Misty water-coloured memories, of the way we were.

We woke up to a beautiful morning at St Lawrence campground, and were both feeling good about most things. Sure, the bed was as uncomfortable as ever and getting up for a piss sucked, but being among kangaroos, magpie geese and black swans was making up for all the negative parts. Plus, the toilets were clean and flushable.

A better way to start the day

It was so lovely that we decided to spend another night there. We had a slow start to the day and the only thing of note that happened was an uncomfortable interaction with another bloke staying at the site. He'd started a conversation from distance, while edging into our camp. Once there we'd have a short burst of uninteresting back and forth, followed by 30sec of total silence while I racked my brain for another conversation starter. While my Englishness forced me in engage in the cul-de-sac chat, Becky didn’t give a shit and just started doing other things and in the end saved me by saying I had things to do too. After I rolled my eyes at him giving the classic “women, tsst” exchange, and he fucked off. Becky told me I needed to stop being so nice, but what can I do, it’s in my DNA.

Over the course of the rest of the day we only managed the 500-metre walk around the wetland. I didn’t take my binoculars, which was a bit stupid, but it was nice nonetheless.

Merry, merry king of the bush is he

The next day we decided it was time to move on. Sitting around doing nothing is fine, but we’ve got places to be and people to see. As we packed up the other couple walked passed and started to chat. Luckily I was packing up but he still stood about for the longest 5mins of my life while I tried to ignore him.

That day we’d be passing by Bowen, home of our friends Kris and Nan. Nan had mentioned what a lovely place it was, so we thought we’d check it out and see if they were about, before heading to Bowling Green Bay NP. As we entered Bowen, I realised we had been here before, 10 years ago when we drove from Sydney to Cairns. On that trip we’d broken our digital camera, so had to take pictures with a couple of disposable film cameras that had an unintentional “shot in 1980’s” filter on. We had taken one at the campsite in Bowen, and that helped us both ‘member.

Photographic evidence that I was, indeed, a grown man in the 1980's

Bowen is a lovely little town, and even has a council run waterpark, which I had to try.

Fun for all ages

We were enjoying Bowen, but we hadn’t heard back from Kris and Nan and we were just thinking of leaving when Kris called. Unfortunately they were out of town, staying with their daughter in Townsville. However, Kris suggested we stay in their shed overnight, which had a bed, shower and toilet. After some back and forth between Becky and Kris about whether we should, Becky agreed it would be nice to stay somewhere with a mattress. The conditions set by Nan were that we visited a few of the highlights of Bowen, which we duly did and were very picturesque.

One of Bowen's highlights

That night Becky couldn’t be bothered to cook, so we had sandwiches on their deck and enjoyed the local wildlife in their garden. It was also great to once again experience a real life mattress.

The next morning we waited for Kris to return from Townsville, as he had said he’d be back in town that day. As we sat around their deck wasting time, something we’ve become very good at, we called a potential housesit opportunity at Mt Fox, just outside Ingham. The lady seemed very nice, and explained that we’d need to feed a couple of horses. Becky said this should be no issue, as she used to ride when she was young and had experience from her time at the RSPCA, I said I knew what a horse was and liked cowboy films when I was young. This seemed to be enough for her and we arranged to call by the house in a few days. A few hours later Kris arrived, and we had a lovely cup of tea and chat. It was great seeing him again, and this time Becky remembered to take a photo.

I'm the one on the left

As Nan was still in Townsville, we said we’d pop by and say hello to her and Becky could pose for that photo… Blokes with blokes, and girls with girls, that’s the rules.

We left Bowen and on the way out had something from Red Roster, as that’s where we ate 10 years ago. It was a nostalgic trip down a fast-food memory lane, and it tasted just as shit now as it did 10 years ago. I just hoped our next destination, Bowling Green Np, had decent toilets, as this meal didn’t feel like it was going to end well for anyone.

Although it wasn’t far to Bowling Green Bay NP, our late start meant we didn’t get there until quite late. As we arrived we suddenly ‘membered we’d been here before too, 10 years earlier. That time we’d just stopped to do the walk and have lunch; it was good visiting the old haunts.

Ageless beauty

It was fast approaching dinnertime and after the faff of cooking that lovely chicken curry stir-fry days earlier, Becky had gone off the idea of proper cooking again. Unfortunately, the mince we’d bought several days earlier was nearing it’s use by date, so reluctantly she started making her famous spag bol, while I set up camp.

Hurdy, gurdy, put the chicken in the pot.

It was a great feed, but she insisted on putting some aside for another time, so my portion was smaller than I’d have liked. With the camp set up and food ingested there was only one thing left to do…sleep time! Especially as there were quite a few mosquitos about, and we could only find relief in the tent.

The next day we set about our business of doing fuck all. We started by visiting the swimming hole while it was still quiet for a morning dip.

Morning fresh

The only downside of this site was the huge number of horse flies we had to deal with during the day. The little bastards were relentless, and we were killing a large number of the fuckers. To help fill the day with things to do I was feeding the dead ones to some ants on the picnic table.

Fuck with me, I'll kill you and your whole fucking family

That helped keep me occupied, while Becky made another brush turkey friend, who had a crooked beak, that Becky named Gobbles.  

A face only Becky could love... explains why she's with me

Of course that couldn’t help us fill the whole day, so we had a quick game of “how much can you balance on the other persons head”. Not the catchiest of names, but it did help fill some time. Becky went for a small soap container and a tampon.

Flat top

I countered with a stubby cooler, soap container and bag clip.

Larger base

Although I’d managed more things, Becky clearly won for the higher level of balancing required to get the tampon upright. Oh the fun you can have in the great outdoors, and after such an exhausting day, we both went to bed absolutely shattered.

The next day, after leaving Bowling Green Bay NP, we called in on Nan in Townsville to say hi. She made us a lovely cup of chai and we had a great chat. We also remembered to take the photo.

Somewhere in Townsville

Nan’s grandkid was there, and was a big football fan. I had a quick chat about his favourite players and teams, before we snuck off to have a game of FIFA 2018. Unfortunately, this was also around the time that we needed to leave and we had to quit out before we could finish a game. I think this might have been just as well as he was already 1-0 up and we’d only been playing for under a minute.

After saying our goodbyes, we had a Noodlebox, the first time we’d had vegies in a few days, stocked up on food and headed for our next stop, Paluma Range NP. The real question remained, had we been there before?