Big drives and Big Meanders

First things first- People in Queensland LOVE to tailgate. They love it! Even when there’s nowhere to overtake, and when they do overtake, all they do is end up waiting to turn right…

Secondly, I’m kind of surprised by how brown it is here. Given there’s no water restrictions, I thought it might be a bit greener. It’s kind of a weird juxtaposition of brown brown fields with huge green mountains coming out of nowhere. Anyway, I digress…

After my last blog Kate and I made a short trip south down to Eumundi for the Saturday Markets. On the way we stopped at the Australian Nougat Factory (YUM) and picked up a few supplies. Eumundi has a population of about 1800 but there were sooooo many people there for the market. It was a true country market, with EVERYTHING. There were people selling food, ranging from freshly made crepes (dan’s are better), organic fruit and vegetables, to home made ginger beer and specialty teas. There were people selling hand made jewellery, face painting, art, craft, etc etc. Massages, shoe conditioner stuff, you know, a bit of everything. The weirdest part for me personally was the buskers. In one space, a girl probably about 11 years old, hanging off the edge of a tent, holding the pole singing the same verse and chorus of “Girls just wanna have fun.” Further on, four younger children singing “Somewhere over the rainbow.” Later on I saw them all spread out individually singing it again. The worst part though was a young man with Down Syndrome, who sat on a stool, breathing in and out of a harmonica at various speeds, every now and then shaking his maracas. Awkward. We perused various things for a while, before making the way back up the sharp hill on which we had parked to our spaceship, with the next stop of Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow Beach is a town population 850 or so, and it’s everything a little holiday country town should be. One main street, with easy access to Fraser Island, a national park on the opposite side, and a caravan park full of retirees and their dogs- and us. So many dogs! The funniest one for me was the toy poodle who resided in the caravan across the way- although he went for his walks in the morning, when he popped outside, his human would say BACK IN THE CARAVAN! We spent the day just chilling, I met a local who invited me to a karaoke night at the backpackers across the way. We had all intention of going, but instead settled in with some Black Books in the spaceship dvd player. The next morning we checked out and went for a walk down to the beach, where we saw the hot hot lifesaver, and Carlo Sand Blow. For those who have no idea what a Sand Blow is- like me before this walk- its basically where sand has blown inland and has covered trees and stuff. Carlo Sand Blow is several acres worth of sand, that covers a whole valley of trees. In some spots the trees are still visible- or at least the very tops of them- but in others, they are just dead sticks. It’s an absolutely incredible sight with an amazing view that I will post on Facebook or something at a later date. We visited Tin Can Bay for lunch, a quaint little fishing spot where you can hand feed the dolphins if you arrive early enough in the morning. It’s a really sweet little town and I wouldn’t mind spending more time there in future.

It was back on the road for a couple of hours to Hervey Bay, via Maryborough. Maryborough is worth visiting just for the architecture, several of the buildings in the main street are over a hundred years old, and when combined with the absolute ghost-like ness of the Sunday environment- we literally saw only four people, all the shops were closed- it’s quite a creepy experience. Hervey bay is quite large but really pretty. We checked into a Caravan park right on the beach, which although was superb for that reason and the sweet couple that ran it, it also had the esplanade on the opposite side- which was loud, full of loud cars and swearing drunk people. It was another early night, I finished my copy of Dexter by Design in the tent. Early in the morning we packed up and hit the road to Rockhampton.

We arrived in Rockhampton after what has been to date our longest drive- somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. We headed for a little park next to the Fitzroy river where we were met by the amazing Jessie, who I used to play netball with, and has recently moved up here. We stopped by her house to rest and shower and be indoors (such a treat) and went for a drive through Rocky with the intention of going to a pub for dinner. Rockhampton is quite a fair sized town, the most fascinating feature to me is that it has a huge freight train line straight down the main street. I’m talking a huge coal-carrying train, with nothing other than stop signs to keep you safe. Absolutely no barrier for the people crossing the road. It’s really a bizarre sight. Anyway we went to a pub, and sat down for a bit to check out the menu (1 kg steak anyone?) but soon realised the line waiting to order was not moving so decided to go to Saigon Saigon just down the road. I got checked out there too, apparently. Anyway. Dinner was here then it was home to organise accommodation for Cairns, flight back to Melbourne for Kate, and to organise to add my sister to our white water rafting trip. Rannon’s coming up, yay!!! SO excited.

We slept well. Or at least, I did. Can’t really speak for Kate. I got to sleep indoors, on a mattress. My room even had glow in the dark stars on the ceiling!

We woke up early, said our farewell to Jessie and went to coles to pick up some food. We saw some amazing mullets. I will remember Rockhampton as the Mullet town. We visited the park we had stayed at yesterday to eat breakfast, I had a M&M Yogo (when was the last time anyone had one, seriously) and Wagon Wheels. I also had a banana and went for a play on the awesome play ground.

Our first stop for the day was Yeppoon, a little coastal town about a half hours drive from Rockhampton. We wandered through some shops, had some mid morning coffee, and just enjoyed the sunlight. It’s a really lovely little town, the gateway to Great Keppel Island- although we arrived about ten minutes late to catch the Ferry. Major Doh. We met a curious older couple who wanted to see inside our spaceship, and in turn impart advice on what is good to see and do locally. Well, apparently that’s what Kate heard, all I heard was the male of the pair tell me he likes it when its warm at night so he can walk around naked. Classy.

On their advice, we headed north to Byfield National Park, a beautiful rainforest park filled with incredibly green mountains. We had some lunch at a little picnic spot and went for a walk along a short trail. It was incredible, so green and humid and dense. The track went right by an enormous waterhole, which I would have checked out further, were it nor for signs indicated Crocodiles seen earlier, and for Kate screaming out WENNA LOOK OVER THERE!!! Apparently she thought she had seen a croc, but no, it was just a massive goanna. Which I am also afraid of. For the remainder of the walk I was in a state of hypervigilance, every time something moved I freaked out. After surviving that walk, we decided to visit a local pottery barn- not before viewing a very random rooster, who both chased people and stood right at their feet waiting for food. Far more confident than its Bush Turkey neighbours. A short drive found us at the pottery place, it was like a random little house/retreat in the park. A cool place, with boxes and vases and gongs and all sorts. I picked up a couple of things.

Next stop was the Capricorn Caves, where we went for a guided tour. It was pretty cool, but I’m a bit of a snob having seen a lot of caves already, but it was cool. Our tour guide was pretty abrupt and abrasive, everything she said sounded robotic. Toward the end she warmed up a bit, whether she was just happy about the end of the day or if she just liked the crowd. The middle of the tour featured a “Cathedral Cave,” basically a huuuge natural room which had been kitted out with some nice lighting. Apparently it has natural acoustics of “0.19” which will make sense to musical people out there. Kate treated everyone to a bit of a song before they put on a horrible cd and did a lighting display. There was one moment where they turned off all the lights and we were left in the pitch black darkness of the cave. Bit creepy.

Anyway I’m tired so to sum up, Kate and I drove back to Rockhampton, picked up supplies and came back to Jessie’s where Kate whipped up a fish and salad and sweet potato chip dinner. YUM. And then we had berry crumble and are all full.

The end! For now. Tomorrow- Mackay and maybe Airlie Beach.