After breaky and a chat with fellow campers, we headed slightly east to the gorgeous Lake Awoonga. Joe had heard about the great barra to be caught there. Whilst the boys had a great time fishing, the actual fish proved to be allusive yet again! Apart from the lack of fish on our part, Lake Awoonga was stunningly beautiful. The mountains rose high above the lake and there was even afew cabanas built over the lake for a truely peaceful picnic. If you are lucky, one of your children may even bring you a dead cane toad!

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For a complete change of scenery, we then headed into Gladstone, a city known for its industries. Heading into the Information Centre, in the gorgeous new marina area, we realised that we wern’t in Gladstone on one of the free tour days. Gladstone is the only city in Australia where you can tour its factories at no charge. Instead, we were able to pick up a self- drive tour, which completes a loop around the city and takes in the many vantage points of the factories. One notable factory is the Aluminium Smelter, which is the 2nd largest in the world. The vantage point on the adjacent hill has all the information regarding the smelter and is quite an interesting read.

I might at this point mention lunch. Only because we had trouble finding any beach side food and headed back to a Fish and Chip shop that we saw along our self -drive route. Fordy’s Seafood, on Tank Street, ended up to be brilliant freshly made seafood shop and I recommend a stop here if you are touring the city.

Heading south to head north (major road closures caused us to back track 50km!), we travelled towards Rockhampton- the bull city of Australia. We first stopped at the Spire- marking our crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn. Thanks to Wikipedia-  the Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. We will cross it a possible 5 more times during this trip.

After checking into Big 4 Discovery Caravan Park, we headed out for a juicy steak at the famous Great Western Steakhouse. Mmmmm- great food- great service. And if we came on a Friday night, we could have ridden a bull in the adjacent rodeo!

The following day we ducked off to the Rockhapton Zoo and then booked into our first tour, seeing the sights of Mount Morgan and the gold mines. Mount Morgan is about 25km south-west of Rockhampton and is a town full of history! We really enjoyed this 1/2 day tour (and the price was really affordable). Aboard a mini-bus, we toured the town and its historical features (including a walk across the suspension bridge) before heading into the old gold mine. We first stopped at the museum and got a feel for what life was like as a miner. We then travelled up to view old mining equipment and pulley systems, as well as the expanse of the open cut mine, now full of acidic water. The highlight of the tour was a walk through the clay caves and a viewing of many ancient dinosaur footprints. Delicious home made pies from the local pie shop was a great lunch stop.

From country to coast, we headed east to Emu Park to see the Singing Ship. This ship was built right on the coast, with the masts made of various lengths of piping. As the wind blows, the piping tunes to various notes, creating a ‘singing’ effect. The Singing Ship was built and dedicated to the discoveries made by Captain James Cook.

Heading back into Rockhampton, we stopped to watch a cattle truck being unloaded. Realising the adjoining buildings were an abattoir, the kids received an education into where their meat really does comes from!

The following morning, we said goodbye to Rockhampton and headed towards Mackay. On the way, we stopped at Capricorn Caves and went on a guided tour of the caves. We all really enjoyed this tour. The kids were amazed at the different rock formations inside the caves and tried to come up with various shapes. I particularly loved the Cathedral cave and the treat we all had in there (which I won’t spoil for you all in case you go there!). The acoustics in this cave have been tested to match that of the Sydney Opera House- just amazing. These caves are definately worth a visit.

On the way to Mackay, we noticed quite a few entertaining signs the QLD government has put beside the Bruce Highway. Kept us busy for a bit on the long drive! When we reached Mackay, we checked into The Park Caravan Park for the night. We had planned to free camp as it was only one night- but there were no camps in the vicinity at all!

We headed down to the city centre to the famous water park, but found out that  as it is lifeguarded, it was just closing. We did have a wonderful time the following day playing in the park and pools there- the water park is definately a main feature of the area. Neither of us were particularly wrapped with Mackay and found the bustle of the traffic quite annoying!! Perhaps we have forgotton what city traffic is like.