It's easy to understand why there are so many warnings about driver fatigue on the road between Mackay and Rockhampton, a trip of some 350km, because there's not much to see along the way or places of interest that warrant stopping.

But before commenting on today, we realized there were a couple of things of note we'd omitted from earlier posts. Most would probably think that raw or brown sugar is less processed than white sugar. But during our tour at the Sarina Sugar Shed we heard that due to health regulations now all impurities are taken out during processing resulting in white sugar. It is not bleached. In the past it may have been that it was these impurities which caused the colouring of raw and brown sugar, but now raw sugar is just white sugar with 5% molasses added back and raw sugar has 12% molasses added back.

Clairview is a small beach town just off the Bruce Highway about 120km south of Mackay. In 1997 it was established as a dugong sanctuary. We stopped nearby the beach, but couldn't see any dugongs, a large herbivorous mammal which spends its entire life at sea. We didn't approach the water for a closer look after seeing a sign saying "WARNING SHARK SIGHTED ENTER AT OWN RISK"!

We were hoping to find a bakery along the way for lunch, but such was the absence of villages along this road that we stopped for lunch in the van at a roadside stop near Candona. There was a memorial here recognising the finding of gold nearby in 1858 by W. C. Chapple.

Just before our planned turnoff to Yeppoon we saw a signboard to the Capricorn Caves and so detoured off the Bruce Highway to investigate this attraction. We arrived just in time to undertake the 1pm tour which included the Cathedral chamber. This cave system is dry and so was quite a contrast to most other caves we've visited previously. It was first discovered in 1881 by a Norwegian migrant John Olsen. He went on to claim the land under a lease hold title and open the attraction publicly in 1884. The land incorporating the caves continues to be under private ownership and is one of the longest-running tourist attractions in Queensland.

Highlight of the tour is the Cathedral chamber. It has very good acoustics and weddings are conducted in it around 15 times per year. We experienced the acoustics by way of our tour guide playing some music (Hallelujah) and added to the impact by plunging us into complete darkness part way through by turning out all effect lights.

Bats also frequent the caves, however an owl had caused most of them to move to an upper chamber out of view, although their rather unpleasant smell was still evident. However we were able to see a couple of bats which remained lower down. Our exit from the caves was made a bit challenging by the tour guide directing us out via a small zig zag route and a couple of swing bridges rather than the simpler route we'd used to enter.

So around 3pm we arrived at Yeppoon Beachside Caravan Park and set up on Site 36. We had booked a second row site to avoid the blustery conditions sometimes associated with beachfront sites, but we still have a view to the water and across to the islands.

Dinner was Porterhouse steak on the Weber with an Asian salad and peaches with rice pudding for dessert.