Day 5 - doing mornings

I don’t do mornings. It’s sort of a fact. I have done them when I have to. But I don’t. If you know what I mean. But when sunrise is at 5:24, you just sort of have to, although I only got out of my tent by 7. The lovely meal at the amazing French restaurant in Hervey Bay led to a good night of sleep. One of those that you go to sleep content. I have had an amazing start of the year. I met lovely new people at a New Year’s party that I sort of gate crashed with a new old friend. I am doing my first long road trip with Alyson and I am now enjoying a cold beer in Yeppoon. We are at a camping and caravan site by the beach. I can hear the waves crashing and a fruit bat just flew by. Really, sleeping with a smile in my face was given, so it was easier to do an early morning.

Yeppoon, sunsetting... Photo: Alyson's

Also, I didn’t have much of a choice as the world was rumbling around me. I packed my sleeping bag and tent and had a lovely cup of hot chocolate. Finally, the weather allows me to enjoy it without breaking into profuse sweat. At midmorning we had a cappuccino and started our journey north. We were heading to Yeppoon under recommendation from Christian, the French chef with a beret. The drive was nice. I still ‘wowed’ to the endless farmland. I sneaked some photos while driving. Alyson gave me the look. And we ate lunch in Gin Gin. Where, despite the name we ate pies at the Travellers Rest Café. They won The 2015 Official Great Aussie Pie Competition. Gin Gin was like the other inland towns I have seen in this trip. Quaint in the sense that they look very much like others inland towns I had seen in this trip. Yet, they had something that made them unique. Their lovely square wooden houses. The wide roads with few cars. The manicured lawns and the funky post boxes. I will probably see plenty more on the way to Darwin. They will be similar and yet so different. And I will still ‘wow’ at them.

The five-hour drive went by very quickly when you have good company. With the soundtrack of my eclectic playlist (it goes from PeterGabriel to Twenty One Pilots to Willie Nelson to Rick Astley) we talked for hours-on-end. We confided. We gossiped. We laugh and grinned. We had some silence too when the soundtrack filled the still space. We were thankful that this was happening and let the soundtrack fill the silence, again. 

We stopped at Rockhampton to buy groceries, snacks and beer. The latter to my request. And we arrived at Yeppoon at 6 pm. The sun was setting and the dark-coloured sand had a bit of shine of the sunset in the far end of the beach. We went for a swim quite happily as we learned that there were no jelly fishes. Spaghetti bolognaise, one of the most homely-feel-good feeds ever for dinner and a long chat. Or ‘sobremesa’ as we would say in Spanish.

The night has settled in and it’s time to hit the sleeping bag.