Lightening Online

With Farmboy’s back issues, we made very few plans for what we may or may not see in Rockhampton.  It was very much a “take things as they come” time in the trip.  Up until the farm we stayed at over the weekend, the trip had been reasonably planned out.  From here on in, we don’t have any “set” plans which is good as it meant the back trouble didn’t really “upset” any plans we might have made.

I have discovered a bonus to washing in caravan parks.  By 8.30, I had all my washing washed and hung out (well, not quite all as I ran out of pegs).  It was fun having 3 washing machines all going at once!  :)  I did leave 1 machine for others to use. 

We began our day by dropping in to the Visitor Information Centre which also had the Tropic of Capricorn spire.  Farmboy thought we looked like Japanese tourists as everyone had their cameras slung around their neck taking photo’s.  We had heard that Rockhampton had a free zoo which I kept in the back of my mind as a possible activity but given we’d recently done the Dubbo Zoo, I wasn’t worried if we didn’t have time to visit.  We were then told that the Botanic Gardens had a lovely playground and cafe so decided to head there.

I do love my kids dearly but we haven’t had a lot of “kid free” time since we left home which I’m finding a little tiring.  They also haven’t had a lot of “playground” time so I thought they’d appreciate the opportunity to play.  When we got there, we thought we’d have a little walk around the zoo first.  I was expecting just a very small area with a few animals to look at.  It was quite extensive and had some different animals to what Dubbo had.  It was particularly nice to look at their koala exhibit which housed a half a dozen koalas as Dubbo had only had the 1 and it was difficult to spot in the trees.

When we left the Botanic Gardens, we headed to the Art Gallery.   This isn’t the type of place I’d necessarily expect the kids to enjoy but Singstar Princess had picked up an activity sheet at the Visitor Information Centre and was keen to go and have a look.  They were advertising a special exhibit aimed at children called Colours.  I know some Art Galleries have free admission but have also been caught before with “special exhibits” being expensive so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it was all free.  The worksheet took the kids through the whole art gallery experience, talking about colour and emotion and even encouraging them to imagine the story behind a couple of the paintings.  It was an excellent introduction to art appreciation for them!

Farmboy had another appointment with the Chiropractor in the afternoon so I took the kids swimming in the caravan park pool.  Yes, it was freezing even though the pool was supposedly “heated”.  The temperature did get up to around 28C while we were here but the nights were cool.  It’s so lovely to be kicking around in t-shirts now. 

We then headed off to spend some time with some friends we’ve met through other friends.  It was a lovely evening together and the kids really enjoyed having other children to play with.

Everyone is a little on the tired side today (Wednesday).  We’re only planning to drive around 300km to Sarina where we’re hoping to take a tour through a Sugar Mill.  From there, we’ll venture to the Whitsundays for some well-needed R&R before venturing to the Northern part of Queensland.

It’s funny to think that we left 2 weeks ago today.  In some ways it’s going fast but in others, it feels like we’ve been on the road quite a while.