Inconvenient, bothersome and unhappy were some of the thoughts we had. I pulled off the road and changed the tire. Drove to a tire place and was informed that the tire had started separating, inner layer from outside casing. So a new tire was needed. Ok, $100 later I had another new tire. I also lost more than an hour on the trip.

Would you believe it, 10 km from our destination Dawn heard a bang and just saw smoke when she looked out the window. The spare tire that we used to replace the bad one with, had also exploded and was smoking as I drove. Pulled off the road again and put the new tire on. Just as well we had it fixed. So to-morrow morning early I will have to buy a new tire before we continue our trip. Another $100.  I can hear the gods laughing as I write this.

There is an interesting tree at the caravan park. I have seen a few of these along the way in Queensland. To me the trunk looks like the boab tree like one sees in the Kimberleys WA. However, the foliage looks very different. I have searched on the internet to find out that this tree is called the Queensland Bottle Tree. See pic attached. It really is a beautiful tree

The Qld bush along the way sports many trees > I was expecting the countryside to be very much drier and sparser. I have pics of some great vistas. The countryside here in NSW is just splendid. It is green and stunning where it was very dry when we went through here 10 weeks ago.

The road along the Newell Highway is very busy (as expected). There are hundreds of big rigs heading up and down. They varied in size up to the road trains that were up to 4 trailers long. The Newell is a major arterial way that connects the big centers of south eastern  Australia. Some other big haulers had massive loads that took up the whole width of the bitumen. They were preceded by police patrols that forced all else off the road.  See pic.

Almost time to head back south. We are going to take our time and do a little bit of exploring along the way, where warranted.

We have had a really great time here at the Capricorn Coast. A number of times I tried some fishing and managed to catch some mackerel. I enjoyed standing on the rocks and watching the dolphins and sea turtles swim by.

I have done some swimming, playing around in the surf and today some body surfing as the waves were up. We have had many beach walks. We walked in the low tide waters (knee high) into the sea for up to 400 meters from the beach. Words like wonderful and exhilarating come to mind.

Imagine my surprise and horror when I saw the Crocodile warnings on a slipway at Emu Park beach. These signs always say ‘Achtung’ I guess for the German tourists. The signage says: ‘Be crock wise in crock country. Sightings (phone #)’.   A day earlier our neighbor at the caravan park told us that some person had sighted a crock in the mangroves just up the road. He was on his way to the beach and the path leads through the mangroves. I did not believe our friend as I thought he was pulling my leg. Well, I am going to be a bit more cautious from now on. I truly cannot believe that crocks come this far south. Someone had placed a soggy biscuit in the mouth of the crock

We have had great weather with temperatures around 23 degrees most days. The last few days have been very humid and then yesterday we had a good bit of rain. The temp felt much worse due to the humidity and the UVs which were right up. Even our dog had had enough and escaped into the caravan for some respite.

Yesterday I came across some more retro caravans in the park and have attached a pic. The couple in one of the caravans had purchased their van in the 60s and had it done up just recently to look schmick again.

If the weather continues I might do some more body surfing to-morrow.