I struggled during the night because I was freezing. Some weeks ago I folded up the doona and stuffed it into a spare cupboard. We have been quite comfortable with a sheet and thin throw that we have on the bed to keep Henry’s muck off us.

The overnight low must have been lower than I’m used to and with no humidity, I froze. At 6am I got up to go to the toilet, and took advantage of the fact that I was half awake to get a jumper and returned to bed wearing it. If you know me, you know that I don’t like being cold and I have really enjoyed these past weeks only wearing one layer not numerous layers.

We made an early departure at 8 o’clock and waited for an hour to give Mum a call for her birthday. Happy birthday Mum!

While we were driving along, I suddenly thought about the lizard who had hitched a ride from yesterday. I asked Ray about him.

“He took off I think because he wasn’t there when all I looked last night,” Ray said.

I pictured the lizard poking his head out of the hole and then climbing down from the toolbox along the road somewhere, taking a look around and deciding that he liked the look of the landscape and that he would stay where he was. I silently wished him well.

We stopped at a rest area for a morning coffee. We gave Henry a leg stretch and crossed the road to go to the café. We saw three cafés, but noticed that two of them had closed down. We assumed that the one that was remaining must’ve had the best coffee in town, and so got all of the customers and put the other two out of business.

We wandered over to the cafe and looked around the items they had outside the store on display and slowly it dawned on us that perhaps our assumption might have been wrong. On the trestle tables on display was a motley arrangement of things that looked like the shop owner had pulled out of his garage and spare room and put on the table to try and sell. There were records, children’s toys that were obviously used, old clothes, puzzles, and a variety of out of fashion handbags. We persevered with our intention to buy coffee, because there simply wasn’t anywhere else to get one. It wasn’t long before we regretted the decision and decided that this must be the worst coffee in Queensland. We couldn’t stomach more than a sip each, and it ended up in the next bin that we came across. Lesson learnt.

We are not sure who’s responsible but the long straight road which is called the Bruce highway has some interesting signs along the way to help you stay alert, and to minimize fatigue whilst you travel. Some of the signs state things like, How long to go now dad?” I suppose it’s meant to start a conversation. The other signs that we thought were quite good were the roadside trivia signs.

The first sign posed a trivia question. It was something to do with Australia or Queensland. Then a couple of kilometers later, the answer was on another sign. So, you could play car trivia as you drove along to help pass the time. Every so often there was a reminder that “Fatigue kills and playing trivia could actually save your life.”

I must say that we did play along for a beat and that I was the only one to get a trivia question right. We gave up playing after that.

When we saw the signs for Gin Gin we thought that could be quite an interesting place to stop and have lunch. At first, my mind went to a nice cold gin and tonic. Obviously, with a name like gin gin, that would have to be a drink that was on the menu in just about every pub in town. But then after our coffee disappointment this morning, I don’t know whether “Gin Gin” or “coffee coffee” would be the better choice for us.

I popped into the van to get the prepared picnic lunch out of the fridge, and Ray took Henry to the small picnic area to have a run and a wee. By the time I climbed back out of the caravan, Ray was in a deep conversation with a gentleman. I’d had plenty of time to think, and decided that a coffee was on the menu to have with our lunch. I waited patiently for Ray to finish talking so we could go and get a coffee and as I wandered away because he was talking and talking and talking, and Henry wanted to explore a little bit further.

Ray called me back to get the key for the caravan. I wondered what I had forgotten, but then Ray explained that the people he was talking to wanted to have a look through the caravan. Apparently they were in the market for a van and Ray was telling them about how good ours was and offered them a look inside. I’m sure they got the spiel about weights and pulling capacity of the vehicle but I didn’t stop to listen. Henry and I walked through the park to look at the display showing the history of Gin Gin and it was very interesting to see the pioneering history of the town.

We eventually got our coffee from a cute little café further down the street and walked back to the park to eat our lunch. Ray took a visit to the local butcher shop to buy some meat and then we hit the road again, just an hour and a half out of Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay holds many special memories for us. We actually had to tear ourselves away from Hervey Bay 10 years ago when we were here last. We’ve been promising ourselves that we would come back here much sooner than now, and we really wish we had because it’s totally unrecognizable. We actually considered settling down here. Back then it was a sleepy hollow, now it’s a booming city. I don’t think you can even call it a town. We’ve been unable to get a caravan park on the beach because they’re not pet friendly so we’re staying in one that’s one street back. We settled in, met our neighbors who are delightful and went to get groceries. We simply cannot believe the growth of Hervey Bay and everything that is available here now. If we thought Airlie Beach had changed, we “hadn’t seen nothing yet.”