Sunday, 25th February 2018
Well what do you think? It had rained at night but by 6 am, we had a lovely morning sky and it seemed that the day was going to be a sunshine day! And we had cancelled our trip to Lady Musgrove Island – oh well we had an early start as our drive to Rockhampton was just over 300km and from there we planned to go to the coast to a small seaside town called Yeppoon.
We were on the road by 10.00 and the weather remained good – luckily our van’s airco functions properly – outside we had temperatures soaring from 28 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees Celsius. Our lovely Serena from the TomTom GPS, directed us through the A1 highway which was a quiet road with very little traffic and winding through beautiful green hills. We still could see the damage incurred with the heavy rainfall – most creeks were still swollen and the current was strong.
Also what was interesting on the way were all the slogans on the big notice boards along the roads such as “Driver Reviver” and then followed by signs to a restaurant or coffee place at a petrol station. Another sign we’ve seen: Break the drive, stay alive:, Also on a long stretch there was “let’s play Trivia” then on the next board there was a question “What is the Floral Emblem of Queensland” Of course we did not know the answer so waited till the next board came up with the answer “ Cooktown Orchid” Now have to wait till we have WIFI again to look up this flower!
On the way, we stopped for coffee and milkshake at our usual “internet café” – McCaffee at Calliope River. But while the milkshake and cappuccino were as usual very good, we were really disappointed that we could not get onto McDonald’s WIFI – even after it was reset! So we continued further till we came to Rockhampton where we stopped for a while to a stroll around town.
Rockhampton is a cattle city just 40km away from the coastline. It is also called Australia’s Beef Capital and since mid 19th Century has acquired some standing through gold and copper mining and of course cattle trading. However this city never quite made it to being the regional capital city even though some buildings like the Customs House just off the Fitzroy River and the General Post office were built to reflect great standing! But none the less, Rockhampton sits on the Tropic of Capricorn and this is marked by a spire at the visitors’ centre .
Once we had our sightseeing done, we carried on our drive to Yeppoon – the little seaside town on the Capricorn Coast. We have given up trying to get to any island for snorkeling as it can rain any moment so we’ve now decided to make our way to Cairns and plan to “do” the Great Barrier Reef from there!
We found the campsite, which is situated, just off the beach and our pitch is a really good one – it has the entrance to the beach and we have a beautiful scene in front of us – The Great Keppel Island – we have walked on the beach and tomorrow we’ll explore further and see where the harbour is.
We couldn’t sit outside too long as I was being eaten up by tiny mosquitos so after our evening meal made up of left over pasta, fish and chips and salad, we washed up and have our coffee/tea indoors. So great that we have the airco on in our van – it’s nice and cool.
Tomorrow after some exploration in the neighborhood, we will be driving up to Mackay where we will spend two nights – this is an Art Deco town as back in 1915, it was blown off the surface of the earth by a huge cyclone and was then rebuilt ……….. and I just love Art Deco so I would like to spend some time there…….
