Rockhampton today and hopefully the end of the bad roads for awhile.
31 AUGUST
Decided to visit the saleyards at Gracemere, supposed to be the largest selling complex in the Southern Hemisphere. The Stud selling area is huge and seats about 1000.
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| Selling Ring |
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| Weigh Scale Area |
Late in the afternoon went off to Yeppoon to catch up with Marie and her sisters,Judy and Leslie. They were at Yeppoon with 20 other retirees enjoying a week of fun and games. They invited us for tea and then back to Rocky we went. It was great to see Marie again before she heads back to NZ. We haven't seen Judy and Leslie for 18 years so good to see them as well.
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| Yeppoon Beach |
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| Marie and friends stayed in top shelf accommodation. (Centre) |
1 SEPTEMBER
Home today, Mike went for a walk to check out all the so called mens shops, came home with a grin from ear to ear and a little bag of goodies.
2 SEPTEMBER
Rockhampton gardens and Zoo were on the visiting list today. Spent a great morning at the gardens and the zoo, walking around watching the native animals and monkeys. All were well look after, had plenty of room to wander and even Koalas had some great trees to sleep in.
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| Cassawarry Enclosure |
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| Monitor Lizard (about 1+metres) |
The gardens were laid out in different types of forest and many of the different groups were labeled. We were amazed that this was all free.
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| Restful Botanical Gardens |
3SEPTEMBER
Did our inevitable trip to Centrelink (always stressful) and then to Stockland shopping centre. This is a huge complex quite close to the caravan park. Of course Bunnings had to be visited, not far from the park but in a northerly direction.
4 SEPTEMBER
Paper work today- more forms for Centre link!!!!. We also realised that in another week Mike's drivers license expires. Rang Dept of Transport and discovered Mike has to have a medical. We managed to get an appointment this afternoon at the medical centre and oh you should have seen the Dr, She was an OLD Chinese lady, very tall, skirt to the ankles and white socks and walked with a walking frame. Mike had a few tales to tell when he came out and he did get the form signed and fax to WA. Now we have to wait for the report to be okayed so his license can be validated.
Fortunately we had already booked for another week but maybe we will be here longer who knows.
Went to Stocklands again and couldn't decide which door we had come in so down to the car park and walked and walked until we spotted the bike in the distance. Must remember to take note of where we enter the shopping centre in future. Had neighbours over for drinks as they were leaving next day.
5 SEPTEMBER
Day home. Mike went shop walking again, both sides of Bruce Highway, took life into his own hands.
6 SEPTEMBER
Went into Rockhampton town, checked out the old buildings and discovered a Patchwork Shop, oh joy, joy. Did a walk round Kershaw Gardens. This is a lovely nature walk through different bush while the traffic zooms past on the highway.
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| Waterfall in Kershaw Gardens |
7 SEPTEMBER
Friday again so Mike off to the saleyards. Went into centre link with forms (lets hope they are correct) and then Mike rang the Transport Dept to check on progress with license.
9 SEPTEMBER
Went to the Historical Village Markets and looked over all the goodies. It really is a great setup out there from restoring old cars, to old machinery, an original shearing shed bought in from the outback and even the fire station has been built to represent the original fire station.
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| Relocated Church |
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| Relocated Period House |
10 SEPTEMBER
What a great day this turned out to be. John and Trysha arrived and while they were parking next to us Deidre and Bob arrived from Sarina. So great to see them all and as we haven't seen D & B for over a year there was lots of talk. Back to long Happy Hours again with friends.
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| Supposed to be Happy Hour. (Look at the faces) |
11 SEPTEMBER
Show and Tell with Deidre and myself. so much to show and all the novel ideas that Deidre has made since being up at Sarina. At least I feel motivated again now.
12 SEPTEMBER
Went out for tea as we were on the move next day. Sad to say good-bye but we know we will see them soon.
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| Final View of Rockhampton. Kershaw Gardens |
