Greetings from Townsville,

I left Cooktown at 7:15 this morning, after visiting the Bakery. I took the inland route, south(ish) through  Lakeland, Palmer River Roadhouse, Mount Carbine, Mount Molloy, Mareeba and Atherton, eventually having to turn  due east just before Ravenshoe, joining the Bruce Highway near the coast at Innisfail, where I topped up the  tank. I continued south along the Bruce Highway, through Tully, Cardwell and Ingham, arriving at the motel in  Townsville around 3:45pm, after travelling 670km. I’m not particularly found of the coastal highway, because  of the legions of caravan-towing, traffic-slowing, grey nomads.

I’ve a longer drive to Rockhampton tomorrow, some 728km. I was originally planning to stop in Mackay, only  394km away, but I gave up attempting to get a reservation there, after 8 unsuccessful attempts, 6 via the ‘net  and 2 by ‘phone. Except for Sarina (where I’ve overnighted before and wasn’t all that impressed with one of  its two motels), there’s bugger all between Mackay and “Rocky”.

Cheers,
Julian