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Grey skies greeted us this morning, as we got up early for a quick getaway. It's the first time in a couple of weeks, that we've had an overcast sky first thing in the morning, which didn't bode well, but there's nothing we can do about it. We'll be on the road most of today anyhow, so it really didn't matter. We got away from Airlie Beach at 7.30, and set course southwards, towards our destination, Rockhampton...
A very long and very boring drive 5 hours later, we arrived and set up for our stay. There's big distances between the country towns in this part of Queensland, and the towns aren't really towns at all... I mean, they're marked on a map, but you've missed them by the time you realise you've gone past, and it was only a pub and a servo to indicate that was it. It was just long monotonous hours of driving, without even any interesting scenery to look at. Anyway, we arrived at Discovery Rockhampton (formerly known as BIG4 Tropical Wanderer), and it was peak hour. Within the space of 10 minutes that I'd waited in the car while Jo checked in (there wasn't much room on the driveway, so I stayed with the car in case we had to move it), another 6 caravans arrived to check in! Busy as blazes inside as well, and it continued right through the afternoon. After we'd set up, an old couple from the van behind us came and started chatting. They'd noticed our advertising on the back of our caravan, and have stayed with us a couple of times. They recognised us from the park, and asked what we were doing and where we'd been and where we were going etc, and by the time we'd finished chatting with them, it was nearly 2 o'clock. The boys were restless (we hadn't had lunch yet), so we dashed into the local information centre to work out what we wanted to do with our time. We figured we had enough time left today to squeeze in a brief tour of the Botanical Gardens, which also have a free zoo in the grounds. It was very brief, because they weren't fantastic (not a patch on Cairns, they are a must see!), and the zoo was also fairly basic, which didn't matter, because we intend to visit Australia Zoo down the coast. The boys had a play on the playground for a little while, and we paid our respects at the Anzac cenotaph, and had our photo op at the Tropic of Capricorn marker, and by that stage we were all starving and ready for something to eat...
Luckily, Sizzler was just down the road from the park, and they open at 4 o'clock, which suited us perfectly for an early dinner. (That's the time my nanna used to eat dinner!?!) There's not alot to do in Rockhampton, which we haven't already done in other places, but we've decided to go and check out the Capricorn Caves, and see what they're all about. The other thing we know we have to do is find a lookout and 'look out', and have a steak for dinner. Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia after all...
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