My green juice this morning reminded me it was St Patrick’s Day. Ray might eat some lettuce later if I’m lucky otherwise nothing green will pass those lips of his and we both know it!

The earlier hour in Queensland woke me up before the alarm but I tried to ignore it. Not having much luck because of the hot and steamy conditions in the van, I looked at the clock and saw 6:15am. I sat up and saw the small wedge of space I had been allocated by Ray and The Captain. I wasn’t so sure it was the sun that had woken me or whether it was the limited amount of space I had to left to lie comfortably in the bed.

Ray was in snowflake position, Henry splayed out on his side like a door mat. I had about an eighth of the bed to lie in. I knew that once I moved, Henry would wake up and the day would begin. There was no point delaying the inevitable so I got up.

We took the scenic route to Emerald over the Fairbairn Dam. It was quite picturesque. We didn’t realize it, but it actually also ended up being a shortcut to Emerald.

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When we got to the “Emerald City” we didn’t see “wizards with lemonade” but we were amazed to actually see traffic lights. Our first traffic light since…we couldn’t actually remember when. We drove around because coffee was the first thing on our agenda. We drove, and drove, and drove, I was sure that there would be a coffee shop with tables outside, just around the next corner, or the next corner or the next corner.

In the end, we found two coffee shops. When I eventually googled it, we realize that there were coffee bars inside stores that also sold other things. So there might have been a giftware shop that also sold coffee at the back. This type of store wasn’t any good for us because unless we wanted to take away coffee we couldn’t go inside.

We ventured to Theos Cafe and sat down outside and enjoyed a breakfast and coffee. There were a lot of locals there, which told us we had made the right choice of the two available coffee shops.

We looked up some places that we could go on such a hot day with a dog. I discovered that Emerald has beautiful Botanic Gardens. Being right in the middle of Emerald I also thought that it would have reception so we would be able to lay out our picnic rug, catch up on some emailing while Henry lay in the shade and then we could have a wander around the gardens. So we decided to head there and while away the afternoon.

We stocked up on some water, then found a lovely spot under the shade of some trees, and Ray took Henry for a little walk. I sat down to get started on catching up with the blog. It wasn’t long before I could hear buzzing in my ear. You know, that really annoying kind that if you don’t swot away you know it’s going to land on your body somewhere and suck your blood.

Yes, this place was inundated with mosquitoes. While I was busy swotting, the ones buzzing around my ears away, I was being attacked on my legs. I jumped up just in time for Ray to come back.

While Ray was standing there, looking at me, now slapping and itching, he said, “ I don’t think this is going to work. Let’s find another spot.”

We walked over to the other side of the park and stood still for about 30 seconds, and before long, the mozzies were buzzing around our ears again. I couldn’t believe it, my plan of a quiet afternoon with full reception on the phone was going down the toilet. I wasn’t giving up without a fight. I could see a playground in the distance. Surely they wouldn’t build a playground where there was an infestation.

I said, “Come on let’s go to where the playground is. We’ll give it one more try.”

We headed to the playground. I should’ve known by the fact that there were no kids on the playground that the air was thick with the creatures. I think Ray could see my disappointment when he offered another solution. “Let’s sit in the car with the air conditioning on and do what we have to do.” It sounded like a great idea.

We ended up at the car wash. I was furiously updating the blog, and Ray was washing the car. We were trying to think of anything we could do that was cool while we were in town and take advantage of the full phone reception. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we were staying at a caravan park closer to town and we acknowledged this and also wouldn’t have been a problem if the weather was a few degrees cooler. Also, wouldn’t have been a problem if you weren’t travelling with a dog and could go into air conditioned buildings. The list goes on…

I was growing concerned about the heat and how it was affecting Henry (maybe I was just an over protective fur baby Mummy), but there was a Big W in Emerald. I decided to go inside and see if they had a cooling mat. They didn’t, but I was able to get some cooling blocks to improvise. It made me feel better about providing some relief for Henry. Some people we have met along the way have told us about cooling coats that you can buy for your dog. I didn’t even know they were a thing because when you live in a house, you can control the temperature much more readily, you don’t need these products, but we will definitely be looking for one when we reach a bigger town.

On our way back to the caravan, Ray spotted a donut van. We pulled in very quickly, and he was surprised to re-read the sign and said, “Oh, they’re gluten free donuts.”

Ray wasn’t keen to give them a try but never one to let a culinary challenge pass him by, especially a donut shaped one, I bought some. They were gluten free, dairy free, egg free, fructose free. Ray said they forgot to put on the sign that they were also taste free. They were actually delicious and tasted very much like a traditional cinnamon donut. He managed to eat three!