Rockhampton and Mackay

We stopped at the smallish towns of Rockhampton and Mackay to break up the long Greyhound bus ride to Airlie Beach.

We got some sad news on the way to Rockhampton, my family dog Sophie had just died, so I had a good cry, 3 large glasses of red wine and some beef and black bean noodles.

Rockhampton claims to be the Aussie beef capital but we didn't see any evidence of that, however we did see a hundred or so American Marines on leave for the weekend. They spent alot of their time drunk and sticking out like a sore thumb.

The best thing about arriving in Mid-Queensland is that we have finally outrun the cold weather and it was starting to get really warm, so we sat in the sun and ate an ice cream or 2.

We arrived in Mackay on a Sunday which in hindsight wasn't such a good idea as everything in the town closed at 2pm on Saturday. We found a Shell garage that sold Pasta sauce and snacks so we wouldn't starve.

We walked down to the beach which was nice, Alan was looking for snakes that could be sun bathing whereas I was walking on the road stomping my feet to keep any that might be lurking away.