Thursday 13th May 2004

On the move again, after another unusual early morning rise, we were on the road by about 8:20am and driving through Bundaberg City Centre. We crossed over the river on a rather old looking bridge with many arches before heading east toward Gin Gin. This drive was through more lush green fields and tall healthy looking sugar cane.

We passed through a small town called South Kolan before reaching Gin Gin where we stopped and 'one of us' visited the bakery and returned with sausage rolls and scones. Then it was back onto the Bruce Highway and northward we went, passing through a number of small towns, some only as large as a service station and a house or two. These places included Colosseum Creek, Miram Vale, Bororen, Benaraby, Mt Larcom, Raglan, Marmok and Bajool before we arrived in Rockhampton at about 1.pm.

We booked into the Southside Holiday Village, which is a 'Top Tourist' park situated about five kilometres from the centre of Rockhampton. The park is very neat and tidy with good four star facilities. The grass is very well kept and green, palm trees flourish between many of the sites. At less than twenty dollars per night (with top tourist membership) it appears to be good value.

After setting up we visited the Information Bureau a short distance from the caravan park then took a drive around the city of Rockhampton. The city is not progressive as we had expected but does seem to have most shops and facilities that could be required. It claims to be the beef capitol of Australia and there are a number of sculptures or statues of beef cattle on the road approaching the city. Rockhampton sits right on the 'Tropic of Capricorn' and although the caravan park is below it, the centre of the city is above the tropic line.

Tomorrow we may take a drive to Yapoon and along the coast to the east of Rockhampton.

Along Bruce Highway and
The Great Dividing Range

Welcome to Rockhampton

Friday 14th May 2004

What... No Web site Update!!!!

'One of us' didn't like what the other one was putting in it, so you can see the results - one good black eye!

Well it sounds good anyway, the truth is 'one of us' was looking after the other one' whilst he was throwing up and all that sort of thing, obviously the result of a pretty nasty virus. The black eye came from passing out over a bucket and coming face first with something hard on the way down. Not just once, but about three times. (Slow learner!)

Saturday 15th May 2004

Today was a recovery day for most of it... 'One of us' recovered the bedding back to a clean freshly washed state whilst the 'other one' just recovered. Fortunately both were fairly successful.

After wasting most of the day we took a drive to the local coast line, first visiting Yeppoon which is about thirty kilometres from Rockhampton. We discovered the bay at Yeppoon is called Keppel Bay and Great Keppel and North Keppel Islands are well within sight of the shore.

There were also coconut palms along the beaches and at one stage, 'one of us did pose under one of these trees but there were no loose coconuts above, however she did discover one that had already dried and dropped to the ground prior to us arriving on the scene.

We then traveled south along the coast to a place called Emu Park which really did look like a little holiday village. There were a number of coconut palms on the beach at Emu Park as well and if we were just lazing around, it could be a relaxing place to stay.

After Emu Park we returned to Rockhampton and drove around the city for about fifteen minutes or so looking for the Woolworths Service Station that we had seen earlier in the day and knew exactly where it was, however we couldn't find it, so we ended up paying 91.9 cents per litre for the 95 litres we needed to fill up the patrol.

Now it is time for a good nights sleep and maybe tomorrow we will make it to Mackay, about 333 kilometres north of Rockhampton.