Rockhampton is a sizable town, quite a lot of industry going on but more obviously it's rodeo town. Very big meat industry and known for it's steak the town also regularly hosts rodeo nights and participates in rodeo competitions. For me and Katie, Rockhampton was just a passing stop and allowed use to get to Great Kepple Island. About a 45 minute bus ride to the coast and then a 40 minute ferry ride over the island itself. Known for it's untouched beauty and nature we were looking forward to 3 days of pure relaxation. However...Queensland is of course receptive to tropical weather and February just happens to be in the wet season. Now you'd expect some rain, the odd tropical shower maybe every day/twice a day but these maybe last 5/10 minutes and then it's clear blue skies again...well not this year. Further north from about Airlie Beach (gateway to the Whitsunday Islands) to above Cairns they have had several cyclones hit them in recent weeks, thus creating very bad storms, and a lot of flooding in the surrounding areas. Although there weren't any clones down in Rockhampton we were getting the back of the storms and consequently the rain was very heavy and frequent.

So not quite as planned we set off to Great Kepple, jeans, trainers and waterproofs in tow. We arrived in the rain and tried to settle into our accommodation. A permanently erected tent with two single beds inside and a table and chairs outside. Basic but nice enough. The showers and toiletsand kitchen were a wet walk away. With not much to do but sit outside watching the rain come down we read, played games and slept. With brief breaks in the rain we ventured down to the beach for a look around. The island used to be a thriving tourist attraction with over 800 beds on the island. The owner of many of the resorts went bust and disputes over ownership rights has meant the houses and hotel complexes now lay empty, making our accommodation the only on the island, holding around 30 beds. Some private houses are owned but the island was just deserted. Me and Katie had the whole stretches of beaches to ourselves, it would truly be a paradise getaway (had it not been raining). We managed to snorkel for some of the time and explore a little but many of the paths further into the island and around to the other coast were too wet to safely walk through which was a shame. The mosquitoes were of course out in force. A holiday for them, wet, humid, hot conditions with British flesh available. Needless to say, me and Katie got bitten to death and started to get very miserable. After sticking it out for 2 nights we regrettably gave up on the 3rd day and left the island to return to Rockingham. Another couple of rainy days in Rockingham before we left for Airlie Beach.

The day we left, our greyhound bus was later in the evening so we took the opportunity to visit one of the towns rodeo nights. At a western inn out the back there was a huge ring, caged off from the crowd with metal gates. At the back of the ring there were 4 gates which housed the bulls and a large gate in the middle for the bulls to run back into once the ride was over. The night itself was practice night and so boys as young as 13 were taking their first ride out on a bull in front of a crowd. We took our seats at the front next to one of the gates. We were probably only about 2 metres from the edge of the gate. The rounds began with the younger boys riding out on young bulls, nothing too scary and some of the managed to hold on pretty well. Once the rider falls off the bull they quickly run to the side and get out of the way of the bull and others in the ring, about 2/3 will try and heard the bull back into the main gate. They would try and get the bulls attention, make it chase them and follow them into through the gate. The smaller bulls were generally pretty good at just running back through the gate themselves. The problems came when the adults began to ride and the larger bulls came out to play. They were some HUGE angry bulls. They were trashing around inside the cages before they were let out into the ring. Once the adult riders had been thrown from the bull some of the bulls would just charge at them. The riders would run out the way and often climb the metal gates around the edge of the ring to get out of the way of them and of course their horns. However the bulls would still charge and at times charged at the gates themselves which we were just behind! That was quite scary seeing a bull charge right at you and hoping the gate actually does hold out! Dust and small stones from the ring floor would fly towards us with the bulls feet pulling back and forth against the floor. The others in the ring were mad, running at these huge bulls to make them chase them out of the ring and only just making it up the gates inside to get out of the way. I guess they all get a huge adrenalin rush from it. A heart thumping experience but definitely something I won't be trying!