We quickly explored 1770 in the morning, seeing the Captain Cook memorial. The Australians are quite into their little bit of history, and places are all named after historical characters or people, there seemed to be loads of Graham Streets , but I have yet to find a Judith Street.
We drove up to Rockhampton which is right on the Tropic of Capricorn and immediately found the tourist information. The people in tourist information places are all retired folk who are volunteers that love to talk. You can never just whip in and grab some leaflets and be on your way. The lady in Rockhampton was full of information she could have talked all afternoon, but interesting that it was one of Captain Cook's men who sailed up the river and settled when they hit the rocks, hence Rockhampton. The city did have some wonderful botanical gardens and a free zoo where we saw koalas, kangaroos, emus and wombats , having realised that we were unlikely to see them in the wild this was the best we could do. The best wildlife encounter was having lunch in the gardens where the rainbow lorikeets flock to your table. They love sugar so they immediately squabble over packets of sugar and they are so tame they will drink milk off a spoon from your hand.
We drove to the beautiful coastal towns of Emu Park and Yeppoon. We have now reached the coast where there are Islands off the shore.There are miles of deserted beaches and lovely walks. We are staying in a cheap motel at Kinka Beach sitting outside, listening to the waves, having cooked our steak on the BBQ, swam in the pool, and now using the free wi-fi, they don't have motels like this in England!