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Published: August 1st 2006
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We arrived in Agnes Water at about 6.45pm and headed across the road to check into our hostel 'Cool Bananas'. Unfortunately, they seemed to have no record of the booking we had made the previous morning and they were pretty busy. But after a few nervous minutes of waiting, the guy returned and told us we had got the last beds in the hostel - phew!
It was saturday night and then was a big party going on at a locals property (complete with a big fire and music supplied by a car stereo) which we were all invited to. The only pre requisite was that you had to supply you own alcohol which wasn't a problem cos we had plenty of goon left over from Fraser Island. At 9pm, the hostel drove us all over to the property (in several trips!!) and then said he'd be back later to pick us up. Was one of those random evenings that frequently seem to happen on my travels but we had a great evening and met lots of other travellers as well as locals. Kathy also managed to attract a mozzie which proceeded to bite her on her temple, we joked about
'Eyeshadow' Birds
The name we gave these weird birds in the Botanic Gardens her having a massive reaction but when we woke up the next morning her face resembled the elephant man's and she couldn't see out of one eye it was so swollen!!After a few days and plenty of antihistamines she was back to normal again though.
The weather was not on our side in Agnes Water and it poured with rain for the majority of our time there but we still managed to get out and about between showers. The first morning we went out on a tour of Agnes Water and Town of 1770 with the hostel owner in his 4wd. He took us up to a rundown property in 1770 which is currently for sale - it has no running water or electricity and a little tin shed in the garden containing the loo but the property and more importantly the land it sits on is worth $2.2million!!!People are really keen to develop the area and bring in more rich people and tourists but unsurprisingly the locals are against it(i'm with the locals on this one)!
We also ventured down to the beach and saw dolphins in the water, something that i never seem to tire of even though
Criterion Hotel
Cool building and where I experienced my 'aussie pie floater'! its happened on several occasions now.
The rest of the time seemed to be taken up with reading, watching dvd's, playing connect 4 and jenga and updating my journal with occasional trips to the shops when the rain stopped and boredom had struck!
We decided to stop at Rockhampton just for one day to check it out on our way up to Airlie Beach. We left Agnes Water on the overnight bus at around 9pm and got into 'Rocky' at about 12.15am so we jumped in a taxi and made our way to our hostel for that night. It was like travelling back in time as we crossed the threshold and we easily could have been transported back to the 60's but hey, it was clean,warm and the beds were comfy.
We went straight to bed and were up a few hours later as we only had one day to explore Rocky before catching the overnight bus to Airlie Beach that night.
Our first stop was the Tourist Information Centre (see Dad, it's rubbed off!!) where we were assisted by this sweet old man who was obviuosly v.passionate about his job; we only went in for a map and some directions but came out armed with several maps covered with highlighter pen, a handful of leaflets and guides plus a lunch menu for the Criterion Hotel where he'd highlighted different meals that he or others had had and enjoyed!!!
We spent the day at the Botanic Gardens&zoo and then walked to the marker for the 'Tropic of Capricorn'.
Rockhampton is known as the beef capital of Australia and has 2 million cows in a 250km radius. So we thought we may as well sample the beef whilst we were there and headed to the Criterion for dinner. Kathy opted for simple steak and chips but i decided to try my first 'aussie pie floater'; its basically a steak pie on a bed of mushy peas with mashed potato on top and covered in gravy - sounds revolting, tasted divine 😊
We then had 4 hours to kill until our bus arrived so made ourselves comfy on a public bench, played cards and read magazines before heading to the servo to catch the bus at midnight. Luckily it wasn't too busy and we each managed to get a double seat and got a couple of hours of sleep before arriving in Airlie Beach at 6.20am. We then had a day or two to recover before we went on our separate sailing trips around the Whitsundays.
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