We were filmed in Lakefield NP as we crossed a river - it was one that you could have achieved with a conventional car as well! Guess it weren´t locals. Presumably they belonged to the Britz -fraction... ***
Yesterday four young people joined in & and boy, what a noise! No not them partying, just music blarring from their portable. Nationalpark & listening to nature -naaaahh! We´re back now on our luxury-Rest-Area with showers and light. - & it´s raining a bit.

Britz again. First act was: Make a right-turn to get on the Rest-Area. The road was visible for a long way ahead, no one was coming from there. So driving over to the right side and getting slower and slower and slower there and coming to a stop before the turn even would have been a good idea. No, they stayed on the left side and helped a Road-Train to come to a stop with them. Bravo.
Then they looked for a place to stay - luckily far away from us.
But something wasn´t good over there. After some time they started again, seaching for a better place. That catched everybody´s eyes.
Buuut, something was wrong yet again after a while so now they are in their third attempt to find the perfect place. Let´s see what comes next... D'oh - Britz!!

Mareeba - one more time "german, real" bread rolls, yum ! In Cairns we found no Roof-Reck, at Target we bought some luggage racks to support the old ones & against our expectations we found a good Rest-Area, quite close to Cairns - look at it, Darwin/Night Patrol! A good place to do repairs and clean up a bit. It´s warm & muggy but there are no showers. Accidentally we missed the Bowling Green Bay NP . But since there is still time 'til the OZ-Party in Birdsville begins, we can drive back. Boy, we´re nearly as chaotic as the locals...

Our next neighbours have a great sleeping facility - zhe tent is on top of the the car! Clever!

So, this morning we went back those 50 km to Townsville , went to the Touri Centre & big surprise! Townsville DID HAVE a Centre of Immigration 'til a few years ago. You find it in Cairns now, great. Well, at least you get free, hot showers there, yay!! The water was strange though, my hair went all fuzzy.
After thinking it over a couple of times, we went the 358 km back to Cairns - we need to extend our Visa.

Circa since Gordonvale is Britz hunting me. Despite the fact that there are two lanes (one for each direction) and the fact that there is no oncoming traffic, Britz does not overtake me. Britz shows typical behaviour. In Cairns we get two lanes per direction. It´s not too obvious, but I kinda show him, right? No, Britz sticks to the right side and keeps all traffic slow (yes, I know I am the slow one - but with a car like that... and besides, it was easy to overtake me). By now the others start overtaking from the left. Finally Britz realizes that he is wrong and by the attempt to drive more to the left, he nearly bumps in an overtaker. Holla! Now the road has three lanes! Britz thinks, ok, I take that lane. Nope, that was the lane for new traffic that joins in. The lane ends. I let Britz come in my lane.

In Cairns at the Centre of Immigration we fill out the forms & learn that we should extend the Visa only two weeks before they expire, because otherwise our still valid ones expire. 700 km for this info, ack...

Near Townsville we find a Rest-Area with a big sign that is telling us: Camping permitted!

Today we went to K-mart a couple of times and got ignition plugs & filter. At BIG W we got a set of roof bars & a thermometer. 36 °C in the car - no wonder you freeze your ass off at Coles /Woolworths !

Tomorrow we gonna make laundry in Charters Towers, then leave the crowded coast. Instead of getting overtaken all the time, we gonna wave again. Lonely Planet describes it like this:

"The incidence of the drive by wave rises in direct proportion to the remoteness of the road being travelled. Closer to the coast & larger cities, hardly anyone acknowledges other drivers, but as you head into the outback, you´ll start to notice passing drivers waving at you. At first you might thinkall these waves are identical, but a closer study will reveal subtle but significant variations in the wave. The most common method is the four-finger-version, in which the thumb remains hooked around the streering wheel while the four fingers of the right hand are raised in an abrupt, Nazi-style salute (WHAT?????). This is widely recognized as the state-of-the-art-drive-by-wave. Variations include the nonchalant one (index) or two-finger-wave - this is usually practised by seasoned outback travellers, although an imitative version is often employed by novices attempting to be incredibly cool. At the other extreme is the full-hand-wave, where the right hand actually leaves the steering wheel." - The Art of the Drive-by-Wave (S. 604).

One word to the thermometer - it lasted about two hours. It hung at the car´s reeling, the doors were open. I got the instruction, "and remeber the thermometer, don´t close the door!". Whilst I sat in my chair, writing, Ingo paced round the car and closed the door. How sad.

This morning it was that foggy, you could actually see the humidity. But then the sun came out & we got a very hot day. How hot exactly I can´t tell. We don´t have thermometer. Anymore...

Charters Towers, today with by-pass. I don´t remember the houses being so scruffy. A pop of 9000 & just one small Woolwlorths, hiodden in the old part of town. No Mall, shps side by side like in Germany. The choice of thermometers in this town is constrained to three, the cheapest one $8, hence we still do not now the temp and what we think cold is in the evening. We have the 28th of August & Woolworths sells Christmas-stuff already! Santa´s Little Helpers for the Christmas-tree. Tinsel & plastic trees. Plain & ready decorated in different styles. & Christnas socks and all. In August. Bleh.

There are no showers for travelers in town but they have an old-fashioned Ice-man! You can hear his vehicle from far away - it´s a kind of chimes like the ones you have on old-fashioned carousels as well, how nice!
& Charters Towers has heaps of second-hand-books-shops. Straight away in the first one I found 7 James Blish Star-Trek-books for only $1,50 each!!! The laundromats are cheap as well - $2 for washing, or lets say to spread the red dirt evenly & give a good scent to it. Drying $3.
Those funny birds who babble and that we know from Yuraygir NP in 1995 are here as well. & this sweet smell, some gras or flowers....

*** Disclaimer: Those days Britz-drivers were horrible drivers. They did seemingly everything wrong that you possibly can do wrong. Like parking on disabled parkings or picking wildflowers although they just passed the sign "Please don´t pick wildflowers". I do hope everything is better today and yes, it was not only Britz, also Hertz & Co. Guess many of those guys were german people as well. Not used to right-hand-driving was just one of many reasons for this behavior.