breakfast, the ground was very soggy as we packed up. We drove north through the major centre of Townsville, which is almost completely bypassed by a motorway. There was a service station as y0u approached town, and then we saw nothing more. We did have enough fuel to go on, but I really wanted to fill up before getting back out into the countryside. Finally we did come to a major service centre on the outskirts of the town. However, there are few choices on the highway for fuel.
Driving north today the cane fields around Airlie Beach and Prosperine are absolutely flooded. They look more like rice paddies that sugar cane fields. However as we got farther north it did seem to dry up some, and though there was still a lot of water not as much as farther south. We did drive through a very intense rainstorm for a while today. It was the heaviest rain we’ve driven through, though we might have had some just as heavy while we were camped on Whitsunday Island.
We left the main highway about 40 km from Townsville at the turn into Balgal Beach, which is about 6 km east towards the ocean. This is a free campsite, supported by the Townsville City Council. There are several other camper units – a couple of caravans and a few smaller campervans – parked here tonight. The beach is very long, and looks like it would be nice (it even has a stinger net enclosure) if the weather were nicer. Unfortunately, while it’s not cold, it was very, very windy today when we arrived here. The ocean is very rough, and the sand is churned up in the water so that it’s brown out almost a kilometre to sea.
We tried to walk along the beach this afternoon, but the wind made it miserable, and then it started to spit rain. So instead of walking we came inside and played a game of scrabble. I got a 50 point bonus on my second play for using all my tiles. That gave me a very big lead, but Enid clawed her way back to the front. On the next to last play of the game she made a mistake, didn’t see that she could have spelled “quiz” by using her “u” and “i” with the “q” and “z” that were already on the board. I went out on the next turn, and beat her by just 6 points. She could have won! It’s amazing but I’ve beaten her all three times we’ve played since we started this trip (those who know Enid’s scrabble prowess know this is truely surprising)!