August 22 - Ayr. At the pub with all my mates.

Another one-night stand and stocking up destination. Rural Queensland towns don’t allow their Woolworths and Coles to open on Sundays, so you need to make the most of it if you are there on a Saturday and about to head to locations that are a little remote. After setting up the van, shopping up and ensuring that the necessities were taken care of, I took a 15 minute walk to the pub that promised they would put the AFL on for me on one of the many screens showing the same NRL match.

I head to the bar and have a chat to Rebeka (correct incorrect spelling) who now confesses that she doesn’t know how to put the AFL on. After 5 minutes of trying the Foxtel channels (It’s Saturday, so not on free to air) she says something about the boss cutting back on some of the channels recently. Only 10 minutes now to game time. I try across the road at another pub that was empty other than the barmaid. Maybe the punters were in the gaming lounge, not sure. Nothing but NRL on all the screens and with nothing to lose, I ask about the AFL. Paige (guessing the correct spelling) is on the case, and finds a channel that had footy highlights and 504 Foxtel logo in the top corner! Success! And with a couple of minutes to spare. I order a pint of refreshing ginger beer, pay for it, then realise it was just a news highlight and the TV is showing an NRL highlights package.

I resign myself to just finishing the beer and trudging back to the van to watch on delay. Adequate, but not quite the same as a big screen. I check the time, two minutes to go before game time and Paige asks in her Irish accent – “is this it?” Bevo is on the screen and then the players heading out for the toss – Success! I don’t know what she did, but I thank her profusely and sit myself down in front of the TV in this huge pub in Ayr with no-one else other than an Irish barmaid who was probably questioning her life choices that got her to Ayr and finding strange games on the TV for strangers.

A few people trundle in as the game goes on, I make a few excited noises without being too over the top. A couple of apologies to those few that were around in the second half. The people that did turn up over the next 3 hours were either ignoring the game or taking a very specific interest in Ed Richards getting 27 possessions and Bailey Fritsch getting 2 goals. Game won, old mates multi gets up, I have had a few beers and a lovely walk in the warmish evening air back to the van, being careful not to stand on the dead cane toad. Ah, Queensland.

Ayr caravan park google review

The park was perfect for our one-night stay. A drive through site, spacious facilities and close enough to walk to the pub to watch the footy. Also close enough to Five Ways Fish Bar & Italian cuisine take-away if we needed – great to see somebody doing 5 different things with fish and still having the time to do Italian. 4 stars.