Nov. 15-16
Leaving the Bluewater Park Camp Area we drove through/around Townsville and stopped for the night at the small Sugar Mill town of Giru. This is about 4km off the Bruce Highway and has a “Town Campground” maintained by a combination of the Council, Lions Club and Progress Association.
There are no facilities here except rubbish bins but is a nice grassy spot with shade trees (and Mangos dropping from above!). The downside is the constant hum from the Sugar Mill and the main Northern railway line alongside. This runs with the Highway in many places from Rockhampton to Cairns and carries a huge amount of freight traffic as well as the Spirit of Queensland tilt train daily service between Brisbane and Cairns. We were joined here by only one other caravan, being off the Highway you have to choose to divert in here.
As this is only a 24hour campground we moved on on Thursday (16th) and stopped ar another roadside Rest Area at Guthalungra. This is one of Queensland’s modernised RAs with a fairly new toilet block, lots of tables and grass areas and room for quite few campers. There is a Truck Bay adjacent and a Roadhouse on the corner where you can pay $3 for hot showers if needed. Being back on the Highway there were plenty of backpackers campervans for the night, as well as about four caravans.