Thu 17th July – Day 68: Townsville to The Lynd.

The rain has finally stopped and we took advantage of the sun to dry out the bedding as the canvas eventually succumbed to the deluge and leaked under the mattresses. A quick pick up of the next 4 weeks of schoolwork at the local toll office and Chloe receives a ‘student of the week’ award. Toby, not to be outdone got a ‘merit award’ for maths. More school this morning and then another awkward pack-up in high humidity (still not back into the swing of things yet).
On the road again we do our first real mountain climb up behind Townsville, Pete complaining we are using $1/min of diesel! We quickly leave the tropical coast behind and enter the more familiar eucalyptus woodlands of the countryside. Chloe spots the first kangaroo and we are back on familiar turf.
The 2 lane highways of the coast are a distant memory as we travel the 1 lane bitumen of the Gregory Developmental road. Here the 3-trailer road trains come screaming around the corners and we pull off into the dirt to avoid collisions. Spotting for roo’s in the late afternoon sun means it is never a dull ride. Pulling into Lynd around 4:45 we decide to call it quits and stay the night here – still another 120km or so to the Lava tubes and we just can’t face setting up in the dark again. Plus we rang earlier and there are no vacancies so it would mean a road-side stop, gotta ease back into this stuff you know!
The Oasis Roadhouse ($15/night)