Bundaberg?
Too long a drive day one. Lack of friendly faces at the end.
Solution?
Somewhere in between, which meant Miriam Vale, Bororen, Benaraby, Calliope or Gladstone.
Having sighted the highway options in the past, Madam decided it might be worth investigating what was on offer in Gladstone. She's good at that sort of thing, and, in any case, given our respective success rates with this sort of thing, I think it's best to leave it to her.
I tend to find the duds. She tends to find the gems.
And she's struck again.
Lengthy conversations with the Late Lester on the subject of caravan parks and their inhabitants had left me with a biased view, but despite any reservations on the subject, Madam's suggestion that the Big 4 at Barney Beach looked pretty good was enough to settle the issue.
As I said, she's struck again.
An early morning on-line booking had deducted a deposit, rather than the full night's tariff from the plastic, which was a point of some confusion at first, but rates a tick on general principles.
The proprietors displayed the sort of cheerful effusiveness that more or less comes with the uniform, but that's par for the course, so when an enquiry about a fish and chip shop produced an enthusiastic response, you might be inclined to take same with a grain of salt.
But we're getting slightly ahead of ourselves….
Having followed the golf cart to the cabin, we were ushered inside to allow us to verify that what was on offer was suited to our requirements. We'd already paid, so I'm not certain what would have followed had the verdict been unfavourable.
As the photographic evidence suggests, what's on offer is pretty schmicko and we weren't going to be raising any objections under anything other than extraordinary circumstances. Cooking facilities and microwave (surplus to our requirements, but handy to know they're there), full sized fridge, flat screen TV that can swivel slightly for viewing from the two-seater lounge, two-seater table, double bed and ensuite that features a reasonably-sized shower enclosure.