Rockhampton

Bouldercombe was only about 20 minutes from Rockhampton. My home for 10 days was a handkerchief of land behind the ‘Bouldy’, a hotel not legally abandoned, but closed for several years, it’s backyard a refuge for a couple of permanents and a clutch of overnighters. It was once a much larger campground, but most was sold off in hard times. What’s left is run by volunteers at the local Men’s Shed and at $2.00 a night, well, whose complaining?

It’s been almost a year, since the engine rebuild (am I putting the mockers on by even mentioning this?). I’m sure over time, Jeep owners acquire a degree of fatalism. Still, when she’s good, she’s very, very good.

It’s rego time again and thankfully, it’s only the ‘usual suspects’, set of tyres, grease and oil, wiper blades and new brake fluid. Kept the best two treads and bought a second hand rim for one of them. We’re heading to the gulf country, I’m not going to put my transfer case in danger again. No change out of two and a half grand, but another twelve months of trouble free motoring.

We had booked a caravan park for the week before leaving Rocky, but the three days before I spent at a free RV ground set up by the Council called Kershaw Park. Well it’s more of an RV parking lot, but close to everything that matters. A huge shopping centre is within walking distance and town is only five minutes away.

And of course, Kershaw Gardens is right next store. Now, there are parks and then there’s Kershaw Gardens. If you’re on you way north, it’s an appetiser for the tropical rainforests that lay ahead. Walking tracks, waterfalls, rain forest, nooks and crannies, somewhere to kick a footy. I’m guessing somewhere around 25 hectares of relax and breathe. Amazing environment so close to town

I’m sure you look on in amazement at the videos of trains running through Asian market places and how everyone is so blasé about the danger. Well, Rockhampton has it’s own version. Not quite as fraught as an Asian market, but freight trains running down the middle of a main street, with nothing to protect drivers and pedestrians other than common sense is certainly something to wonder at. The occasional suicide means that the train schedule is not public knowledge, so it took a couple of attempts to be in the right place at the right time (and a touch of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the editing-lol).

Ken arrived after a four day run from Sydney. We took up temporary residence at the Riverside Caravan Park in a suburb in Rocky called Beserker. Location names around here are…say…somewhat whimsical. Others include Pink Lily, Frenchville and Struck Oil.

I gave him a couple of days to settle petal and we took a round trip to Yepoon, partially to take a memory of the ocean with us when we headed into outback Queensland in a days time. It’s going to be six weeks before we see it again. I can’t say we were disappointed(lol).

It’s an easy loop to Yepoon and back. First stop was Emu Bay and our first look at the ocean. The shimmer across the water to Keppel Island, out on the horizon.

A couple of quick stops along the ocean road and we arrived at Kemp Beach, on the ocean side of Rosslyn Harbour.

As beautiful as it looked, this is the bottom end of crocodile territory and the small clump of mangroves, only hardened our wariness. Yepoon is a very laid back and more subtle version of Byron Bay. Definitely worth the drive and The Lagoon, a resort style, public pool is on the bucket list when we return in a couple of months time.

We leave Rockhampton in a few days and with a free weekend in between, I’ve decided to continue the interior renaissance and tackle the bathroom. I’ll share the results next time.