Rocky road

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The Greyhound arrived in Rockhampton 30 minutes early, a state of affairs that would never have been witnessed on the west coast. I'd picked a hostel based on a recommendation from the staff at Airlie Beach, and it turned out to be just a little too far from the town centre for comfort. It also turned out to have bad traffic noise, and any lulls in that were filled by the snorings of an Aussie guy. One of the other new arrivals was a girl with a couple of strangely-positioned facial piercings that could have been the result of the clumsy handling of a staple-gun.

Though the hostel owners were friendly, their constant plugging of a tour run by one "Capricon Dave" got a bit tedious. The fact that the tour had been endorsed by 2 of the guys from Jackass made it even less appealing, as being kicked in the nuts by some Australian creature would surely be on the itinerary. Actually I did see the tour program but it included too many things I'd already done so I didn't sign up.

Rockhampton was the site of my first oral encounter with a "pie floater". This classic of Australian cuisine is almost English in its grimness. Though I think its natural home is in South Australia, I'd guess mine was a close relative. Picture a meat pie topped with mash and lashings of gravy, and floating in a sea of mushy peas - and then imagine eating it. I think I only need to chow down on a couple of witchetty grubs and then I'll have consumed the Hall of Fame of Australian cooking.

I had come to Rockhampton purely to hire a car to visit a couple of national parks further inland (blogged separately) so I wasn't too concerned that the place itself was less than inspiring. I stayed in a different hostel in the centre of town when I returned from the national parks, meeting up with Maaike and her friend Odie for a Saturday night, but there's not much point being in the centre of town when there's as little going on there as 3km out.

When returning after my national park jaunt, however, I did see a windscreen repair company advertising itself with the slogan "Show us your crack", so Rocky wasn't a total loss.

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Photos

Oxford Hotel
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