Beefy Rockhampton

We left Sunshine Coast an hour later than planned…of course. The drive to Rockhampton has been by far the most challenging and exhausting drive in our trip. We endured torrential rain so much so that we could not see 2 metres in front of the car, we were hoping this not to be an indication of what was to be “tropical” north QLD. As we arrived at Gracemere Caravan Park in Rockhampton 8 hours later, we were tired however excited as it was in there where we would meet with Paul.

Paul

As we arrived late, we had to unpack in the dark, we did as minimum as possible just enough for us to sleep comfortably and then we said hi to Paul and Ellie (his dog). I’ve known Paul for over a year and it was the end of last year when I suggested to Paul to join us in our trip around Australia. Well so he did, not entirely meaning not all the way around with us but he packed his caravan and has taken on a very special journey himself. Certainly an inspiration to me in so many ways; perseverance and will power but also health consciousness. Paul (close to 70 years old) has followed a very strict routine of exercise and diet during his travels. “Coach” as I called him took me on two of his training sessions and may I admit only now (I did not say this to his face) I had sore legs for a week.

Ellie, his dog, has to be one of the most gentle, loyal, loving dogs I have ever met and of course the boys were all over her, to Lola’s (my dog's) disgust.

Having Paul around definitely made our stay in Rocky a lot more enjoyable.

So one morning we went to the library for our usual homeschooling duties, by the way, did you know Rockhampton is in the tropic of Capricorn. The tropic of Capricorn is the dividing line between the southern temperate zone to the south and the tropics to the north. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the sun can be directly overhead. Anyway we got there and there was an information desk which I decided to go and find out what do to while in Rockhampton. I approached a lovely lady who was more than happy to help me. “Beef week of course” she said, excuse me? I replied. Well yes, it was Beef week in Rockhampton. I gave a short smile as I could not believe that out of 52 weeks in the year, we ended up in Beef Week, us vegetarians but Carlos, a carnivore through and through was in heaven. My smile quickly dissipated as she started to describe this magnificent event that occurs every 3 years. She vividly described carving competitions, meat tasting, how to be able to cook every part of a cow including the tongue etc and before I was to pass out, I quickly made up an excuse to leave and left to go outside and take some deep breaths, I am sure she could tell my face was turning green.

Our time in Rocky flew, with training sessions with Paul, library visits and unfortunately doctors visits as Joshi got really ill with a cough we had very little time to get to know much of Rocky. We visited the small zoo and botanical gardens which were free and witnessed a full on fight between chimpanzees, there were loud screams, bouncing, grabbing onto the bars and shaking them, a little scary but very interesting. The zoo has recently had their own baby chimpanzee born in the zoo and while fighting was happening, mum chimp was protecting baby and nervously moved in and out of the enclosure.

The gardens were beautiful it had a tropical section and Japanese, we spent a lot of time between the two and sat there just admiring, the kids spent a lot of time running around and feeding the parrots.

Towards the end of our stay we decided to explore Yeppoon with Paul. A place that reminded me a lot of Lorne in Victoria, we had a lovely time exploring the beach as well as the jetty and seeing all the boats. Kids and dogs had a blast and we even found a crab.

Emu park (which I originally thought it was a place where they farmed Emus) was also a quite little town like many sea towns, very tranquil and serene plus beautiful views of the ocean.

We said goodbye to Paul and Ellie hoping to meet again as we continue our journey around Australia, our next stop Townsville, but learning from our last driving experience we stopped at Mackay for a night at a free camp and just took it easy, just cruising.