FREE CAMPING ON THE BEACH

Still heading north, with temperatures soaring during the day, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and later arrived at Carmilla Beach for the night. Such a place doesn’t exist in Canada, I’m sure: free camping on a magnificent white sand beach. We couldn’t believe our luck. No luxury condos or high-priced hotels; no private, exclusive cottages barring us from the beach – just a gorgeous piece of coastline given over to campers and maintained by the local authority.

 

For the first time, we were both a little too warm at night (it has been downright cold at night up until now). Figbirds and friarbirds were abundant as well as Australian bee-eaters and the very low tide presented a banquet for shorebirds and Rajah shelducks so our morning walk was quite interesting.

On the road again towards Mackay, we went past endless fields of sugar cane, referred to as just cane by the locals. Trains full of cane and coal paralleled our path; no annoying road works for them!