Mackay & Rockhampton, Australia

  Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

After leaving Airlie Beach we made the short 150km journey to Mackey to meet Paul and Michelle, the Scottish couple we had spent a few nights with in Mount Isa when both our vans were broken down. I felt really crappy all day though and wasn't really up for a night out. Don't know if I was really dehydrated from the sailing trip or if I had caught some sort of flu or something. It was typical that the first day I've been sick since India fell on a day where we had plans to meet people and go on a big night out. Anyway, I gave it my best shot and we had a load of drink playing drinking games in their motel room before we hit a nightclub. But as soon as we got to the nightclub I went really downhill and had to go home. The Scots still managed to get fairly hammered though so I hope I didn't ruin the night for everyone.

Michelle & Lydia

Karl & Paul

The next morning I was still feeling terrible and was just knocking back litres of water and popping paracetamol every few hours so we stayed in Mackey for the day even though there isn't anything to do. In the afternoon we went into the town centre and we set up Australian bank accounts, sent some CV's to recruitment agencies in Sydney and Lydia did some shopping. We went to a public swimming pool/lagoon for a while and then in the evening we went for dinner with the Scottish. It will show how bad I was feeling when, despite having not eaten all day, I could only eat half a burger for dinner, Lydia was shocked! We were supposed to go to the cinema after that but I was only fit for bed so we said goodbye to Paul and Michelle and had an early night.

Capricorn Caves

Capricorn Caves

The next morning I felt a lot better, still not 100% but definitely good enough to leave Mackey. We decided to drive as far as Rockhampton that day as to drive as far as Hervey Bay would have been to much in one day. We're trying to limit the kilometres per day to about 400 both for the vans sake and our own. So along the way to Rockhampton we decided to stop off at the Capricorn Caves. We were glad we did as the guided tour was really interesting. They reckon the caves used to be part of the great Barrier Reef millions of years ago when they lay under water.Now they are above sea level and surrounded by rainforest. Some of the caves were spectacular and the photos don't do them justice, in particular the Cathedral Cave, which they have actually transformed into a church, with pews, an alter and a choir stand. Apparently the acoustics are perfect and they have loads of wedding there each year. That night we parked by the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton and after dinner we watched a bit of TV in the campsite. There was a news bulletin in the middle of a programme and the headline was "Large Croc Spotted in the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton". Its safe to say we didn't sleep well that night!