Rocky & Mackay etc etc

---

Quote by Debby for Blog 5 went something like this (after possibly a little too much to drink) “When it’s dark it’s too light!”
Anyway, let’s move on, to Blackwater to be precise, our third stop on the way to Yeppoon. Pity we didn’t keep on driving, Blackwater is a mining town, full of, guess what? Yes, dirty miners! We did a little shopping and Debby got her hair cut (more expensive than and no where near as good as Kathy’s, but it’ll have to do!) At first light we left for Kinky Beach - um, that’s Kinka Beach, just south of Yeppoon. We spent four nights here at a very peaceful site. We visited Yeppoon itself, let’s just say, it was ok, and Rosslyn bay was very pretty. We went out to Byfield National Park, had a nice walk in the Waterpark area, and took a sticky beak at the 5 star Capricorn Beach Resort. Oh, we forgot to mention that since Longreach we have been travelling ‘The Capricorn Way’, which is, you guessed it, the road that travels along the Tropic of Capricorn.
From Kinka we took a short drive to Emu Park to see the Singing Ship (see pic) and partake in a gold plated Thai meal.
Rockhampton, day trip from Kinka - we again made the fatal error of believing that Rockhampton would be as nice as described in the brochure, but alas another porky or two, apart from the trip up Mt Archer, which was well worth the trip. Rocky redeemed itself with some cheap grog at First Choice

“Thought!!!!!” may be we should have planned the trip round cheap liquor stores?

Mackay - bloody hell where did all the traffic come from? And a hat trick so soon? Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Mackay town centres, in our opinion, all places you can miss. From Mackay we did have a very pleasant drive 80km west to Eungella National Park, through a valley with sugar cane lining the route, before hitting a near vertical road climbing for 5km to reach the plateau (see pic of view back down the valley). After a couple of short strolls we continued another 5km to Broken River, home of the platypus, and yes we saw 2 or 3, sorry pic is not the best quality. Another short walk took us up the river and through the forest before returning for a picnic lunch (we’re getting good at doing those picnics, even remember the salt nowadays). We will say that Mackay has a very nice marina with some upmarket restaurants and a decently priced chippy, and the northern beaches are very un-commercialised and unspoilt.
We should point out at this stage that North Queensland and it’s beaches took a bit of a hammering from the tropical cyclone that struck the coast several weeks ago.

Blog 6 will follow shortly and will be dedicated to our 5 nights in Airlie Beach, it will be short. But we enjoyed our stay, Steve doing a bit of T.T.S. all will be revealed soon.

---