---

---

We have had some nice days lately and today is no exception, beautiful clear blue sky, sunny with the slightest sea breeze and about 27 degrees.

We stayed a night at Rockhampton rather than our usual trip out to Yeppoon and continued on our way south next morning. We decided we'd turn off and go to Mount Morgan - it's a few years since we've been there. Up more hills till we reached the town. Gold was found at Mt Morgan in the late 1800's and was mined there for 100 years till it was closed in 1990. Nearly 240,000kg of gold, 54,535kg of silver and 308,000 tonnes of copper was mined in that period. The gold mountain became an open cut mine 325 metres deep which has now filled with water. We toured the town, bought bread at the bakery which had been recommended to us, lunched at the lookout, went to see their old railway station before we headed down the mountain and back on the highway.

It's amazing just how many towns we visit that have connection to gold discovery, no matter where in Australia we've been. There's an awful lot of mining going on. At Gladstone, our next big town, there is a big power station and coal loading dock as well as an aluminium plant. They have beautified the town somewhat with a nice marina and waterfront. We drove around and then went on to Tannum Sands where we spent the night.

After the many years of drought where we've seen cattle moved to the sides of the road (the 'long paddock') to look for feed, all the paddocks so dry and bare, now there is grass in abundance as well as creeks and dams no longer empty but full. The grass beside the road is taller than me in some cases and we've been stopped a couple of times as council burn it off and smoke momentarily covers the road. It's a shame there's just so many kilometres of it, I'd like to see it baled for hay or buried for sileage for bad times, burning off seems such a waste but necessary I suppose.

Today we had a short drive from Tannum Sands to here. We drove first to the twin town of 1770, always pretty and always roadwork there it seems! We didn't stay but came back to Agnes Waters, picked up my new swimming costume I had made and set up camp. The caravan park is right on the beach and as long as we've been coming up here, it's been closed and empty. Evidently it was sold to a developer who went broke and so this year it's been opened again. Probably when the economy is strong it will be sold again for units.

We have lovely views through the paperbarks to the beach, my washing is drying in the wafting breeze on my little line, my new cossie fits and has been christened ... life's not bad!

HOPE YOU'VE HAD A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY, DIANE
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAMSARA FOR SUNDAY
AND HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ON SUNDAY TO DOUG AND ALL THE DADS

---