Gladston Part 2

21 st Sept
  We arrived at the wharf area for our 2 hour coffee cruise along with almost 100 other people. We boarded our passenger & vehicle barge & found seats up the top . Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind & we had a shower or two so retreated inside when coffee was served with a Sara Lee muffin & biscuit packet.

This was one of the three natural gas plants which converts the gas to LNG ready for shipping. There are still 2,500 workers on the island completing the third plant.

The huge ship on the left was just leaving & had many tugs guiding it out of the harbour. They take no chances here as certainly don't want accidents with the Great Barrier Reef.

This photo shows part of an 8 kilometre rock wall which is being filled from continual dredging of the shipping lanes.

The cruise was excellent with a lady doing the very interesting commentary. The facts & figures were mind blowing. We saw ships being loaded with coal, cement & chemicals.

The weather cleared as we arrived back after a very enjoyable 2 hours & excellent value for $24 each. Later we walked up the main street in town but very quiet & the shop keepers had no customers. Obviously the malls have had an effect as well as the downturn in the economy. Love Bev & Allan.

Gladstone

We had 3 nights in Rockhampton & on our second day went into the city which was very quiet except for where a food festival was setting up on the river banks. Some great old buildings & lots of money spent with excellent bike & walking paths along the water. This old pub was fantastic & under going alterations.

19th Sept.
          Only 107 klms to Gladstone & arrived at the Kin Kora Lifestyle park by 10.30am! A large shopping mall nearby which I walked back to later while Allan explored around a lake area.The next day we booked to do a coffee cruise at the info centre for wednesday & had a look around the town. I found a scrapbook shop & spent time drooling after a 4 month drought. We went up a look out & were lucky enough to find a guy with great knowledge of Gladstone. It is a huge industrial town although at present going through a quieter time like lots of places.

The guy we talked to was at the lookout to check on how they could improve the views by chopping down a few trees. He said night time was spectacular with lights from the coal loaders, aluminum smelter, cement works & three gas plants. Love Bev & Allan.

Rockhampton

16th Sept.
    A short 60klm drive to Gracemere caravan park on the outskirts of Rockhampton from Yeppoon. We settled in & had a coffee & decided to take a picnic lunch & explore.
  We headed for the Botanical Gardens & ended up parking outside the entrance to the zoo which is also part of the gardens. We spent an hour wandering around the zoo which was free & an excellent place to visit.

This really large snake was happily sleeping in the sun.

This monitor was really rather gorgeous.

The crocodile was well cadged but signs around warning not to go near the lakes edge not far from here as crocs in there that had their freedom! There were koalas & chimps all in a lush tropical setting & a wonderful legacy from some prominent businessman & a great attraction for the town.
  We drove down to the lake for our picnic & sat under huge very old trees & could see golfers playing on the other side. Love Bev & Allan

Test Blog From Grafton

Hello,
   Three weeks ago I tried to post a blog several times but no success so gave up. We have had quite a busy time since but wanted to see if I could post anything now. Be in touch. Bev & Allan.

Yeppoon [Part 1]

Arrived around lunchtime & nasty small outside. The coral spore had arrived early & washed up on the beach & sure was smelly. We had a beachfront site but the tide was way out & the sand a strange colour & not picture post card. We had a chat to another Retreat owner & ended up walking back from town with them later. Anne & Paul from near Newcastle & left home two weeks before us to do much the same trip.
14 th Sept.
  A nice morning so set off to explore Emu Park which someone had said to visit. We loved it & were sitting outside at a cafe when Anne & Paul walked by so we spent a pleasant hour talking to them. It was a modern place & very nice.

We wandered up to the singing ship but not very musical!

We carried on around the nice boardwalk & admired the War Memorials which looked very new.

This was certainly very different.

We were reluctant to leave but had bought bread from the bakery for lunch so after finding tomatoes in the car frig we visited the supermarket for a couple of things & sat in the park & had a picnic. Much nicer than the fish & chips our neighbours were eating.Leaving the picnic basket in the car all the time is a good idea for us.

The trees were beautiful but don't know why the big red leaves were falling at this time of the year. A very enjoyable day & later had drinks with Anne & Paul who free camp mainly so interesting to hear about it. Love Bev & Allan.

Final days in MacKay

12th Sept
   Having leg problems so didn't want to overdo thing with lots of walking so I got dropped off at the big mall. It was massive but guess who managed to find me well before my time was up! We actually found a Gloria Jeans & enjoyed the coffee as only about one other on the whole trip1 Allan went walking to fill in his time & spoke to a lady in a RACQ caravan who plied him with maps & mentioned more things to do.

A visit to the Botanical Gardens was next & very enjoyable covering a huge area. Lots of butterflies & loved the blue ones. I did manage a good walk here & a well cared for place.

We were going to eat our picnic lunch but decided to move on to a park where we didn't have to cart our stuff so far. Before we left we went thru a very tropical type garden with huge hibiscus & a sign saying to be careful as could be snakes on the path.

However we settled for these which were very well done.
13th Sept
    We were on the road before 7.30 am as a 380klm drive to Yeppoon & meant we were ahead of the slow motor homes & small caravans. A good road with much longer passing lanes & interesting scenery as very green to start with & lots of sugar cane. The first stop was at 9am for a picnic coffee at Clairview & was really nice there & did have a caravan park we didn't know about.

Many Islands off the coast all the way down the coast & had no idea there were so many. We had one more stop after discovering our new Garmin will actually show us where they are which is really handy. Love Bev & Allan.

Mackay

9th Sept
  Cleared as we left Airlie Beach & another cruise ship at anchor & more markets but hard to park with the van on so didn't stop. Once past Proserpine the rain set in & not pleasant driving on single lane hwy with very short passing lanes. As we arrived at the park it stopped & we were able to set up without getting wet & opted for an en suite site to make things even easier.

A large park with a separate area for permanent dwellers & lots of palms ,ducks & birds.

At 4pm the guy would bring a wheel barrow of bread to the waiting flock!

Next morning we set off just after 8am to go to produce markets at the Showgrounds & purchased nice fresh veggies. We then drove into town & wandered around but most shops closed on saturday morning. A scrapbook shop many years out of date was open & so over stocked it was hard to look . Some great walks along the river but decided coffee was next.

A very well presented town from the days when the mines were doing well!

We found our way to the Art Gallery where there was a nice cafe & a very helpful girl on the desk who mention many thing for us to do in the area. The exhibition was on mixed media & very different to classes I have done but interesting. Also some very simplistic drawings from a Sydney guy on display.

11th Sept
   We drove out to the marina & really interesting place with a separate sugar loading area & all covered a huge amount of land. Yet another coffee, watching traffic drive along the break wall in the back ground.

This break wall looked fairly new & around 1klm long & a novelty driving along it although the odd person walking. We parked at the end & watched guys fishing although many rocks to negotiate to get near the water.

We then drove into town & found a Cuban restaurant for lunch but just ok food. We did however find a huge shopping mall & spent a few mins at Woolies before going back to the park, Mackay is  much bigger than we expected & an interesting place to spend time. Love Bev & Allan.