Rockhampton and Airlie Beach

Had a couple of days with long drives, from Hervey Bay to Rockhampton and then Rockhampton to Airlie Beach, nearly 900km in total! The girls have coped with the drives really well.
Broke up the journey yesterday with a stop at a nice cafe in Childers, and a quick play on the beach at Tannum Sands. A guy was coming in from kiting at Tannum but sadly we didn't really have time for Matt to go out. Although I'm not sure he minded much when we saw the sign warning of rip currents, dangerous objects in the water, 'stingers' and crocodiles!
Our motel in Rockhampton was fine but pretty basic. Finding somewhere for dinner along the main road nearby proved interesting... After finding one place shut and another opening later on, we opted for a different motel restaurant. Every one of the 6 or so white men in the pub at front of the restaurant turned to stare at us as we walked in. And Matt said one of them looked at him and laughed! Perhaps because he had Poppy in the sling? Dinner was fine, but definitely felt like a truckers stop.
Went down to the river for breakfast in the morning. Really lovely old buildings down there and a new development on the waterside made it feel like a totally different place!
Headed to Airlie Beach today via the Dugong Sanctuary beach (very low tide so not Dugong spotting conditions). Lunch up the road from there in a cafe which had a pond next to it with terrapins, dragonflies, fish and an eerie eel in it!
We passed bush fires right next to the road on the way to lunch which was pretty daunting. Most of it was small areas of smouldering soil, but did see some flames and you could tell where the land had been on fire already. Luckily it didn't cause us any issues.
We had a quick stop at the botanic gardens in Mackay where Rosie rode her bike and we had a wander and looked at the birds. Yvonne and Matt swapped cars for the last bit of the journey. Rosie enjoyed singing different songs with Grandma and made sure we listened to Farty Jingle Bells 🙈
Got to our hotel at Airlie Beach in time to walk along the jetty and enjoy the deep orange sunset. Dinner was delicious and our room is really lovely.
Think everyone is looking forward to getting to Hamilton Island tomorrow and relaxing there for a few days 😊Читать далее