Monday 18 March 2013

10 March– 12 March 2013 – Bouldercombe (including Rockhampton and Yeppoon)



After having a bit of a lazy Sunday morning, we ended up jumping in the car and going for a drive past Mount Morgan (I recall in 2002, doing a tour of this old gold mining town and the dinosaur caves with Josh), then into Rockhampton to check out how much it’s changed in the last ten years.  The Fitzory river was a little brown but that is likely due to the rain that has happened up there of late.  There wasn’t much happening in town except for the Arcade markets – but they weren’t that exciting either.  We went for a drive up to Mount Archer and the view over “Rocky” was pretty good except for the mistiness.  I was amazed at some of the homes built on the side of the mountain, not that they were “mcmansions” but the way they were built off the edge of the cliff was pretty scary!  Our last stop for the day was Emu Park which is on the coast a little north of Rockhampton.  Not a lot had changed except for the small shopping centre that had recently been opened and they were still trying to lease a lot of the sites out.  We had a quick look at the “Singing Keelbut didn’t even get out of the car as it was pretty cold and windy.  It was probably around 6pm when we returned to the Bolt family home and Marilyn had just made a lovely big batch of her delicious pasties.  They invited their neighbours over to meet us as they too had done a lot of travelling and we had another lovely night of discussions.

Monday morning we decided that it was time for the kids to do some school work.  I also caught up on a bit of washing before we packed up the school work and took it with us to Yeppoon to finish off on the beach.  Along the way, we stopped in at the Rockhampton Ford dealership where Josh had previously worked, in particular catching up with his friend and old flatmate Russell.  The kids and sat in the car singing the Lord’s Prayer to me (it was very funny) while Josh had a bit of a look around the dealership.  Later at Yeppoon, we grabbed a bit of afternoon tea and went to the beach so the kids could complete their allocated art task (to make a sculpture solely out of natural materials).  Sami (with Josh’s help) decided she was going to build a stacked rock sculpture while Zoe (with my help) decided she wanted to make a heart sculpture out of coloured rocks on the sand.  Sami was so enthused by this exercise that she then went on to make a snake from rocks, which looked like it was slithering along the waterline.  We took photos as per their assignment and then returned “home”.  Josh and I were making dinner tonight as a thank-you to the Bolt family for having us and from Kathryn’s (their daughter) reports, I’m not sure that Marilyn was used to being kicked out of her kitchen.  Nevertheless we finished off dinner and all sat down for our last dinner together.


It was great to catch up with the Bolt’s but we had to keep on moving so we packed up and said our goodbyes.  We had a long drive ahead of us today, from Rockhampton to Mackay via the Capricorn Caves.  It’s pretty sad that we have lived in the Hawkesbury for around 12 years and never been to the Jenolan Caves with the kids, instead though we take them to similar caves just north of Rockhampton.  These caves are a little different as they are mostly above ground which formed millions of years ago and they have very few stalagmites and stalactites growing inside.  The most beautiful section of this cave was the cathedral area where they hold up to about 30 weddings per year.  There are pews set up inside for approx. 80 guests and the quality of sound from within was near perfect.  Our guide left us to our own devices to exit the cave via the zigzag walk (very tight zigzag sections of the cave which Josh was lucky to fit through) followed by the swinging bridges which we crossed to the exit.  After having a bite for lunch we continued on our trek to Mackay which meant nearly a 5 hour drive once you include all the roadworks.  Trying to find a suitable caravan park to stay in was painful.  We began by driving to North Mackay to the Big4 and drove straight past as it looked terrible.  Next on our list was back in South Mackay and it too was pretty bad.  We went back again to North Mackay and found another and by this time it was after 6pm so just checked in – and although it still wasn’t very nice, it was cheap.





 









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