On the road again . . . ‘winter’ in the tropics!

While much of the world continues to suffer with COVID-19, and Sydney faces another lockdown, we are feeling extremely lucky here in Queensland. We may not be able to cross borders, but this state that we now call home is 1.85 million square kilometres. If it were a country, it would be the 16th largest, and it has just 5 million people, mostly in the southeast.

This school holidays we’re headed to the Great North.

Last week Lee dragged the trailer out of storage (our home for a year in 2016). He opened it up, aired it out, sanded the rust off the poles, spray-painted them with something silver and toxic that wafted in through the windows as I was marking the final papers of the semester, and loaded it with surf boards, bathing suits, kayaks, a neighbour’s paddleboard, winter woolies and books.

With all the roadworks, it took Lee 7 hours to drive to 1770 (about 130 kms north of Bundaberg). He got there just in time for sunset. It’s winter in the tropics, and temperatures on Wednesday night got down into the high teens, so campers lit little fires on the beach.

The next two days were spent surfing in Agnes Waters, the sister town to 1770 and the last place to surf up the coast of Queensland.

Today was the last day of term 2 for the girls, I’ve finished the marking, and we’re packing our bags. Lee (love him) is continuing to drive our camper north, stopping over to camp at a golf course in St. Lawrence. Tomorrow morning at 8.40 a.m., barring any last minute lockdowns, the girls and I will fly to Mackay, where Lee will meet us and we’ll travel on to Cape Hillsborough National Park and set up camp. Holidays, here we come!

Aren’t we lucky.