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Last year when we were around this area we chose to stay in Yeppoon and we visited Rockhampton one or two days. We liked the look of Rockhampton so thought this time around we would stay here instead. We chose to stay at the Discovery Park on Yaamba Road and so happy we did, I think this is my favourite park so far. The concrete slab sites are quite wide with concrete strips to park your car on, the park is well maintained and they have a fantastic water park and another two pools. the service so far has been terrific and the pricing was good, they had a special running that if you stayed four nights you received a 20% discount which made the price $36PN, we are very happy little nomads. We set up and had lunch and then drove into the Visitor Centre to pick up information on Rockhampton and surrounding areas, the people at the Visitor Centre weren't actually that helpful which we found strange because we have always had really good experiences at these centres. Anyway they pointed to a wall of information, which was blocked off, I gather a remnant of Covid restrictions, and I browsed and selected the information I wanted which they passed to me. I picked up a book on Rockhampton at the entry door which I will use as my main guide. Back to camp from here to study all this information and plan our next few days.
Our first stop today was to be the Archer Park Railway Museum which we both loved. It is not a huge museum but they have some excellent displays, I particularly liked the ghost like statues that were placed around the platform that told a story about the times the station was most active. We walked through the couple of engines there and the carriages, all in excellent condition but the highlight for the two of us was the very short ride we took on the Purrey Steam Tram. We ran out of steam at one time so had to wait until they could pump out enough to get us going again. Make sure you visit here next time you are in Rockhampton, you won't be sorry. From here we drove up to the Mount Archer National Park and took the Nurim Circuit around the side of the mountain, the views were fantastic but unfortunately I couldn't get many decent photos as there was too much light in the atmosphere. They have put in a lot of work here and must have spent a lot of money in setting it up and the gardens are beautiful. There is a BBQ area at the top of the circuit with a few tables around for picnics and there are a few lookouts where you can get a view around different sides of the mountain, another good stop.
Our mission today was to visit the Rockhampton Zoo and the Botanic Gardens. We chose to visit the zoo first and by the time we arrived there were already quite a few people here, we didn't know at the time but found out later that today is a public holiday in Queensland, Labour Day apparently. This is a free zoo and there were lots of families here and at one stage I was adopted by a brother and sister and he was leading me on to exhibits and finding the animals when they were difficult to see so that I could photograph them, they seemed a lovely family and we kept bumping into them on the circuit. This is only a very small zoo but they have an interesting range of exhibits. We started with my favourites, the Meerkats, and then onto the monkeys who amused all of us for quite a while. There were a couple of babies in the enclosure and they were very cute. Unfortunately the Aviary was closed for repairs, one of the reasons I came was to see the Cassowary so once again they have a alluded me. There were a few Australian Natives such as kangaroos, wombats, koalas, dingoes and crocodiles, all of which we managed to see and I am starting to think I am the bird whisperer because when I asked the emu to smile he did so, I have a great smiling photo of him to pair up with my smiling ostrich. Our next stop was to be the Botanic Gardens but when we arrived we realised we had visited here last year so because we had shopping to do we thought we would drive straight to Aldi to pick up the few items we needed. This is when we found out it was Labour Day in Queensland and Aldi was closed. We thought we would try IGA to see if we could find a store that was open. We planned to have ravioli for dinner tonight and we particular like RANA pasta, that so far, we have only found at IGA. Luckily we found a store open and picked up the few items we needed for today, including the RANA pasta.
A very subdued day today starting with a visit to the Riverside Precinct in Rockhampton for a coffee at The Boathouse. Last year when we were at this restaurant it was ANZAC day and we couldn't get a table here and thought we would give it another go. It was lovely sitting out beside the Fitzroy River enjoying our morning brew, both the coffee and service were excellent. We were going to look through the Historical Town from here but we were caught up with shopping we needed to do and decided to drive to Yeppoon as the morning was moving on. We had a quick look round the waterside area before moving onto the Great Keppel Island Marina where last time we had caught the ferry over to the island. it is quite a big marina and from what we can gather they have lots of boats call in here on the way north. We decided to have lunch at the Waterline Restaurant and as it turned out it was a good decision. We had four shared plates and both of us enjoyed our meal. We are moving on tomorrow so we drove back to camp to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and to pack up the few items we won't need this afternoon.
When we were packing up this morning and we took the hose off the van we had a maggie come up to drink the water that was dripping out of the tap, there had been so much water around I hadn't even thought about our wildlife not having enough. I am going to have to buy a water bowl to put out for the remainder of our trip. Our next stop was to be Mackay but it was to be on overnight stop only and when we checked our daily distances it made more sense to stop before that and then drive onto Airlie Beach the next day, where we planned to spend a few days, and then onto Townsville after that. We chose to stay at Sarina a lovely little town we had spent a bit of time at last year when we were in the Mackay Region. We visited the Sugar Museum last time we were here and enjoyed the tour very much and learnt a lot about the production of sugar. We chose to stay at Sarina Palms Caravan Park which as it turns out is a very pleasant park. We have a drive through site because we didn't want to unhitch for one night, we didn't feel the need to do any sightseeing around here as we saw all we needed to last year. The park is quite pretty and there are numerous animal statues set up around the park most I think are African natives, I am not sure of the significance but maybe the owner is just a collector, anyway I thought they were quite impressive.
We drove to Airlie Beach today through some beautiful countryside, I had booked the accommodation at Airlie online and paid for it at the time. I thought I had booked the park we had stayed at last time we were here but I soon realised I had messed up. The park we are booked at is having repairs carried out so when we drove up the park really didn't look too good and I was so disappointed but anyway we picked up our information and drove around to our site. We set up and things didn't look as bad as earlier, we had a few words to our neighbours who are also Victorians from Mornington Peninsula, such a coincidence. Once we were set up we cleaned out our car fridge, we have had a bad smell in the car for a couple of days and it worked out it was coming from here, hopefully the smell clears soon. After lunch we drove down to the Tourist Information Centre, we were interested in taking a cruise but I wanted to talk to someone and get information on the cruises that were on offer. The lady we spoke to was very helpful and gave us the information we needed. While we were there our other neighbours called in and as it now turns out both of us are taking the same cruise tomorrow and coincidentally they are also Victorians. We left saying we would meet them tomorrow at the bus stop where we were to be picked up.
Robb and I arrived at the bus stop in plenty of time in the morning, my computer had played up the previous evening and I had that on my mind overnight, added to this was the fact that both of us had been completely eaten by sandflies that day so neither of us had more than two hours sleep all night. We were both out of bed in plenty of time to meet the pick up bus. Shute Harbour has changed such a lot from when we first visited for Daniel and Sue’s wedding on Daydream Island, at that time there was a jetty leading out to the boats and not much else, apparently the whole area was destroyed in the 2017 cyclone and the whole harbour had been completely overhauled into a magnificent centre. We checked in and then walked down to the boat that would be our home for the day. Once on board we were taken from here around the islands and we had commentary from the captain for the whole trip, we learnt lots about the Whitsundays Islands, the ownership and the terms of ownership. Our first stop for the day was Hill Inlet Lookout. This was a difficult walk up to the summit of the mountain where there are magnificent views over the beaches below. We both completed the walk but I think we held everyone up for awhile on returning to the boat. From here we were taken to Whitehaven beach which we had also visited previously. We didn‘t stay on the beach for long, I would have liked a swim but couldn’t really be bothered getting into the stinger suits so we sat talking to a few people, I took the time to clean my rings in the sand before we returned to the boat. Once back on the boat we found seats in the air conditioned room where we enjoyed the afternoon talking to two of the cruise directors about all things Airlie Beach and living here. We enjoyed the afternoon and it wasn’t long until everyone was back on board and we were heading for home. This would have to have been one of the best cruises we have been on, the commentary was excellent, as was the food and the staff were absolutely fantastic. The only problem we had was the itching we suffered through the day, we received lots of help about remedies, most we had already tried, and nothing really worked too well. When we were up the next dat our first stop was Leading Edge computer repairs, Greg who was on duty tried to help but whatever he did was only temporary. We will wait now until we get to Townsville to make our plane for next week.
Friday night while completing my blog the cord on my computer stopped charging and I continued on until my battery died. The next day we researched computer shops in Airlie Beach thinking it would only need a replacement cord but like all things computer it was not that easy. Apparently it had to do with the connection built into the computer itself and the person we took it to managed to adjust it so that it worked right up to about 8.00pm the next night until it died again, bugger. Tomorrow being Sunday we were not going to be able to do anything about it, we were to move onto Townsville today but we had received an offer from the park to stay an extra night for 50% off the nightly rate, so basically an offer we couldn't refuse. So now I needed to wait until Monday afternoon at the earliest before we could get any help at all with the computer, I am not very patient when it comes to being without my computer and not having some way to do my photos and blog but after a lot of swearing and cursing I accepted the fact that I was just going to have to wait until we could find someone to look at it for us. It was still raining on Sunday when we were ready to leave the van, as it was Mother's Day we thought we would try to have a special lunch somewhere and before that we wanted to have a quick walk around Airlie Beach town centre, I had already had calls from all the children and even one from Connor and Ollie wishing me Happy Mother's Day. We parked along the waterfront and started walking on the boardwalk beside the beach and noticed there was a market on in the park and we headed in that direction. After walking around here and looking at all the stalls we walked over to Aires Beach Hotel but it was absolutely packed out as were most of the restaurants up the street. One of the pubs in the centre of town we sometimes have a beer at looked rather empty but their menu isn't anything to write home about and then we thought we would try The Deck just over the road, they didn't have a table available but we put our name down and sat out the front with a drink until a table was ready. We both chose a pizza which were excellent as was the service and prices, we both only ate half our pizzas so took the remainder home in a doggy bag and finished them off for dinner. We had a lovely day and on returning to the van we prepped for our pack up tomorrow.
Thankfully when we were packing up to leave Airlie Beach to drive to Townsville the rain held off but once we were on our way it started again, we were thankful we had been able to pack up without the rain but we were hoping it would be better in Townsville, unfortunately that wasn't the case, in fact the rain increased as the day went on until at night time we could hardly hear the TV over the noise of the rain on the top of the van. Monday afternoon after arriving in and setting up at Townsville we found the computer company that our friend in Townsville recommended and to cut a long story short it turned out to be the computer and not the cord that was the problem. It was going to be costly to repair it so I bit the bullet and finally decided to buy a MacBook, which I had been going to do the last few times I had replaced my computers. I was concerned with having to learn the new processes but thought if I don't do it now I never will. This has been a very long convaluted way to explain why I am so behind with my posts. I am slowly working my way through the different processes with a Mac compared to a PC and have asked lots of questions of my family about editing photos and saving work to folders and feel like I am slowly getting there. Hopefully now I can catch up on the many photos I have taken. Our first afternoon in Townsville was taken up with decisions about my computer, I thought about it overnight and made the decision the next morning to be brave and change to a Mac so we spent the next morning at The School Locker with the very lovely and helpful Rhys who went over and beyond in his efforts to assist in our decision making and to make sure I was comfortable with the computer before leaving the shop. We didn't have any sightseeing to do in Townsville, the only reason we were there was to catch up with our very good friends Del and Ian and their family, so after lunch at the van on Tuesday we drove to their house in Vincent. Del's son Scott came down from upstairs to see us while we were there and as always we had a great afternoon discussing all that had happened since last time we were in Townsville which was almost exactly the same time last year. We made arrangements to meet for lunch the next day at the same restaurant we went to together last year, now to be called our traditional restaurant. We had coffee at home the next morning, still no relief from the rain, and we left here in plenty to time to drive to The Strand where the Rockpool Cafe is. We had to dash from the car to the entrance and thankfully they had a verandah for us to stand under because it was 11.50am and they didn't open until 12.00noon. Del and Ian arrived just after us and by the time we said hello they were opening the doors. We went in and found a table near the windows and ordered lunch, I don't know how we find so much to talk about but we didn't stop. Del had a medical appointment after lunch so we returned to the van and then Del called when they were back home and we drove to their house again where we also caught up with Todd, Kelly and their family. It is always sad to say good bye because we are so far away but we keep in touch with social media. If we are back this way next year we will catch up again, until next time.
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