BALGAL BEACH, ALLIGATOR CREEK & ST LAWRENCE

Balgal Beach, Alligator Creek, Seaforth and St Lawrence:
On the homeward run now but still OnTheWaytoAnywhere in that we don't really know where we will be staying next or how long we will stay.
We decided to return to Balgal Beach as it is such a great spot right on the beach and is also free. We arrived reasonably early and were lucky to get a spot. It was a hot day but if you sit up on the green grass on the foreshore in the shade you are very cool. We stayed for two nights here and then to Townsville for some shopping.
After leaving Townsville we found a great place in the Bowling Green National Park called Alligator Creek (no crocs and definitely no alligators!!) It is a peaceful place and we found a beautiful swimming hole which has pristine water surrounded by smooth rocks. It was lovely to cool down in the clear water. There were fish in the water so I came back with the snorkel and was surprised to see some big fish. In the leaf littered campsite the bush turkeys were scratching around and we saw some wallabies as well.
After leaving Alligator Creek we headed to Bowen again to catch up with the rellies and to do some more snorkelling. We all went to Horseshoe Bay and once again the water was as blue as blue. It is such a lovely area. We had a barbeque at our van site and Nikki was fascinated with the “caraban” and jumped down the step all evening.
Seaforth is a small town about 40 klms north of Mackay. You pass through some very pretty countryside and lots of cane fields to get there but unfortunately our GPS led us through some narrow dirt roads to a dead end, so the shortcut turned out to be a longcut!! The council park is right on the beach front and it overlooks the islands but the weather was overcast (first time in the whole trip) so they were hazy.         Some whistling ducks and lorikeets came scavenging for some food and were quite entertaining.
The next day we checked out Ball Bay which is nearby and it was a beautiful bay.  There was no-one in the campsite and we found a great spot but then were attacked by mosquitoes so reluctantly decided to move on.
We spent some time in Mackay replenishing supplies and then headed out. We don’t really like staying in the larger towns.
St Lawrence is a tiny town halfway between Mackay and Rockhampton. Anyone travelling this route knows it is a long boring drive so it was good to break the trip halfway. Better still there is a free campsite here so it is very popular with the grey nomads and there are even hot showers. The campsite overlooks some wetlands which are mainly drylands at the moment although there is a small lagoon that supports quite a lot of wild-life that can be viewed from a hide.
Driving into St Lawrence is like going back in time and the local grocery store was originally the local picture theatre is all made of corrugated iron which has rusted with age. The town suffered badly with the amalgamation of the councils which happened recently in QLD and any funds they had disappeared and now they are a forgotten little town.