Heading to 'Rocky'

Aug 11th:  The rain came in sheets last night.  Just straight down, not even moving the boats moored in the harbor.

I was the last one awake, so ate breakfast alone.  At brekky, Alice (the Chinese lady who lives in Melbourne) asked, 'Where's Mr Bean?'  When I mentioned it to him, Goran was not amused.

We drove 412 km today, only stopping once in a small town for a quick stretch of the legs.  We mailed postcards and looked for a drug store, since now Goran and Sharie have colds.   The first place we thought was a drug store was actually a museum, just tucked between other stores in a street lined with stores and restaurants sharing common walls.

The landscape didn't change much all day.  Big open, arid-looking fields, with tall trees scattered here and there, low hills in the background.  Occassionally, a sugar cane field would appear. Jeff would play a CD or Sue popped in a video for us (the bus had TV monitors hanging along the center aisle ceiling).  The subject was always about Australia, of course.  We would doze, I'd read some from my Kindle, doze some more.

Headed toward Rock Hampton, or 'Rocky'.

Just before reaching Rocky, we stopped at a tourist spot - the monument welcoming us to the Tropic of Capricorn.  The trees surrounding the spot were orange flowered and swarming with colorful lorikeets.  We spent more time taking pictures of them than the latitudinal landmark.

From there, we visited the local Rock Hampton Botanic Gardens along a lovely lake.

There was also a small zoo, blink and you‘d walk by it.  As I hurried back to the bus, I saw this guy sitting alone, keeping vigil over his tail.

We entered Rock Hampton near nightfall.  Jeff gave us a quick drive-around, along the Fitzroy River, through the town. There didn't seem to be much to brag about here, except they get an average of 300 days of sunshine a year.

We ate Japanese at Wok Me in a nearby mini-mall, watched Animal Planet and slept a fitful night in a flea bitten hotel.